Comments By Infidel

One of my friends is about to start school...does swift accept ESD?

As a lifelong dog person, I've been involved in dog training for years as a member of a kennel club when I lived in Illinois. Never heard of an "emotional support dog" though, is that along the lines of a "Service Dog" or more like a "Therapy Dog" Certified by TDI? Certified service animals are covered by ADA, so service animals are allowed in public places such as stores, restaurants, and yes even in the workplace. There are some caveats but I'm not quite familiar enough with the law to know all the nuances. I don't think therapy dogs have the same protections since they don't go through the same level of training required of a service dog.

Neat another dog trainer turned trucker. I too was a professional trainer for many years. My personal experience lies mostly with working dogs however. Protection, scent detection and now sheep dogs (aka herding). I am a firm believer in that a dog should never be breed for how it looks.

As someone stated per the ADA rules these dogs are NOT service dogs. The trouble with this is they usually have no training. They are just there to make a person feel better. Well by that definition you have just described a pet. What normally happens is that person will tell their doctor they need this so the doctor will write a note/or maybe a prescription for this "emotional support dog". And said person goes to the internet orders them a new service dog vest. Their of too the grocery store to show everyone what a special snowflake they are. Problem is that that a note from your doctor is not legal. Its not binding under the ADA. But store owners are way to scared to challenge it. So in most cases people get away with it. And I have seen these dogs on tables tops were people eat. Nonstop barking on Buses, laying out in the aisle (instead of under the seat or the person as true service dogs are trained to do). They have little training at best. This is going to become a problem for those people who actually need their service animals. It just takes a few bad instances. When I drove the handicapped bus we had one person who's ESD would bite you! You had to be careful.

Sorry if I sound kinda harsh about it. But this one thing I do know a lot about. And I'm sick of not being allowed to take my very well trained dogs into places like parks. Because of other peoples failure to control or clean up after their dogs. Only to see a owner chasing down their "service dogs" cause they wanted to come see me. We went to a national park here in Nevada. Brought the dogs only to see a no dogs on trail sign. Not even on leash! While we left our dogs behind we saw 4! Yes 4 dogs on that hike. All with their little orange vests and no obedience at all.

I have never seen that either. Just the OJT military apprenticeship program. Also you guys may already know this. But that is part of the GI bill but its a bit different. You get it no matter if you took the GI bill or not (Yeah I was one of those... Dont ask! I will just say I was young and stupid and wanted the beer money.). If you served a certain amount of days after 9-11.

Sorry I messed that post all up. Was trying to quote just one sentence. Didn't work. And it blocked out yelled? It was funny cause my girlfriend was in the room saying goodbye for the day and she read it. "Wait a minute. This a trucker forum and your not allowed to swear!?" Lol just thought I would share that.

Phox wants "proof":

Also, it is sad when owner-ops get into training simply to have free labor to drive for them. They would be the last to argue for side-by-side training.

This is exactly what happened to me. I can see some benefit to team driving for the person being trained. But I will not do it again.

I dont know how its supposed to work but in my case my trainer was very little help at all. After the first day he was asleep or on the phone. Only too get ****ed when I was doing something wrong. But it seemed like a whirlwind when I was doing it. Seemed like we had very little time for training. But that was probably just him.

I did teams with my trainer from day 1. And I was told we would not be teaming. So if you don't want too, make sure they are very clear about it. It was gross but my case was extreme. I have to go with a trainer again and I won't hire on with a company that does teams as part of training. Just my personal preference.

"Not all trainers should be trainers," A -freakin- men!

Yes, please post and let me know what they say. I really do like what I see on their website. However the website says 120k miles, so 75k is even better

I know that the 75k is for those with CDL's coming into the company. Pretty much all we need is to do orientation and then get assigned our trainers.

Do you have anything specific you want to know? I'll be sure to add it to the list. They're my first choice and, if we both go with them maybe we'll see each other! :D

Yens!!! We pulled that game out! Sorry had to add that...

Yeah thats cool Harley. But I wasn't mad at the company for the contract. I was disappointed but not mad. I understand why they do it. All companies have an angle to retain good people. I don't like their angle is all. And Im just a bit jaded I think from a bad experience (with another company). So it set me back. I am 44 years old and worked a lot of jobs. So has my wife. We have never heard of anything like this. Her co-worker who is older has a husband who has been trucking for 20+ years, had never heard of it. He didn't bad mouth it. Just said it sounded weird.

I was a little upset with Errol. I just feel he was quick to imply something that was not the case. And after I tried to correct his assumptions it was like he didn't even read them. So.... yeah I cant help that. All I can do is try not too feed the fire. Which admittedly I didn't do very good job of.

Good luck to both of you guys. If I go I will be going to Phoenix so odds are we wont bump into each other at orientation lol.

Hharleywood, I got confused in here and actually thought Infidel had started this thread - My bad! Part of the information I gave him was intended for you. Rather than re-do it all, just take a look at what I stated above, and if you find anything useful, then I'm glad to have offered it!

It's all good here. Thread got hijacked but I think my answer is still here, just gotta sift through the negativity. I already know as a brand new driver I will have e to make a commitment to someone. I am ok with that and also understand why.

Me too. Im as committed to any company as they are committed to me.

Hey Infidel, sorry about the references to Swift - I was totally confused when I jumped in here. The Original Poster inquired about Swift, and I got you confused with them.

I remember who you are now, thanks for reminding me about that previous post about your experience with a bad trainer. I think if you can just get past that indentured idea, or fear, you will be fine at Roehl. They have some really great training, but it is shorter than many folks prefer. I happen to be of the opinion that your best training comes after you are running solo anyway. Roehl really has their system down, and will assign you to a special dispatcher at first to help you get the training wheels off and start running like a professional. I like their system, it is fast paced, but they will also make sure you are ready before they put you out there.

I would like to add as someone who has signed their contract that if you are even moderately good at knowing how to work the system out here you will be fine. I normally clear around 2300 miles a week and I really enjoy working for them. They do a really good job at getting me home when I want to go and the pay is always spot on. The main thing that trucking truth doesn't teach is the need to be an independent person everything else I learned from this website and community and I would say I'm succeeding at my new career. That all being said yes there are some rough patches like truck breakdowns and spending 20 hrs at a receiver waiting to be unloaded but all in all its a great company very straight forward and I'm glad I made the choice to be here

Another fellow yenzer? This game is killing me...

Thanks for the feed back. Being that the contract was a miles based thing versus a time of employment thing did give me some pause. 'What if Im not getting miles?'. Seems like you feel me on that concern. But its working out well for you. Overall sounds pretty good.

Hey Infidel, sorry about the references to Swift - I was totally confused when I jumped in here. The Original Poster inquired about Swift, and I got you confused with them.

I remember who you are now, thanks for reminding me about that previous post about your experience with a bad trainer. I think if you can just get past that indentured idea, or fear, you will be fine at Roehl. They have some really great training, but it is shorter than many folks prefer. I happen to be of the opinion that your best training comes after you are running solo anyway. Roehl really has their system down, and will assign you to a special dispatcher at first to help you get the training wheels off and start running like a professional. I like their system, it is fast paced, but they will also make sure you are ready before they put you out there.

Yeah I feel bad. I totally hijacked it. I was one who wanted more training time with the trainer. After that experience my feeling on that have changed to say the least. So the 2 weeks with a trainer feels good to me. But the training wheel dispatcher ( lol ) sounds like a good to me as well. I didn't know that. In my first 2 days trucking I was made to run my clock out. I was a bit surprised at the pace. Hell I was driving up and down mountain passes in Montana in my first 3 hours. And yeah getting yelled at for not getting it right.

Thanks again!