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

Okay time for an update......

Yes I am still with the same mentor and it has been hell. I hopefully only have about two weeks left as I am ready to get off this truck and get into my own.

Do I believe that this guy should continue to be a mentor with Swift? No

I use to drive for two years over the road and three local so I came on this truck with experience. The only reason I am on a mentor's truck is because I have been off the road for awhile.

Driving I already can do that just fine and he knows this. Basically all I need to know is company policy and how to work the qualcomm. Stuff like this.

Qualcomm very simple to use and company policy I seem to know more about this than he does.

For example U-turns! From my understanding you are not suppose to do a U-turn as it will get you fired. Well we just did another one right in the middle of Irvine California on a four lane city street.

When I seen him do this I was like what the hell. I would have never attempted to do this. Today I thought he was going to do another one on a busy highway as he was sure looking at both directions and was on the side of the road. Luckily he did not do it.

Few days ago we where going to the Phoenix terminal and I entered the terminal and he noticed there where way to many trucks in line at the fuel Islands so he yelled turn around and get out of here.

I said get out where? He said back the same way you came in. I said man that's one way. He yelled hurry up and get out of here. So I did and as we where going out a Swift truck was wanting to come in.

I stopped to let the Swift truck in because there was traffic coming down the road and he yelled get the hell out of here. I said man you only have to tell me once and you have already told me this.

So here we are at company headquarters and I am told to go out of the terminal the wrong way. There are plenty of reasons I think this guy should not train.

First off when you are a mentor and the student does not have access to the fridge in the truck then you should make sure that the truck stops where the student can get a decent meal. I only eat one meal a day and I am lucky to eat until after 9PM. Just imagine if I was a student who had to eat three meals a day. On this truck you are lucky to get that one meal a day.

Next would be access to bathrooms. Many of times we have spent the night in the middle of nowhere or for the weekend at a place that is not open until Monday. There would be a truckstop right down the road but my mentor prefers to stay here.

He wips out his gallon milk jug and takes a piss while laying down in the same bed I have to sleep in while the truck is moving. I swear I heard him taking a dump back there because the smell that went through the truck about killed me.

For me if I want to take a pee it's in my 20oz coca cola bottle or take a chance going by the trailer without being seen. If I have to take a dump oh well I am #### out of luck. Why go through all of this when we could have just parked right down the road at the truck stop where anytime nature calls you can just run in and take care of it.

Next would be to require all mentors to shower every other day. I know that sometimes you just cannot take showers on a daily basis but I should not have to be forced into smelling someones arse 24 hours a day.

The smell was so bad that I had the drivers side window down and still it was giving me the worst headache I have had in a long time. MY mentor likes to drive with his belt and pants UN hooked and let me tell you every time he does this I just want to barf out the window.

We went six days without a shower and I finally said man the first truck stop we come to I am taking a shower we have not had one for six days. He tried to argue with me about this and I just said the truck is not going to move from that truck stop until I get cleaned. NO student should have to deal with someones else body odor where it makes them fatigued and affects how they drive.

This does not include the farting! This guy farts more than anyone I have ever seen and it's driving me to want to just jump out of the truck. I have smelled plenty of farts in my time but this guy smells so bad that it's hard to get the smell out of your nose you just want to die.

Laundry:: SWift tells you to pack lightly and to bring enough clothes for seven days. Yes I know that you can use the same clothes for a few days and stretch it out but you should not have to go two weeks without doing your laundry. It should be required that the mentor make the time for the student to do their laundry once a week.

This has been the most miserable experience I have had in my life and twice I have thought about just quitting. I got lucky today and we got a load that delivers Sunday morning right by my house. My mentor was going to try and deliver it early like he always does and thank god they said no.

I decided rather than sit in a parking lot for 24 hours and continue to smell him I would go home and spend some time with my kids and sleep in a real bed with pleasant smells. So here I am! It feels great to be off that truck!!!


I hope the hell I can make it the next couple of weeks with him. I know once I get my own truck things will be much better. I just got to make it.

I will update as soon as I can to let you know if I make it through this or just give up. Hopefully none of you ever get a mentor like this it's been hell.