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

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.

Thanks Brett. I think I'm going to just tell them we had totally different personalities and approaches to the job, and it caused some logistical issues along the way like me not getting nearly as many hours of drive time as I could have (which is true). Since I'm sitting at a terminal right now, yesterday I decided to go out to the smoking area and start asking questions since there's always conversations to be had there. It turns out my experience with my trainer was about average. Apparently it's very common for trainers to drive on their students' clocks. Although I don't really think there's any good reason for it, I agree it doesn't really seem like a good enough reason to throw my trainer under the bus, so to speak. The texting/driving thing still kinda bothers me but I don't really know how to bring it up right now so I might wait til later like you said.

I was relieved that I think every person I talked to agreed I did the right thing by getting off the truck. The general consensus was, if we're not getting along now, how are we going to be getting along 2 or 3 weeks down the road?? People switch trainers all the time, and it shouldn't be too big of a deal. I'll just make an extra effort to get along with whoever I get next and try to listen more.

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.

What do you mean the final logs turn out different? Different than what? Are you saying to email them before I approve them or just compare them to my paper logs?

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.

What do you mean the final logs turn out different? Different than what? Are you saying to email them before I approve them or just compare them to my paper logs?

Paul asks:

What do you mean the final logs turn out different? Different than what? Are you saying to email them before I approve them or just compare them to my paper logs?

First, Brett said the thing you want to do is get another mentor and move on. Do that. As for the email thing, my suggestion was to take a moment to ask for the email sent to your personal email account. You get a file that has all 8 days required to show a DOT officer. So you have a snapshot of what you just did that day (plus the other 7 days). Later if your mentor edits your files, you cna ask for another log email (they're free) and compare them.

BTW, once you change from driving to another activity on the elog , you cannot change the driving time - it's locked. You can change "On Duty Not Driving" to "Off Duty", but the driving time is set for all time.

Thanks Errol and Brett. I talked to my driver development coordinator this morning and it went fine. He is actually based up here in Salt Lake so I got to talk to him in person. I was afraid I was going to have to write a statement since that's what they told us in orientation, but I didn't have to. I just said we had really different personalities. He said that was totally normal, happens all the time, and assigned me a new mentor. We're supposed to leave tonight. I've already got my fifty hours so we are supposedly going team right away. Thanks again for the advice. That went really smoothly.

Just a quick update. They sent me out with my new mentor that same day and, man, what an improvement. This mentor is really professional and takes driving and mentoring seriously! He also happens to be getting really good miles too, which I'm sure is just coincidence but really works out in my favor. He thinks I'll be done with training about 2.5 weeks

Just a quick update. They sent me out with my new mentor that same day and, man, what an improvement. This mentor is really professional and takes driving and mentoring seriously! He also happens to be getting really good miles too, which I'm sure is just coincidence but really works out in my favor. He thinks I'll be done with training about 2.5 weeks

Great news, good luck!