bad swift mentor BEWARE

I don't mean any disrespect to Ms. butterfli73 with the following comment:

We are only hearing one side of the story. As is Ms. butterfli73. We are not hearing the mentor's side of the story and I would be interested in what he has to say. Maybe he really is a POS, but we have no idea what is really happening inside that truck.

The reason I say this is I have personally seen a mentor truck towed into the yard after being totaled by the student and I have seen a fist fight break out between mentor and student in the yard. And neither the student nor the mentor were fired in either case. It really does take quite a bit to get a student fired from Swift.

I have seen it happen. For instance:

There was a student assigned to an African guy's truck (from Africa...not African-American) who refused to get on the truck with a foreigner and a Muslim. He was told to leave immediately. Swift does not tolerate discrimination of any kind from anyone.

There was this nut-case who went through CDL school at the same time I did. He was a real kook. He had this little hand truck he would jam under the hotel room door at night so nobody would "come in and get him." He got p/o'ed at me for hollering at him because he was standing up behind the driver seat while I was trying to drive the truck down the road...after I asked him to sit down for the tenth time just that day. I could just see him getting thrown through the windshield if I had to jam the brakes on. (There were three of us getting a little road training to pass the CDL practical with a trainer in the passenger seat.) He went in to the school administrator and complained I was doing "drugs" on the truck when he saw me take a couple of Tylenol and eat a Tums. He was trying to get me in trouble because he hated getting hollered at by a woman. He had other issues too numerous to list. Anyway, he lasted about four days on his mentor's truck when he was thrown out at a truck stop. I understand the mentor tossed his stuff out of the truck and told him to call Swift.

The fact is, not every person will fit in to every company. Each company has its own "culture" and there are times when it's just not a good fit for either the company or the individual. That is why I'm returning to Swift now. I know the culture there and fit into it well. I am unhappy where I am because it's not a good fit. However, it does work for a lot of people, so I'm not going to bad-mouth this company...as irritated as I am with them right now.

But back to the point, I would like to hear the other side of the story. That's all.

 

Honestly look at the reasons people train. "I wanna train to get more money", is the most common. Here at werner they put out a CD every quarter that i happen to listen to (i think im the only one, but it keeps me from getting bored sometimes haha)....last quarter they talked about training a little bit and said..its OK if you just wanna train to get more money! Just make sure you do it right. I have to..totally agree with that..

And yeah, money is the incentive behind me trying to become a trainer. Why else would i do it? But, i have a mission, and thats not the reason im doing it. My mission is to train a few drivers to not be total friggin idiots.

Im sick of seeing all the idiots out here and wanna make a dent. Thats all.

 

Sometimes the problem lies with the fact that not everyone is cut out to be a trucker and away from their loved ones for periods of time, even though they thought they could hack it. Sometimes folks get this crazy idea it's glamorous. It's tough on the ones left at home too. Sometimes the wife/SO is calling and whining about being alone which puts a mental burden on the one who's trying to make a go of it. He's/She's preoccupied with his wife/husband/SO being upset and isn't able to concentrate on what he/she needs to concentrate on. It's not so easy for some, others fall in love with it and everything works out in the end.

When hubby first went on the road, long time ago, the hardest part for me was dealing with our four year old son crying as we left him with his trainer. But even our four year old waited til we were driving before he started to tear up. It was tough at first, but you get used to it after a time. The last thing I was going to do was put additional burdens on him while he was gone, so unless it was some emergency, I was going to handle things myself and I did. His being gone so much sure makes the time when he is home more meaningful. But not everyone can do this type of work.

 

Why would anyone want to go out with a "mentor", babysitter. Pain in you butt? I didn't. Still going strong. And they treated you bad and now you are being advised to sue? This Is what some say is what's wrong with our society. Does trucking owe you and your husband? I think not.....

 

wow. So if someone tries to get on with 8 years experience, that driver will get paid the same as a new freshly made CDL driver? I guess they really do what new drivers and make them do it their way.

 

eat a LOT of pork and beans with onions also saurkraut and sasuage are a good combanation 2 there's more than one way to peal the paint.... if he gets mad just say its a health problem ,,, you know discrimanition 4 a health problem...

 

He could have not renewed his CDL at expiration and had to go thru the school in order to get the new one.

With Swift...and we are talking about the Mentor Program...the Mentor Contract Addendum is the same..L/O and O/O...the only difference at Swift between the L/O and the O/O is the truck payment...as a L/O the payment is deducted directly from the settlement, with the O/O the truck payment is his/her responsibility. Pay rates and everything else are the same...same contract for Line Haul as a contractor.

I agree and had very similar rules that were understood and agreed to both with the student and with Driver Services...at the same time and together with Driver Services when the rules were set forth!

I was actually very content with Swift for 12+ years until the last day...still not angry with Swift as a company, but with certain key individuals...but that is another story!

 

i love how the jerks come on here and act like its the students fault.

So really, theres NO bad trainers, ever ever ever? They're all perfect people? Riiight.

 

I don't know that anyone said that trainers are perfect. But i do think there is more to the story. And by that I don't mean butterfli's husband is lying. I suspect there is fault on both sides. Might be as simple as a personality conflict. Although why neither her husband or the mentor didn't request a different mentor is beyond me.