IDK

sounds like you wanna stay far away from that clown........maybe that's the guy blubonn was with.......

 

Sounds like a bad trainer attempting to do the Marine Drill Instructor routine ( Sir, YES SIR!). Some teachers (any job in life) want to set themselves up as God and the Bible in one (career-wise speaking). They attempt to break you down 1st, then rebuild you in their image. This is a fine technique for training someone to charge a machine gun nest, but doesn't always translate to real life. Some trainees need this (in a fashion, not quite so dramaticaly), but most intelligent people don't. A proper teacher takes time to understand his student before deciding on a training "attitude".

Now if that had been delivered in a "Hey it's my truck, my way, but let's be adults about it" attitude, then I may have had another response.

 

One more thing. I noticed you're in WA state. You might want to see if the HH (oops, Heavy Haul) trainers have any openings. You'll learn a 13 spd and how to handle heavy rigs in the hills. Makes for a solid foundation to build on. Just friendly advice.

 

If HH is your goal, get to know Norma, Joanna and Julian if they are still there. They were the HH DMs.

I believe Joanna takes the newbies. Visually she looks like a former model (she's married, don't get any ideas!), but mentally she's a bit scatter brained/forgetful. She knew me as Sarge.

Norma jumps thru fire to help a driver, whether or not she's their DM. She's a former driver who actually cares about the meat in the seat. I have nothing but good things to say about her. She's a great person to be friendly with.

Julian was new to the DM role and (a year ago) was making the standard new boss mistakes. He's probably settled down a bit by now. Good man but keeps a strong eye on the bottom line (fleet miles).

If you move HH, get a 4 axle Freightshaker ASAP. This will open you up to all loads vs just reefer runs. More loads to earn cash on. I started with a 3 axle Freightliner and moved up to a 4 axle 6 weeks later. My paycheck went up $100 a week due to better runs. And really, is it much harder to pull 100k gross over 90k?

When dealing with Sumner shop, give them as much diagnostic info as you can. This will shorten your trucks time in the shop. Trust me on that.

Keep an eye out for post by Cookie. Her hubby is an HH as well. Good luck and drop me a PM if you have a Q.

Pal (aka Sarge)

 

with a crappy attitude that this "O/O" has I would wait for a better one. Probably a L/O that can't make it.

 

You made the rice choice. If it were me, I'd have said, "Well good for you. I'm a ####### human being and so are you. You're no better than me just because you're an "O/O". And since its obvious you don't have 2 oz. of mutual respect or kindness in ya, I think I'll pass on your generous offer."

 

To be honest, i'd like to see students stay away from heavy haul mentors...that is students with ZERO experience. If you've got 5 yrs experience or something, coming from another company or you drove 10 years ago, left the industry and are coming back....then i could see it. But fresh, zero experience students? You need to learn HOW to drive a truck that weighs no more than 80k first. However, it would MAKE you remember to ALWAYS stay in control of your rig.

wasnt that wreck in Washington state in Nov. 2008 a mentor/student combo doing heavy haul?

 

There is no reason for a mentor to behave like that. I hope you contacted your Driver Services person immediately and told him or her about this exchange.

I don't have any trouble with newer drivers running heavy haul. I'd just as soon younger people learn it while their reflexes are faster anyway and can make needed correctons faster. I didn't hear anything about a crash in '08, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen and I am not doubting the story. But I will say this: catastrophic crashes happen all the time ....but not all to Swift and not all to heavy haul. To put this logically, let's look at what the statement implies: one student/mentor team crashed, therefore, no students should do ....(insert favorite occupation here) ....because all student/mentor teams will crash. Right. Doesn't make any sense to me either.

Personally, I would rather people learn heavy haul before they develop bad driving habits like speeding through truck stops and letting heavy loads pull them down hills above their governors. If they learn to be in total control of a heavy haul load and develop those habits, they will likey be safer drivers overall, throughout their careers.