Swift Mentors

So I knew Swift needed Mentors, but today I saw just how badly. A little background.

To be a Mentor, Swift requires you be with the company for at least 9 months and a clean driving record. They want to see if you can do the job before entrusting you with training a new driver. There is, however, a loop hope where you can train to be a mentor sooner than normal. If you are planning on teaming and want to train your partner they will wave the time requirement. Instead you have to get the recommendations from your Mentor, your Driver Leader, and the Fleet Manager. I got the approvals and took the training yesterday. Again, my standing as a Mentor is limited to just training my dad. So imagine my surprise when I get a call today saying they already had a student for me. I've been solo (and dispatched) for fewer than 90 days. They must be hard-up for trainers. Thankfully I had already been on the road for 5 hours and could just say, "already dispatched". And honestly, even if I had still been at the terminal I would have turned it down, even though the money is nice...I intend to train one person and that's it.

But other people should certainly consider being a Mentor. I lucked out and got a good one, but I've heard enough horror stories to know that more qualified drivers should stand up and volunteer to train the next batch of drivers.

So I knew Swift needed Mentors, but today I saw just how badly. A little background.

To be a Mentor, Swift requires you be with the company for at least 9 months and a clean driving record. They want to see if you can do the job before entrusting you with training a new driver. There is, however, a loop hope where you can train to be a mentor sooner than normal. If you are planning on teaming and want to train your partner they will wave the time requirement. Instead you have to get the recommendations from your Mentor, your Driver Leader, and the Fleet Manager. I got the approvals and took the training yesterday. Again, my standing as a Mentor is limited to just training my dad. So imagine my surprise when I get a call today saying they already had a student for me. I've been solo (and dispatched) for fewer than 90 days. They must be hard-up for trainers. Thankfully I had already been on the road for 5 hours and could just say, "already dispatched". And honestly, even if I had still been at the terminal I would have turned it down, even though the money is nice...I intend to train one person and that's it.

But other people should certainly consider being a Mentor. I lucked out and got a good one, but I've heard enough horror stories to know that more qualified drivers should stand up and volunteer to train the next batch of drivers.

I have a couple of those horror stories for ya. Lol. I can tell you this. There is no way in hell i would be a trainer. I know my limitations and haveing to train some of the morons there bringing in. No way. My buddy had a great mentor and i was talking him and he said he got up one night and his new student was texting, had both ear buds in and had a foot on the dash. That boy would have had his phone thrown out the window, got his ass kicked and dropped off on the side of the interstate. Just curious, what are they paying company drivers to train?

PS what do you think of all the safety messages trucktographer. "Well team, 6 people had accidents today. I am very dissapointed" well quit hiring morons. I could have sat in orientation and kicked out about 6 people after just observing them for 30 min.

I applaud you for not taking the bait and being a trainer. Personally, I would not appreciate going to a company and having a trainer that only had 6 months, let alone 90 days experience. One of the things I liked about Crete / Shaffer was that their trainers have a min 2 years experience, plus, they have a long training period of 8 weeks, which I thought was a positive thing.

I myself have learned a lot in the 6 months I've had at my job so far. I could probably show a newbie the ropes, but I still consider myself a rookie. As truck drivers, we're always learning, but I think there's definitely something to be said for at least 1 year experience before becoming a trainer.

I agree about the safety messages...hire better people initially and the accidents/slips/whatever will start to go down.

I agree about the safety messages...hire better people initially and the accidents/slips/whatever will start to go down.

They had tried to rope me in after I had 6 months as they had 6 students ready to roll. . Even now with 2years I still don't think I'd take a Student. Too much of a headache

I found out today that the above mentioned mentor did boot his student at a terminal for unsafe behaviour and he got another student then 2 days later they had stop in a terminal, removed his student and grounded him pending a investigation into racism. Oh boy.