Mentor Blues!

Playing Devils advocate here;would it have killed you to do it his way for the month you would have been on his truck?Once you're on your own you can do it your way;why make an issue out of it? When you're mentoring then you can set the rules;it sounds like a control issue.
My son just tested out from swift,(I'm picking him up from the Greyhound terminal tonight)he did whatever his mentor told him and got done in a little over a month.MKy son learned a lot from him,not just about trucking,he was a former Marine who was wounded in combat and had a lot of life experience to share.
Try being more flexible with your next Trainer,you're going to be almost married to him, it's about give and take ,sharing that small space for 250 hours.
Best of luck to you.

 

Another driver (not you but your mentor) swift living up to its name of being idiots LOL

 

You have a good point...

 

The mentor needs to be reported to Swift regardless of whether the trainee stays or goes. Swift needs to know when mentors teach wrong things so they can at least make an effort to correct the mentor. There are trainees coming into this industry with so little knowledge of proper procedure, they may not realize using the trailer brake only is not the safest thing to do.

 

Swift used to cover that issue in Orientation...along with covering it in the Mentor training class.....However I don't recall seeing a written policy against the practice...in any case it is an old "practice" by O/O trying to save the cost of the brakes on their tractors.....don't misunderstand, I think it is both wrong and creates a very bad habit teaching it to a student....but it isn't anything new to the industry!

 

I think everyone should know how to stop the truck with trailer brakes only, but it should not be used everytime. Besides, most of Swifts newer trucks don't even have the Johnson Bar (isn't that what it's called? Brain farted just now!)