Trainer Kicked Me Off The Truck Tonight!

Andhe78 wrote

Too funny, almost mentioned the same thing, but figured I'd already been mean enough.

I wasn’t mean with him. Blunt yes. Trying to get Jay and to a lessor extent Isabell to focus on what’s really important and relevant here.

That said; Jay if your trainer offers you no input while you are driving for 6 hours, consider it a good thing. Based on your posts, this trainer is not shy about voicing the most minor of concerns. If you were doing something wrong, he’d let you know about it.

Focus more on what “Jay” is doing, and less on critiquing your trainer. In the grand scheme of things, training time is a blip on your radar screen. It’s temporary. Make the best of it and don’t expect your trainer to be your best friend. Not their job.

Something else worth remembering here, at least with these larger companies: trainers are considered the cream of the crop to an extent. They're not going to hand new drivers, rookies or transplants, to someone who can't do the job. This isn't to say there aren't bad trainers but like G-Town said you've gotta focus on yourself. That's all that matters at the end of the day.

Suck up every scrap of information you can get and focus on operating the truck safely and doing your job well.

Something else worth remembering here, at least with these larger companies: trainers are considered the cream of the crop to an extent. They're not going to hand new drivers, rookies or transplants, to someone who can't do the job. This isn't to say there aren't bad trainers but like G-Town said you've gotta focus on yourself. That's all that matters at the end of the day.

I'm going to disagree with part of this anyway.

The first company I was at had a policy that was in part, after driving there from being a rookie to the sixth month point, if no accidents or other safety issues, said driver could then become a trainer. Other companies are just as lenient with who they employ as their own trainers.

This is a policy I will never agree with.

As stated several times before, not all trainers are a good fit for either the job, or with a particular student. We are all human after all.

I agree with Pack Rat on this one, there are some trainers with only 6 months of driving experience. Which personally I do not believe is anywhere enough experience to train.

Then you have a lot of lease drivers who use trainees as a extra log to maximize their income and really are not too concerned with training.

This discussion reminded me of a Rodney Atkins song. The chorus is below:

If you're going through hell, keep on going

Don't slow down , if you're scared don't show it

You might get out before the devil even knows you're there

My attitude is whether I draw a good or bad trainer, I intend to put my head down and push through. If I focus on how bad it is, it will only be more miserable and make it seem longer.

Something else worth remembering here, at least with these larger companies: trainers are considered the cream of the crop to an extent. They're not going to hand new drivers, rookies or transplants, to someone who can't do the job. This isn't to say there aren't bad trainers but like G-Town said you've gotta focus on yourself. That's all that matters at the end of the day.

I'm going to disagree with part of this anyway.

The first company I was at had a policy that was in part, after driving there from being a rookie to the sixth month point, if no accidents or other safety issues, said driver could then become a trainer. Other companies are just as lenient with who they employ as their own trainers.

This is a policy I will never agree with.

As stated several times before, not all trainers are a good fit for either the job, or with a particular student. We are all human after all.

I am of a similar mindset, 6 months is not nearly enough experience to train student drivers.

Something else worth remembering here, at least with these larger companies: trainers are considered the cream of the crop to an extent. They're not going to hand new drivers, rookies or transplants, to someone who can't do the job. This isn't to say there aren't bad trainers but like G-Town said you've gotta focus on yourself. That's all that matters at the end of the day.

I'm going to disagree with part of this anyway.

The first company I was at had a policy that was in part, after driving there from being a rookie to the sixth month point, if no accidents or other safety issues, said driver could then become a trainer. Other companies are just as lenient with who they employ as their own trainers.

This is a policy I will never agree with.

As stated several times before, not all trainers are a good fit for either the job, or with a particular student. We are all human after all.

I am of a similar mindset, 6 months is not nearly enough experience to train student drivers.

(Echoing here.)

As an experienced school teacher, I'll tell you "knowledge" is not the important part of teaching. The important part is the connection a teacher makes with their student. Once the line of communication is made, a lot of good things can happen. If the instructor has no patience, or thinks that any training can be done with one "lesson", they have another thing coming, and their student will be going through that "hell".

On the flip side, as Rob suggests, the student/newbie has to remember the training is only for several weeks and they will then head out on their own career. Also, you may notice the continuing theme on Trucking Truth, "training" doesn't stop when you get your own truck.

Brett,

Some people are more sensitive, some people are more tough. Any humans judgment on that could be way off from what God thinks, and what He thinks is the most important thing, because He's always right. All our opinions are subjective as humans. It still doesn't make what his trainer did right. No one should treat a human being that way. We all need to love and respect each other no matter our differences. Sometimes people are more sensitive because they've had more tough stuff to deal with in their life (it could be mentally, physically, emotionally or spiritually), and not validating their feelings only adds to their burdens. What someone feels is just truth it shouldn't be argued with, it's there, it happens. You don't have to understand someone to accept them. Tolerance is really important to me and my generation. It's okay if we value different things. I'm all about agency; freedom to choose :) God loves us all the same, and made us all different, every generation has it's challenges, it keeps things interesting to say the least haha. :)

Isabell, you sound like the sweetest, most well-intentioned person imaginable. In fact, it sounds like your parents raised you in Disneyland. Everything you said sounds like a nice theory until you come across someone who has the opposite values and isn't interested in playing by your rules. Jay's trainer was one of them. He didn't care about Jay's sensitive feelings.

You think "feelings are truth". Let me tell you what truth is. The truth is Jay wants a career in trucking but his trainer kicked him out of the truck and Jay doesn't know why. Now he isn't returning here for advice, probably because someone said something he didn't like. If Jay can't figure out how to learn from his experiences instead of placing blame on others or running away, he'll never succeed in trucking or at anything else. Everyone must learn to set their feelings aside sometimes and push through the challenges. That doesn't mean changing your values. It means surviving and thriving in a world that doesn't always share your values.

You can not control the people around you. You can only control yourself. Standing on a soapbox preaching about how people should be won't change most people. The truth is you must work with people who don't share your values but may control your fate. Will you be able to push through the challenges and achieve your goals when playing by someone else's rules?

See, that's the hardest part about being young. You have very idealistic values but almost no real-world experience so you don't realize that most people don't live by your values. The world doesn't work the way it should or there wouldn't be wars or poverty. We wouldn't need police officers or soldiers, courtrooms or battlefields or charity organizations.

We call ourselves Trucking Truth because we will give you the straight facts about what it takes to succeed in trucking. The truth is I love your values but most people in this industry will not share them, at least not at the level you would like. They will not be as sensitive or as accommodating to your feelings as you would like. That's the truth. The question is will you be able to deal with it or not? Your decisions and your resilience will determine your fate. I can promise you that trucking will be one of the most challenging endeavors of your life. You can quote me on that. I'm not wrong.

Keep something in mind, as well..........failing for any reason is still failing. A moral victory doesn't pay the mortgage. If you cannot make this career happen you can blame, complain, and criticize all you like but in the end, it's still a failure that you must deal with. This career will go on with or without you. The world will move forward even when your life is going backward. That's also a truth.

I very much hope you and Jay succeed, but to do so you'll have to dig deep and find an inner strength you probably don't believe you should need. You have that strength in you. The question is can you bring it out of you and use it to achieve your goals in a world that won't always play by your rules? I hope you can.

It takes a much thicker skin to make it in trucking than what im hearing here the first time a shipper or receiver loses there mind on these guys or dispatcher gets on them i hope they are capable of handleing it properly and argueing crying or having a temper tantrum is not going to work you WILL meet the rudest dirtiest meanest smelliest most dangerous people this country has to offer no thats not all truckers or shippers/receivers matter of fact it a small percentage but i promise you that youll meet both the best of the best and the worst of the worst