Fighting a preventable with Swift.

That is exactly the issue I have been having with my mentor, well along with many more, he has me driving at night and will not allow me to use fog lights. He is a Mentor with Swift O/O, he also turns the Jake brake off when I am driving, leaves the curtain open while in back with lights on glaring right in my face, when I told him I could not see he called me a Sissy Wussy but up until now he was happy with my miles etc, he got mad because I finally told him I needed to be able to stop at a truck stop whenever possible to get something to eat or take me to Wal Mart so I can get something to have on truck. I have gone days with maybe one meal and no showers, he uses a bottle to go to the restroom but I am a woman and that is kind of hard to do. I have been burning up when I sleep because he is always cold and will put the heat on, and when I have come across a situation where I needed his help he would ignore me even though I just heard him laughing and know he is up. He also has a Sirius radio but he puts on ear buds to listen with no consideration if I might want to hear something besides dead silence all the time, he just is very inconsiderate of others and should not be a mentor, even my first 50 hours he ignored me and was in the back asleep while I went through Louisiana on our way to Laredo, he is just wanting the miles.Sorry, off topic.

 

get a new mentor

 

I'll never understand why so many new guys stay with a horrible trainer, like you have to or your gone. Document that #### and say something. They don't know what's going on if you don't tell them

 

I am in Ocala Florida waiting on a new mentor, guess I should of kept my mouth shut until I got out of here lol.

 

You were right to get off that truck. Hopefully, you gave your manager the full story.

It may take a few days to get out of there. The training managers all know each other. Worst case is they'll put you on a bus to a higher-traffic terminal.

 

Nobody has given me the chance to tell the whole story yet, I hope I get out soon too, I thought about getting my on bus ticket out to another terminal but I do not know if they would consider it termination if I did that? I have a mentor that might can come pick me up the end of this week so I will keep my fingers crossed. And, thanks to all who have been great on helping me and giving me info

 

Stay put. There's already someone headed your way to get you; it just takes a few days for them to get there. Consider this a lesson in patience; you will get many such lessons in this industry.

I know that you're itching to get moving. I spent something like 17 days in hotel rooms during my mentorship, mostly due to my first mentor's truck breaking down three times in my first hundred hours.

 

Thanks, I just found out today that I have another mentor on his way and will be here sometime Friday, he is a company driver so hopefully all okay, not to say O/O are bad but I have found more to be than not so far. Maybe that is just me that feel that way right now lol.

 

I'm not a fan of the way Swift's lease program works. While it's certainly possible for a lease op (they don't own their truck, their renting it) to make decent money while solo, there is more money to be made as a team... and mentoring is a form of team driving. While a company driver will also make more money as a mentor, the pressure simply isn't there like it is with the L/O.

My view of the whole lease program:

 

My DM has been pestering me for a year to become a trainer but my problem with it is the opposite. I've seen and heard too many horror stories from Trainers about students. Most I know have gotten out of the program because of that.

I'm making pretty good money as a solo Company driver and don't really want to be team driving. Still have nightmares from teaming with my trainer back when. But it's not about the money...just don't want to deal with the stress of any head-cases.

I told my DM that if I'd be able to hand pick the trainees at orientation I'd consider it but she said that probably wouldn't happen. Until then..no thanks.