I just finished up new dirver orientation with Swift today. Only problem is,before I left they told me they would have a mentor for me,ready to go when I was done. No such luck. Out of 27 in my group only three were placed with mentors, the rest of us were sent home and were told it could be up to three weeks before being placed with a mentor.

This dosent sit well with me as I feel I was lied to. And I really dont have the time or money to sit and home and twiddle my thumbs waiting for a phone call. Are there any other companies that will hire a new driver with no experience and train them OTR?

Plenty of the large companies would pick you up. The problem is, it will take them twice as long to get you processed and out with the trainer as you have to wait now. If your only issue is waiting on the trainer. You are probably better off waiting.

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sitting and waiting is expected. there is less mentors than drivers and getting one to you area to pick you up is difficult sometimes. recently another member here went thru the same thing and it worked out for him. you gotta b patient and wait but you gotta do what you gotta do, so if waiting is not an option for you for a week then start caling companies and asking questions. with your exp. try calling roehl or if your interested in flatbed call maverick or tmc..

We wouldn't have been happy if this had happened to my husband. We never had a problem. We went with a smaller company (600 trucks) the first time. He finished orientation on thursday and went out with his trainer on Sunday so he had a few days home which was great.

It's true by the time you find another company you want to work for, go through thier orientation etc., you will be at about the same time frame. Not to mention that Swift would more then likely report something negative on your DAC.

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*Cynthia*
Proud Trucker's Wife
"God promises a safe landing, not a smooth passage"

I trained for swift for about 4 years, and they had a lot of problems with their training program, a lot of the people had to wait on trainers and there isn't much you can do about that. The biggest problem you are going to face is finding a good one, I heard a lot of horror stories from other trainees but to be honest I heard the same stories from trainees from other companies. I think schnieder takes new drivers, as does Usxpress with Us be prepared for alot of east coast, I believe England also takes new drivers and possibly knight. Your first year is probably going to be the worst because wherever you go you are going to be new and most of the dispatchers are going to bully you and try to take advantage of you. Also other drivers are going to give you fits about who you drive for, the best advise I can give you is stick with it and don't take any bs from anyone, a lot of the drivers that give you $%#& usually have a bad opinion of themselves and try to make themselves feel better about themselves by belittling other people. Try and learn everything you can about the job, permits,logs,scale procedures,restrictions, shipper and reciever expectations, and your equipment. You can get a lot of information here because there are a lot of people with a lot of information in these forums, but be prepared it is just like any proffesion, you have some bad and some good. Ignore the bad and learn what you can from the good.

Being lied to is common in the trucking industry. Welcome to the club.

Hey boom, If your not able to wait for a trainer, it's a bad start for you. This industry is full of waiting, mostly, hurry up and get there so you can wait 'till your loaded/ unloaded. The other thing you need to hear, when you are starting out, your going to make some bad choices, live with them as long as possible, you do not want anyone to think your going to jump ship at the first leak or you may have problems finding a place to take you on. Try to find a part time job or find out more about the rules. Don't burn your bridge before it's built, in this bis', patience is a virtue. drive55cat

Roehl has a good flatbed division, too. And if you find out you don't like it, there are a lot of options for moving to other divisions within Roehl.

Good luck!

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Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still...

my experience is to stick it out for that first year. like the others have said as well, by the time you find a company and get with one of their trainers you probably would of been out on the road with swift already. and espically in that first year expect to be bullied around I stuck it out for the first year with my company because I had a contract with em and didn't want to owe them money for my schooling but the week that that contract was up I approched my boss and told him that I wasn't making enough doing what I was doing and he put me into a different division of my company hauling 6 axles, now he wants me to pull doubles which I have refused to do for them since day one,( I actually started working for the company in their maintence shop so I knew all the little secrets about the doubles). just keep your chin up and work hard man.

If you ave any military service time check with Roehl you can be on the appenticeship program paid by weekly SALARY waiting at the house PAID they would get a trainer to you