My Truck Driving Mentors

Steven, we're all willing. Choose one of us!

Steven, we're all willing. Choose one of us!

Now that is going to be a tough decision. Any one of you have probably forgotten more than I know about trucking!!! When would the mentoring begin? Once we get our truck assigned and we officially go solo? I would think until then, we would be under our trainers from the company. I hope the trainers will have a mentoring spirit and not a condescending attitude.

Having a mentor program sounds just awesome.

Just having a reliable and experienced person to chat with while having all this information slammed into your head and the stresses involved in applying that information to real life situation afterwards might save a ton of new drivers that were just getting overwhelmed b/c maybe they did not have the support system behind them that others might have just starting out.

Glad yall like the idea. I dont get many emails guess cause im not around enough but I always check them. Anyone can email me anytime. I also dont mind talking. I love talking on the phone:) Guess Im gonna have to get some numbers so yall can keep me company! :-)

Great idea redgator and y'all aren't lying talking on the phone helps the day go by a little faster. Like everyone else has said we are here to help and if you need us we are normally lurking around just not always able to respond.

Ya know, I've been following this thread with great interest and thinking about some ideas.

Redgator, you're totally right of course - it would be great to have people you could count on for honest advice and encouragement, especially those first 6 months or so running solo. And once in a while you get stuck in a spot where you just need a quick answer to one or two questions because you're not sure what to do but you don't have 6 hours to wait on someone to answer you. You need a quick phone call or email to get through the situation you're in.

Having some sort of mentoring setup where we could get answers to people quickly would be pretty cool. Getting a quick response to an email would do the trick sometimes, and other times a short phone conversation would be perfect.

There's only one problem. Last year TruckingTruth had 1.78 million visits from 1.08 million unique visitors. We "feel" like a small website because there are only two or three dozen of us in the forum talking on any given day. But there is a huge audience of lurkers out there reading along with us. So the workload could become overwhelming.

One idea I have would work well with email. I could gather a list of volunteers that would be added to our list of mentors. I would approve the people that get put on that list so that we know they have proven themselves to be valuable advisers that see things "The TruckingTruth Way" I guess you could say. Then, when someone has an urgent or private question they would like feedback on they could send the request and all of the mentors on the list would instantly receive an email with the subject "Mentorship Request" or something to that affect so we all know what it is and that it's urgent. Then, whoever happens to have the first opportunity to answer can do so. There's bound to be someone sitting at their computer at the time that can throw out a quick answer. And if the person would like a phone call they could leave their number in the request and someone can call them if they have the opportunity.

That's the best idea I have so far. Basically, an "emergency email" kinda thing that which can include phone call requests.

I'd love to hear more ideas on it. And if anyone would like to keep those ideas private just send me a private message.

My suggestion for the Mentor uniform:

I want to thank Thinks Too Much for all of the time he has taken behind the scenes helping me as I transitioned from "in school" to "rookie solo driver" with Schneider. He always was quick to respond to my emails.

Personally, most of the time I don't have Internet and I'm usually driving. It you email me, you'll never get a quick response. So if I was to help anyone I would strictly prefer communication via phone call only. And I definitely won't stop just to answer an email. I generally type a lot and that's never quick. And my schedule is always too tight to be stopping unnecessarily. Also, if someone needs a quick answer and an email was sent then they'll be spammed by all the mentors. We won't know that it got answered so next thing you know the driver has a long list of emails from a bunch of different mentors. So if we do that I think we must also send out a "urgent question was answered" email.

What I was thinking:

We have a page of a list of mentors. Only approved drivers with "enough" experience so that we know their information will be legit.

The person needing a mentor will simply pick one and it'll send an email to that driver. We could add some information about the mentor so that the person can have some background information on him/her.

Example:

TruckingTruth Mentors

Driver A (Driver A is an experienced driver with 8 years of OTR experience. He boasts an accident free record! He has worked for Company X, Y and then worked at company Z for 5 years. He is an experienced flatbed driver.) *must click on Driver to see his bio come up*

Driver B (Driver B is a driver with 9 months of experience. He specializes in assisting students with their CDL school. It hasn't been long since he was in school so he's definitely still knowledgeable about the schooling experience. He has strictly pulled a reefer."

Driver C (Driver C is a veteran with 23 years of experience. She has been through it all and is one of our most experienced drivers. He has pulled a reefer and is currently pulling a tanker for the past 18 years."

Driver D (Driver D is a female driver with 4 years of experience. Her experience is primarily with flatbedding and she knows what she's talking about! She has worked for a tanker company for a year also!)

Driver E (Driver E is one of our most active posters and has a long and successful track records of helping folks start their career. He is very knowledgeable about DOT physicals and all kinds of Grants!)

Obviously I didn't use name. Just an example.

The student would then decide which one he wants.

For example, if the student is a female interested she will choose Driver D. That way we match the student with the best possible instructor. If the student clicks on the drivers name it will show a bio and a link to email the mentor. The mentor will get back to the student and give them their phone number. And the mentorship will begin until the student feels he no longer needs the instructing.

So in a way. It's kind of like an NFL Draft.

What does everyone think?

I prefer phone calls. Im always running and im not shutting down to type. Mainly why Im hardly on. I have no problem being on a list. Whatever yall want or how yall want to do it is fine. You develop personal relationships with people your mentoring. Me and Kathy are good friends now. Plus thrres alot more out here than trucking questions. This is a lifestyle. A transition of sorts that alot arent prepared for. The lonliness is one of the biggest things which leads to frustration out here.You have to be willing to be a counciler to which im great at. I feel like alot of you are friends even if we dont talk. I tytypically dont approach the guys because I dont want anyone to think I want to date them. Im a driver like anyone else and ecpect to be treated that way.