Ugh my training experience is not going well....

HeavenSent

Active Member
Some back story. I started trucking school about a month ago at the swift academy. Spent 3 weeks there, the tuesday before last i started the 3 day orientation with swift. Then friday i was assigned to my mentor to do the 200 behind the wheel hours. Well the guy i got stuck with didnt know shit, any time id ask a question hed say he doesnt know and move on like i never asked. When he DiD answer my questions 90% of the info was bull shit. Not to mention that he rejected more loads than he accepted. And i was quickly falling behind. So after about 6 days of that shit i requested a new trainer. So this passed thursday i was assigned to a different guy. And i explained to him that he was going to have to treat me as a newbie because even tho i was almost done with my first 50 hours.....i felt like id had ZERO training. I was a week in and i didnt even know how to send a macro or what PTA was. So the new trainer agreed to solo for a few days to catch me up. I drove 8ish hours yesterday. We park for the night and today hes like "ok im gonna go into sleeper and take a nap wake me when we get to the reciever" this frustrated me to no end. I tried to explain i wasnt ready, and that he agreed to solo. He finally was like fine. Ill stay off duty but sit with you. Take a couple hour nap then ill drive my shift. And im like "oh **** that. Im not gonna sleep in the back with you driving knowing your on lack of sleep" anyways there was some back and forth and he said he was dropping me at the nearest terminal.

Why the **** do people become trainers if they are just in it for the $$. Im not on a trainers truck to rack up their miles i am there to learn!. Anyways now im up in a hotel on companys dime til monday when i can get yet another (hopefully more competent) trainer. cuz my driver coordinator is off on weekends lol.

Ugh!
Rant over lol
 
No grants here that I'm aware of. Don't know any insurance company that equates schooling to a year of experience. Because it's not even close.
 
Wow,
My wife got a grant to pay for truck driving school.
They paid the school & for her clothes to do the job.
It was about $5,000.-
She didnt have to pay it back.
Watsonville Truck Driving Institute was great. They taught her in class & let her drive their trucks as much as she wanted to.
They guarnetee you will pass or train you more free.
All the counties in the USA have grant offices for job training.
You can ask your local unemployment office & they will direct you to one.
The grants are free & they will help you fill them out.
The good truck schools also know about the grants & will help you.
After completing truck driving school & getting a CDL.
They had multiple trucking companies came to the school & offered her jobs.
A fuel transport company offered 70 plus per year.
A car hauler offered 5k per trip to Oregon & back from California.
There were others.
She took a job paying 50 cents a mile in Georgia.
Dont do training at a trucking company.
Go to a truck school & get a free grant.
After completing truck driving school & getting a CDL.
Insurance companies will count the schooling as a year over the road.
So you will be paid more.
Train at a trucking company & you will be paid starvation wages for a year.
Oregon (Lincoln County) wasn't doing that when I went through.

And our OP already went through the school and has her CDL. She just needs a halfway decent mentor now.
 
It is not a state grant. It is a federal grant.
Call the Wasonville California trucking school called
Watsonville Truck Driver Institute.
They can tell you about the federal grants.
Have you asked the unemployment office in your area about the federal grants?
I owned a trucking company myself & my insurance company & the others we got competive bids from all charged us less for new drivers who went to certified truck drivering schools.
Also gave us discounts for new drivers who attended safety courses & had certificates to prove it.
So yes it is true.
 
It is not a state grant. It is a federal grant.
Call the Wasonville California trucking school called
Watsonville Truck Driver Institute.
They can tell you about the federal grants.
Have you asked the unemployment office in your area about the federal grants?
I owned a trucking company myself & my insurance company & the others we got competive bids from all charged us less for new drivers who went to certified truck drivering schools.
Also gave us discounts for new drivers who attended safety courses & had certificates to prove it.
So yes it is true.
I wasn't saying you were fibbing. I only said what my own experience was.

Regardless, the lady who made this thread already has gotten her CDL through a Swift academy. Now, she's trying to navigate the company and learn the ropes.
 
One of the only places available for very little cash to help truck drivers in many ways.
Is OOIDA Owner Operators Independent Drivers Association.
They will even stop trucking companies from ripping you off.
One of our drivers was being hasseled by an officer at a weigh station. I called & asked the officer to be reasonable. He yelled at me saying.
He was God at the weigh station.
We called OOIDA.
One of Their many attorneys called the weigh station.
Right away. The officer let our driver go. Called & told us how sorry they were & said it was all a large error & that our driver was correct & that the officers wanted to apologize to us & tell us how sorry they were for delaying the driver.
Another OOIDA call involved a trucking company charging a friend of ours $600- dollars to clean the truck he gave them back he had driven for them.
He had pictures he had their mechanics sign when they first gave him the truck.
He had taken photos when he gave it back & asked them to sign those also.
The truck was spotless & cleaner then it was when they first assigned the truck to him.
He gave everything to OOIDA.
The company had told Bob how clean it was didnt matter. They said it was just their policy to charge the six hundred dollar cleaning fee to all drivers returning trucks & they never agree to wave that fee.
OOIDA talked to them & right away the trucking company said it must have been a mistake.
They returned Bob's $600.- within a week.
They also have lots of other ways they help drivers.
 
My wife just looked up grants online & this was the 1st one she found. Don't know anything about it, but hope it helps someone. There are lots more out there, just takes time, patients & determination. Many libraries & unemployment offices have grant writers who will help for free.
 
My wife just looked up grants online & this was the 1st one she found. Don't know anything about it, but hope it helps someone. There are lots more out there, just takes time, patients & determination. Many libraries & unemployment offices have grant writers who will help for free.



State & federal grants vary according to individual circumstances.
My brother was displaced from the meat packing industry over 25 years ago and was able to attend a CDL program at a community college for no cost to him.

It would make seeking a carrier less stressful without worrying about getting the tuition reimbursed or getting screwed over in the fine print. He was able to go to a small(ish) regional carrier which turned out to be a good little company.

I googled grants before just for shiggles.
Coupla-few years ago there was a grant for paroled felons to re-introduce them into society with the prospect of gainful employment.
 
I'm in training also with a different company. The policy here is that you don't move the truck your first two weeks without the trainer sitting shotgun . You move the truck like your running solo, but the trainee does most of the driving. I have 4000 miles in my first two weeks even having a day of sitting around at a dealer getting the truck fixed. I think this policy has really helped me to learn a ton as the trainer is right there to correct or assist me.

I really hope your swift experience turns around for you. Sucks when your trainer is just in it for money and not to train you.
that's the way it should be!!! not the trainer in the bunk sleeping while your driving they should be there watching your every move and assisting you!!!
 
Do you realize that you are learning? You are learning all the shit not to do. You have to teach yourself. Get a good back up of drivers that know their shit. So when you have questions ask them. You get in that truck like you know what you're doing. You teach those lil whiny bitches you mean business. I was in a truck with a physcho and i had to teach him hazmat rules and a few other things. And how to route. Then i showed him that i knew how to get back to the terminal while he was a sleep. And left him directions how to proceed to his destination. Good luck. You will learn. Also do not ever except help from anyone unless you ask for it and then you tell them what you need them to do. Because un wanted helpers are usually the ones who dont know what they are doing.
 
The fact is, Ms. @HeavenSent knows how to drive the truck. She wouldn't have gotten her CDL if she didn't. She needs her skills honed and she needs to learn how Swift conducts business. Her "trainer" is there to give her pointers and prepare her to drive on her own. The "trainer" is not meant to babysit her or hold her hand for six weeks. That first 50 hours is supposed to be used to determine how safe the new driver is and whether she can be trusted to drive a large vehicle down the road. Once she shows she can, there is no reason for the "trainer" to babysit her down the road.

There is a lot of information being thrown out in a short period of time. No matter how thorough the "trainer" is, Ms. HeavenSent will still have a gazillion questions.
 
Wow,
My wife got a grant to pay for truck driving school.
They paid the school & for her clothes to do the job.
It was about $5,000.-
She didnt have to pay it back.
Watsonville Truck Driving Institute was great. They taught her in class & let her drive their trucks as much as she wanted to.
They guarnetee you will pass or train you more free.
All the counties in the USA have grant offices for job training.
You can ask your local unemployment office & they will direct you to one.
The grants are free & they will help you fill them out.
The good truck schools also know about the grants & will help you.
After completing truck driving school & getting a CDL.
They had multiple trucking companies came to the school & offered her jobs.
A fuel transport company offered 70 plus per year.
A car hauler offered 5k per trip to Oregon & back from California.
There were others.
She took a job paying 50 cents a mile in Georgia.
Dont do training at a trucking company.
Go to a truck school & get a free grant.
After completing truck driving school & getting a CDL.
Insurance companies will count the schooling as a year over the road.
So you will be paid more.
Train at a trucking company & you will be paid starvation wages for a year.
I DID go to trucking school. I DO have my CDL. Thats not what we are talking about here. Most companies for new CDL holders with no prior experience driving truck STILL require some sort of training period....thats to be expected with literally ANY job. Especially jobs that require you to drive basically an 80,000lb missle. I know how to drive the truck....what i do not know is how to complete my logs, how to send macros and what all the codes are, how and where to fuel, what do do when i get to a shipper or reciever. That is the stuff they DONT teach in trucking schools. That is the stuff your TRAINER is supposed to teach. I have not yet had that luxory.
 
The fact is, Ms. @HeavenSent knows how to drive the truck. She wouldn't have gotten her CDL if she didn't. She needs her skills honed and she needs to learn how Swift conducts business. Her "trainer" is there to give her pointers and prepare her to drive on her own. The "trainer" is not meant to babysit her or hold her hand for six weeks. That first 50 hours is supposed to be used to determine how safe the new driver is and whether she can be trusted to drive a large vehicle down the road. Once she shows she can, there is no reason for the "trainer" to babysit her down the road.

There is a lot of information being thrown out in a short period of time. No matter how thorough the "trainer" is, Ms. HeavenSent will still have a gazillion questions.
Thank you injun. Im glad someone understands what im trying to say lol. I was mostly just ranting cuz i was having a bad day lol.
Im STILL stuck at the lathrop terminal waiting for a new mentor.....ugh lol
 
Thank you injun. Im glad someone understands what im trying to say lol. I was mostly just ranting cuz i was having a bad day lol.
Im STILL stuck at the lathrop terminal waiting for a new mentor.....ugh lol
I went through the Swift academy ten years ago, when it was located in Portland. I lucked out with my mentor. He was an owner-op Muslim guy from Senegal and I could barely understand him for the first three days because English was like his ....ninth.. language. But he was a decent trainer. He didn't micromanage my driving and was a complete gentleman the whole time I was on his truck.

Hopefully, your next mentor is more compatible. There will be difficulties, regardless of how well you hit it off. You can't stuff two strangers in a space that's smaller than an average bathroom for a month and a half without some sort of conflict, however slight it may be. It's in how you resolve it that shows your mettle.
 
many years ago when I was training it was set up for one month,
the first week we worked on paperwork, skills pad and a lot of backing practice,
third and fourth week was local work, no more than two hundred mile trips and trips with a lot of drop offs to get them comfortable with backing into docks and dealing with customers, when and how to scale loads ect.
the final week we would go out for a week long trip which included a trip or two either into NY or Chicago.
at each phase I had to determined whether the trainees were ready for the next phase or needed an additional week in the phase we were in I could hold them back for an additional two weeks, after 6 weeks total if they were not ready they were let go.
as far as what we were to do we evaluated their performance answered any questions they had, but at least I let them do things on their own as long as safety wasn't compromised.
usually on the final week if I was comfortable with their performance I would starting around our fourth day out would go back into the bunk telling them I was going to take a break and wake me up if there was any problems most of the time I was discreetly watching how they handled themselves.
our final review was with the trainee, terminal manager, dispatcher, and me, why the terminal manage was included eluded me but that was how it was.
the trainee,dispatcher, and I all had a rather in depth written evaluation to fill out, and the trainee did an evaluation of the dispatcher and me.
I never go an evaluation of less than four and that only happened 2 during my first few months as a trainer and I even learned some things that made me a better trainer.
one thing they made me do was go thru a roadmaster course to see what the trainees were being taught so I knew where to start my training, funny thing was my first trainee was in the roadmaster course i went tru you ought to see the look on his face when he met his "trainer"
 
Update....
So i was stuck in the hotel from saturday thru wednesday.
I got a call on mo day saying they assigned me a new trainer and hed be at the terminal that night i guess there was a mix up as to where he was delivering his current load....well 2 days later, he picked me up.
BUT im not complaining this guy knows his shit. He runs strictly "super-solo" so im never alone while driving. Ive been running 10-11 hrs a day basically. And im now only about 10 hours behind my bf who is on a dif trainers truck. I finally have a little bit of confidence that im going to be able to do thos whole trucking thing on my own.
 

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