You gonna be anywhere near Lathrop around the 27th?? I can handle the abuse, But I want to be taught the right way also....
Hey Gold Miner when ya bump to a dock ya gotta wait for them to put the freight on the trailer before you pull out to shut doors and find out the trailer is still empty... bah hahahahahahahaha Gold Miner having a Blonde moment today !!! Bahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha ???????? ?????? ?????? bahahahahahahahahahahahaqhaha
That is quite funny! So out of my orientation class, the experienced that went missing was doing the roadtest. I think he failed and He's gonna go with a mentor now, because when I talked to him today he said he was going to. Only !!2!! of the orientation got driver's codes today. The rest are all sent home, except the guys who live more than 100 miles away, to wait for a reply in the next few days. Most are waiting on urinalysis test, because we had to do it with an outside tester because their in house tester was out due to a death in her family... Me and the third guy both did not yet get approval to be hired from Swift... I'm not expecting to get one now. The day ended for me in a hectic effort to get supporting documentation of what I said faxed by my family to them. The recruiter I went through didn't get any of the documentation I provided to her to swift apparently based on how things went. Quite sad about it. Sheriff got a code though, and is starting with his Mentor tomorrow. I wish him the best of luck and hope that things work out for me and the third guy (Whom Sheriff calls Preacher.) I think I'd take Gold Mine's day today over mine. A silly mistake beats this There's still hope that Swift will take me because they didn't yet say no, but we'll see. (Update: Just Called in and I'm getting my Driver's code today. I'm super-happy!)
Just out of curiousity what are some of the reason people arent getting coded??? If they sent a pre-hire and we have a license what else can go wrong?
Just trying to find any excuse to get more backs. After 7 weeks, I am ready to get home to my lovely wife. Still got at least two more weeks. So Swift 6 week class will actually be more than 9 weeks in my case. Training is going better with bluebonn, but we will see what he thinks when I leave the shipper and drive 200 miles with an empty trailer.
You know a thought here you may wanna think about. Once your on your own, maybe you should think about taking your wife with ya. You may come out ahead financially. Don't have to worry taking off to see your wife, just keep on rolling! See the country, and your wife doesn't have to work in the C-Store. Throw all your stuff in a couple storage sheds. And make a ton of money! Couple years at 40 or 50 grand with little to no bills, would change your world for the better. Good luck rookie!!!! Conservative to the Bone.[/QUOTE] That is my plan. I start orientation on the 27th and after my mentor training I will run solo for about 2 months and wait for my wife to finish out this semester in school, then we are packing the house up and she'll hit the road with me for a couple year.
Well I have learned quite a few things with bluebonn. My advice to every student that is with a bad trainer is to get a new one immediately. I was going to stick it out with the first a-hole mentor because I thought they were all bad. That is the reputation that the Swift mentor program has. Most of the students and non-mentor drivers laugh at the mentors. Most of the mentors I see with the blue shirts have attitudes and think they are hot s$hit. If they were just loose the attitude, quit screaming (and teach), keep there truck clean, and allow the student to have a little dignity while going through the mentor process, I am sure that they would have students requesting them. Bluebonn don't have to wait for students to be assigned. Students ask for him. He treats students with respect. He allows students to make mistakes and then teaches them the correct way to do it. He does not scream. I have not heard him raise his voice. I have followed his instructions to the best of my ability. I am doing well. I still need to work on my downshift a little. I still need to work on progressive shifting a little. I need to work on rolling right turns a little. I still need more practice backing. Most of that stuff is improving with experience. If you notice I said "Most Mentors" when I was talking about the blue shirt guys above. It is my opinion that the Swift Mentor program needs to train the mentors better. The mentors should go out with a mentor trainer for two weeks and be trained on how to train a student. I am going to submit this as a suggestion to Swift. This would weed out the mentors that "no one liked in high school and now they get a chance to be the boss" kind of guy. I really think a lot of the bad mentors are like the gung ho cop with an attitude. The mentor program at Swift is broken. It is painful for students. Just look at all the bad post about mentors on here. I know I will get a lot of reponses from those bad mentors that blame it on the students, but take a look. That many students can not be whinners. That many students can not be the problem. Sure there are students that are the problem, but guess what I have seen more mentors that don't know how to train that is the real problem. Mentors NEED a class on how to train. Period..... If you are a good mentor that teaches your students, then this is not directed at you. If you find yourself yelling at your students. If your truck is a pig pen. If you don't take showers every couple of days. If you have students asking to get off your truck constantly. The problem is not the student. You need to look at what you are doing wrong.
My wife works at a c-store and I wish she could go with me. Problem is that I have two dogs that are like family and Swift don't allow pets. That would be great if they would. I am working here at Swift for a year and will be looking within Swift (and outside) for an oportunity to be home more often. I want to work and keep my eyes open for those type of oportunities. Conway has a retirement driver plan that allows drivers to go out two weeks and be home for two weeks. Something like that apeals to me. I just need to make $2000 bucks a month and my wife does not have to work. I have no bills, my home is paid for, my cars are paid for. Only bills I have are utilities, phone, internet, insurance, gas and food. I get VA health care because I am a Viet Nam vet. My wife gets health insurance through the C-Store. So if I can find a trucking job after I have spent a year with Swift that allows me to be home more, pays me 2k per month and treat me like a human being that would be good.
Is laughing just thinking how yer faces would look when ya got a scale ticket on an empty trailer.. oops I agree w/ you GM on the mentor program @ swift being broken, but no matter how much you complain it wont get fixed. Now if every student that goes through the system complained, maybe they would rethink their program. I to put in a suggestion, even told Jerry M when I met him @ Phx as I parked. My issue was, I went onto a dedicated fleet to mentor, and I had no clue how to do things OTR. I wasn't shown anything but how to run the Target fleet. Lucky for me I come from a trucking family, so I had pops on the phone a lot asking general questions. I had to learn the hard way, which in a sick way sticks in my brain a lot more. I would like to mentor, as I used to work construction and id always hire a few nonexperienced guys and take the time to teach them the right way to do things. Not saying I know everything about trucking or swift, but id hate to see new drivers go through all the stress n bs I had to endure my first month here. Glad yer having a much better time with yer new mentor. Just keep posative, practice and things will fall into place.
