My journey with Swift begins tomorrow!

Day 1/Orientation done. Probably ran into you guys out on the range when they took us out there on the tour to look at the trucks.

Took lots of notes to make detailed postings on here about everything. We met the academy directors today who are absolutely awesome. Did a ton of paperwork, took the drug test, then got a tour of the facility. Had the school explained to us, what we would be doing from day to day, and different things.

I had a heck of a time filling out the application information again since the last two years have been hell and I've been constantly in survival mode and I'm a bit fuzzy on some dates when I don't have my resume in front of me. After clarifying everything, the rest of the class was gone so I had to get a separate shuttle back to the hotel, oops Hopefully that was my one major "Oh man I'm such an idiot" goofup so we got it out of the way on the first day!

Hoping there's no issues with the CA DMV. I have a parking ticket on there I didn't have the funds to pay for when I renewed my registration, and since it didn't show up on my MVR and all the application information for Swift mentioned not to worry about parking tickets, it slipped my mind. Turns out though that the AZ DMV may not let me test for the permit I'm rushing to try and figure it out!

 

Going through Swift's academy in Phoenix. I hope for your sake you get out here soon if you're ready because August is murder here and Mike is retiring!

Sorry I didn't post last night, I was so exhausted I passed out!

Day 2: Met Mike, hands down one of the best instructors and teachers I have ever met. Funny, smart, and very sobering when he talks about the dangers of this industry and makes you believe it. Second day was spent learning about how to do log sheets along with many helpful hints to make them idiotproof (although they'll just make a bigger idiot and give him a government job!) and learning maps. I was in bed by 6pm that night...

Day 3: Went with the other 5 people to the MVD to get our AZ licenses and our permits - all of us passed with flying colors. Meanwhile, everyone else was actually getting in the trucks and practicing straight line backing. When we got to the range with everyone else, Robert and Tom were helping out with everything; first showing us how to back up, and then letting us do it.

My first half dozen times were smooth as butter, and then it just fell apart for me . Swift trains on good equipment for this test but there are several things the instructors do that while I may not agree with, I understand why they do it.

There are six trucks side by side that are solely used for the straight line backing and there's about five feet of space between them. It's very intimidating to be boxed in like that at first, especially since you can't judge your own speed when the other trucks are stationary. You not only have to pay attention to where your trailer is but also what the people on either side of you are doing in case they start to drift into your lane so you can get on the brakes and pull forward to get out of their way (happened to me today a few times, fortunately I stopped and pulled forward, a lot...)

For many people, this is their first time behind the wheel of a truck, the first time backing a trailer of any kind (I fit into both of these categories) and for others, it was the first time they had ever driven a manual transmission vehicle. An added difficulty: Some of the trucks and trailers are deliberately in poor shape - two tractors had very very loose steering, and two of the six trailers tracked to the side. The instructors wait to see how many people notice and are willing to overcome the idea that "It must be me, I'm just not getting it" to ask if there's something wrong with the trailer.

I understand that this is a driver mill, and that they do this at this pace to weed out people that can't make the cut, but if you fail the straight line backing test you're instantly out and cannot reapply for a full year. Throwing in all these factors at once including purposely putting sabotaged equipment on the line to see who can adapt for someone who has never been in a big rig before seems incredibly unfair to me. We have our straight line backing test tomorrow and with all the other factors, I'm being honest when I say I'm not 100% confident.

The largest issue I had today was while backing up one of the trucks with the bad trailer and tractor. I was drifting to the drivers side and my wheels touched the line even after correcting twice as much due to the steering play so I went to hit the brakes. Because my foot wasn't on the gas pedal, I missed the brake; it wasn't where I automatically thought it was going to be. After pressing again and looking down, part of the plastic around the steering wheel was loose under the dashboard and I couldn't see the pedals clearly. I did the only thing I could think of doing - I reached over as fast as I could and pulled the air knobs to stop the truck before I drifted too far and created another hazard. I know you're never supposed to do this, but it was the only way at that moment I could think of to stop the truck. With everything being thrown at once, it's very, very easy to get overloaded quickly, and when dealing with these tractors in such close proximity to each other for the first time you ever get behind the wheel of one, it can cause one to go into a panic. Fortunately, nobody in our group had an accident but there were two on the range today.

This has really been my only complaint with Swift so far and I realize it's on me even more than the training personel. It's not even a complaint, really, just more of an observation. If they would allow me to make a suggestion, it would be to put more space between the trucks for the first day of straight line backing so students can get used to the feel of the truck without the added pressure of not hitting something, and then pack them like sardines the second day once people become a bit more familiar with the truck.

I'm going to get a good night's sleep tonight and go into the backing test with a clear mind tomorrow. Anyone have any tips on straight line backing they can give? Tried following the instructors directions about using the numbers on the trailer as a reference point and that's when I jacknifed it so bad I had to pull the parking brake. We have a few hours to practice tomorrow for the test.