Major carrier training nightmare...

(Note: After some consideration, I've opted not to disclose the name of the company I work for. I drop enough hints though that it shouldn't be hard to figure out)

Hey all. New to the forum but I've been reading a lot of these "bad company" posts and I figure I'd chime in. I'm a student at a major carrier, one of the top three in the nation. I previously drove straight trucks for a moving company. I've been a hire since December of 2012 but I'm STILL in training. I've gone through a total of six different mentors, yes SIX, since the time that I started. It's worth noting the at least one of those times I did have to step off the truck to take care of the some personal business. Ironically though, this was the one trainer who actually wasn't that bad. Here's my story...

The first mentor I was paired up with contacted me the day after Christmas. I had completed orientation the week before, so I already had been waiting about five days. I was told he had some "personal business" to take care of and wouldn't pick me up until the second of the year. I contacted my driver leader and she agreed to get me somebody else. This individual was ready to go the next day, but circumstances with his training credentials (he had just come off a 30 day suspension) made it so that he wouldn't be ready for a week or two either. So I waited it out and went with the first guy. BIG MISTAKE. Dude was crazy. I wasn't allowed to play the radio, wasn't allowed to stop unless it was a fuel stop and and got lectured on how if our boys in iraq could hold their pee and poo for days on end in the battle fields, so could I. Suffice it to say I only made it nine days.

The next guy they gave me was cool, but he only had seven months experience. We got along great but as a result of the blind leading the blind, I got a log violation for improper macro submissions and we both got lost on two of the three loads we had. That didn't last but eight or nine days either.

By mentor number three I was almost ready to make my court appearance I'd disclosed to [company] in the week before I started. Number three was a nice guy with a fairly decent record of experience. I was only with him for two loads, and when I got off the truck my student coordinator assured me we'd be able to team up again. Unfortunately though, they gave him another student and I was back at square one.

After four or five days off the truck I was ready to return to work. For whatever reason, it would be almost three weeks until the company found me another trainer. Something about being in the back of the line because I got off the truck? This was where things went from annoying to downright infuriating...

Mentor number four was a real hot head. He was a broke O/O who repeatedly yelled and screamed at me for taking the truck above 60 miles an hour (it was governed at 70, speed limit in 90 percent of the states we crossed was 65-75). We went from southern california to tennesse in a matter of three days, and for whatever reason, once we got to tennesse he decided he'd had enough of me and tried to throw me off his truck! We were at a pilot somewhere in the middle of nowhere when he tried to grab my crap and said you gotta go! I refused, mainly cuz I had no money and no way of getting home. I finally told him if he wanted me off he'd have to call the sheriff. And if he did, I'd call the company. He begrudgingly agreed to drive me to a terminal in Memphis.

Mentor number five was given to me four days later. He was a company guy out of Memphis. Guy seemed pretty cool at first, kind of loud and he had a filthy mouth, but nothing I couldn't deal with at this point. We got along great for the first couple of days but unfortunately i developed some minor allergies due to the high winds. I had a light cough and accidentally sneezed while I was driving. This made him completely bat #### crazy. He was screaming in the phone "My students making me sick, I'm gonna get sick, I can't afford to get sick." I was subjected to this for like two days straight before I finally had enough and called my GF to talk about it. I thought he was sleeping when I told her he was kinda crazy and I felt uncomfortable. Well, he wasn't. He screamed at me and told his friend via phone that no little white boy was gonna talk #### about him on his truck (my gf is black and my son is half black and I think it pissed him off). He demanded I pull the truck over and jumped out, I'm assuming to cool down. I told my GF I was coming home. After a few minutes he instructed me to drive to the next closest terminal and get the hell off his truck. On the way we stopped at walmart. I don't think I'd ever seen anybody spend 75 dollars on lysol and hand sanitizer until then. Being that i'm a relatively sharp knife, it had occurred to me that I was probably going to be fired if I got kicked off another truck in such a short amount of time. Fired + 2000 miles from home = 400 dollar greyhound ticket. Did I mention I was still pretty broke? I did some fast talking and convinced bubble guy that it'd be more profitable for him to keep me on the truck and run back cross county on his load. I agreed to do a minimum of 10 hours a day, and he agreed to let me stay till california. Well, as it turns out, he did the math on my driving and forgot all about me being "sick." By the time we got to california, he wanted me to continue running loads with him, since I gave him 10-11 hours and did all the night time drives. But enough was enough. The guy was unstable and I couldn't afford to be stranded somewhere else if he had another mood swing. So I got off the truck and went home, 60 hours shy of my completed training.

I had originally intended to quit. However, my SC basically called and begged me to complete my training. I said no at first, but then I weighed my other options against returning. I had none, so I guess I had nothing to lose... I'm awaiting mentor number six. We'll see how it goes. I wish I could say this story was BS but I don't think you can make something that crazy up. Or at least, I can't.