My favorite step in Jeep tour guide training involves the infamous “ride-alongs”, where the trainee rides with veteran guides to observe their touring technique, presentations, and interaction between guide and guests. It is my favorite, because, invariably, a guide trainee will come to me and say “Joe said this about this, but Jane said that about this.” Presentation details vary from guide to guide, and it is important to do your own reading. Presentation, interpretation, and perception vary widely, so always check your facts. Otherwise, it can become like the telephone game: by the time a story filters through a handful of guides, it doesn’t even remotely resemble actual fact!
Interwoven with these ride-alongs will be hands-on four-wheel-drive training in a tour Jeep with the trainees and a trainer. Tour Jeeps handle much differently than a stock Jeep, and it takes some adjustment to become proficient at driving them, even if the trainee has Jeeping experience. As a trainee, remember that you are there to absorb as much as possible from the trainer, who is usually a very tour-experienced person. Set your ego aside, please. Have the self-confidence to ask questions. Don't act like the driving is part of the interview. You have already been hired, now the company wants to train you to a certain point in your ability to manage a tour Jeep. The only people who are dismissed during driver training are the ones who do not listen to the instructor. A tour company is putting a lot on the line by letting you drive one of their pieces of equipment on the company insurance policy with paying guests.
Each company has their own method of clearing a new guide for tours. Some companies have you do a tour with managers and senior guides on board (the worst possible passengers you could ever have), or some slowly wean you by having a veteran ride along with you for your first few tours. But, basically, you will be cleared to do tours when your driving and navigating are transparent, you project confidence and clarity in your information presentation, and you exhibit an easy-going control of your tour.
Getting cleared to do tours does not mean that initiation is over. There is some hazing involved. In a small town, all the other Jeep tour guides know who the new guy is immediately, and the posturing can be downright juvenile. At times, I have compared the Jeep tour guide crowd to a pack of wolves -- they establish a pecking order, and they can smell fear. But, for the most part, the tour guides from all of the companies are fun to work with, behave professionally on the trail, and are just good working people. One of the fun games guides play is coming up with new and clever banter to exchange when passing another tour Jeep on the trail.
What can tour guides expect to make once they are trained? Most companies are paying anywhere from $11 per hour for rookies, up to $20 per hour for veterans. But a really good guide will nearly match his or her hourly wages in tips. The downside is that guides only get paid for hours driving, and those hours can vary seasonally. This is not a job for people who need a steady income. The tour business has its peaks and valleys, which directly correlate to the weather and seasons. It takes self-discipline to save and adequately manage your finances. Among veteran guides, the saying ‘Winter is coming’ has a special meaning and foreboding.
Most new guides begin in the spring, the busiest season of the year, where you spend as much as ten hours a day in the Jeep, you barely get a chance to scarf down cold pizza or a power bar for lunch in between tours, then drive until dark, go home, fall asleep on the couch, then get up in the morning and do it all again, for about ten days straight, before you finally take a day off, then ten more days straight, all until May, when we get a little breather. Summer days are really long and boring. You get one or two tours in the morning, then lay around for hours in the heat of the day, then everyone goes out for sunset tours, so you are driving until eight o'clock at night, then you come home, fall asleep on the couch, and do it all again tomorrow.
