Newly upgraded driver - Orientation thru upgrading experience

I completed my upgrade process this week, and thought I'd write down what my experience has been in case anyone is searching/curious about the process.

Post cdl training, but prior to orientation, you will receive a login to view 50ish videos. None of these videos are particularly engaging, most of the info will be stuff that you learned in CDL school (if you went to a credible one) and or common sense. Note - watch ALL of these before showing up for orientation or they will make you sit there in class and complete them all.

Orientation itself is very quick. Filling out a little expected paperwork, with the Driver Qualification team meeting a few of the terminal/fleet leaders etc. The mentorship program is discussed a lot, where you will be spending 200hrs (more or less depending on the mentors evaluation) with an experienced driver to learn the ropes. You can select a smoking/non preference, and gender preference. They make a big deal out of telling you not to discuss things like politics/religion, to take showers (I guess it is a problem they see) , what to bring on the truck. All pretty standard stuff. They also went on and on about how they have weeded out mentors who are only in the program to make money and push trainees to run as teams. If you think I'm specifically mention the last few things for a reason... you're right keep reading. Anyways, by the time lunch had arrived, I had already been hired and had a drivers code, and was good to leave. My 2 day orientation was completed in 4hrs.

I received a mentor a couple days later, for a scheduled start over the next weekend. (He was on hometime.) We met at a terminal, and before we got out of the yard he mentioned to me that he was only doing training for the money. I thought... well ok.. it doesn't matter as long as I learn what I need. We hadn't gotten 5 miles down the road and he was playing a podcast about conservative politics from a religious viewpoint. This was followed by pretty much non-stop right wing podcasts, sermons, and gospel music. one after another. Now look, I don't want to discuss politics OR religion in this post. I frankly do not care what someone thinks one way or another, just don't make me listen to it. So what do I do here? Tell him I think his religion is based on a book of fairy tales and that people who have bought into politics AS a religion (left or right) are idiots? The person that gets to decide how long I have to stay on this truck.... I decided to tune it out as much as possible and just try and learn what I needed.

Mentors are required to sit in the passenger seat for a students first 50 hours behind the wheel. Unless a load is late apparently. On day 4, about 35 hrs in, he said I was doing fine so we'd switch to teams, 12 on 12 off shifts. I expressed that while I felt decent driving, backing and stuff was still rather intimidating to me. He said to just wake him up if I need him and that was that. This always had mixed results... sometimes he would just make me move and he'd park... which pissed me off. I only did 5 alley docks the whole time I was with him. This guy would go in the sleeper at the end of his 12 hr shift, and not come out for 12 hrs. He pissed in half gallon milk containers. Even when we were at truck stops! He only took 2 showers over 3 weeks. Over the next week or so I learned a lot about what to do, and what NOT to do watching the way he did things. He was on his phone way too much while driving for example. In the end, 3 weeks in and well short of my scheduled 200hrs he signed off on my being solo. Am I truly as good a driver as he says I am, or did he just want home time. I'm not sure.

So look, why didn't I bail on this guy and request a different trainer? Well I'm old enough to understand that a new trainer may not have been any improvement. Also it would delay the entire process of me getting thru training. I also figure I'll have to do what I've done my whole life, learn to do the job on my own for the most part. I also thought I could tough it out long enough to just get thru it. And I did. All that said, only you can judge your tolerance for dealing with another persons stuff for that short amount of time in such a small space. If I had any feedback for Swift, it would be that mentors should be evaluated by their students too, and mentors should have to get a certain score on those evaluations to stay a mentor. Also, training pay should be much higher, but no team driving pay. Make the mentors mentor.... pay them accordingly.

Upgrade process. I told the guy in the Driver Qualification terminal I'd be working out of that I'd like some more practice backing before upgrading. He said "You'll be fine." (He's never met me)
I was then scheduled for my upgrade road test and written test. I passed them both fine and was assigned a truck.

So to you experienced drivers out there, if you see a Swiftie going down a mountain a little slower then you would, or taking a really long time to back up at the truck stop... please have pity on me I'm not trying to be a ####### I'm still learning on the job.


Sorry this was so long, if anyone has questions I'll try and answer them.

 

Thanks man, that's my plan. First place I get to with a little space I'm gonna just practice on my own. If y'all see some weirdo backing into 14 spaces at the same Loves just point and laugh