My journey with Swift begins tomorrow!

Whew! Week 1 down and I am exhausted!

As others have said, the heat is absolutely brutal here. It's been over a hundred every day on the range and the only shade is the hat you wear. Drink PLENTY of water - even with the heat, if you aren't using the bathroom more than three or four times a day you aren't drinking enough. I've been lucky enough to avoid being burned thanks to suntan lotion and a wider brimmed hat.

Anyway, I'll post as much as I can remember from the day to day stuff, and then general comments while I'm still awake We have a day off tomorrow but will be at class next week for a full twelve hours each day.

Thank you for everyone who gave me advice on the backing test! I finally figured out a method that works for me, and the testing itself revealed a lot about the school and how much Swift tests for besides just skills with the truck.

We had a student in our class who had claimed to driven big rigs before and was going to the school because she let her CDL expire in her home state or something similar. She didn't really have a know-it-all attitude typical of some people, but she had her book knowledge down and her attitude radiated "This is a waste of time, I already know this."

While practicing on Wednesday for our straight line backing test, she was absolutely flawless and only pulled up one time when she first started. When the test time comes around, there were still 15 of us in the class. 9 were taking the test in the morning, and the rest of us 6 were going to take it in the afternoon after lunch to get some more time in the trucks. A few people in our group were given the option to test in the morning if they were feeling confident, but we decided not to and take all the practice time we could get. Everyone gets their test and passes it in the first group except for her. She was visibly shaking when she was getting into the truck and couldn't even back the truck a third of the way without going outside the lines. She pulled up, tried again with even worse results, until finally the instructor stopped her to get out of the cab. She jumped out and forgot to set the brakes, so the truck started rolling backwards...she had to chase it a few steps to climb up into the cab and pull the brake knobs...

Her retest at lunch went the same way, so she was sent home. It was a huge eye opener about the school and students in general...some people can do great on a range or practice, but get into a test or another situation and their nerves get to them and they just collapse. She said she had no plans to reapply to Swift, and was going to apply to either JB Hunt or CR England.

While I'm on the subject, there was an undercurrent that I've been noticing. Everyone forms cliques or gravitates towards the people they're like or the people they get along with. There are two distinct groups of people in our class - those that have the attitude that we're here to learn, and are just so thankful for the opportunity Swift is giving us and keeping an open mind, learning from our mistakes, talking to our instructors, doing exactly what they say, etc. The second group seems to do nothing but bash on Swift; the instructors, the school, the hotel, the long hours on the range, etc. The best example I can give is when I was with that group during a break and we were talking about our straight lines and what else we were going to learn, and that I was happy that I was learning a new skill and was enjoying myself at the school, and actually having fun. One other student looked at me and said "What the hell is wrong with you?"

I don't think any of these people are bad guys, and I've been happy for their sense of humor and whatnot, but at the same time, I don't hang out around them at lunch or break because the negativity that comes out is just depressing to be around. If they make a mistake, they start complaining about how they aren't being taught the TEST and only things on the TEST and are learning useless skills that won't help them pass the TEST. That and how Swift has a horrible reputation, they don't pay their people, etc. I just want to throttle them and go WHY ARE YOU HERE!?!?

Anyway, back to the topic at hand - I went slow, listened to my instructor, and got a PERFECT SCORE on the straight line test! Two other people in the class got perfect scores as well, and the only person who left was the one who couldn't calm her nerves.

After passing the backing test on Day 4, we spent the rest of the day learning how to drop trailers and hook them, and start our pre-trip inspection.

Day 5's morning was spent exclusively on drop and hooks and pre-trip inspections. During the second part of the day, we were given demonstrations on how to back the trailer in at a 45 degree angle. Both of our instructors have different teaching methods for this. One is very methodical, and the other one is basically "I'll show you how to do it, get in and do it, and I'll answer any questions you need." That's my instructor - he lets you make your mistakes, and I really value being able to make my own mistakes instead of having someone correct it before we make it, as long as it's nothing critical that causes a crash or compromises safety on the range.

While doing the 45 degree tests we started driving around the range getting used to shifting and off-tracking a giant trailer behind us. Quite an adrenaline rush - ten miles an hour never felt so fast!

Yesterday was fun. The class who was here their last week were taking their CDL evaluations and the instructors decided to have some fun and test their reflexes by hiding behind one of the trailers they were driving by. As the trucks drove by with the relatively bored students, they would throw a cup of water out onto the windshield, kick a milkcrate, or actually pick up one of the big plastic barrels and chuck it out in front of the truck to see how the students would react. Sure woke a few of them up! As for myself and our class, I was able to get the 45 degree docking flawlessly, so was my roommate, and made our instructor so proud! He called the other instructor over and threw down the gauntlet to get someone from his group to back as perfect as we just did

Shifting went a lot smoother for me yesterday after going through the motions in the hotel room and working with the instructor that let us make mistakes instead of the one who reaches over and slams the truck into gear if you take longer than half a second to shift...

After lunch I got volunteered to move a few trailers around - nobody else in my class had done this. Ran over with another instructor to drop one of the training trailers from a tractor, and got to bobtail around the range for a bitQW - what a difference in handling, that tractor felt like a race car! Finally when we hooked up to the other trailer to pull it around, I get told "Oh, no pressure, but there's over 40,000 lbs in the box..." Once again, a completely different animal to pull the short distance I did...nobody else in the class has done this yet. I'm soaking up new and fun info like a sponge!

Finally, I made two mistakes yesterday. The first was pulling up too far on the setup for my 45 degree parking, and it turns out doing the opposite of what you do to back in doesn't move the trailer back to the original spot. I got the trailer so ####eyed I had no idea how to fix it, so I called my instructor over and he showed me how to line up the truck back to where I wanted it.

The second mistake came during my last drop and hook. I was pulling up to the trailer and raised the air suspension, but something was wrong with it. Normally it only takes about fifteen seconds to raise the back of the tractor to bring the fifth wheel flush with the apron, and I gave it about a minute as I was checking everything. Thinking everything was good, I backed up into the kingpin and the noise it made was one of the loudest things I have ever heard. I popped the brakes and got out and found out that there was still a large gap between the apron and the fifth wheel, which was when I realized there was something wrong with the airbag system. I jumped back in and pulled forward a foot or so when my instructor, Robert, came running up. He asked me what happened and I was honest - I didn't realize there was something wrong with the airbag system and backed into the kingpin with the tractor at the wrong height. He looked at me thoughtfully and asked "So, was that driver error or was that a mechanical error?" I answered "It was my fault. Yes, the airbags aren't working properly, but if I should have gotten out of the truck to check to see the tractor was at the right height before trying to latch onto the trailer."

His response? "That's the perfect answer."

I cannot believe how much fun I am having here! Day 7 was a classroom day reviewing logs, learning how to shift in theory, and also learning about Hazardous Materials. We ended today with a pre-trip inspection from one of the instructors who actually gives us the test, and it was very informative to see how someone who grades you on it wants you to do it.

We have tomorrow off for memorial day, but end up on the range a full 12 hours the rest of the week to compensate. We're going to be learning offset and parallel parking, along with getting our pre-trip and air brakes tests and driving around the yard some more getting used to the truck for our road testing on the third week.

Thanks for all the kind wishes and support! I've wanted to post more from the academy, but the pace and heat is exhausting! I've been in bed by 7 every day this week to get up at a little after 4.

More to come!

 

I'm sure you feel so sorry for us as you're sipping Mai-Tais on your two days in a row off before you start your OTR training

Practicing for all I'm worth, thanks a bunch for your help!

 

Thanks Injun!

Yesterday (Tuesday, week 2) was our first day back and was a classroom day covering a bunch of miscellaneous stuff including more trip planning, finances and living on the road, safety, and how the owner/operator program worked with some differences between flatbed and van. Mike's a great guy and made it fun; we also got a pre-trip inspection demonstrated by him.

This morning was spent on pre-trip evaluations. I got an 86/90, only missing a few things (I SWEAR I said them, my instructor must have some hard hearing... ) while a few people in our class got perfect scores. The entire rest of the day was spent learning and practicing driving around the range, and learning the offset and the parallel parking. I have the offset down to an exact science, but I need more work on the parallel parking and how to line up from the cones properly as there aren't many points of reference to get the truck lined up.

One person failed his pre-trip due to missing a point on his air brake test, and the new class had a crash on the range today. Nothing major and nobody was hurt; during the straight line backing someone kept backing up and jacknifed into the lane next to him, so the other truck wasn't checking and backed right into the side of his trailer. I think both drivers are still here but aren't sure.

Tomorrow and Friday are going to be spent entirely on parallel parking and offsets. They're the most difficult maneuvers so they want to give us plenty of time to do it. 11 people are left in our class (we lost two more due to sickness or car problems) and so far everyone is doing a great job. Saturday we do evaluations on our skills, and then hopefully we get behind the wheel on Monday.

Thanks to everyone for your support! I'm having more fun than I thought I'd have here