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Post by Charles on Nov 27, 2003 22:48:08 GMT -5
I was wondering about hiring a private instructor for driving lessons, since I may not have a whole month available in one block to go to school, and don't want to sit through a week or two of classes (on stuff I already studied) trying to stay awake. Since I'm planning on driving for myself in my '87 International once I get it roadworthy (the continuing adventure appears on the "General" board), I'm not looking to be hired by a carrier upon graduation. I do not expect any problem passing the written tests, physical, and getting my CDL learner's permit on my own. I have already studied the manual and took a sample written test online (general and airbrake) with 98%. I've read and reread the "Driver's ABC's" too What might I expect to pay an instructor by the hour? Would insurance be a problem (or outrageously expensive) for a student? Or should I just go to the local school (which is PTDI accredited)? Thanks for any advice, especially from instructors.
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Post by truckertom on Nov 27, 2003 23:48:18 GMT -5
Charles, I am a state certified instructor here in Texas, if you lived close, I would do it for nothing!
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Post by Maverick Blaquehardt on Feb 13, 2004 13:34:37 GMT -5
The best I can offer is to tutor you over the net. Hands on requires a different approach, but possible.
I always had 3 questions to ask new drivers I met while being a Safety Director
1) Why do you want to drive a truck?
2) Are you willing to give up sex to be a driver?
3) Does insanity run in your family?
You would not believe the answers I got to those, most thought of it as a joke. But trucking is no laughing matter...It's serious business
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Post by truckertom on Feb 13, 2004 22:22:32 GMT -5
1) Why do you want to drive a truck?
Answer:
A recruiter said I would get rich.
2) Are you willing to give up sex to be a driver?
Answer:
There is plenty of sex in truckstops. (lot lizards)
3) Does insanity run in your family?
Answer:
My mother and father support me in this. (that is how much they want me out of the house at the age of 35!)
We have one student in class now that claims he is going to quit driving in 6 months and play for an arena league football team.
Me? I am trying out as a major league pitcher.
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Post by Brinybay on Mar 10, 2004 1:28:55 GMT -5
There is a school in Idaho, SAGE, that gives 1 on 1 instruction, but they take the usual 4 weeks time. I talked to the admissions rep, Will, yesterday. Very informative fellow, willing to let you pick his brains about the "real world" of trucking and not just glossy brochure bs. I was wondering about hiring a private instructor for driving lessons, since I may not have a whole month available in one block to go to school, and don't want to sit through a week or two of classes (on stuff I already studied) trying to stay awake. Since I'm planning on driving for myself in my '87 International once I get it roadworthy (the continuing adventure appears on the "General" board), I'm not looking to be hired by a carrier upon graduation. I do not expect any problem passing the written tests, physical, and getting my CDL learner's permit on my own. I have already studied the manual and took a sample written test online (general and airbrake) with 98%. I've read and reread the "Driver's ABC's" too What might I expect to pay an instructor by the hour? Would insurance be a problem (or outrageously expensive) for a student? Or should I just go to the local school (which is PTDI accredited)? Thanks for any advice, especially from instructors.
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Post by truckertom on Mar 10, 2004 21:51:14 GMT -5
If you were to pay me as an instructor to teach one student for four weeks, I could have them driving like a pro! The trouble comes when you introduce a driving school owner that wants 3 to 4 students trained in the same time period for the same pay. And there are students that will never get past a certain point no matter how much you work with them.
Usually, the school owner or administrator is the one calling the shots. The student sees the instructor that has to carry out the wishes of his higher ups as the enemy. One school I know of gave orders to instructors to cut the driving time of their best students to allow more training time for the slower ones to catch up. And when the more progressive students complained, they chewed the instructors butt right in front of the students complaining.
So how much training would you expect from a trucker that left a $900+ a week driving job for a $450 a week instructor job? Recruitment slips, and the pay is less because they send instructors home. Retired drivers can afford to be instructors, but they are also the worst to take too many breakfast breaks.
They just don't pay driving instructors much, the owners want to keep all that lovely money for themselves. Many driving instructors are nothing more than over the road rejects with ego problems. There are alot of lazy ones out there. But schools are not exempt from turning a great group of driving instructors into a group that hate their jobs, and are willing to do the very least they can get away with and still keep a paycheck.
Also, it is the Owner that puts most schools out of business, not the instructors. If you want good, hard working driving instructors then you are going to have to pay for that. If all you need is "truck drivers" to keep the students from killing themselves and others til they can fake their way through a driving test, you may get away with paying nothing. But you get what you pay for. A cheap @ss truck driving school owner can be the worst thing for the school. A bad reputation will kill your business, lousy instructors = lousy reputation. Most owners do not really believe this.
Not every trucker can be a driving instructor. And the lousy ones get paid the same exact wage the great ones. There are no extra rewards for being good in driver training. And the owners have always been the last to know and the first to fire the wrong people.
People who care about their job may complain when things are not being done properly. If an owners motivation is to stop the complaining, he may fire people that care and keep the trainers that don't. I personally know of one instructor that robbed one school out of about 15 hours a week of work by taking his students to the truckstop movies all week long (that school went under about two and a half years ago). What did the school do to punish him? They made him the lead instructor and paid him $2 an hour more than the rest of us.....this same guy is still instructing today! He has no chance of hiring on with us because our owner knows he would lose every one of us if he were to hire this clown. But he does have someone fooled.
Believe me, there is alot more to a driving school than a perspective student could ever see from the outside, or discover by asking the recruiter a list of questions.
The #1 way to find out about driving schools is to instruct at one, then you will know all about it. Everything else is salesmanship. There is also this pre-concieved idea that students bring with them; that truckers are a bunch of dirty minded, filthy mouthed, lazy good for nothings. This is what most of the public thinks of us, and you can see it everyday in a training truck when the cars drive by and flip you off, cut you off in traffic and play chicken games with a truck that has "Student Driver" written all over it! So naturally, if you have a prejudiced dislike of truckers, you may bring that view into the school and want to blame your instructor for everything that is hacking you off. And it may well be the man in the office that looks good in his pressed jeans and shirt.
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Post by Charles on Mar 10, 2004 22:38:01 GMT -5
So if someone were to hire their own private instructor, the salary would be expected to be somewhere between $450 and $900 a week? Would the instructor provide the truck/trailer? Seems like the student would want to be learning all he could in those few weeks, getting his money's worth and learning how to be safe, so if the instructor was burning paid "lesson" time at breakfast or the truckstop movies , that relationship would come to an end real quick! And without laying down a nonrefundable $3000-4000 up front, either... say, by paying at the end of each week. what do you think?
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Post by truckertom on Mar 11, 2004 23:17:41 GMT -5
Charles, that is pretty much my point. It is not the instructors that are setting up these schools, it is the money men. And the point of what I said about the $400 to $900 a week is this: Why would any real truckdriver leave a $900 a week job driving OTR and take a $400 a week job as an instructor? So driving schools either collect drivers that love to teach, or those looking for comfort. I have found that those looking for comfort are going to be a big waste of the students time and money.
I have trained one on one for companies before, and it is alot easier when you don't have a greedy driving school owner trying to keep the overhead low. They don't seem to mind paying the 8 office workers. But for some reason, they see the 4 trainers as a nessesary evil that they have to endure.
So why am I still a trainer? I ask myself that same question every pay day. The last time I applied at an OTR company, the school owner found out and wanted to know why I was considering leaving the school. I told him that I had past debts from the last school that went under with me working for it, and at the rate I was going I would never get caught up again. I was making more money training in 1991 than I am today...He just doesn't get it.
I don't see myself doing this much longer, It really is a dead end job. No retirement, no insurance and no pay. I don't know why so many students expect schools to have sharp, dilligent and effective instructors that make so little they could never own a home, or qualify for a new car loan.
If you get a good instructor, believe me it is not because of the money.
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Post by squirrelbait on Mar 26, 2004 23:00:43 GMT -5
1) Why do you want to drive a truck? Because everyone knows that truckers are the best lovers and this would boost my gigolo business 2) Are you willing to give up sex to be a driver? Well ....... I already traded sex for food ........ Now I can't get in my own pants 3) Does insanity run in your family? RUN nahhhhhhh hell we embrace it like an old friend Some people SUFFER from insanity, we've learned to ENJOY it Just going for the laughs guys, I really have enjoyed reading through these posts. I had the good fortune to have some great instructors when I first started driving, and I hope I run into more when I requal next month.
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Post by Rachelle on Apr 17, 2004 23:48:00 GMT -5
1) Why do you want to drive a truck? Because everyone knows that truckers are the best lovers and this would boost my gigolo business 2) Are you willing to give up sex to be a driver? Well ....... I already traded sex for food ........ Now I can't get in my own pants 3) Does insanity run in your family? RUN nahhhhhhh hell we embrace it like an old friend Some people SUFFER from insanity, we've learned to ENJOY it Just going for the laughs guys, I really have enjoyed reading through these posts. I had the good fortune to have some great instructors when I first started driving, and I hope I run into more when I requal next month. Thanks for the giggle, needed that!
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Post by Brinybay on Apr 18, 2004 2:32:06 GMT -5
1) Why do you want to drive a truck?
I'm a sociopath, don't like dealing with people for more than a few minutes out of each day. OR Because it's there?
2) Are you willing to give up sex to be a driver?
Already did. Severe case of tennis elbow ended my sex life.
3) Does insanity run in your family?
I always tell my family that "Everybody's crazy but me and thee, and sometimes I wonder about thee!"
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moo
New Member
Posts: 4
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Post by moo on Jun 24, 2004 12:27:58 GMT -5
Why do you want to drive a truck? Well, for some strange reason it's something i've always wanted to do. Are you willing to give up sex to be a driver? I'm married! I've already given it up. ;D Does insanity run in your family? Absolutely, and i'm looking forward to the medication ;D
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Post by maineiac on Jun 27, 2004 10:23:42 GMT -5
need help tom appreciate your offer and am almost willing to drive to texas but first is there anybody in new england willing to do one on one with emphasis on backing??? also can i drive in any other state with maine permit? would this apply if i did get a tutor on private propety parking lot for instance?
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Post by Fozzy on Jun 27, 2004 11:56:34 GMT -5
There is a few problems with "one on one" private instruction from an individual. I know that this is only sort of what we are talking about, but there are people who try this approach. The biggest problem would be getting hired in the current truckign environment. Training must be documented and its getting tougher to get these companies to accept training because there are a lot of schools WITH certification that just flat turn out a poor "product".
Another item that people tend to overlook is the fact that if you are alone in a truck with one instructor, you have no one else to compare yourself too other than someone who does this stuff almost automatically! Having at least one training partner gives a gauge to see just how far you are from the instructors skills, but also a barometer to gauge where someone else is. Most of the time there is a VERY healthy competition that develops and training becomes less stressful and more fun for the students.
As an instructor it makes the days go alot faster and the antics of a couple of students who are having fun learning this stuff just makes more sense.
Fozzy
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Post by maineiac on Jun 27, 2004 15:22:04 GMT -5
dear fozzy am currently in school but the 4 hour days aren't cutting it,have been prehired by a local company but they offer no additional training and do not feel confident of my backing abilities at all. the other point is northeast would like me to start yesterday so i sent my card in for road test in hopes i could put more hours in at the range but with 2 trainers out and the other 2 want to work part time i am not getting enough time behind the wheel. any ideas???
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