No food! No water or bathroom and expected to stay in truck

Finally got caught up reading this thread. Left out in the truck, no food, no water, no place to potty...yep, if that had been an animal the mentor would already be talking to a judge by now. Whattaworld.

 

This one can OK,So only one- two syllable words,still,I can usually get the thought of it.. MUCH BETTER WITH PICS!!!!!!!!!

 

No, I don't have a "year of experience" IN A TRUCK... BUT I have enough years of experience IN LIFE to know that when something is considered MY RESPONSIBILITY, I don't care if it ruffles feathers or not. I will do what is right. If you (or any other driver) is comfortable allowing someone else to jeopardize YOUR CDL, YOUR CAREER, and even YOUR LIFE by all means have at it.

I equate it to flying (since I have 10 years of experience with that). As the Pilot In Charge (or PIC), you are required to do a pre-flight before EVERY flight. I have known pilots that stop for fuel, get back in and take off without even checking the oil. Most of the time this might be fine, but I have SEEN pilots take off without a pre-flight and crash (or at least make an emergency landing) because they had a malfunction that would have been caught had they done the pre-flight. The FAA decided that they needed to lose their license (for a while for some, permanently for others).

If they O/O and "mentor" throws a fit for the trainee doing a PTI even if he doesn't, then it should be reported to SAFETY each and every time until that O/O "mentor" is properly dealt with. It's one thing to put your own license on the line, it's entirely different to try to force another driver to do the same.

 

Wiley I agree 1000%... No ones fault but your own for not doing your job. Problem is that most aren't told about the consequences and assume their Mentor has their best interests in mind. In reality, Mentors are people too; hence, a good percentage are self-absorbed azzhats. Take responsibility for yourself and do what is in your own best interest and ruffle whatever feathers need to be ruffled to protect yourself!!!

 

I wondered about the whole o/o and mentor thing early on in academy, this guy or gal would actually want me to find problems on their truck? So they can pay out of their own pocket to fix them? Maybe in perfect world. Then sure enough my mentor turned out to be o/o and the only pretrips he does are in regards to the trailer.

 

Better that you find it than DOT... has to get fixed either way but there is no fine and OOS if you find it.

 

Oh I understand how important it is I was thinking in broader terms of the actual pretrip act itself and how some o/o's might not be as inclined to fix things, then what you got a jackpot on your hands. I do the same thing as you did and at least inspect everything visible. The difference between academy and the real world is stark however, the air break test being another good example. Haven't done one.

 

O-o-o-h-h-kay. How about we start a separate thread to find out how many of us did complete 108-point pretrips on our trainers' trucks and who does them out here in the real world of trucking and why we answer the way we do?

We might be surprised (or not) at the answers....if everyone is honest, that is.

 

SH**, Man I hope I dont get a trainer like that :-\

 

My pre trip consists of 240 points of inspection. Takes me 3 hrs...but hey...I am all about safety. I only log 15 minutes though....I get up early and do it instead ofr sleeping...now there is a real waste of time...sheesh...sleep is for babies....red bulls....6 a day and 3 packs of smokes....man up