I've been on here almost a year. From the time I was on my mentor's truck I have hijacked or sprinkled little stories here and there about that experience onto several topics and threads of others. I thought maybe I should consolidate all that information onto my own thread for the comedic value as well as hopefully at least one person could learn something from the stories. My time as a student: Pretrips: As they tell you in orientation, the student driver will be doing all the pretrips on the mentor's truck for the purpose of keeping it sharp in their minds for the eventual final road test that the student will be taking and 'it's the right thing to do'. Well my mentor told me not to worry about stuff like that because his truck was a brand new 2010 T2000 Kenworth under a 300,000 mile warranty. Batteries, he said don't worry about even he didn't really know where they were, bleeding the air tanks, again didn't know where to do that and it had never been done anyway and that's what the spitter is for. Oil checks? He gets the oil changed every 6 weeks-- can't possible fall to add mark in that time. Air Brake checks? What for it's a 2010? Control Freak: Backseat driver extraordinaire! Hooked to a trailer in a terminal, ready to line up to exit, says, that's good hook it now. I knew it wasn't enough but who am I? So of course the trailer tandems ride up on the curb exiting the terminal on his side, he can't help himself but to comment on the extreme obvious that I didn't turn wide enough lol. Made a wrong turn says go down to the crossroad, turn left, line up for a straight line back into the live traffic road, all the way back across to the other street then left out of there going in the right direction. As I was backing up I knew I needed about 10 more feet but he is getting nervous and says "OK go go left now!" Front right steer tire sinking in the soft ditch in the rain, I knew we would be stuck blocking the road-- he says 'don't stop!'. Luckily I did stop and threw her into reverse and did what I knew was right and got us out of there. Seattle, GPS says go over this 21% hill but the sign on the side says "No Trucks Over 10,000 Empty". I point that out to him he says "yes we are empty go for it!". Of course I get about halfway up and lose all traction and have to pop the brakes while he gets out and directs traffic so I can back down to the intersection. Truck loses all air pressure 3 times backing down because I'm holding it back on the steep grade with the brakes while backing. Salt Lake City: Heading south on a particular road, directions say turn west on next street coming up so I line up in the far right lane. He says "west is that way, right?" (indicating far left lane). I shake my head 'no', now he's mad and orders me into the left lane to prepare for left turn at light. So now while waiting for light to change, he says, ' no don't go down there, too many residential houses', so now I have to cross the solid white line from the turn lane into the straight lanes and go up to the next block and make a right. Of course the signs say No Trucks. Go down about a mile and he has me do an illegal U-turn in the middle of the road. Instead of going back out to the main drag and retracing the proper route, he has me turn left on one of the side street using his incredible intuition and natural directional instincts to get us to the shipper. I don't know how he thought these little roads would be Truck OK when the road leading up to them is Truck Not OK but I digress. So he sees a sign, NAPA and says pull in there 'we're here!'. Of course we went in the Out gate and on top of that it's the wrong place. So he has me go out the In gate which strictly says, NO EXIT (and for a reason) I dragged the trailer over their luscious green grass which was 1000% unavoidable hence the No Exit sign for all the dumb truck drivers to see lol. Once again Captain Obvious had to make the comment that I put ruts in their grass. Hurry up and Wait: He had called ahead to have an empty trailer kingpin enforcer locked and saved for us at a terminal. Dropped me by the entrance to run in and get the key for the lock. I came back out and we went in search for this trailer on the yard. Found it and I unlocked it and started cleaning the grease off as per instructions from the guy who gave me the keys. Mentor says just run it in like that we don't have time to clean it. I pondered why not clean it as there is not time lost-- he's hooking the trailer, we can jump in a ride from the back of the yard to the entrance, lock will be clean, only few steps to drop lock off and be gone. But no, Mr. ControlFreak tells me to start running with lock to turn it in. But I start walking-- it's a long ways from the back of the yard to the front.... he drives all the way up to the entrance, pops brakes, sprints up to me grabs lock with a disgusted look on his face, sprints all the way up to the office and turns it in. Of course he was in there a long time arguing with the guy about how greasy the lock was. Sigh, so much energy, angst, anger wasted on such a simple thing... Usk Washington: I am driving all night, he sleeps. Check in with guard, get specific instructions, directions on what to do. Of course he peeks his head out and mysteriously knows what to do which is polar opposite what the guard told me to do. I drive all the way around the shipper and stop nearby the shipping/receiving office to go check in. Mentor says 'no go drop this empty over there in that back yard there'. So now I have to walk about 1200 yards to the S/R office. Once I'm in there the guy says put the empty trailer in door 3, which means I have to now go back 1200 yards, rehook the trailer which opens up a thousand questions from Mentor dude. Fine. Get loaded, guy says go back to the front and weigh the load and come back for seal etc. By the time I got up front Mentor was in jump seat says pull all the way on scale and run in and get ticket. I said they said no tickets, just write down the weights of each axle. Mentor insists he knows more about the yard's operations than the people who work there and go get the scale ticket hurry up. So I go ask the gate guard and he looks at me like I'm some kind of ###### as he had already explained that I should weigh each axle separately and total it up on scratch paper. Mentor says something is wrong drive to the S/R office and reconfirm. Go back there and they look at me like 'dang Swift really is keeping up appearances by hiring morons'. So they spell it out like I'm a 2 year old (I already understood) and go back to scales to weigh. Mentor asks "what are you doing???" I just kept quiet and did my job and went back for seals now.Load was borderline overweight on drives, S/R suggests moving 5th wheel, Mr. Mentor says Hell to the No 5th wheel has never been moved since he bought truck. But this is typical of his incompetence, a Mentor who does not know directions, how to weigh a load, cannot follow simple instructions. I ran solo for about 7 months but about 3 weeks ago joined up with my former mentor as a team driver. He's been haranguing me daily about taking over the lease on his truck which I have described in other posts about the yellow and red warning lights on the dash indicating major problems. Interesting that the warranty will expire in a few thousand miles- just in time for me to take over the payments-- NOT. So he's back to his old tricks from when I was a student for example-- Just this morning we went into Denver terminal to find an empty trailer, he finds a rolltop and hooks it. OK, big words on the front, Dedicated Use Only. It's OK he says. I'm like Dude Seriously. So of course the gate won't let us have the trailer on exit and Mr Teammate/former mentor just about throws a hissy fit because I was right once again and threatens to drop the trailer right in the exit lane. I say, not so fast, I'm on the drive line and will not be taking the heat for your anger. I have a lot more stories, and will share them as they come to mind-- please share your crazy stories as well..
you're back with your mentor who was riding your tail about doing things his way, etc.? if so, why would you ever go back to being in the same truck with him? with that said/asked, regarding your mentor who wouldn't let you drive the truck....you can blame him all you want. Man up, and drive the truck like it was YOUR truck. I'm sure you're a Nascar fan, so i'll explain it like this.....the spotter dont drive the car. if the car gets into a wreck, the fault lies at the feet of the driver, NOT the spotter. Think you need 10 ft? go for it. Think you need to pre-trip a trailer or that POS truck? Do it. Guess who's going to get a ticket if you get pulled over and the DOT finds something wrong with the rig? You think your mentor will help pay for it? or the company?? You drive the way you feel you need to out of safety and comfort level. plain and simple.... And am i to assume then, you've told him you're not taking over the lease?? of have you talked yourself into it??
I appreciate your advice (man up). Look I'm interested in sharing the escapades of working for this guy. He promised before I even got on the truck that he would not be all bossy over me. He didn't offer for me to take over his lease til I had already quit Swift and loaded my crap on his truck. So there is a little measure on my part to keep the peace by 'playing along' because he could theoretically put me out any time and drive off.... I put 3 gallons of oil in the truck on my own dime in the first week out here and he got upset. I haven't (yet) been paid fully for my miles (I do expect that though). Look the promising part of taking this job was the big raise in pay it represented over being a company driver and the team aspect of it that we would get way more miles and hence larger paychecks. Add to that that I am a classic chronic complainer (lol) and you have a recipe for a thread such as this that I have started.
You did understand that you went from being paid .25cpm to like .15? Since it is the TRUCK that is paid, and since you team with the guy who owns it, he gets paid, then just pays you. Now granted, i'm sure he offered a signing bonus of $500 or something, and told you up front your 'pay' would be .34cpm. But you're not going to ever go anywhere....as far as your pay goes. And does he provide health insurance? at best you'll be looking at $50/wk for H.I., thats 150 miles you have to run just to cover your insurance. And does he take out and pay your weekly payroll tax? or does he keep it in escrow, make a few bucks off interest, THEN pay them? I'm guessing the latter..... more power to ya. I like running solo.....gives me the freedom of dancing in my sleeper naked to some Debbie Gibson.
She prefers 'Deborah' Gibson nowadays lol. No I went from $0.30 to $0.22 or $0.44 you could say, for my miles which is a significant raise. I pay my own taxes, health insurance etc because I am now an independent contractor, you're right there. I'm looking to get through the next few months to get to that magic 1 year's experience and decide what to do at that point. The Dec/Jan freight crunch along with this guy's offer was the major impetus for me to make this move at this time. Gawd I miss solo!! Nothing like hanging up your shower towel in a smoker's truck then trying to dry off your minty fresh clean body with a stinky cigarette smoke smelling towel lol. I'd almost rather use the Pilot's toilet-overflow-soakedup- towels instead---- almost.....
That .30 cpm solo doesn't look so bad right now, huh? I am surprised you decided to go back with this guy, already knowing the behavior of this guy when he was your mentor. I understand your wanting a better prospect of earning more money. Enjoy your stories, BTW. You have to make up for the lack of posts from Mr."you know who."
Some updates: We've been running with a nail in one of the drive tires for several days now. It is slowly leaking so we pump it up to 110 psi every couple of days. I don't think this guy can afford to get it fixed as to the reason why we pass up shop after shop on the road at various truck stops. Yellow warning light on dash has turned red permanently and sounds a loud bell while driving. After running for several hours, it just goes away and seems to run like a normal truck. Guy says it is a filter in the 'crank shaft' lol. Push came to shove yesterday, he put me on the spot, I said I would not be interested in taking over the lease, he ordered me into the sleeper so he could make some calls, he's trying to get back on as a mentor for Swift but they want him to re-certify so he's angry about that, told me I have 1 week to find a job or not, I'll be off the truck next hometime regardless.
you had to be a complete ####### to go back on the truck with him. all the warning signs were there, but you ignored them. you are the one who needs a knot jerked in your ###. nothing like experience to teach you a lesson. in case you aint figured it out, his only reason for you teaming was for you to take over the lease
