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Post by truckertom on Aug 24, 2003 18:21:43 GMT -5
I have a new student that is a retired stockbroker. He is a wealthy man that owned a spot on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange!
He takes his hand off the shifter like it is hot, every time the stick goes into neutral between gears! He takes his foot off the clutch between gears and puts it on the floor. And after an hour of making him do things right, he gets better. After a little observation from the back, it is his turn to drive again and he has forgotten all he has learned from the last time, so you start from scratch every time his bottom hits the drivers seat.
Now he knows that he is doing it wrong because he is comparing himself with the other students that are right on line as far a progress goes. He cusses himself so I have nothing to add except for demonstrating it to him, explaining it to him and helping to get better at it. And after letting another student drive for an hour, it is back to square one.
Why would a wealthy retired stockbroker (and I believe it because he paid cash for the school) want to learn to drive an 18 wheeler?
Another fun one is when you get a new student that has learned all he "Knows" about trucking from the trucking movies and TV shows. I have had students argue with me about some point of trucking that they learned for a movie entitled "Black Dog". One word.............FICTION!!! It is fiction! No, a jake brake does not work by causing the pistons to swap cylinders.
I have to say that many truck driving students try to bring so much former driving baggage to school with them that it gets in the way. A 10 speed road ranger will never ever shift like your pickup. So you have to quit trying to make what you know in a car "transfer" to a truck... And the sooner you leave all that behind, the sooner you will really start learning to drive a big rig.
IF you have any questions, I am a state certified instructor with hundreds of students under my belt.
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Post by Scott on Aug 25, 2003 17:25:47 GMT -5
truckertom, I can relate! About 6 years ago I had a student who quit her job in medical research to learn how to drive. She told me here last year doing research she pulled in low six figures! She told me she was bored to death with doing that! I don't know about you, but I could put up with ALOT of boredom for six figures!!!!!!! Any way, she would overanalyze every little thing to the point that I had to tell her to quit thinking so hard about it, and just do it. She was a hoot. Her logbook looked like a research paper. We do get all kinds! You are ever so right on the pay part. I made more my second year driving than in my 5th year instructing. And, no, folks I'm not b!**hing. As a matter of fact I'm one of the few really lucky folks in the working world. Why? Well, I'll tel you. Because I have found my niche in life. I actually, truly love my work!!!! I don't even consider it a job! I get to teach other people how to drive a big "Tonka Toy" and the dumb bosses actually pay me to do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So take heart future students. There are instructors out here that do actually care about you and your future. "Cause I'm one of 'em!
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Post by SilverBullet on Aug 25, 2003 22:37:18 GMT -5
truckertom, Your experience as an instructor will be a great help here. I used to be a driver trainer, but as you know, there is a difference between a trainer and an instuctor. I hope all of the "newbie drivers" here on this board will utilize your knowledge.
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Post by Christopher on Aug 28, 2003 15:23:13 GMT -5
I appreciate having the opportunity to take advantage of the wisdom and experience that is available here. I just *know* that I will have questions in the future (and, in fact, I'm sure I have some right now that I just can't think of at the moment!), and I look forward to this resource. I wonder if it might not be a bad idea to take this topic and have it as a separate forum section, rather than just a thread in this section?
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Post by Scott on Aug 28, 2003 17:02:55 GMT -5
Christopher, That's not a bad idea. Why don't we ask "THE BOSS". Rachelle, what do you think?
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Post by truckertom on Aug 30, 2003 19:06:23 GMT -5
It has been awhile since I have been here, I am being "recruited" By C.R. England for an instructors job at the new school here in Dallas. I haven't done it yet and may stick with the one I am at because I am a sucker for the underdog!
We have a new instructor coming in that got "released" by C-1 because he was bringing in brake drums and slack adjusters so the students could see what the brake system looks like. I would think that would be a good thing to do if you are training drivers. So he is coming to work for us hoping this will be long term.
It seems to me that schools look for the retired driver looking for some extra cash on the side to suppliment his (her) income. And while I would not want to dishonor the retired driver, I have to say that being in this industry for a long time. I think this is a bad way to go! But a retired driver looking for extra fishing money can be gotten cheap. And that brings the income of others really needing a job down. So a really great instructor may well not be able to afford being an instructor.
When you have instructors in simi-retirement, then it is obvious that they might not care as much as an instructor that is looking for a career long term, and the schools success is secondary to fishing! I know one instructor that is working because after many years of marriage, he found when he retired and got off the road; He couldn't stand his wife! Well, that is one heII of a motivation for instructing. He says he doesn't need the money yet he is there....why? So he doesn't have to spend the day with his wife.......nice. I'm sure he will be spending the day turning city corners with students. LOL!
Another issue is that instructors that care about their students my be harder to "controll". When they see the student getting ripped off by the school or cheated out of driving time by some instructor that is spending his day at breakfast....all day, a good instructor may get a little mad! This is why there are schools that are full of "complient" ex-drivers that would never speak out if something were wrong at a school. I was an Instructor at Franklin College and when they bought out Cowtown Truck Driving School in Fort Worth Texas, they turned a pretty good school into a CDL mill. The ex-owner turned out to be just another "yes man" that was never going to step out of line. Spineless drivers that will not talk back is what they want for instructors. But will turn around and yell at the students all day. Go figure.
But that is the politics of a truck driving school. Driving Instructors seeking out schools are looking for an easy job. But if you do the job right, it is not an easy job. It is a tuff job! And if you do it right, the effort you must put in as an instructor to teach, is not worth the money they pay you.
So it is the student that keeps you going, and that has to be the motivation. If the instructor is working for the good of the student, that is when it makes sense. That is when it is worth it all.
So truck driving schools are filled with lazy, unambitious drivers looking for the easiest way to make a half assed living. And if you are like me, they will not like you and you wont last long. I have learned to play the game though. I take off in the morning and try to keep my students away from everyone else. If another instructor asks me to go to breakfast with them, I tell them I will be right there as soon as my students pre-trip the truck....and then I drive off in the opposite direction!
Bring on the questions! I've been at this since 1989 and have seen 3 schools go under with me working for them. I've seen it all!
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Post by truckertom on Aug 30, 2003 19:19:27 GMT -5
Sorry, this is for Scott.
I have seen many that are in love with an Ideal of what the life of a trucker is like. They quit a great job to become a driver, but when many of them get tired of it and live on the road for a few years. They go back to what they were doing before and consider their trucking years as something they can tell their grand children one day!
The well off seem to romanticize the lives of the poor working person. But they wouldn't want to rub elbows with them too long. Hollywood has been making money from "poor folk" sitcoms like this this for years!
There are many that are in love with fiction. But when you wake up next to a bull wagon in OKC, that is reality!
BTW...I think a reality TV show about a truck driving school would make a great show....with the right instructor. I tell my students that if I had to pay for the entertainment I get every day with them in the truck....I'd be broke!
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Post by Rachelle on Aug 30, 2003 23:34:15 GMT -5
Christopher, That's not a bad idea. Why don't we ask "THE BOSS". Rachelle, what do you think? I think that's a good idea... What the heck, we'll give it a try. I just set up a new board called "Ask the Instructor." Scott, hope you don't mind that I took the liberty of putting you on as a moderator ;D...
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Post by Rachelle on Aug 30, 2003 23:37:51 GMT -5
The well off seem to romanticize the lives of the poor working person. But they wouldn't want to rub elbows with them too long. and There are many that are in love with fiction. But when you wake up next to a bull wagon in OKC, that is reality! AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Boy did you get it right on the money with those statements. An off-topic word to the wise: never walk close beside a loaded bullrack.
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Post by Rachelle on Aug 31, 2003 0:00:45 GMT -5
This is why there are schools that are full of "complient" ex-drivers that would never speak out if something were wrong at a school. I can sure tell that you've been around trucking schools... Sad to say that I've experienced this myself. I've also been the one who wasn't exactly "compliant" and have paid the price for that. I hadn't thought there would be serious politics at a driving school - naive thinking I suppose - and I was disappointed to discover that I was wrong. What killed me perhaps more than almost anything else were the instructors who couldn't hack the road but sure felt good coming into a group of new students and telling truckdriver stories all day long. Naturally, they were always the *star* of the story. Thankfully these guys didn't usually last at the school very long.
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Post by Scott on Aug 31, 2003 7:05:55 GMT -5
truckertom, You are so right when you wrote "The student has to be the motivation." There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a student doing a manuever for the first time on their own (especially the alley dock) and you see that big light bulb go on over the cab! Folks don't realize just how political this business really is until they get into it. and then it's not bad until you hit middle management. I had more arguments with bosses than I care to remember. And, like you, I learned how to "play the game." I'd get my arse chewed on for someting that the bosses didn't like and agree not to do it again, (on the phone), the just keep on doing it because it worked for the students. Like you, the student was, is and always will be my motivation. In closing, don't be surprised if I ask you for advise. Because I don't know it all and am still learning all the time! Scott
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Post by truckertom on Aug 31, 2003 12:15:18 GMT -5
Here is an example. I went on a road test this morning at a Certain big company school for a job as an instructor. The guy giving me the test was a recent driver turned instructor, and he is telling me that they teach one way and if you don't like it then they will send you down the road. Later I find out from a friend that works there that this is going to be his first time as an instructor!!! And he's giving me the run down on being an instructor!!
This guy didn't want to be there for the road test and complained about it, his hair was dirty and his pants looked like he had been working on his car. He is also one of these fellas that does not want to communicate!
He is either not going to make it or will be one of these that slips through the cracks and spends his career "getting by". But I would think personal hygiene by an instructor would be a given.
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Post by Scott on Sept 1, 2003 9:29:39 GMT -5
Doesn't this company have an enforceable dress code? Such as uniforms? Sounds like that one is there just to collect a paycheck.
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Post by truckertom on Sept 1, 2003 10:06:57 GMT -5
You would think....
Yes, all schools have dress codes like no shorts, no tank tops and no sandals. No halter tops for women and such. And that goes for the employees as well!
But here I am a perspective instructor taking a road test with an empolyee (driver) that looks like a street person! And this is the really suprising fact: He is telling me how the "cow ate the cabbage" at this huge company operated school, and he looks like a student I would take back to the motel and make take a shower because his filthyness was effecting the other students! (and yes I have done this!!!!)
So I am considering turning it down! An instructor should look as respectable as they can. Wearing filthy drawers is not respectable. But as I have said, this will be his first time as an instructor.
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Post by truckertom on Sept 5, 2003 22:52:25 GMT -5
These schools seem to hire simi-retired or retired folks for instructors. Now you tell me how serious an instructor is going to be if his job is just to suppliment his Social Security Check?
These schools do this because the retired are going to require alot less money to live on. Their houses are paid for, their cars are paid for and the truck driving school job is just for fishing money. Therefore the payroll for "instructors" is going to be less so as to expand the ammount of profit the schools make. As I have said, the recruiters are making far more than are the instructors! But if you can't make enough to live on as an instructor, who is going to stay with the job? Folks that don't want to work! Is hireing folks that don't want to work good for any industry? No!
And as I have said this blade cuts both ways. If a student stays up all night partying and drinking beer with his student buddies......he is not going to learn to drive well. And I know it happens, I have seen it first hand myself! There are plenty of student drivers that do not like working very hard! And the idea that a CDL is a guarnteed job is not only a rumour spread by recruiters, it is one many students like to hear. I have told students that if they did not take the training more serously, that they would kill themselves one day. This was answered with a few laughs. They really think that peice of plastic is all you need. I tell them different, the school tells them different, the company recruiters tell them the same thing! And still, many do not take the training seriously.
I can only do so much as an instructor. You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear! If mommy and daddy are spending their money on a driving school, trying to get junior out of the house at the age of 33. If junior doesn't want to drive, should I the driving instructor have to spank his behind and force him to do it? And yes this does happen!
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