A mentor at last

This is the unfortunate dirty little secret of the industry ... some trainers see students as nothing more that a second seat to increase thier income. This isn't unique to Swift ... it's all training companies. There are the trainers of this ilk and there also trainers who train because they enjoy the experience of training ... it's simply the luck of the draw.

In your friends case, a good trainer needs to make sure the student is familiar with logging in general and the QC in particular. Part of that is logging yourself on and off the QC, logging your status, tracking your hours and approving your logs.

 

My friend finally put his foot down with the mentor and now the mentor is letting him log in and report his hours. The mentor is not happy about it but my friend has enough other stuff to report about him that the mentor is giving into him a little to avoid being reported for other stuff.

 

I would report everything. Who knows what else this mentor is doing, and probably has no business training. I can remember back over 20 years ago when I had to go with a trainer with Werner. This guy was a piece of work. I would be on a 10 hour break, and he would wake me up at a shipper just so that I could lower the landing gear. Told me that I needed to know how. We would have a driver assist unload, he would take off and leave me there, and then he would pocket the money. After 2 weeks of this, turned his butt in, and he was no longer training.

 

Thank you for sharing your experiences with us rookies. We are at the mercy of the trainer and it is good to know that if they are abusing their trust and mentorship to report them ASAP. This bull$#!t should not be tolerated for one second. I pray that I get a God fearing mentor or decent one.

My orientation is this tuesday at Swift terminal in Fontana

 

You are more than welcome. New drivers are for the most part out here to learn, and it is up to the Mentor to teach them. There are too many that I have heard about that just treat their student like a extra log book. Those are the ones that I would like to see stopped from being a mentor. Sorry for being candid. I start training in January, and it is not for the extra money. As a L/O, I to quite well as a solo. Doing it to teach and hopefully that they actually listen and learn.

 

Sounds like we need more good mentors with attitudes like this - in it to train and not abuse.

It's good to hear that this student is now signing themselves in to the Qualcom and not the trainer. If the student it getting cheated out of money that is going into the trainer's pocket, as in a case such as the one here, it's no different than someone reaching into your pocket and stealing your money as far as I see it. That's not a matter of 'rocking the boat' or being nitpicky, that's straight up theft.

 

Doc, not really, the trainer, gets paid for all the miles that run, no matter whether he is driving or the student, company truck or L/O. The student was losing the money in this case by not signing in. The reason that the mentor was not letting him, it is beyond me. I can not think of any advantage that the trainer would be getting.

 

True. I stand corrected.

Somehow I thought the trainer was benefiting thru this. I don't know why they weren't letting the student log on.

 

The student has to put in so many hours to complete his training. A mentor makes the most money toward the end of training, That's when the student has become more confident as a driver and the mentor feels more comfortable with the student.

This guy was probably shorting the student on his drive hours, allowing the mentor to keep a qualifed driver on the truck longer than he should be.

I would lke to pass this advice on to students ... if your mentor is an owner op and $900 is the most he has ever done as a solo, look for another mentor. This one doesn't know what he's doing and only sees you as a second seat. He's training for the money, not because he wants to.

 

Yep, this is exactly why the mentor was doing this. He knew my friend was a good driver and he felt safe with him behind the wheel. He figured if he shorted him 4 hours here and there that my friend wouldn't notice and he could keep him in the truck longer and running as a team. And my friend didn't notice the hours until his checks were so small. Now he will be lucky to finish the 240 hours in 6 weeks with the mentor.

After what my friend has been through, my advice to new students is 1) keep track of your driving hours 2) ALWAYS log in Q/C yourself and 3) to report behavior by your mentor that is not allowed by company policy right away.

Or if your mentor gives you a speech about how much his lease is and that if you report him for (texting while driving, talking on the phone, not letting you log in on Q/C, sleeping in the sleeper berth while you drive, etc...) he will be fired, then that is exactly what you should do is report him when that behavior starts. Because whatever non-allowed behavior begins it will only get worse as time goes on. It is easier to report now than to wait until the behavior is out of control and try to explain why you didn't call them about it a week ago.

I will say my friend has met a lot of nice drivers at the Swift terminals. He says everyone is friendly and helpful. He is impressed with Swift and their commitment to safety.