Newbie dropped by Mentor and now on his own and not happy

I havent updated my thingie for a while. Year and a half now. And I have enough seat time, and common sense to give the knowlege of a good deal of the technical aspects. I can give the students I teach the knowlege that they need to survive, and to be honest, what swift gives me to work with, its all I have time for. They say "Get them 80 backs, and teach them everything they need to know, you get 240 hours with them, good luck" basically.

I agree, swift pushes mentors out faster than they should, I coulda been one at 4 months in (They made the offer) I refused, I was not feeling I was ready. But I have been on the nightmare end of the mentor stick, and the good end, I figured, if I can teach them the basics, and give them my paitence, its better than what this mentor did, its better than my first one did.

This topic is not about me, lets stay on target hrm?

 

Well here's to the mentors that take it seriously and put there heart into it!

 

If he was only used as a "driver" for 6-7weeks and doesn't have enough of a grasp of driving a truck at this point, this may not be for him...6-7weeks is an extremely long period of time to be driving and not 'getting it' to the point of doing it on his own, in my opinion...The company I work for gives you ZERO time with a trainer and the overwhelming majority 'get it'...

 

It's not the driving that is a problem, he is a great driver, smooth shifting, easy back ups, it's the where do I need to be when thing, and the how do I get there with this crappy navigation system thing. Driving is not the problem.

 

Is Swift moving that much freight or do they push them out so fast because of high turnover?

 

I would say high turnover just like any of the big outfits.... some have over 90% per year!

 

He must have had some experience with those things as it seems he was driving when the trainer was sleeping, right?...You didn't mention him getting lost or being late constantly...Reading a map will eliminate the one problem and his dispatcher should be letting him know the 'need to and when thing"...If those are his only problems, he's doing a lot better than you implied, again, in my opinion...

 

Well, again, I don't drive a truck but in my line of work they gave me a few little directions and then threw me out there to do the job. I just went ahead and worked with what little information they gave me and if I ever do anything wrong they most assuredly always let me know! After a while, doing something wrong becomes the rare exception rather than the rule. A person can only work with what they're given.

 

Maybe hubby needs to just step up and ask for some assistance. For example : when there are two drivers up inside one truck , I would ask if one of them is a trainer. At least it starts the conversation. Whether they are or aren't a trainer ask your questions. The worst outcome is that they don't know.
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If it is a maintenance issue with the truck, ask a mechanic. Most love to show off their knowledge. I tend to ask "if I screw this up are you the guy who has to fix it?" That gets their attention.
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I would not care what company somebody works for just as long as they could explain something to me.
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Last resort is ask for an explanation on the cb radio. Oh on second thought scratch that cb radio idea --- to many smart alecs on the cb.
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Hey, post a new thread on the new drivers forum. Why not?

 

No, Im a team truck, sitting 42 of last 48 hours, 2000 miles for the week, refused no freight. Freight is dead for swift this moment.

We also have a 114% turn over and according the the guy on the phone when I called him on it the convo went like this:

"screwing your drivers like this (They just took away a 3k mile load from me) is why you have a 114% turn over."

"No, We have 114% turn over because drivers like you dont want to work"

I beg for freight and I dont want to work, go figure.