Back to Square One?

OK. Here goes:

I hopped on the Greyhound to Ohio for Phase 2 of training at USA Truck. When I arrived at the hotel on Sunday night, I received a call from my trainer who told me that I would be driving at 8PM that evening. What he failed to mention is that he needed to sleep, so I was to drive all night (8PM-6AM). Up until this point, I had never driven a truck at night, let alone bobtail. I had not slept very much on the bus as it didn't occur to me (although it should have) that I would be driving at night. I was beyond exhausted and the caffeine did not make up for the lack of sleep. Needless to say, we barely made it to our destination as I could barely stay on the road.

Thank God, I didn't wreck and hurt anyone, but it truly was a miracle. When it was time to sleep in the berth, I shut my phone off and went to sleep. I woke up when the truck stopped to use the rest room. I turned on my phone only to find a voicemail from the training liason telling me to call her. My trainer said he was not comfortable sleeping while I was driving.

Duh, no sleep+night driving by trainee=dangerous situation.

My trainer recommended I go back to Phase 1, but the training liason said 'if he can't do the job, we'll just send him home.'

So there you have it, 3rd company. 3rd bus trip home. Not sure at all what to do now. Although I still need to figure out what to do about the loan, if its not meant to be, its not meant to be. Time to do some soul searching and see is I can find something local either in trucking or not.

 

Unfortunately, both USA Truck and Swift do indeed have trainees drive while their trainer sleeps. That is part of phase 2 'training.' I don't agree with it, but that's the way it is.

 

A trainer with a dedicated run. I personally don't agree with a trainer more interested in the run than safety, but still, one night to decide on me?

 

I went to Roehl, Covenant, and USA Truck. A friend from CDL School went to Swift and he told me that's what they did to him.