Frustrations Of Training

I recently started training, April 3 I had my first class and just last week the class started range driving. We get about an hour- though between demonstrations and explanations, it really probably is only actually 30- 40 minutes of practice. For as long as I can remember I've wanted my CDL , I'm acing all the quizzes in classwork and studying hard for the permit- I go next Friday.

I felt I was progressing with driving. We are on parallel parking and I've struggle quite a bit, I don't feel more or less than then the majority of the class. Today the head instructor flat out told me I was "wasting my time." I quite honestly am flabbergasted. I had just had 3 near perfect parks in a row before he came out to the yard. When he came out I had a bad backup and turned too soon, hitting a cone with the driver's steer wheel. Then my time was up for today.

I've consistently shift gears well and can back up straight. Before last week I had never sat in the drivers seat of a TT, let alone driven one.

I'm not going to give up and feel like him comment was really unwarranted.

Regardless, has anyone dealt with a trainer that you butt heads with and how did you through it?

Just do your best, observe others backing for what was right/wrong, and how to fix it. Remember what you are learning..."if this happens, this is how I correct it."

Nobody "gets" the backing in the first few days, weeks, or even months. It is the single biggest navigation challenge for a new student driver.

Just keep doing your best. It takes time and repetition to really get it down. It seriously took me a couple days to get straight backing down. I felt so defeated that I wouldn't be able to pass, and that I made a mistake leaving my warehouse job. Fortunately I had an excellent instructor that helped me finally understand.

Unfortunately most people that would make good trainers or management have no interest in doing so. I tried training at my present company and even though I enjoy helping people I didn't have it in me to continue training. Just keep working at it. Right now your biggest task is passing your test. After you're done you won't have to deal with them. Don't let him being miserable affect you. Some trainers have this idea that they need to talk down to new drivers to toughen them up for the road. Others just become jerks because they've been given the slightest amount of power/authority, it's no different than other situations in life.

You can do this!

I know the frustration. I'm finishing up my last week of cdl school. I've had some really great instructors, and some really...challenging ones. In my opinion, I wouldn't pay to much heed to what he said to you. If you think about it, everyone out there could be wasting their time. They could do everything perfectly on the skills course and pre trip and then mess something up on the road test. Or vice versa. As long as your working hard at it it will come, that's what I was told day 1 and its been working for me.

A couple weeks ago was my first time in a semi, (Manuel by the way) And I was driving in downtown traffic. My instructor was all but screaming at me and mocking every move and mistake I made. It was infuriating. My way of dealing with it was taking a few deep breaths afterwards, and determining in my head to do it right so I could prove myself to him lol. And I did. If that instructor is anything like mine, he's probably a really good truck driver...but not much of a teacher. That seems to be a common thing across the board.

Regardless, has anyone dealt with a trainer that you butt heads with and how did you through it?

No way for me. I had a trainer at Schneider's orientation that yelled on me on the road all the time. Guess what? Sure. I've made some mistakes (safety issue) during road practice. They terminated me after 10 days of training. Now I have 10 days of experience and bad DAC record. No one want hire me. So, still have no idea how to fix myself when someone try to intermediate you from the right passenger sit or by the others way. Keep doing your best (c) motto not work for me. All the best!

So your safety violations are the fault of the trainer? If you were driving, then own the mistakes, they are yours to deal with and learn from, not to be shared with anyone else.

Regardless, has anyone dealt with a trainer that you butt heads with and how did you through it?

No way for me. I had a trainer at Schneider's orientation that yelled on me on the road all the time. Guess what? Sure. I've made some mistakes (safety issue) during road practice. They terminated me after 10 days of training. Now I have 10 days of experience and bad DAC record. No one want hire me. So, still have no idea how to fix myself when someone try to intermediate you from the right passenger sit or by the others way. Keep doing your best (c) motto not work for me. All the best!

So your safety violations are the fault of the trainer?

nope. All mine.

If you were driving, then own the mistakes, they are yours to deal with and learn from

Can you explain how to learn from mistakes staying out of wheel? Thank you.

The easiest way would be to look at your performance and figure out how you could have dealt with it good enough that you still had a job. In other words, accept responsibility for your getting fired as something that if you had acted differently, you wouldn't have been fired.

Then having learned the mistakes you made and how to react differently, when applying to companies acknowledge your mistakes, present a cleat picture of how you plan to keep them from happening with the new employer and humbly ask them to take a chance on you.