I go to Swift orientation on Monday. I have worked with them in 03 and it was not good. You may ask why make the same mistake? This was many years ago and am hoping things have changed somewhat. I am going to give them 100% and would like the same back. We will see. I will also be posting on this thread my wonderful adventures. Lets see if I become another statistic.
I went to orientation on Monday. I passed the drug test, passed the driving test. While taking the driving test I talked with the driver. He said " It is mandatory that you drive team after 50 hours of driving with mentor. Plus he told me get ready to not shower for days and due to DOT regs I have to sleep in mentors bunk while he is driving. Red flags for me. I dont see how a company can preach about safety when you only have 50 hrs of mentoring. Also I dont and will not drive team. I am a light sleeper and dont see how I am going to get a good sleep. When I went with Swift in 03 the mentor sat in the other seat while I was driving. As for sleeping in mentors bunk. I am not sleeping in another persons bed if they did not shower for days. I see no reason a person has to go for days and cant take a 20 minute shower. The driving test was very easy. In the class room he said the only thing you can not do is hit a curb, dont run over anything, dont go off the road. He don't care if you float to the light, dont care if you cant down shift you will learn that with your mentor. In 50 hours of driving. lol. I also noticed they have Volvo's and Kenworths with 8's and 9's. That is not a problem just have to get used to it.
When I was with my mentor she was a neat freak so they are not all bad. Also showers were pretty much daily unless we got stuck at a shipper or something. As for teaming, yeah I agree that is probably not the best way to train someone, trying to sleep while bouncing down I40 in AR was probably one of my least favorite experiences. What I don't understand is how the mentors sleep with a newbie driving, I never could. From what I have heard Swift is not the only company to do this though. In all reality I think while there are defiantly some horror stories out there this guy was probably trying to scare the new guys a little and making things out worse than they really are.
If I remember right you are coming back to Swift. You are only required to be with the mentor for 50 hours of you doing the driving, depending on your mentor's recommendation on your skills. The newbies are required to be with a mentor for 240 hours on line 3. After 50 hours they can run team if mentor is comfortable with it. As an experienced driver you know that the top bunk can not be occupied while the truck is moving. Therefore you have to sleep on the bottom bunk. Just take your own pillow and something you can lay over his sheets or blankets so you can sleep. Surely you can tolerate this for 6 or 7 days?
