Profile For James E.

You too and thanks

I'm getting the DAC added incident. A really huge "don't do that again" and continuing my training starting in the morning. The mentor said we're gonna keep pushing to finish my trainer and I'll be fine. Then gave me a few bits of advice. Guess all in all that's about as much of a happy ending as I can hope for and im not complaining at all. Especially since like 12 hrs ago I thought I was about to be jobless and sent packing

Good deal! That's the outcome we all expected. Be safe

Also this is my first 18 wheeler accident and as far as 4 wheelers I've only ever had 1 ticket on my record almost 8 yrs ago and my most recent wreck on record is about 7 years ago. That may have helped my case.

You messed up, but the bigger mess up would be trying to hide anything and safety knows that. Unless there have been other incidents or you have a really bad driving record it's unlikely you would be let go for a relatively minor incident like this. And like Kearsey said, don't pay for anything. Being a mentor/trainer is hard and requires patience but even the most patient trainers get a little frustrated sometimes.

You made a mistake. Own it and learn from it but move on and don't continue to stress about it because that's the easiest way to make another mistake.

I'm getting the DAC added incident. A really huge "don't do that again" and continuing my training starting in the morning. The mentor said we're gonna keep pushing to finish my trainer and I'll be fine. Then gave me a few bits of advice. Guess all in all that's about as much of a happy ending as I can hope for and im not complaining at all. Especially since like 12 hrs ago I thought I was about to be jobless and sent packing

I'd have no objections at all to extra training for the incident. Obviously I may need it seeing as how things went... We'll see how it goes I guess

On my third day or so solo I scraped my trailer against a sign in a busy downtown intersection.

They put it in as a preventable accident, hitting a fixed object but did not lose my job, actually wasn’t really given a hard time about it at all.

They did provide me some more training a couple days after. A Trainer took me to a bunch of really tight areas and turns, was actually pretty helpful as I did not experience any of these situations in my original training.

He also stated he had never seen anyone make that turn expect for a few with pups, in the report he wrote it up as an “impossible” turn.

It wasn’t impossible… once the pole was off the corner 😜 jk jk

Just learn from the mistakes, be extra careful and move on from it.

I understand that. I'd personally just feel better myself if I could pay for it myself. I don't like owing or costing other people money... it's a principle or character kinda thing to me He's owner operator of the truck if that effects anything

Bruce... Many companies do it differently. Prime has the CDL instructor in the seat with the permit while they deliver loads. Then once they get the CDL they go to teaming.

The mentor is probably a lease op so not only is he paying a deductible but will lose money for downtime.

As a trainer of 5+ years I can tell you this is part of training. If you don't want your truck hit or your gears grinded in a manual then don't be a trainer. He knew the deal when he became a mentor. Period

One of my trainees turned right into a boulder. One turned too tight and ripped my air lines out and broke my cab extenders. Oh well sucks to be that mentor.

Learn from it but don't be distracted. You could hit something else if u harp on it. Your mentor will get over it

The mentor at swift is only required to supervise 50 hrs. After that it is the mentors discretion to run as teams where you take turns or to continue supervising you for the remainder of your 160-200 hrs. Since I've had no issues so far he said he was comfortable running a team setting.

I guess I’m curious why your mentor was not in the passenger seat. When I trained with Schneider, my trainer was required to be in the passenger seat whenever I drove. I can’t remember anything specific, but that policy probably saved me from having any incidents. What is the policy for Swift?

And I don’t think you will lose your job. I hope this all has a happy ending for you.

Not glad you had an accident but I am a little eased to hear that someone has done worse damage than me and not lost thier job. I'm hoping for the best and expecting the worst. I asked him if I lost my job shen we got out to see what I was stuck on and he said he honestly doesn't know

I knocked an entire axle off the trailer my first month solo. The sorry is posted here somewhere I will find it.

Just take responsibility for it. And tell them you learned from your mistake.

Ok.. my mentor seems pretty mad or disappointed. The truck is getting the tire replaced and we went inside the truck stop. He kinda separated away and went somewhere. Idk if companies pay the damage or mentors. I sent him a text saying I'd repay him if he's responsible for my damage and that I can't undo the accident but I would like the chance to make it right.

You probably won't get fired. Training companies expect bumps like this. Just learn from it and be honest about what went wrong.

New driver. Still in the mentor step of Swifts driving process. Last night I was in my last 2 hrs of driving and missed the turn for the truck stop so I picked a nearby parking lot to turn around. While turning the rig my front outside drivers side trailer tire hit one of the concrete blockers by a fuel pump. I would have cleared the pump fine with the angle of the situation but not the concrete. My mentor was asleep, got my cdl in March, only been driving a couple of weeks and scared I just torched my job... is there anything other than just owning it that I can do? Is there some sort of expectation for newbies to have bumps? No injuries and no other vehicles. I tore the concrete thing down while backing off of it (one tire was in front of it and one was behind it by the way I accidentally turned into it so my mentor and I agreed backing up was safer as moving forward would be getting closer to the pump if the concrete shifted wrong). While backing up my front trailer tire drug the concrete over and busted my rim and tire