I guess there might be something wrong when even youtube is loaded with swift follies...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXTZoITrypY

 

I do feel bad for his Family and friends.

However...I also feel that he should be dropping off a mountain pass today, while receiving the proper instruction on how to do so without burning off the brakes.

Thats not going to happen.

In about 6 or 7 years, YOU will see a story just like this one, and will hopefully have the passion to look past the death, and "see" what went wrong and why.

Do I feel bad for the Trainer? No...I'm sorry but no.

As far as I know..to date...Nobody I have ever trained to completion and solo drive release, has injured or killed anyone or themselves. Yeah...most of them I lost track of...but they were good drivers the last I knew of most of them.

There are a couple whom I failed during training, and that the company let go, whom went on to injure and kill at different companies. One of those men went to prison. There was one driver whom I refused to continue training,:hellno::hellno::hellno:, whom the company placed with another trainer...who promptly put that trainer and 2 others in the hospitol. The company paid a huge price for that. Hundreds of thousands of $$$$. That is what happens when you run over the backs of cars. They could not fire that driver and not pay a huge settlement.....they fired the driver...they paid the settlement.
(Bruce never did give me my share of his settlement! :tears::tears::tears

In plenty of cases...to avoid paying out huge settlements, bad drivers are promoted to "Safety" positions, by trucking companies, until the proper amount of time has elapsed. That is just a fact of life and this industry.


And yes...I have a problem with the "Team" training concept...as do a boat load of others.

 

I didn't read all of the comments posted on this thread, but I can guess that it probably degenerated into a pissing contest at the least.

Bottom line: The type of team training program that Swift and other companies use needs to be "outlawed". There is absolutely no valid reason to have an inexperienced driver at the wheel without an experienced trainer in the jump seat. None whatsoever!

And "trainers" should have a minimum of FIVE years OTR experience, not a day less.

 

Yup, what a great place to hide em! LOL

That system works both ways though. Here is what happens when "safety" moves over to the driving side of things..................

How can anyone forget this purported former Knight safety director? Dollarshort is undoubtedly one of the true titans of CAD bullshit artists.

New to the board? Search under poster "dollarshort." Here are some refreshers............

This fella has no shame.............

 

This is not the first time that "TEAM TRAINING" has come under fire here on CAD. A year ago... Two years ago... I have always been a very staunch oponent of team training with the trainer in the bunk. The trainee doing his/her own training has absolutely NOTHING to do with safety or training. It has everything to do with the company's and the trainer's bottom line. $$$$$.$$ At the cost of the trainee. In this case, I have little doubt, it cost the trainee his life.

Will putting an end to team-training put an end to accidents that may or may not cause the death of a driver? No. I don't think so.

Will putting an end to team-training reduce accidents of this type? Absolutely!!! I have no doubt what so ever.

I see team-training as an INDUSTRY BLACK-EYE!!!

So, if you want to bestow a bunch of "shiny smiley moons" on me... Go ahead. But, reduce this, and you maintain a better collective image of the truck drivers, reduce property damage, and don't have to feel sympathy for as many of the driver's loved ones.

My own opinion...
Companies that do training should be stopped for periodic checks. If the trainer is in the bunk, the company should be given a $100,000 fine. Team-training would then vanish, and safety would be served much better.

 

times 2!!!

 

Not really. It did have a few moments tho. I do have another idea to throw at all of you tho.

What if the company ( any company ) says that x number of days or x number of hours behind the wheel WITH THE TRAINER IN THE RIGHT SEAT is enough. ( As long as said trainer feels the trainee is doing good ). Is then going to a team status not the next logical step. The trainee on his own ( so to speak ) but with an experienced guy there just in case????

Think about it for a minute. What another poster said about the guy passing his CDL test ( mine was by the state ) makes you legal to drive from day one. You don't have to have ANY training.

Just some thoughts to ponder.


Ridge

 

If you go back and read the article again, it was in the few paragraphs about the accident that stated the driver lost control on wet pavement.

In Oklahoma City, right after it started raining on blacktop that was laid down about a day or two earlier, I could spin my drives with very little effort, and a trailer that was fully loaded was taking dives toward the guard rail anytime the wind decided to blow from the side. Has anyone, especially your trainer, ever told you about the oil in the blacktop during the first ten minutes of rain? Any driver can have that in the back of his/her mind when the pavement is dry, but it sure comes out to the FOREFRONT, for an experienced driver, when it starts raining. If the trainer didn't cover that before, he sure was not going to cover it while sleeping in the bunk.

 

As I've said... I've had trainees WITH THEIR CDL's that could not even find reverse on the shifter, much less back into a dock. Do you want them on the hiways without any additional training?

They say that high school prepares students to face the world. If that's true, why do they have to go on to college to get a good job?

 

:bow::bow::bow::bow::bow:
LOL...AND YOU could have gone the rest of the year and not brought that up!!

:hellno::hellno::hellno::hellno::hellno:
I had forgotten those gems.