Question:
I graduated 2 weeks ago from the CDL school I attented in Murfreesboro,TN. I chose to go to work for Swift through their sponsership program, meaning that if I stay with swift for 1 year my student loan will be paid in full by Swift. I went immediatly after graduation to orientatation and was sent home to wait for a trainer to come available.
I get a call the next day from the training department for me to be in Memphis the following day via greyhound to meet with and leave out with my trainer. I arrive in Memphis to be greeted by my trainer and training coordinatior. After the breif introduction we then go out to his truck to get acquainted and wait for our first load.
He goes over all the truck controls with me. The truck has a 10 speed transmission I was trained on a 9 speed but that would be no big obstacle to overcome. He then tells me he will teach me shifting without the clutch which is fine because double clutching can get tiring. He also tells me we will be running teams from day 1 which by the way I understood it is not the way it is supposed to be. He will also teach me to play with my logbook, which I have no problem with but I dont want to run illegal and only get paid 350 dollar a week training pay its not worth it to me. But I dont complain I just comply with it.
We finally get a load dispatched that afternoon going to the Northeast. We go pick the trailer up and he get us to the interstate and then we switch seats so I can drive. After about an hour of me driving he says he feels I will be ok and he goes to the bunk to sleep. At this point I begin to get nervous because I never never driven a truck unsupervised and its only my first day im going through weigh stations which I never done before while he is sleeping.
I drive my full 11 hours the first day alone and stop and wake him up to switch when my time is up. The next few days is basically the same except my second day he has me drive 15 straight hours while he sleeps and logs 4 of it on his book so we stay legal.
I am not trying to be a baby or anything but this seems a little excessive and its hard to learn. I must wake him up anytime I have a question and it gets aggrivating. I will continue this saga on a seperate post so it wont be so long. I welcome any comments and insights on this. Thank you

Answer:
Call Don Diggins in Phoenix and tell him exactly what you've related in your posts. Be truthful and do not exaggerate.
He will help you. He helped me twice.
O/O's or company drivers masquerading as trainers just for the mileage value cannot be tolerated and compromises safety in any company.
If you want to train, then train. Otherwise....

Answer:
The only thing you are being taught is how to kill yourself for the job. Thats it, nothing more. You need to do something about this NOW before you graduate.
Answer:
Get use to it. Swift and Covenant are "team training companies" .... Both these companies run their new drivers as teams.
Swift is in a "little" trouble with the DOT, but nothing a few thousand dollars under the table won't cure. Swift has more than enough money to pay off the DOT auditors in AZ. It's the same with Covenant, a few thousand dollars under the table in Tenn, and the DOT auditors look the other way.

Answer:
dak1,
What is happening to this trainee is unacceptable. And you're not part of the solution.
Swift vs DOT had nothing to do with this situation. This is about a bad trainer.
-JHappy Dwellers Society
Company Driver Division

Answer:
The next few days is basically the same except my second day he has me drive 15 straight hours while he sleeps and logs 4 of it on his book so we stay legal.
He will also teach me to play with my logbook, which I have no problem with but I dont want to run illegal and only get paid 350 dollar a week training pay its not worth it to me. But I dont complain I just comply with it.
=============================================================
Yah, Your right Driver J, it has nothing to do with Swift and the DOT.

Answer:
Sounds worse than my crummy trainer when I started driving. He'd do the same thing: on our first load sit me behind the wheel while he'd crawl into the bunk to sleep. Even in rush hour traffic through downtown Dallas and up the notorious US-75, he'd still stay in the back asleep. On our third load he had me drive all night from St. Paul, MN to Mt. Vernon, IL on our way to Atlanta. My god, I can't tell you how I survived that. He was asleep while I was swerving on and off the shoulder trying my damnedest to stay awake in the pre-dawn hours. I must of fallen asleep at the wheel several dozen times that morning. Trainers who only want miles and money and don't care about their trainees need to be brought to the attention of their Safety depts and released from all future training. Please report this d1ckhead immediately!

Answer:

Master double clutching first. When you can hit every gear 99.5% of the time going up and down then worry about floating. There are situations where you will need to be able to double clutch accurately.

You need to learn how to play it straight. Log it like you do it and do it by the book. This is the only way you can garuntee to keep your butt out of hot water. Fines for log book falsification can be up to $10,000.00 per occurance. If you are in an accident and it is found your log book is not up to date or you have falsified log entries it will be your fault even if someone ran a red light and crashed into you.
Answer:
Stretch~
I agree with UTurn, and Driver J.
You need to open your mouth and say something, if you find this treatment so objectionable--which I would.
Your experience sounds a lot like my training--almost exactly, except that my last ten days on the trainers truck were fabricated, or "penciled in," if you will, and they never happened. I hit the road, completely naive, unskilled, and unprepared. The only good thing that came out of that was my ability to land on my feet, retain what little I had learned, and the fact that I wanted it bad enough to make it happen.
DON'T let this happen to you. While you may not want a trainer to hold your hand while you are out there, you most certainly do NOT want one that will get you killed. Think about it Stretch, please.
Answer:
One of the first thing the guy teaches you is how to run illegally???
If it were simple advice on how to do it from another driver, that's one thing, but from a company trainer?
Sneak a tape recorder into the cab next you're with him, and ask him to run through it again. Note that you shouldn't ask him directly how to run illegally, just ask for his "tips" on how to work a logbook. Get evidence, then take it to somoene. People like this are a liability.
It makes it sound like company policy is to preach legal running with one face, and require drivers to run illegally with another. Makes you wonder how come you see so many swift trucks in ditches, doesn't it...Professional Driver's Association UK Member
Owner of a threadbare gypsy soul.

Answer:

This is S.O.P. in the U.S.

Answer:

In most states recording a conversation is illegal and can involve fines and jail time, at the minimum.
Since it is illegal, it cannot be used in any court proceedings, or anything that could lead to a court proceeding. i.e. the company cannot take any action based on the content of the tape.
Best thing is to check with an attorney in the state that you plan to record in; the state you reside in; the stated that the other party resides in; the state company is based in; the state that the shipment originated in; and etc.
And then there is that chain of evidence....
For the most part, it would better to get another trainer.
-JHappy Dwellers Society
Company Driver Division

Answer:

Um, after the first time is there a reason you didn't pull off somewhere? I hope you have embellished this to a HUGE degree because if you fell asleep at the wheel even ONE dozen times and didn't stop that says something pretty bad.
Answer:

No, not embellished, just stupid and I didn't want to be a baby and say I couldn't hack it. This guy had been a Marine Corps DI before getting into trucking and he had already made fun of me the first time I started getting sleepy about three hours into hour first run. I know, just very, very dumb.

Answer:
Did you call Don Diggins in Phoenix like I suggested? The only way you are gonna solve this is if you take the initiative.....