SHOULD mentors pay for their students food?

Heck if I gotta buy the guy food, I might as well stop by his house and take care of the wife too.

 

Sorry if this offends those who don't get life but one reason we have so many issues within this industry is the desperation of those who need work and are hired by companies that take advantage of them, which in turn turns our lives into hell because the standards for drivers are so low and the government has to act as they need to fix problems for us and the public. If you can't afford to take to the road under the supervision of another, what happens when you are given your own truck and can't afford just a meal?

I've seen these people first hand, and I've seen what they turn into. I've had drivers knock on my door offering fuel, tools and anything that was company owned to get money, because they were broke to begin with and could not handle balancing their own money to keep some.

So shouldn't there be a standard or should we continue down the maddening path to the abyss?

 

If a guy can't buy himself lunch, chances are someone is already taking care of his wife if he ever had one in the first place.

 

I'm not a trainer or even a driver yet, but as a trainee I don't expect I will have my meals or showers provided for me. I will pay with my card and use my own points for showers. Should I one day train, I will definitely be following the biblical precept to not muzzle the ox while it is threshing, meaning that the worker is worthy of their work. If they are making me money and not able to survive on what they are making, I would individually feel responsible to help out in some way, while also imparting the lessons about thrift and financial planning I hope to have learned on the road by then.

I personally don't want my trainer paying my way, but as a trainer I would feel personally responsible to meet any short fall for that week or so. I would feed a homeless man on the street though, so if a person is making me money, I have no problem paying for a meal or two. Hell, I have been broke and homeless myself, and I have gone weeks without eating before. I definitely couldn't have safely driven a truck or put in a 14 hour day/night of work in that constant state. Let alone if I wasn't used to it as a regular way of life.

Shorter answer: you aren't obligated to, but you should feel obligated to not be a dick.

 

There were about half I had to feed for the first week, until they got some money. One guy two weeks. Assuming these people are at least 21 years old, probably 23, they are grown adults. Unfortunately, the concept of actually earning their keep, rather than being entitled to something is a foreign concept to many of them.

Catch a man a fish, you feed him for the day.
Teach a man to fish, he can feed himself. Unless of course he's too F lazy, so at that point I feel natural selection should take over. And just because people wash out as drivers doesn't mean they are pieces of ####. There's a whole world out there they can find their fishing hole in.

 

My trainer didn't buy me anything ever.

Myself I bought someone else a meal or gave away some of my food once a month.

Gives me an ego boost and makes me smile bigger at the waitress death stare whom I just stiffed.

 

I am not a trainer. However, if I see a trainee stuck at a truckstop for a weekend, i will feed him. Any time I see a person actively trying to better his situation, I WILL support him. Its a hand up, not a hand out. I've seen other hands follow suit, and feed a rookie for a weekend. I will tell him as an old hand once told me, " when you get on your feet, and you see a rookie needing help, you help him."

 

The problem with that is most of those people will never 'get on their feet'. It takes years of habitual bad choices to get to the point you can't even buy food. The person that can change those bad habits is extremely rare.

 

I didn't say anything about the rookie's being able to buy food. If I am at a full service stop and see a rookie, I will buy his meal. Until they get issued a truck, money is tight. There is a differenxe between tight finances and not beibg able to get anything to eat.

 

+ you'd be amazed how a drivers face lights up when you say "hey want a piece of my pizza?"

....but if you ask me for food while I'm sitting in MCD soaking up ac & WiFi... You bout to get cussed.