Well...I Rocked The Boat......advice Please?!

I went into road training with my mentor at Swift exactly two weeks ago. The two biggest things on my mind were, "don't rock the boat" (as Brett always says on here), and "stay cool, calm, and collected" which was something one my cdl trainers always said. Everything was going ok until a couple of days ago when I started losing it a little. My mentor and I had a couple of arguments the last couple of days and I told him yesterday I wanted off his truck, so now I'm sitting in the Salt Lake City terminal until Monday when I can talk to driver development about getting a new trainer. My trainer and I were arguing about when to take 30-minute breaks--not a big deal. We could have easily worked it out but I was being too stubborn. He thinks that's why I'm requesting a new trainer, so he's upset. The real reason I'm requesting a new trainer is because my trainer has driven on my logs multiple times, usually without even telling me he's doing it, and he has also edited my logs without letting me know. He also isn't really doing things by the book so much, especially when it comes to the backs and paper logs. His plan was to make sure I could back, then write off the 40 backs whether I did 40 or not. And I haven't completed a single paper log yet (I'm supposed to do them every day). The biggest reason is that he occasionally texts and drives, and I don't feel comfortable going to sleep in the SB knowing I might not wake up because he wasn't paying attention. I thought maybe the deal with him driving on my logs was kinda normal so I didn't say anything at first, but when I talked to one of my friends from orientation about it, his mentor said I needed to report him and find a new mentor.

It's kinda late for this but I really don't want to make a big mess out of this. Is this just something I should let go? I'm considering just telling them we had some major personality differences and I've never lived with someone 24/7 in a little box, etc.

I'm also concerned that this will turn around and bite me in the a**. I have type one diabetes and have a federal exemption for it. It's a pain in the butt but I follow the regulations in my exemption to a tee every time...except one time. There was one time we had to drive from the customer to the truck stop (a 5 min drive), and I didn't make sure my blood sugar level was in the proper range before driving--poor judgment call on my part. My mentor freaked out about it when he found out, thought he was in danger or he was gonna get a ticket. I'm afraid if I tell them about his training habits, he will bring this up and get them all worked up over it and they'll simply tell me I'm not worth the trouble.

I half wish I had just stuck it out with my mentor, but they specifically told us in orientation not to do that--they have a whole department dedicated to working these things out blah blah blah.

The real reason I'm requesting a new trainer is because my trainer has driven on my logs multiple times, usually without even telling me he's doing it, and he has also edited my logs without letting me know.

Let safety know about this ASAP. This is not only illegal but a huge risk both to his license and the company. If he gets in a wreck driving on his student's clock (no matter how minor), it will be a dream come true for the accident lawyers.

And I haven't completed a single paper log yet (I'm supposed to do them every day).

This is your responsibility, not your trainer's. There's no reason you shouldn't have them done. Most likely they taught you how to complete them in orientation, if they didn't study the logs section of trucking truth. It's fairly simple, especially because you really only need to look at your graph for the day on the Qualcomm logs and copy from there, then make notations.

The biggest reason is that he occasionally texts and drives, and I don't feel comfortable going to sleep in the SB knowing I might not wake up because he wasn't paying attention.

Again, report this to safety. They will probably not do much if you don't have proof, but you need to tell someone. This could be the difference between his next student living or dying.

I'm afraid if I tell them about his training habits, he will bring this up and get them all worked up over it and they'll simply tell me I'm not worth the trouble.

I seriously doubt they're going to do that; since they've already hired you and you have an exemption firing you over something like that would be akin to firing you because of your disability, which is illegal. If he brings it up explain what happened. It was an oversight, you're new, you forgot. Nothing came of it and it won't happen again. There is a far cry between unintentionally breaking a rule like that and purposefully driving on someone else's clock.

Why was he driving on your clock? Was he out of hours?

Holy cow, I figured it was just my trainer. I am choosing to keep my mouth shut and get it done, however, i can absolutely see why 5 out of 7 trainees have quit on this guy. Quit notjust the company,trucking altogether. The pressure put on trainees in this particular cdl training program by trainers is just insane. 3 weeks on the road,no backing,said it would confuse me in regard to testing. 4 hours on practice pad backing and cdl skills test next day. Guy says that his family needs me to pass first day so they can use the bonus money for xmas. Anyways, I can certainly see your point in asking off the truck. Just figure,especially now,they are all about the same. 20K more miles until i upgrade😄

Thanks C.S. You're right about those paper logs--I should have done them even though he told me I didn't have to. I know how to do them so I will just have to catch up when I get with my next trainer. As far as them not firing me, I hope you're right. I agree it was a really small thing, but people who don't understand my disease tend to get pretty nervous about it.

He only drove on my clock a few times, and it was never for more than about five minutes. I don't really know why he did it, to be honest. Once or twice he was out of time, but there was at least one time he had plenty of time left.

Holy crap, I figured it was just my trainer. I am choosing to keep my mouth shut and get it done, however, i can absolutely see why 5 out of 7 trainees have quit on this guy. Quit notjust the company,trucking altogether. The pressure put on trainees in this particular cdl training program by trainers is just insane. 3 weeks on the road,no backing,said it would confuse me in regard to testing. 4 hours on practice pad backing and cdl skills test next day. Guy says that his family needs me to pass first day so they can use the bonus money for xmas. Anyways, I can certainly see your point in asking off the truck. Just figure,especially now,they are all about the same. 20K more miles until i upgrade😄

What company are you with? It sounds like our situations are a bit different as I already have my cdl and am hired on with the company already. Is your cdl training and company training lumped together somehow?

Holy crap, I figured it was just my trainer. I am choosing to keep my mouth shut and get it done, however, i can absolutely see why 5 out of 7 trainees have quit on this guy. Quit notjust the company,trucking altogether. The pressure put on trainees in this particular cdl training program by trainers is just insane. 3 weeks on the road,no backing,said it would confuse me in regard to testing. 4 hours on practice pad backing and cdl skills test next day. Guy says that his family needs me to pass first day so they can use the bonus money for xmas. Anyways, I can certainly see your point in asking off the truck. Just figure,especially now,they are all about the same. 20K more miles until i upgrade😄

What company are you with? It sounds like our situations are a bit different as I already have my cdl and am hired on with the company already. Is your cdl training and company training lumped together somehow?

I am with prime, did the cdl training program with them and was hired on 12/14.

Holy crap, I figured it was just my trainer. I am choosing to keep my mouth shut and get it done, however, i can absolutely see why 5 out of 7 trainees have quit on this guy. Quit notjust the company,trucking altogether. The pressure put on trainees in this particular cdl training program by trainers is just insane. 3 weeks on the road,no backing,said it would confuse me in regard to testing. 4 hours on practice pad backing and cdl skills test next day. Guy says that his family needs me to pass first day so they can use the bonus money for xmas. Anyways, I can certainly see your point in asking off the truck. Just figure,especially now,they are all about the same. 20K more miles until i upgrade😄

What company are you with? It sounds like our situations are a bit different as I already have my cdl and am hired on with the company already. Is your cdl training and company training lumped together somehow?

I am with prime, did the cdl training program with them and was hired on 12/14.

Ok right on, so you still have a few months to go with a trainer on the road, right? Are you going to have a new trainer now?

I think he means that he's post-training entirely. If I'm right, Prime hiring goes like this: orientation -> 10k student driving, no teaming -> cdl exam -> trainer and trainee team driving -> official job offer.

Your e-log system will email your logs somewhere for you. The feature is not easy to find, but if you email logs at the end of your "day" each day, and the final logs turn out different, you have proof of a problem.

To get a copy of your logs from a Qualcomm , go to Hours of Service, open the 8-Days tab. In the bottom right, open the Fax/ Email button, enter your email.

If your mentor is taking shortcuts (writing in your backing experiences, etc.), it's hurting you. It's a whistleblower thing, but you need to let the training people know.

If you know you're getting a new mentor now and that's what you wanted then for now I would lay low and focus on getting through training. I don't think your trainer did anything directed toward you that is worth raising a fuss over. He drove on your logs a little and edited them without telling you, neither of which are great, but neither of which are of much concern.

The only thing you could consider a serious concern is the texting and driving. But do you have proof of it? Probably not. So there's nothing they can do about it even if you let them know he was doing it. So that's going to get you nowhere I'm sure.

It's easy to be idealistic and get up on a soapbox and start telling everyone they need to stand up and speak out when they see something that's not right. But in this case I just don't really see anything productive that's going to come from reporting any of this, at least not at the moment. If you really want to report anything about him, take notes now so you can vividly remember details later on, get finished with your training, and once you're out there solo you can report back to the company about what you saw from that trainer. That way you're protecting yourself from any potential backlash and like I said, I don't think reporting him for any of this is going to get you anywhere simply because you probably don't have any proof of any of it.

So I would just continue on with your training and when you go solo decide how you feel about reporting any of this. I'm not going to sit here and tell you to jeopardize your career in any way by reporting this guy immediately and causing a big mess. I've had many different careers over the years and I've played a lot of different sports so I know very well how precarious your situation is when you're the new guy in a tough industry. Your best bet is to just focus on your own career.