Profile For Jarod(Red)

Thank you G-Town, I should've clarified that. Its 200 hours btw.

Jarod wrote:

And use up as much as your clock as you can each day you drive to finish training faster as most companies want you to do so many hours with a trainer, like Swift wants you to be with a trainer 200 hours. Just be safe and and learn all you can.

Just to be clear, that's 200 hours of driving while with a Swift mentor. Drive as long as you can and preserve your clock to maximize driving time; limiting "on-duty not driving" to what is mandatory.

Congrats on getting you're CDL! I wish I would've went the way you did instead of Company CDL training. Doing it the way you did it leaves you're options open to choose who you go through and you aren't stuck in a contract. Company OTR training is your next step, usually averages about 30 days. You're experience will be based on your trainer that you get. There are good ones and bad ones. My first trainer was horrible! Had road rage issues, moving cars out of the way, ended up getting fired for getting into fight with shipper, plus he didn't bother teaching me anything. My second trainer was awesome, cared about me and my training, veteran driver that cared about the business, he even would take his 34 hour resets at my home so I could see my kids. So get to know you're trainer before you go out with the. Training pay will be based on your division, usually averages $375 a week I think, try not to take out any advances. And use up as much as your clock as you can each day you drive to finish training faster as most companies want you to do so many hours with a trainer, like Swift wants you to be with a trainer 200 hours. Just be safe and and learn all you can.

That's understandable, but that's not a reportable offense on DAC. They reported that I broke a company policy violation which is false.

They spent $100 on your non-refundable bus ticket and then you flake. That's what that basically means.

For the future, I recommend committing to a company fully before telling them to get you a bus ticket.

I was set up to attend Prime Orientation, well I went with ALTL instead so I didn't get on the bus to Prime for orientation. Well they reported on my DAC "Company Policy Violation 192" and I don't know what the hell that is and I didn't know it was a violation for not attending their orientation. Any help from any current or former Prime drivers would be helpful. Thank You

Any drivers going to be around Evansville, Indiana(Southern Indiana) in next 48 or so hours, heading up to Gary, Indiana or Chicago? Looking to get up to my terminal in Gary without having to take 14 Greyhound bus ride.

Interesting read guys.

Now when I say he almost got fired, I don't mean I almost fired him - my DM did. I almost fired him from my truck, my DM almost fired him from the company.

As far as me ratting him out to the company. He's just another student, not my friend or buddy and as such he doesn't get away with things like this. You give the students 1 inch and they'll take a mile. It's important to remind them where they are and looking the other way when it comes to being late like this won't help them in any way. Thats hand-holding.

I also didn't necessarily rat him out to my DM. I told him that my PTA is changing due to my student and told him why. That's covering my ass because I don't want to be dispatched on a load then be late. I won't sacrifice my reputation for the sake of holding my student hand through his irresponsiblities.

As far as the outcome, he is behaving much better. Now I don't and didn't foresee any future issues with him, but at the same time you need to make them realize that this is an industry that does not accept being late very well.

As far as being his boss, I have to disagree with you guys. I would argue that he has multiple bosses, and I'm one of them.

If he gets into an accident, who answers for it? If he falls asleep while driving, I will be questioned. If he violates his logbook, I will be questioned. I am responsible for his actions and I take the liability for his mistakes. I am the one signing off and approving of him going solo once he meets the qualifications. Remember, you can have your 40k miles in, but until your trainer says you're ready you're not going anywhere. I just think that's being more than a trainer, especially since I'm paying him out of my own paycheck.

I understand that but that still doesn't make you his boss. Your doing what trainers in all different types of jobs do, you train.

Did good, don't agree with the "Im your boss" stuff, your not really his boss, your his trainer, and the "Boss" stuff doesn't really apply. You can't fire him or suspend him, you might be able to recommend it. He has to live by your truck rules and do as you ask, but your job isn't to be his boss, that's the companies job, your job is to train him to be a professional driver and prepare him for the road. He's just an employee like yourself. But I would have handled everything else the same way.

I would think you would have to have a dish of some sort... it's direct tv... that's sat service. It's also not like you can hook up a cable line anywhere... I can see it now... walking into pilot... "yeah ugh do you have a cable outlet I can hook this up to?" while holding a 200' coax cable running out to your truck haha.

They are wireless cable boxes bud, not wired

Oh, and when your on the yard practicing your backing maneuvers you'll see a lot of guys scared to jump in truck and go, jump up and jump in that seat if they are stalling, get all seat time you can because I've seen 40 student classes, when I left SLC school they had 2 classes on the training pad, one class was 50 students and one class was 65 students, there is only like 10 trucks out there to train in. I got lucky when I started, I only had 15 students in my class on day 1, by the time we got out on training pad we had 9 students in my class so seat time wasn't a issue, but it's very rare classes are that small.

And you'll run into a big guy, with beard, his name is Grizz, he's a really good trainer. Also Nate and JR are good trainers too. Pack plenty of sunscreen because it gets hot out there and drink plenty of water. If you can get to WYNCO which is a Wal-mart type store, you can get Gatorade and food really cheap there, WYNCO is right across street from Wal-mart. They have a van that runs to Wal-mart at end of each day after class. In building 1, which is where you'll spend your first 3-4 days and orientation is a cafeteria, they serve really good food there, they have coffee, bottle drinks, monster energy drinks, they have everything down there. Also while in orientation you get free breakfast and lunch at cafeteria.

Building 2 is out by training pad, they have Swift Store and drivers lounge in there, you can also go in there and buy drinks and food, shirts and hats, whatever you need. Enjoy it, keep us updated on your progress, if you want to know anything else just send me a message and I'll shoot you an email. I just finished my OTR training with my mentor a couple weeks ago.

Great , great ,great info man! You knocked this post out of the park. All the information was what i was looking for and VERY helpful and you shed some light on alot of things. Thanks alot! But yes feel free to email i do have just a few more questions!

Email me at Jrodallred27@gmail.com if you want to know anything else or need anything. I have 2 really good mentors that you can go with after you graduate too so you dont have to worry about getting assigned a bad one.

The DM communication has some magic that I lack, too. It depends on them. I send messages, some are answered, some aren't. They do prefer messages over phone calls, because of the nature of their work. ... and you get a written document about your message.

I messaged my DM 4 times today with no reply, so I call and she tells me that she rarely checks her email and that its best to call her lol, and I was always told that email is best form of communication with any office at Swift, whether its DM, Driver Services and etc lol.