My Swift Adventure

My adventure has officially begun with Swift... today was day one at Swift Millington. The day started with 37 people in the class. By lunch it was down to 31-32 with people getting sent home for medical reasons and 1 had an expired CDL-A permit. It was a long 13 hour day with only about 3-4 hours spent actually doing anything. The rest was spent waiting and talking. Tomorrow starts the real training with logs, mapping, and trip planning on the schedule. The good news is I get to sleep in tomorrow 'til 5:00 AM!!!

 

The "classroom instructor", Tony, said that range training starts Wednesday which is straight line backing day. Thursday is straight line backing testing in the morning followed by more excitement. Classroom and range alternate for the first 2 weeks and road training is week 3. Today should be informative, but I can't wait to actually get to drive, backwards counts right?

 

Somehow I don't think that an FBI hat would go over too well... LOL Swift now has the students obtain their CDL-A permit before reporting to school so we go right into driving. Should be entertaining having 32 people drive truck for the first time.

 

Day 1 ended with 32 people in the class and day 2 started with 29 and ended with 28 people as one was sent home for missing day 1. He will be rescheduled into a later class. Day 2 was all classroom going over log books, HOS, and health and wellness. The highlight of the day was the 2011 International Prostar parked out back... we were all checking it out and dreaming!!! Tomorrow starts range training with straight line backing. I'm dying to get behind the wheel!!!!!

 

Well... here it is day 7 and I fully understand why all the other threads that attempt to document the schooling adventure leave off somewhere around day 2 or 3 and pick back up around day 7. I was so tired this past week I could barely see straight. So, back to the thread at hand.

Day 3 started with a Straight-line-backing demo followed by a full day of trying to get the truck and trailer to actually go in a straight line backwards. Mentally and physically exhausting to say the least.

Day 4 started with Straight-line-backing evaluations... all but 2 passed on the first try, and they passed no problem on their second attempt. After lunch we got into groups according to state of domicile and received our pre-trip demo. The rest of the day was spent learning our pre-trip inspections.

Day 5 started with an off-set backing demo followed by pre-trip inspection evaluations and off-set backing practice.

Day 6 was more pre-trip inspection testing and off-set backing practice. All but 1 of those who have been tested have passed the pre-trip inspection and we have lost several more classmates due to paperwork issues and 1 student who decided Swift wasn't for her.

Day 7 we were back in the classroom for HOS testing and a Mapping class. I for one was glad to get in out of the sun and enjoy some A/C for a change. Who knew that planning a trip from Memphis to Dallas, TX could cause your brain to play twister!!!

That brings us up to date... tomorrow is more classroom time and trip planning testing. Viva la A/C!!!