HELP - Am I responsible?

Did the rookie just leave a job where he was working for the government?

 

It is not your fault. You are not his trainer. you are his co driver. He is responsible for what he is doing. I always used to tell my codrivers, " If you need my help, wake me up. If I need your help, I will wake you up". Several of my co-drivers had tried to do this to me and I believe it is always better to set the rules on day 1. Tell your safety/ Dispatch that you can co-operate with him only if he is co-operating with you. Team driving can get on your nerves if you do not have a good partner

 

The excerpts which I bolded above is very telling, and very scary. You need to let your supervisors know that due to his inability to calmly/clearly know his directions, he is "an accident waiting to happen" by almost compounding mistakes, following his route screwup.
If anyone is nearly 200 miles out of route, it is pure stupidity to try to do something illegal/unsafe just to "save" maybe 15 minutes of time.

 

Based on what the OP described of the other driver, be prepared to have him try and dump this in your lap as your fault. After all, it couldn't possibly his! Just calmly lay out what happened, and leave the histrionics to him. If the company tries to punish you for this, they aren't worth working for anyways. Don't burn your bridges, but make plans to line something else up as soon as feasible. Just stay calm in there with safety!


Shocky, I see you lurking down there. Long time no see.

 

Unless you want to train the driver yourself, sounds like your co-driver needs some solo time,

I'll bet his trainer had lots a fun

 

I tried to train/team with a person many years ago to help him learn, and me get a load somewhere on time. He almost killed us the first night. Two days later when I let him drive again I told him where to stop to shower and eat early one night. It was the only place lit up on the section we were. He missed it. I told him which interstate to take and where the split was. I woke up and he had no idea which road he was on and no idea which direction he was headed.

That evening I pulled into a truck stop just off the interstate. I exited, took a right, appx 500 feet later I took a right into the rear drive. I pulled up to the front row where we were looking at the interstate we just got off of. After we ate I asked him how to get back onto the interstate, and which way we should go. He didn't have any idea.

He was up and I told him every move I made as we exited the interstate and parked the truck. I say this to state, some people are just too stupid to be driving, and the person I was with was one of those.

 

354.7 miles ? Just curious, did you get paid for these miles. You were doing your job, driving a truck.

 

Dennis - that's hilarious buddy!