New Guy Looking for the inside poop, I mean scoop.

I think it is luck of the draw. My mentor lived is So. Cal and had little kids so we came home every 2 weeks. The first mentor I was paired up with, but didn't go with, was an L/O from Atlanta and he said any home time would be in Atlanta so I had better plan of being away from home the entire time. I would say if you can afford to wait for a local mentor do it or throw the dice and see where they lie.

 

home time while you're training depends on your mentor. if he lives near you, you might get home few times. depends if mentor runs hard or not. if he lives away from you and takes hometime, he'll most likely put you in a motel while he"s at home at no cost to you. i would reread what moose wrote, he pretty much said what its like. also rite now is pretty slow as far as freight, though it should pick up next month hopefully. imve been here since december and haven't fingerprinted one load yet. had lumpers unload one cvs load and had a couple live loads. rest been drop and hooks. good luck on whoever you choose.

 

also, if you're going to be choosey on who your mentor is, expect to wait awhile. i"d just go with the one they give you first and get it over and done with.

 

Well that was one rosy picture of training... I got to see my DH 1 when he switched mentors so he was gone maybe a week or two then out for four. He doesn't make money coming home that often so he is gone 3-4 weeks at a time now that he is working full time. We live close to a terminal yet I still rarely see him and I probably only get 3 drive thru's where he can stay the night a year. He runs all 48 but as a L/O he refuses to go into certain areas and others the work is more steady even if it is far from home. Yes we have young kids but work is work. As for pay I think it sucks.. I don't remember how much he got paid while training but even now I feel it is piss poor but I am a high maint B. Our bills get paid and we are taking lots of vacations and it's his hard work that makes it possible.

 

Don't forget that training pay has recently changed, minimum wage based on your home state while on duty not driving, minimum wage plus $1.00 for all driving hours.

 

I am currently closing in on my 100 hours with my mentor, I love in St.Louis and my mentor lives in Memphis. He also runs a dedicated route for Sears and we mostly run from Memphis to Kansas City and up to Iowa, Nebraska so I am getting to spend a 10 hour break at home at least once a week sometimes two and three. But again it was just the luck of the draw. I did a lot of searching and trying to find out which starter company to go with I read good things about swift and bad things but there are plenty of people who have been with swift a few years that have good things to say about it. I have not yet been lied to and the people I see complaining about sitting at the terminal are the sames ones I hear later saying they turned down a load because it was short or went somewhere they didn't want to go. I am really starting to see that the more you are willing to do the "bad" runs they more they will give you the better runs.