Friday I was called into Big Green Cab Co's training office. They told me that they wanted me to be one of their "driver advisors". Me: Found out pretty quick that DA is the title used for the people that do the on-the-road training for new drivers. That's right, I'm now effectively an unpaid trainer.
Well, no, that's not accurate. On days that I have a trainee, I get a training credit applied to my account. It's about 1/3 of my daily lease, and as I take more trainer training classes (around a dozen of them total) that credit increases. The downside is that I get significantly fewer rides with a trainee in the cab than I would otherwise. (About half what I would've had on a normal Tuesday. Has to do with the actual process of training.) Bear in mind that even though I'm a DA, I'm still not an employee of Big Green Cab Co, so I still have to get enough rides during the training day to pay the bills.
So, I had my first trainee today. As I'm getting the paperwork I need for the day, the trainer turns to me and asks, "You won't have any problems training a woman, will you?" Well, no, but thanks for verifying that you think there might be issues with me. Sigh.
Luckily, the day went by pretty smoothly, and she was an attentive student... although she seemed to think that she needed to go below the speed limit. I had to tell her to match traffic more than once. (Phoenix area traffic never goes as slow as the speed limit -- never -- unless a police car is visible.)
As the day went on, we both kinda relaxed into the situation. (Remember, this was new for both of us -- new job for her, new responsibilities for me.) We didn't pick up any difficult passengers (although it probably would've been good to get at least one so she could see how I handle them) and I was glad to find that doing the training wasn't as stressful as I thought it might be (but the trainer told me he was giving me an easy one... can't wait to see what a hard one is like ).
Well, no, that's not accurate. On days that I have a trainee, I get a training credit applied to my account. It's about 1/3 of my daily lease, and as I take more trainer training classes (around a dozen of them total) that credit increases. The downside is that I get significantly fewer rides with a trainee in the cab than I would otherwise. (About half what I would've had on a normal Tuesday. Has to do with the actual process of training.) Bear in mind that even though I'm a DA, I'm still not an employee of Big Green Cab Co, so I still have to get enough rides during the training day to pay the bills.
So, I had my first trainee today. As I'm getting the paperwork I need for the day, the trainer turns to me and asks, "You won't have any problems training a woman, will you?" Well, no, but thanks for verifying that you think there might be issues with me. Sigh.
Luckily, the day went by pretty smoothly, and she was an attentive student... although she seemed to think that she needed to go below the speed limit. I had to tell her to match traffic more than once. (Phoenix area traffic never goes as slow as the speed limit -- never -- unless a police car is visible.)
As the day went on, we both kinda relaxed into the situation. (Remember, this was new for both of us -- new job for her, new responsibilities for me.) We didn't pick up any difficult passengers (although it probably would've been good to get at least one so she could see how I handle them) and I was glad to find that doing the training wasn't as stressful as I thought it might be (but the trainer told me he was giving me an easy one... can't wait to see what a hard one is like ).
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