Advice FROM a new driver TO other new drivers...re: Tweaker Mentor

So, I started with one of the large super carriers....we will call it the Walmart Of Carriers for new drivers.

Day one, I met my mentor, he seemed to be a decent guy. He appeared to know his stuff. We left the terminal at 0700, bob tailed a hundred miles to pick up a loaded trailer then headed east toward Dallas. I was behind the wheel for a total of three hours. That's it before he wanted to stop at a specific truck stop for the night. He disappeared from the truck after I backed us into a parking space. He said he wanted to get rolling at 0300. I went to my bunk at 1900, read for a few minutes and went to sleep. I woke up at 2300 and the bottom bunk was empty. I used the piss bottle, and went back to sleep. My alarm awakened me at 0245 and the bunk was still empty. I got dressed, had a Cliff bar, a banana, and went inside for a cup of coffee.

I came back out, logged onto the box, and did a CDL School Pre-Trip which took me about 30 minutes and I got in the truck and did a SALE test...then...waited.

Finally, about 0500 he climbs back into the truck looking like a bag of dog #### and tells me to head east on I-10. He spends the next three hours screaming at other truck drivers on the CB, and yelling at me to "don't let him in" and generally to do all those things that CDL school, the company, and common sense say are unsafe. So...I followed the rules and let him yell at me too.

Finally, after a piss and coffee break I told him in a quiet and reasonable tone that the yelling and screaming at me phase of the trip were over and that I wouldn't do anything unsafe, illegal, or that would put my CDL at hazard. I stood about a foot taller than him and he was aware that I am retired from 25 years with Yavapai County Sheriffs Department in northern Arizona. We fell into a quiet truce and he started actually teaching me the right way.

Day two, he wants to stop after 6 hours of driving because of "black ice ahead". Silly me, I thought he was talking about actual black ice...as in the road hazard. We went to a company terminal, and I showered, shaved, washed the clothes I had been wearing and got an Uber to Walmart to pick up a couple of small items. We spent Saturday and Sunday night there....because he wanted to hang out with some nearly toothless female driver. Luckily, I didn't see him until 0300 Monday morning when he came back to the truck wearing the same clothes he had been wearing since Friday.

I pre-tripped the truck, and we headed out to our live unload about an hour and a half away. The weather was crap. Rain, sleet, fog, and Dallas traffic...but I was doing fine. I was relaxed, but alert, not trying to break any land speed records...I was just being safe and watching my mirrors, my intervals, and my speed. Again, he was dopey, not paying attention unless he was yelling on the CB and pulling the air horn lanyard. To his credit, he was NOT yelling at me.

We get to our destination, and he can't find it. I spotted it, and the LOADING DOCK sign half a block away, but he starts telling me to pull into a small gate behind which are a bunch of four wheelers. I pointed out the sign, and he told me not to argue...so I turned in, then stopped because a short concrete pole was out of his view but in my view would have taken the back corner off the sleeper, so I checked my mirrors and started to back out. He started yelling again and I point out the hazard and continue out into the street.

He tells me to "get straight"....which my tractor was straight with my trailer, and I asked for clarification.."Straight in the street, or straight with my trailer?".

He says "Just get ####in straight!".

Communication was NOT his strong point.

So, I continue a straight back until I see a woman walk BEHIND my trailer and I stop immediately. He starts yelling about me stopping, and I told him about the woman and he said there was no woman...etc. I put on the air brakes and GOAL, and lo and behold, there IS a woman getting into the trunk of a car that was about 15 feet directly behind me.

He finally gets out...which he should have done on EVERY back I made according to company policy...but then he starts yelling at ME again because he had to get out in the rain, but worse than that, he was teling me that I had plenty of room to keep backing up.

I got back into the tractor, and pulled FORWARD and got straight in the lane and went to the curbside to park in line for the loading dock.

I get out of the truck to have a cigarette and get away from him because I had had it just about up to my eyeballs. He starts yelling from the tractor, and I am ignoring him until he said the magic words "You stupid old ####".

I told him he was unsafe, unfit, and that I was done with his ######## and I pulled out my phone to call the driver manager or whomever I could reach at dispatch. Then, a city cruiser pulled up because apparently someone had called 911 thinking there was a fight going on.

I handed over my license, and my gun permit (I was not carrying, but it was locked in my hard shell travel case), and my RETIRED credentials from the county and the local cop and I had a conversation. His female partner walked over and asked me "Do you know that guy?"

I told her I had only known him for 3 days and that he was my mentor driver. She then tells me he has a restraining order against him out of a state in the southeast for domestic violence.

BUT...as no violation had occurred...there was nothing for them to do. I decided then and there that I was done with him and as soon as we unloaded and got back to the terminal, I was going to de-### his truck and get with a new mentor.

It turns out, we got another load by the Gulf Coast, so I drove there and when we stopped again, I called my driver manager and told him what had happened and that I was wither getting a new mentor or a new job. He had me type out an incident report on my tablet, and we agreed that since the next load was a straight shot to San Diego from Louisiana that we would keep the fact that I was getting off his truck quiet and I would just get off in PHX under the pretext of having to pick up my permanent hard copy of my CDL.

I figured that after 4 years in the Army, 25 years as a deputy, an ugly divorce...I could handle just about anything for another couple of days.

We get to the coastal town and things fell apart again. Total ####show. He gets on another screaming and ranting fit with other drivers on the CB, yelling at me to go faster in THICK fog where I can't see more than a truck length in front of me, in rush hour traffic, and telling me to block 4 wheelers and other trucks from lanes.

Screw the plan. I am off the truck right now. It's either that or I am just flat going to beat him to death.

I get us to the stop, I gather my stuff, call the driver manager who gets a local taxi rolling my way to take me to a small satellite bus station where a ticket will be waiting for me.

I get to the place which is an old motel-run-down-truck-stop-bus station and get my ticket. The place starts filling up with recent parolees and other people I don't want to spend time with. I look at my ticket and it will be 33 hours on a bus for me to get back to the PHX terminal.

Screw that. I get a room at the motel, take a shower, get changed, cleaned up, food delivered, and call Enterprise. The next morning I am back in a cab for a ride to Enterprise near an auto mall, and I have my stuff loaded into a minivan to drive myself 1300 miles back to AZ.

I stopped in Fort Stockton, got another room. Showered, slept like a rock, then finished the drive to PHX the next day. I dropped the rental, got a ride to the terminal to my truck and came home to Prescott to wait for a new mentor to be assigned and to decide if I even want to go back to that company.

*They are paying me while I am down.

So...here is the best advice I can give as a new truck driver with a couple of decades of military and LE experience and hard lessons along the way...

1. Don't do anything that is unsafe just because your mentor tells you to. Regardless of his or her instructions, the responsibility for the decision and action will still fall on YOUR shoulders, and do you really think an ####### like that will stand up and back you up...if they won't even get out of the truck to spot your backing.

2. If you suspect something is fishy...it probably is. Don't stand on pride or ego if things are going wrong and your common sense tells you they are. Make an exit plan and stick to it. If the company won't back you up...then it is the wrong company.

3. Make SURE you have a major credit card with at least $1500 dollars available to you. This emergency card will get you plane tickets, motel rooms, rental cars, and food to get you home.

4. Don't take a bunch of extra crap on your training run, and everything you take...be willing to leave it in situ. You are restricted on the Dog and in planes on how much you can take. A rental car is better because you CAN take it all...but it may not be a viable option in the middle of BFE.

5. Keep your head on straight.