Through orientation I was concerned about trainer/driver safety and the company assured me that they were safe. When I was with my first trainer he would sleep in the top bunk while I was driving. I didn't mention it to him since he is the trainer and is supposed to know and follow safety rules. For those that don't know it is dangerous to sleep in the top bunk while the truck is in motion. If the truck were to swerve or suddenly stop, the person in the top bunk would get tossed around and possibly end up going through the windshield. Hence the reason while one person is driving the other sleeps in the bottom bunk.
There were other safety problems with this trainer but I currently don't remember the others; this was 3 years ago. Because of the safety concerns I mentioned them to the managers and decided I wasn't going out again with that trainer.
With the second trainer he was safer but didn't let me drive except when there was some proficiency/training to do; or it was night. He typically would drive during the day and finally let me drive when night was approaching. He didn't tell me what he expected but told me when things happened. Although I did figure out that he expected me to hitch/unhitch the trailer, etc. And then I figured I would get to drive some after that but he just got in the driver's seat and didn't say anything. I would be up all day hoping he would let me drive and then when night came he did. Problem was around 10PM I would start getting tired and would have to pull over somewhere. He would get mad because I was pulling over to sleep. As a trainer he shouldn't make a trainee drive at night.
Well, so this happened for several nights and to appease him I tried going as long as I could. To say the least it could have been a very bad accident on I-10 in west TX that would have involved people on and near a bus parked parked on the shoulder if it were not for me waking up in time to see the bus and swerve to avoid hitting them. Thankfully I didn't lose control of the truck and since that really woke me up I was able to drive a little further. Like I stated before that was 3 years ago and details after that I don't remember except I kept running it through my head. The jolting did wake up the trainer and he asked if everything was OK. Although I should have said Yes, I said No and said nothing further. If I remember correctly he went back to bed and didn't say anything further about it.
That was the final blow to get off his truck but I guess he figured out what had happened although he didn't say anything. The final blow that he wanted me off the truck was when again he had me drive in the evening and expecting me to drive all night which I couldn't. He told me he wanted me off his truck when we got to the terminal. I was planning on getting off anyway.
It was time for me to have a couple days off so I told the dispatcher with approval to get me rides home. After a few days home and thinking about if I wanted to continue I chose not to go back. A couple of weeks later the company sent me a letter that I no longer work there.
If only I would have listened to a neighbor that had drove for Swift back when I lived in Arizona to NOT drive for them I wouldn't have gone through this. The reason I did was I had the wanting in me and they offered a driving school that was much cheaper than others that I thought I couldn't pass up. I wished I would have.
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