"Train The Trainer"... Nice Start, Not Enough

I attended a "Train the Trainer" session years ago with my boss.  He wanted me there to mostly listen but told me to put together some information to present.  I was a nervous wreck.  I was going to stand up in front of a large group of experienced drivers who wanted to become trainers and tell them something that they didn't know???!!  The night before I racked my brain trying to think of what I would say.  Eventually I realized that I wasn't there to tell these drivers how to drive -- just to share with them what I'd learned about how to teach. 

I told them a bit about what they could likely expect of their trainees.... that most would occasionally forget the button, get into the clutch brake, have backing difficulties, shifting screw ups, trouble with the logbook, etc.  I consider these problems normal and to be expected for awhile.  Patient instruction and repetition usually brings improvement.  Many of the trainers-to-be were acting surprised.  Finally someone asked, "If they (the trainees) don't know all of this stuff, what did you guys teach them in school?"  My response was, "If you think they're rough when you get them, you can't believe what the first day in the truck was like for us!"  They slowly warmed up.  They began to see the trainee as a real person.

Another thing I really wanted to stress was that their trainees would want a certain amount of specific direction from them.  They wouldn't want to be left hanging, not knowing what to do.  I challenged them to tell me the steps to unhooking the truck and trailer.  They laughed.

  They'd done this a million times and to them, the process was just about the simplest thing they ever did.  One brave soul volunteered to list the steps aloud.  When he got done, no one else had noticed, but he had forgotten something.  I asked him and the others if they were aware of what was left out.  No one was.  This experienced, safe, professional driver had forgotten to mention the step of cranking the landing gear down. Many trainer / trainee problems could be significantly reduced if trainees came in better prepared and if trainers knew more about how to teach and carriers allowed them the time to do so.

I'll never forget Dale.  A few years back when I was working as the classroom instructor at a truck driving school, Dale walked in on the first day and sat in the front row.  After some opening comments, I asked each student to say their name and a sentence or two as an introduction.  Dale went first.  He said, "My name is Dale and I have a Class A CDL with HazMat, Tanker and Doubles/Triples....” I immediately thought, "Oh no... one of these..."  Every class had a person that already knew everything I was going to teach them.  (Though you couldn't tell it by their test scores.)  Just as this thought entered my mind, Dale finished his sentence by saying, ".... and I don't know **** about truck driving.  I went to a two week school in Los Angeles and I don't know how I got a CDL and I can't go backwards at all."  My opinion of Dale changed instantly.  Dale knew what he didn't know.  Dale turned out to be an excellent student.  He listened and paid attention.  He did well in the classroom as well as on the concourse and on the road.  The school he had attended had given him just enough information to make him very dangerous and he was wise enough to know it.

So, because CDL Mills can make a quick buck off the back of a trainee and because carriers accept CDL Mill trainees, there will continue to be CDL Mills.