The next step in your CDL career is spent with a trainer in their truck. The time spent with a trainer will differ from company to company. There are companies that want a specified number of hours, days or even miles. Unfortunately there are companies who will also use this period for an extended time frame where the new driver and the trainer are basically team driving so one is driving while the other is sleeping in the back and somehow call it training. I am going to describe in this article what I experienced with Schneider National back in 2015
Matching Up With A Trainer
After I passed my driving test and was deemed safe to be on the road with a company truck I then filled out a very basic survey in order to match me up with an over the road trainer. If I remember this right it asked me for my preferences in the following area: Sex of the trainer, whether the trainer was a smoker or not and that was basically it. Obviously the sex of the trainer has more to deal with new female drivers who would be more comfortable with a female trainer.
I went home for the weekend and on the Sunday I received a phone call from the trainer to meet him at the terminal on Tuesday at 7:00am
Meeting The Trainer
So on that Tuesday I arrived bright and early and was excited to finally start my trucking career. The trainer told me to bring along my work clothes and boots, a pillow and a sleeping bag. There is very limited amount of space in a truck especially when shared by two people
When I met the trainer we covered all of the policies concerning the training period and what was the plan was for the day.
First Trip With The Trainer
We headed to his truck and logged into the company Qualcom (this has since been replaced by a tablet) and waited for our first load to come in. Well shortly after we had a load that was traveling from Ontario Canada to Gary Indiana.
I would drive to the location in Ontario and we picked up the loaded trailer and paperwork. I then learned the procedures regarding faxing in the paperwork to the border crossing team so they could set up the crossing. We would drive to the closet truck stop and I would learn how to scale the trailer properly and how to move the tandems
I would drive to another truck stop near the border in Sarnia Ontario/Port Huron Michigan where we waited for a load to be cleared by the custom brokers
Once the load was cleared I would drive to the border crossing and learn the procedure to cross the border which is basically hand over the proper paperwork, answer their questions and hope you do not get pulled in for xrays or additional inspections.
Thankfully the border crossing went smoothly and I drove to Gary Indiana where we would drop off the trailer at a company terminal. First trip in the books
This was the first time I have ever driven a commercial truck for more than four hours in a day and I was amazed at how tired I was at the end of the day which had more to do with the stress than any actual physical work. Along with the actual driving I learned the procedures for faxing in paperwork for the border, actually crossing the border, scaling out a load and submitting the final paperwork
Since we were at a terminal the cafeteria was still open when we arrived so I was able to eat plus grab a shower before sleeping in a commercial truck for the first time
Rest Of The Week With The Trainer
For the rest of the week we would have loads that would bring us back to Canada and then back to the United States which of course is a legal requirement.
No Canadian or United States driver may pick up a load in either Canada or the United States and deliver it in the same country in which they do not live in. So if I pick up a load in Gary Indiana I have to deliver it in Canada and not a United States destination. Where as an American driver can pick up a load in Canada but it must deliver in the United States
The company wanted to ensure that as well as the safe operation of the truck that the new driver would get as much experience as possible crossing the border, filling out and faxing paperwork, following hours of service regulations and other company policies
During that week we crossed the border in Port Huron Michigan/Sarnia Ontario, Fort Erie Ontario/Buffalo New York and Windsor Ontario/ Detroit Michigan
It was Schneider policy that the new driver would spend the majority of the time behind the wheel and the trainer would remain in the passenger seat and not the sleeping berth. This is not a policy that all trucking companies follow which I mentioned before
What I Learned From The Trainer
When you spend every single day with someone needless to say you are going to have conversations about everything and it was from those conversations I learned more about the new career I was beginning. Whether it was truck stop etiquette, how to deal with difficult dispatchers, how to deal with difficult shippers and receivers to how to maximize my hours so I would spend more time driving and not sitting around and waiting.
During the six days I spent with the trainer I was able to ask all of the questions that had been running through my mind since I began this journey back in CDL school.
By the time we arrived at the home terminal at the end of the week I had four hours remaining on my seventy hours. It was decided that I was competent enough to go for the final company driving test and did not need additional time with the trainer. I went home for the weekend and when I returned on the Monday I would take the driving test and pass with no issues. It was time to move on to my own truck and my solo driving career
Overall Experience With The Trainer
Again I do not have any real complaints about the time I spent with the trainer. It was company policy that at the end of the week the student driver would fill out a questionnaire regarding their trainers performance. Some of the questions were (A) Did your trainer spend time in the sleeping berth while you were driving (B) Did your trainer spend a lot of time on his or her phone (C) Did your trainer offer constructive criticism and the like
Like I said that I had no issues with the trainer. Looking back now and remembering my first few months on the road what I do wish is that we took routes to a more varied type of landscape. The difference between driving in flat Indiana is very different than the hilly area of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was a scary place to drive for the first few months of my career until I finally figured out the engine brakes
I know drivers who spent a lot more time with their trainer than I did, even within the same company, however for me it was long enough. Sure maybe if we were together longer we would have been sent to Pennsylvania or another hilly area but there was no guarantee of that. I will say that I learned more in those six days than I did in any classroom including orientation and CDL school
