Comments By nomad girl

Hey folks. So since I've been on this truck, I've experienced on numerous accounts where my mentor/co-driver has had confrontations with planners. On my first week out, we forfeited a 2600 mile contract because the planner had us rescue a load that wasn't even near us (we went to the shipper to pick it up and found out it was 400 miles away).

Almost every week, I would see this play out. Planners telling us they'll give us a long haul if we do them these under-the-gun runs that had a multitude of issues, only to tell us that the long haul contract that we had preplanned had been given to someone else. It's been very frustrating.

Since I'm still a rookie, I'm not as affected because anything more than $250/week is good in my books. But my mentor is especially affected because people depend on him to make a paycheck, so he has unleashed his frustration with dispatch and everyone, making it clear that he had been lied to by these planners. I feel that his confrontational nature has caused bigger rifts with planners and I've seen it first hand how a planner wouldn't give us a load just because of how he responded when asked if we could do a favor.

My question is, how do we go about dealing with planners? What can we do to prevent being screwed over and not have to be in a confrontational environment? Any advice will be useful. Thanks guys and ladies.

You won't get kicked off my your trainer based on what you pack. You will get kicked off if you don't get along with each other or if you really suck at driving.

They provide towels. Just bring one for those times when you end up at a place where they don't provide one.

Mikki, it's to get more training under my belt. You really don't learn everything about the industry within that four or five weeks out on the road with a mentor. Even when I upgraded, I wasn't confident in myself yet to go out on my own. With the extended training, I won't have to learn it the hard way and avoid making numerous rookie mistakes that could cost me my CDL.

As for getting along and such, that's a requirement. In the beginning, we butted heads because of our communication style. But we buried the hatchet as we saw that our differences could be beneficial in being a team.

If things don't work out, I have back up plans.

Congrats!

Oh yeah, and dress professionally. Work boots, work pants, shirts with sleeves --- no pretty clothes, especially clothes that show cleavage.

Stop at well-litted truck stops like TA/Petro. Close curtains if you're at a shipper. Don't talk to strangers. Walk like a man. Put on your resting ***** face. Learn some self defense moves. I haven't run into any situation where I've felt unsafe. I think other people look at me and fear for my safety more than me. My co-driver says I look like a 4th grader behind the wheels.

So glad I'm driving team. Luckily, I'm not the one driving when we get lost so I can take out my iphone to look at the map and find a safe, alternative route.

At least you have the support from your family. I told no one when I decide to go to the trucking school except one friend and the conversational teller at the credit union. While on the road, I met up with one of my girl friends in New York and that's how she found out. Other than that, my family and close friends still don't know what I'm doing. I've realized that over the years, some things aren't worth explaining. It all makes sense later on when you look back in retrospect.

I think you'll have to talk to the person in charge of that account at the Swift terminal for clarification. Not sure why anyone would pay you to sit though. And definitely not sure why anyone would ask you to be on dedicated without having a track record with the company.