COVENANT -- From a wife's perspective

Well here's the latest update. I didn't get to talk to Redcoat until late this evening as he didn't have a signal where he was for a while.

First, again, I want to thank everybody for all their insight and information. That being said, I struck out on my game plan.

This morning Redcoat made two local runs in typical L.A. rush hour traffic. That went kind of OK as I think he can deal with heavy traffic just a *little* better than he can with construction lanes. That deal right there (and driving in the dark) are two of the things that really did him in. Anyway, after the two local runs, they waited around most of the day waiting for their load. By the time they got under way, Redcoat only had about two hours left to drive and his trainer took over.

You know, he STILL doesn't know where in Tennessee they are going.....

Anyway, I asked him if he knew how to use the email in the qualcom and he was surprised that it had that capability. Apparently his trainer just handed him the book and told him to figure it out. He figured out how to sign in and out and that's about it. So trying to use Rocks' suggestion isn't going to work.

Then I practically begged him to tell the company what was going on and he adamantly refused. I know what the deal is. It's taking every ounce of control he has to hold himself together and he won't be able to maintain that control if he has to tell anybody else what's happening to him. He'll just totally lose it and if that happens he would be just mortified. All he wants is to just quietly disappear without any fuss. I told him he can't just do that and he agreed. That is why he is trying to come up with a logical excuse for them to let him come home. A family illness, something, whatever. Anything to get him off the truck. Anything, that is, except what is actually wrong.

I read Weather Lady's post and have given it some serious thought. I know that if I make the call to Covenant, Redcoat will be furious with me but I also know he'll get over it. And if I can accomplish what he really wants without too much grief, then he will probably be more relieved than anything else. He mostly just doesn't want them to know how he feels because right now he considers himself a failure and it would be ten times worse if everybody knew it.

He just really needs to get away from driving a truck right now.....but not forever. There WAS a small ray of sunshine there. He said he eventually wants to go back to this career and so that is why he doesn't want to burn any bridges with Covenant to ruin his chances.

He wants to do what he probably should have done in the first place. Work with me selling pictures until he's had his license for at least a year and it will also give him a work history. Those two things are what jammed him up in the first place for getting on with Schneider or Swift or any of the other training companies. He knows he'll have to start all over again with their training but he's ok with that. He figures by then he'll have mentally healed from this trauma and will be ready to give it another go. He has a friend from Roadmaster school that drives for TMC and that's the company he really wanted to go to in the first place but they wouldn't take him because of his lack of work history. If he could get with TMC and drive with his friend, he thinks he'll be ok.

And one more thing. Yesterday I copy/pasted many of your comments and support into an email and sent it to him. He read them all and he was really touched by how much you all cared about what happens to him. He's told me before that we Americans are not like the British at all in that respect. He said if someone hits the lottery here in the USA, people are genuinely happy for that person. In the UK, folks tend to be jealous and would try to find reasons why they didn't deserve it. Here, we all pull together to help each other. There, they have more of a "Oh well, sucks to be you; glad it ain't me" attitude to others misfortunes. So he was a bit overwhelmed by all the support he saw from this forum. BUT he also wanted you to know that he's way past the 'get another trainer' stage. He's at the 'I need to get off this truck before I totally lose it' stage.

So since my husband is such an English gentleman who avoids confrontation at any cost, I'm going to be the abrasive American (figuratively speaking) and make the call to Covenant in the morning to see if they can get him off the truck in Tennessee. I can be VERY diplomatic and persuasive so hopefully I can work this out without ruffling too many feathers. If I can get them to let him hitch a ride up to Iowa, that would be a bonus but I won't hold my breath.

So that's where we stand so far. As always, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

At this point Boonie I can't disagree with you. If I remember right, Redcoat said his trainer gets $600 if he passes the road test the first time and $300 if it takes two times. I also knew about the federal money but I thought it was only $5000 and they don't get it until after 90 days. That's why at Covenant they say "Give us 91 days!" Then they get their money. But I really think that most of their turnover rate problems is related more to being forced to team drive for six months than bad trainers. If Redcoat's trainer wasn't in the bunk the whole time, he would probably see the distress of his trainee and be more apt to do something about it. I just can't see a veteran sitting in the right seat doing nothing while a rookie driver is under noticeable duress in the left. I'd be worried about my own A55 and do something about it. But, then, I've read some pretty wild stories here so........