Comments By Tommy

Victim blaming I see. Of course I reported him to the student development and wrote a statement about this. The last time I heard, he was still getting students.

It’s the tone-deaf attitude like yours that’s why they are brining the lawsuits. The only way to make people listen.

Anytime spent off duty while working is not the fault of the mentor, but of the trainee. You should have reported the mentor to driver development. If you did not do this, don't blame swift for your own negligence.

Hint... if all my time is spent on DRIVE and not ON DUTY, then, of course it affects my mentor’s pay. My mentor’s extra pay comes from the miles I DRIVE, not performing ON DUTY tasks. If I spend more time on duty, then I will need to do my 34 resets sooner, and unable to DRIVE, and therefore affects my mentor’s pay.

So of course it affects my mentor’s bank account if I spend time ON DUTY.

Perfect HOS log for my mentor would be 10:45 hours DRIVE and 20 minuets ON DUTY for pre and post trip everyday. Hitting that everyday until 200 hours are up and then on to the next student.

These mentors are abusing the system and Swift enables them because Swift wants to lease the trucks to them.

This has been going on for years and years. I hard to learn the hard way.

Forced meaning I wasn’t allowed to touch the Qualcomm so I can’t change my status to ON DUTY when I am performing on duty tasks. If I can’t touch the Qualcomm and the mentor changes all my HOS and then approves it, does that count as “forced?”

Studying Swift’s employee handbook and student guide is not “homework.” These should be ON DUTY events. This was discussed during orientation.

Sweeping the trailer should be ON DUTY and not something I should be doing in sleeper berth.

I think the mentors are coached to minimize Students’ on duty time. Why are they so eager to change my time to off duty? Maybe they just want to divert all my ON DUTY time to DRIVE so I can complete my 200 hours quicker?

"studying the materials provided by Swift" is not a required duty, just like homework studying.

As for being "off duty" at a dock, that's an HOS rule that you should be on duty. And, your trainee work hours have nothing to do with your Mentor's pay so you shouldn't be "forced" into that.

Hint... if all my time is spent on DRIVE and not ON DUTY, then, of course it affects my mentor’s pay. My mentor’s extra pay comes from the miles I DRIVE, not performing ON DUTY tasks. If I spend more time on duty, then I will need to do my 34 resets sooner, and unable to DRIVE, and therefore affects my mentor’s pay.

So of course it affects my mentor’s bank account if I spend time ON DUTY.

Perfect HOS log for my mentor would be 10:45 hours DRIVE and 20 minuets ON DUTY for pre and post trip everyday. Hitting that everyday until 200 hours are up and then on to the next student.

These mentors are abusing the system and Swift enables them because Swift wants to lease the trucks to them.

This has been going on for years and years. I hard to learn the hard way.

Forced meaning I wasn’t allowed to touch the Qualcomm so I can’t change my status to ON DUTY when I am performing on duty tasks. If I can’t touch the Qualcomm and the mentor changes all my HOS and then approves it, does that count as “forced?”

Studying Swift’s employee handbook and student guide is not “homework.” These should be ON DUTY events. This was discussed during orientation.

Sweeping the trailer should be ON DUTY and not something I should be doing in sleeper berth.

I think the mentors are coached to minimize Students’ on duty time. Why are they so eager to change my time to off duty? Maybe they just want to divert all my ON DUTY time to DRIVE so I can complete my 200 hours quicker?

"studying the materials provided by Swift" is not a required duty, just like homework studying.

As for being "off duty" at a dock, that's an HOS rule that you should be on duty. And, your trainee work hours have nothing to do with your Mentor's pay so you shouldn't be "forced" into that.

Seriously that 3 mph is important. After you’ve been passed by so many trucks and you have to slow down to create the following distance, that 62mph feels more like 55mph. But if you can go as fast as the traffic, then that extra 3mph will feel more like 10mph (because you don’t have people cutting you off every 5 minutes and sometimes trigger that collusion detection and makes the truck break hard)

Forced meaning I wasn’t allowed to touch the Qualcomm so I can’t change my status to ON DUTY when I am performing on duty tasks. If I can’t touch the Qualcomm and the mentor changes all my HOS and then approves it, does that count as “forced?”

Studying Swift’s employee handbook and student guide is not “homework.” These should be ON DUTY events. This was discussed during orientation.

Sweeping the trailer should be ON DUTY and not something I should be doing in sleeper berth.

I think the mentors are coached to minimize Students’ on duty time. Why are they so eager to change my time to off duty? Maybe they just want to divert all my ON DUTY time to DRIVE so I can complete my 200 hours quicker?

"studying the materials provided by Swift" is not a required duty, just like homework studying.

As for being "off duty" at a dock, that's an HOS rule that you should be on duty. And, your trainee work hours have nothing to do with your Mentor's pay so you shouldn't be "forced" into that.

All my mentors required me to log off duty while waiting for dock. I was forced to log off duty while studying the materials provided by Swift. I don’t have the control of the Qualcomm. So there.

I am in Moberly and yes that’s easy route until you get a backhaul or 2 pallet delivery to small location.

Well day 1 was a success. My load was ready about 2 pm. 3 stops in Springfield, Jacksonville, and Pittsfield, all in Illinois. 352 miles round trip.

The first stop, was pulling pallets straight off the back. 5 pallets in zone 3, then a slight fight with the bulkheads lol, and then 6 pallets from zone 2. Once I figured out how the bulkheads actually work with my own hands, if made much more sense.

Stop 2 was almost as easy. 3 pallets in zone 2, but 1 pallet had to be left in zone 2 for stop number 3, then 7 pallets from zone 1, leaving another 1 pallet for stop 3.

Stop 3 were the final 2 pallets, 1 each in zones 2 and 1. Very easy stop.

There was one thing that caught me a little off guard. The locations of the pallets didn't match the load map exactly. I had a few pallets that were marked on "curb side" but were actually on "driver side" and vice versa. There were also a few that were out of order. But I double checked stickers before pulling them, and marked everything that was coming off and was able to keep everything straight.

Headed back to the DC, and got here with 4 hours left on my clock. I don't know if I was given an easy route, or if that is just the standard pace around here. But all in all, it was a pretty good day. The worst thing that happened was having to replace a burnt out headlight bulb so I can definitely live with that lol.

Thanks again for the help guys! It absolutely came in handy today and I feel a whole lot better about how things function on these Walmart dedicated accounts now. Back at it tomorrow.....errr later today lol

How much are you getting paid, average per week, as a Swift team driver? I am doing the FDD (frozen dairy daily) routes and average about $1050 per week.

Sorry about that guys. Big-T and I are in the same TDA class in Fontana and we both passed DMV test on Thursday so that's why I asked. Big T was the first one to pass and I was the last one in the day.

Still waiting for the donuts from Ms. Kassie.

Anyways sorry about hijacking the thread. But I would recommend to get a mentor with automatic. Down shift = Jake 1 and Jake 2. Down grade = Jake 2 plus 11th or 10th gear. Much easier. The only thing I don't like is when backing, it won't go smoothly like on stick shifts.

Big T replied to Tommy:

The who isn't important. The point is you cannot come to these programs thinking you are going to coast through. You will have to put forth the time and effort and do the homework. Especially in these company sponsored accelerated schools.

Tommy, Big T is 100% spot-on with his reply. The names of the individuals? It's none of our business and irrelevant to the mission of this website and forum. We are not Facebook, or Twitter and do not dabble in gossip or conjecture.

Thanks. My mentor told me that if I was trained on auto then when I finish my 200 hours he will drop me off at Phoenix and Swift will give me auto.

I passed DMV test on stick and now in automatic 2017 Freightliner Cascadia. I guess I will be requesting automatic after my 200 hours.

In case you're still reading these. CR England is only training and testing in automatics now.

You probably won't need to make a request like that...most of the fleet at this point is auto-shift.

Mentor taking too long? My mentor wants me to get 200 hours in 3 1/2 week. LOL And I countered like errr... how about 4 1/2 week?