well first off, they DONT go to the same places 'day in and day out'. There are 100s of different loads and store combinations. Will the mentor eventually start running to the same stores, sure they will. so what?? my point was, if you read carefully, that dedicated mentors can teach just as well, if not better (because of the more chances to back) than regular OTR mentors, since most of their loads will be done in 12-24 hrs. i'd rather get a mentor on a dedicated account, just for the added experience in backing
Is someone giving you a script or is this actually coming from your brain? A friend trained with "Pineapple Joe" doing dedicated out of Gary. The mentor could lay in the sleeper and tell him exactly where they were just from the bumps in the road. When he finished training he had no clue about OTR. Trip planning etc. He knew dedicated. That's it. He had no clue about anything. As far as he knew he was going to get home every weekend like he did in training. What a shock! Unprepared for what was ahead.
so this mentor really didnt 'train' then, you're saying? (and yes, you are saying it....laying in the bunk being able to tell where they are blah blah blah..and 'no clue about OTR'/trip planning) Sorry, but regardless of the ROUTE/LOAD you still have to plan your trip. If the mentor is running dedicated...so what....still gotta plan (as a student). If the mentor running dedicated gets in the right seat and says, "ok..take 73 north to I-40 then go east 22 miles to exit 255 and head south on sr-150 till we get to the first store"....ok...how is that helping the student teach trip planning? Mentor needs to be 'hands off' for the most part. Let the student find where they're going, jot down the directions off the macro 23 response, then pull out a Randy McNally and write down their intended route. As a mentor, its their job to grade it. Maybe the mentor knows a shorter/faster route? Okay...fine. then the mentor can say, "billy big rig, i know running interstate might seem 'faster', but what do you think about taking highway 55 thru here and here?" Telling them "this is the way we're doing it and thats that" isnt going to help teach anything. And the funny thing is, it can be done regardless if you're running OTR or if you're running dedicated. each load has a start and a stop...and PLANNING plays a part in getting between the two.....yes or no?
hence why you're still a student. You ever get out and see Wal-Marts, Costco's or Sam's? You think they are all laid out the exact same? You think they all have wide open spaces to dock? I had a wal-mart run to St. Ann, MO. Older store, and there was LITTLE room to get down to even get to the dock. it was so tight, your sight side back was almost a blind side because you couldnt see out your drivers side mirror cause the back of the strip mall building was blocking your view till you got about 20 ft from the end of the trailers already sitting in the dock. and as a mentor, it is their job to train. So, if the student is driving, and on a dedicated run, and the mentor sees this store dock looks just like the one they delivered to 45 min. ago....then i would say, "ok...lets set up for a semi-blind-side"....just to get them to focus most of their attention out the RH side mirror rather than the LH side. or, you find a crack in the pavement, and tell them they cant go past it (to represent less available area to steer the truck in) cookie-cutter mentors wont actually TEACH anything.... some of you are so closed minded....
i learned from the best. Figure if Obama needs a teleprompter for an interview with no more than 4-5 people, i might as well use a script.
On the dedicated account do you get a couple of days off per week? I was thinking on your days off you could accept a shorty 300-500 mile load and allow the student to take it cradle to grave for trip planning, qualcomm, and all that to build up the student's confidence. So many times on my mentor's truck he would turn down almost all loads less than 1000 miles, but those little quick loads are the perfect tool for students because they could practically take a load solo but have a support mentor right there to rescue if need be.
I have no idea what dick is saying about the dedicated fleet mentors, but I can tell you that on our dedicated Wal-Mart fleet that we don't go to the same places every day and certainly the mentors do not. Yes, it's true we don't go all over the nation but we do run AZ, NM, CA, UT, CO, WY, ID, MT, and sometimes runs into TX, FL and GA. We deal not only with the stores but backhauls from suppliers that vary greatly. Then mentor trucks are not run locally but always distance runs with backhauls. Most of the time the mentor and team trucks don't simply run out and back but from terminal to store, to 1st backhaul which goes to a DC not our own, then another backhaul to another DC, then another backhaul to MAYBE our DC. Perhaps others don't think dedicated fleets aren't a good place to get mentored and that's fine, it's your opinion but please don't just assume that every dedicated fleet runs back and forth between the same two locations every day.
