What is Swift's current mentor-trainee protocol?

actually "Swift" dont do anything. All they do is assign you to the mentor, and you report back to THEM how "training" is going. It is all up to your mentor to teach ya...if at all.

how I would do it, if i had a student.....(and as i said in another thread, i'll never be a mentor, so the point is moot):

First hour, driving around with the student in the left seat......in the yard. I want to see how they handle right hand and left hand turns, how active their head and eyes are....straight backing (sight and blind) and angle backing (sight and blind). The student should already know how to drive a truck, since they have a CDL. I want to see just what they know. And if i see anything in that hour i dont like, that looks like a 'bad habbit that'll be hard to break'....back into the terminal they go, and look for another mentor.

IF THEY PASS...another hour spent going over how to do a proper pretrip, then to wrap it up by spending enough time going over throwing the chains. Then if they make it that far, lunch is on me, and we'll talk about the use of the qualcomm. By the time they leave the yard, we BOTH should feel more comfortable with each other. first day or two of driving....student drives 2-3 hrs. 3rd - 5th....student drives 3-5hrs. after the first week, they'll operate the truck themselves (where i'll be sitting in the right hand seat the whole time). 3rd week would be spent the same as the 2nd, but the only difference is i'll step back into the sleeper from time to time....and on occasion, 'watch' from the curtain. (so as long as we're not anywhere BUT wide open interstate). last week....operating the truck as a team truck. fully. by the time the last week rolls around, the student should have enough instruction to be able to run their own truck solo. And they'd drive their full shift. I'd drive 10 hrs, then they'd be back at it again.

but that is just me.

oh....and during the time they do the pretrip while on the truck....each pretrip, i'd hide 2-3 playing cards out of a 52 card deck SOMEWHERE where they should be looking when doing a pre-trip. find all 52...and i'd give the driver a nice steak dinner and a $50 gift card to Best Buy or something. find less than 40...and you dont get jack. =)

 

*coughs*

I thought the thread was

I didn't realize it was "what dick would do in his imagination"

 

Well D J, you and I have simular training techniques. I was responding to the (paraphrase) "Swift sucks, they should do it May's way" post. What I'd posted was a combination of how my mentor was taught to teach (seat time) and my personal ideas from my previous training experience. Of couse, none of this is set in concrete. A good instructor is always able to modify his training plan based upon real world considerations (loads, roads, wx) and student progress.

And you're right. The mentor is there to polish the skills of the student, not teach them the basics of driving. All the students in the mentor program have already completed the basic CDL courses via the training schools.

 

and its not so much as to 'polish' the skills of the student. Its to make sure bad actions get corrected before they become bad habbits. The mentor will only teach a student 5-10% of what they'll know, or NEED to know. the rest will come out on the road, on their own. Get caught needing to slide tandems at a shipper, and nobody around to 'help', and you dont have a pair of vice grips? guess what you just learned .......better go buy you some. Or being caught with just 2-3 bungies in your tool box, and you come to NEED 6-8......

most is just common sense.....something you should have before graduating high school. =)

 

It amazes me how so many who have never trained/Mentored can know so little about what SHOULD be done, but know so much about how THEY would do it! And your basis for this "course" of your design is what exactly...your experience in teaching(?), or your 6 weeks with your Mentor/trainer....that is just a crapper full of experience talking.

Over the last 15 years Swift has learned by trial and error how to "show" someone how to be a Mentor....they give them a 10 hour course of the basics and the company requirements of what is to be taught, what is to be "polished", and what would be the PREFERRED way to do things. However, the preferred way is not always the best way for every student. No two students can be compared, each student has certain weaknesses and certain strengths. It is for the Mentor to find these weaknesses and find a way to change that weakness into a strength or at least a manageable issue that will need to be watched and worked on even after the training period is over with the Mentor.

Swift in their guidelines for each student has a check off list that must be completed...the good Mentor uses this list and successfully completes each segment...the bad/poor Mentor just checks off the boxes whether the task has even been attempted let alone done to a successful conclusion by instruction and practice. While the OP of this thread has listed the "ultimate" performance scenario...I have seen this scenario in practice...for some students it would work, for most Mentors it is a path to failure with no reward for achievement in following the steps. Swift has adopted the first part, but not to the extent of week by week. For Swift, they leave much discretion in the Mentor's field of experience with each different student...the problem is they really don't follow up with the Mentors. Each student is told to complete the Mentor Report honestly almost cruelly so the company has a way to "police" the Mentors...the problem is these Mentors find that they can easily convince (through threat of a bad report on the students driving), the students that without the Mentor's positive report the student will never get to solo status. Which is so false...I gave several students exceedingly honest bad reports, only to see the very same student be turned solo and loading up their own truck....they were far from ready to be solo if ever at all.

 

does swift use paper or electric logs?

 

We use a two day per page paper log.

 

any student in here looking for a mentor?

 

who are you working for? Are you a o/o ?

 

I started teaming from the beginning with another company and found it easy to sleep on a moving truck. Also, after getting directions I found it easy to drive until my boss wanted to me pull over. That is just me though. I have no problem running hard but intend to stop every 3-4hrs to stretch my feet and drive another 3-4hrs.

I like the companies policy and look forward to my training with Swift.

KH