My journey with Swift begins tomorrow!

The good news is I meet my new mentor soon. He seems like a really laid back guy on the Target dedicated run here. Been a mentor for a while, and hopefully we'll click much better.

I learn when I'm relaxed and not stressed out. Even when I was sales, I was never the guy who was motivated by "if you don't sell, you don't eat!" I bombed in every commission only sales job I ever had, but give me a meager salary that's enough to pay my bills so I don't have to worry about the power being shut off when I get home? I'll outsell everyone in the store. It's just the way I am.

Thank you for the advice. I wasn't sure how it would be taken given that I was on his truck for a whole 2 days...

 

He wasn't company, he was an O/O on the container fleet out of long beach. He claimed he was a mentor before, quit doing it, then came back. He says he would never be a company driver with Swift because of too many policies, not enough freedom, and that "Swift doesn't care what you do as long as the load gets there on time." That's why he refused to go to e-logs, because he can't cheat them the way he can his paper logs. If I were to do things the way he taught me, I know I'd have written offenses my first week off that truck. The guy handles the truck like its part of his own body (except for the few times he had the shifting issue in the turns, but he shouldn't have been doing that anyway...) but I don't think Swift would be hurting without him just based on the things he says about the company and his attitude. Injun, if you want...I can PM you his driver code and tractor number, if you think it will do any good.

Anyway, things are 10000% better now. I met my new mentor on the target run, and we left for Phoenix to San Diego where I live! I got about two hours of driving in before my eyelids just wouldn't stay open but the first thing the guy said was how impressed he was with my driving and shifting. I spent a few hours in the sleeper berth while we went to the shipper and watched that guy back into a dock I couldn't even comprehend.

As we were heading north to find a spot to take our 10, we noticed the drive tires on the passenger side looked wet and pulled over to check it out. A piece of road debris had kicked up and cracked a seam on the front of the fuel tank, so we went to the Mira Loma yard. The mechanics solution was to park the truck over the underground fuel tank with a road cone as a funnel and let the tank drain...we had to get a loaner truck and should get ours back tomorrow morning.

My mentor is a great guy - he's company, is letting me do everything on the qualcomm, and I did all the driving from Mira Loma back into Phoenix last night. He says the other mentor was crazy because I was a better driver than some people at the end of their 240 and he could have made a lot of money with me!

Whenever we do something, he explains why we're doing it so it makes sense to me instead of "just shut the #### up and do what I tell you to do." Without someone screaming at me, the night driving was a breeze, even through the construction. I no longer get intimidated (as much) by other trucks passing me, and I was keeping the truck nice and centered. Had to jerk the wheel once when a passing truck let his tandems drift into my lane and I got to feel how the trailer kicks when that happens. I was relaxed and could focus on what I was doing, instead of worrying if every little thing I did would spurn more personal insults.

I may not get as much experience on this dedicated as I will on a 48, but my mentor is awesome and I don't want to switch. I was worried that Swift was just giving me corporate lip service when they said you can switch mentors at any time for any reason, but I didn't really believe it. Swift is the only place I've ever worked that delivered on a promise like this.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys! I gotta try to get a full 10 hours of driving in tonight.