swift traing and truck

Check threads started by Oldnewbiegonnabe and Truckerdragon. I believe they are in the New Drivers section of the forum.

Truckerdragon's story illustrates clearly what happens with a poor example for a mentor ...and how to get away from a problem trainer. You can also see how things work when you have a decent mentor.

Pay close attention when your Driver Services person is speaking. He or she is supposed to be your advocate within Swift. If nobody else asks, be the one to ask what to do if it's not working out and take notes on what they say. And if you do wind up with a truly bad trainer, don't be afraid to get out of the truck...just do it the right way.

 

You reminded me of the time back when I was first finishing orientation at Swift and was upstairs in the driver services area of my terminal. The driver services person who would be in charge of me and others from orientation took a phone call and I could hear her asking, "What do you mean it's not working out? You're going to have to be more specific. What did your mentor do?" At this point I got the feeling the student was not being forthcoming as her response was, "OK we'll make arrangements to get you back home."

This seems to be a common theme wherein the student is afraid to tell the truth about their mentor's performance. Mentors are like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get. I recommend going with the first mentor they pair you with and if you don't like the situation you can tell that to driver services whose job it is to get you another mentor.

 

What they said! If you get a bad trainer, you're almost guaranteed to have a rotten time once you go solo. Don't risk your life or the lives of others by putting up with really substandard training. You WILL NOT learn everything you need to know while you are out with your trainer. Take copious amounts of notes. Use every one of your 5 senses (sense of smell? You betcha!!) while you are out there. Get the rest you need!!!! DO NOT drive if you are tired or haven't had enough rest just because it's your shift.

 

which was like what.....3 weeks ago? (just giving you crap)....

but i agree with Injun....if you happen to get a mentor with a personality that just dont click with you, or you're finding it hard to learn (or maybe they're not even teaching anything)....get off the truck ASAP. Don't wait for 2-3 weeks to decide that. It does help to sit down after you get introduced, and talk about what you each expect. make sure you're starting off on the same page. Think of how bad a full orchestra would sound, if they all started wherever they wanted, and it was up to the conductor to get everybody back on track.

oh, and your mentor is suposed to be a mentor. i.e. leading by example. If their 'example' is texting and driving, or eating while driving (guilty) or anything that causes distracted driving....take notes. they ask you to do something unsafe...take notes. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING...date, time, exact location, etc. Cover Yo AZ !!! that is the name of the game when driving for Swift.....regardless what color your truck is.

 

It really depends, My mentor I thought was good at the time. Personally I didn't like him, and he was really annoying, doing things like chain smoking with the windows up. Driving silent all day, then as soon as i climb in the sleeper he cranks the radio. And he never showered, or stopped to eat. ]
But he did teach me what he did, which he was an owner op, on a dedicated, I'm a company driver, otr, so now i'm seeing theres alot i needed to learn that I didn't. when you get out there, Just try your best to get along with them, and ask them alot of questions.

 

oh i dont know about that. dont know what all the fuss is about running dedicated and being a mentor and running OTR. its the same basic principals. Picking up from point A...running x amount of miles to point B. Sometimes there are stops along the way but each load has a start (mac 1) and an end (mac 5). you do your loaded calls and MT calls the same way on dedicated as you do on OTR....only diff. on dedicated you force the MT call with "xxx" on the line for the name...but, its still the same.

i like it better, because the student gets 3-4x as many backs in their 3-4 weeks on the truck.

i would rather keep the studnet for the 6 weeks (42 days) as i went thru....cause your instruction can/should be that much better.

 

the biggest difference i can point out is planning. as an O/O he can make his own routes, and did, We never ran swifts routes like i have to now, and I was never to plan a route, he would set an alarm and wakeup to tell me to turn. And, with only 1 log, I gotta plan my times so I can get to the shippers with clock time, didn't have to worry with 2 logs, cuz the truck could always legaly move. Also he always new the shippers, and the recievers and all the stops inbetween, so there wasn't much planning to work with.

 

you can still use your own routes as a company driver.....well to a point. You can be 'out of route' by about 10% before they really start getting on your case.

example...when i was a company driver, they gave me a load out of Columbus going up to Chicago. They wanted me, according to the fuel route, to take I-70 out of Columbus, then jump up on some back roads, getting back on interstate just east of the I-80/65 interchange. Did i follow it? no. i took 70 to indy and up 65. it was like 16 mi longer, but i know darn well it was quicker....saved wear and tear on the truck and had better fuel mileage. could care less about if the route i took was longer. time is money....

 

He's got you there DickJones. How do you answer the charges that dedicated mentors can't mentor as well as OTR mentors? That whole trip planning thing and all when a dedicated guy goes to the same place day in and day out?