Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

I think maybe I saw you among the thousands of vehicles today in Austin! I don't envy you heading back up to Chicago. It was kind of rough when we left. I know I read there's a decent snowstorm in the midwest right now so be careful.

Yeah, I think XM and Sirius are the same thing now from what I heard. I know all those stations that you stated. I spend the night flipping through most of them. I am in love with satellite radio. I think this is what they call the "honeymoon period" with me and Sirius. Ahh, what a wonderful time it is.

I didn't watch my laundry but I will from now on. This is my first terminal laundry washing. I was really surprised that my door was wide open like that. I couldn't believe someone would touch it and take that risk with someone else's stuff. Although I am getting more and more desensitized each and every day by the things I see people do.

Ahh, my trainer. Not sure how to say it. Most of the time we get along pretty well. I've been having a few issues lately but I'm not sure how safe it is to say it here. I guess I can mention the safe stuff. We had a little blow out today. I've been biting my tongue lately which is not like me. I can use discretion but there comes a point where I have to say something.

One of the issues is that he gets paid by the mile, for both his miles and my own. I get paid by the hour, for driving time and on duty/not driving time. The conflict comes in that he wants me to save up my time so I don't run out of hours so he can get more team miles. I need to ring up some On Duty/Not Driving time so I can make enough money. I usually do this with fueling and my pretrip inspections. That's where there is an issue and conflicting interests. Something was mentioned one day about affecting his paycheck because I was taking too much On Duty/not Driving time. But if I don't log it as OD/ND then I make less money for me.

Another issue that I have, and this is petty in and of itself, is that I throw out all the garbage all the time for both of us since apparently it is assumed I do it because I'm the underling, the trainee. I have an issue with this. I'm here to learn. I understand pecking orders and whatnot but there are some things I don't agree with.

When I ask about something he has already explained he has gotten angry and talks to me like I'm stupid. If there is one thing that will piss me off is to talk to me that way. Talk to me with respect and I will do the same. If you think someone is going to learn something and not be resentful when you talk down to them it will be counterproductive. I know because as a trainer in my previous jobs I have made my own share of mistakes. In that vein, if you are a trainer lead by example. There's no better way to get respect than to show those you are training that you are not above doing what you are instructing others to do. Walk the walk. Such as the night driving thing. It is assumed that all my driving will be at night and we discussed this today but I don't think my point got across as I am again driving tomorrow night. If this continues into next week we are going to have a serious discussion. I don't mind driving at night but I do mind driving at night every single night. There's nothing to be gained training-wise from driving every single night. That will not be my experience solo.

There are hygiene issues. I'll leave it at that.

Today, when I had to speak my mind, it went something like this: I finished my 14 and 11 this morning after driving all night. I was out of time in both, with my 11 ending just 20 minutes before I went over time. Last night, between the night driving, only two short breaks, the endless construction, 4 hours of rain, traffic in Austin and the mini tornado - I was thoroughly worn out by this morning. Literally exhausted. So I pull into a truck stop to switch drivers, wake him up and sign myself into "sleeper" on the QC. He is now the active driver. Since we are within 1.5 hours of Laredo I figure I will stay up to see the drop come to fruition. All I want to do is get this done, get back to the terminal to take a shower and do laundry and then sleep. We get the trailer checked out here at the terminal, it is green lighted and we go drop it at the other place. He asks me to go out and do the landing gear. He disconnects the air and electrical, the easy stuff. I'm starting to get cranky at this point as I'm officially "off duty" and exhausted and not feeling like doing anything to be honest. But I keep my mouth shut...

Now we go back to the terminal and we need to replace the fire extinguisher. He drives up outside the shop, hands me the old fire extinguisher and says to go bring it in and get it replaced. I'm losing patience fast at this point. There has been a pattern of laziness from the beginning and this is that straw on the camel's back. I asked him if he was serious about the fire extinguisher and he laughs and states it would be good training. He was serious and now I'm pissed. I take it and go into the shop, look for someone, wait while he gets me a new fire extinguisher and I am told it will need to be installed. To try it out first. At this point I'm done. I get back in the truck, hand the mentor the extinguisher and said "listen, I'm not doing any more work off the clock. I'm tired, I'm not getting paid for this and this is ridiculous". He got pissed and was surprised and walked out. When he came back I figured I would smooth things over stating I get cranky when I'm exhausted. I apologized but really don't think I should have I just want things smoothed over. He states he kind of understands where I'm coming from. We just leave it as that and everything is fine for the moment.

The new load came up and he stated something about me driving AGAIN tomorrow night. I suggested that I sleep today and he start driving early this morning and I will continue in the afternoon. He tried to make it make sense (it didnt) explaining how I needed to drive at night since he was driving during the day again tomorrow. This is going to be a whole other thing.

There are some other issues I won't mention here as they are much more serious but my concern is that I just need to learn what I can, get out of this with a decent recommendation and go solo. If I was to request another mentor I would have to wait and I don't have the money to wait. Dont get me wrong, he isn't always bad. Most of the time we joke around and have a good time and decent conversation but I am being taken advantage of to some degree and there are things being skipped but I don't want to make waves at this point. I just want to enjoy myself and get through this learning what I can. The bad habits will stay on this truck and not go with me. That's for sure.

As it is, I'm still happy to be here everyday and thoroughly enjoy driving whenever I am behind the wheel. The experience is unique and I'll get through it.

 

I may have to try this pizza guy next time I'm back at this terminal. I would have tonight but didn't want to spend the money on the pizza or wings/ribs.

 

Check the threads and there's a lot of info. Search "cpap" or "sleep test" and you will find a lot of good info.

 

Sitting here back inside the drivers lounge early this morning. I woke up almost sweating as every window in the truck was closed while we slept. When I went to sleep in the top bunk last night I had the windows partially open for ventilation. When I awoke this morning they were closed and it was too warm to go back to sleep. I guess it doesn't matter as I'm going to have to find a way to sleep again sometime later today since I have to drive my shift tonight.


Really losing patience here lately. Doing my best to not have to request a new mentor but, to be honest, this terminal here isn't half bad and I've been having thoughts of jumping ship on this mentor this morning and just waiting here until they get me another. There are private sleep rooms here, decent showers, wifi and food within walking distance. Weather isnt bad either.


I'm going to do my best to fight this flight instinct and stick it out just a little more. I can honestly say I'm about done with this mentor at this time and the more I think about things that have happened in the past 10 days the more angry and resentful I get.