Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

Yeah I'm kind of curious about that. When I asked about where the freight was I was told recently that it is out east but not anywhere else. I wonder if they did hire a lot of newbies.

I would think freight should be better than it has. These past few days have picked up but still doesn't seem where it should be.

 

Sitting in the driver's lounge in New Boston waiting on a pizza and my laundry.

I dropped a load down near Jacksonville, FL and then picked up another in Orlando taking me to a t-call drop up here. Good miles and pretty smooth trip other than some severe storms in Kentucky as I cut through.

Next load is picking up near here and taking me out to Iowa City.

Tried to call the feedback line again regarding the new cameras and the voice mailbox was still full. I'm reluctant to email and lose anonymity. I'm not really looking for a conversation with R. Stockton on this, just want to give my feedback on it. Life here goes on.

Looking forward to those few days off coming up in less than two weeks.

 

Well I have done something that I haven't ever done since being with Swift. I started looking at new driving jobs. I actually surprised myself in doing this.


Taking those baby steps towards a new life in trucking and a new life back east...

In the fashion of "Who Moved My Cheese", change is scary and we are reluctant to embrace change. I am one of these reluctant ones.

Overall Swift has been pretty good to me. Whether it is an honest to God good to me or just circumstantial in the sense that they employed me when my life was in bad shape. They trained me and paid me while they did it. They reimbursed me for the training as promised and they have paid me fairly accurately. I can say that when I get decent miles I actually make decent money these days, albeit for being out on the road 7 days a week and for weeks at a time. But the money is there. I know the Swift system, I know what I can get away with and what I can't, I know their expectations and I think at this point I'm pretty familiar with the Swift way of life. With that said, if someone asked me about my experience here I probably wouldn't have a lot of negative to say about Swift other than some general complaints about the industry as a whole, less specific to Swift. However, it is about that time to get moving on to something else.

I'm not too sure if there has been one catalyst to make me look elsewhere or whether it has been a combination of things. Most likely the latter. I've heard the positive things about this new camera system but I just can't be sold on it. I guess that's my line in the sand. Even if the thing is completely harmless, even if I've only had one critical event in 2.5 years, even if it is actually there to benefit me, there is something about that thing that bothers me to the core. But that's not all of it. It's the timing of the new camera's release, its inevitable installation in every company truck that tells me it is time to move on. But it's not all about this camera...

Every time I get news of a downturn in my mom's health I start to regret my time away from my family. I don't want that day when I will have to look back and think that I could have spent more time near her and my dad. I don't want to live with that regret. And that is probably of more importance than these stupid cameras they want to install. The camera's just give me the appropriate nudge to get moving along quicker on changing my life.

And then there is Brandi. I haven't been with her too long but this new journey has been amazing and full of surprises. It is an honest relationship and more pure than anything I have had in a long time. There isn't anything that is soiled in this. In the past, as I have written on here, there has been someone that I was crazy about, even hurt me some before I left on my trip, but I never met her in person. Soiled and not a true relationship. And, yes, there has been another out in Washington that I have been very close with at times. We have a history and she is good to me. I know her love of me is honest but is that enough? It isn't. That was the others in the past but something was always missing. It was never enough because sometimes it takes more than just someone that loves you and is good to you. There needs to be a pure chemistry. These puzzle pieces have to fit together and with those other individuals there was just some puzzle pieces missing around the corner.

Brandi amazes me everyday and her imperfections are perfect to me. I'm careful in how I proceed to an extent, that practical side of me telling me to keep it slow, play it cool and keep a level head. Then there's the other side of me; the side that likes to blast up one wheel into the air on those backroads, do stupid stuff that leaves me injured and broken, take risks that leave caution standing in the kicked- up dust somewhere on the side of Pragmatism Road, me howling "yeahhh!". She is what I have been after all this time and I never knew it. I want to be closer to her, see her more and spend some real time with her. For the first time, I can actually understand what it is like to be on the road away from someone that you really want to be near.


So I took these baby steps today. I did some research on some trucking firms that are based out of or have terminals in the Richmond/Norfolk area. I got some names of some companies, started to do a little research and I've got a list of questions ready for a company I'm going to call tomorrow. It's just the first steps, more of a fact finding to see if this company would fit my needs. They promise that I will be out for 5 days a week, home for two. Starting pay is $.46/mile and there are bonuses for stops. So it's just the first steps but it's something that I was reluctant to do weeks ago but something I find necessary more recently. It's a little scary stepping into the unknown but it's also pretty exciting. I'll stay with Swift for a while longer, still give them 100% but I see change coming in the next few months.

 

I've been working with this Averitt recruiter lately and it seems that I'm on to the next step. Not sure if I'm ready for this move yet though. He got my DAC report back and said the only thing on it was my Swift driving school. Odd that they put that on your DAC. Otherwise, nothing negative on there. Good news.

DAC reports...
I've heard some horror stories about people getting a DAC report back only to find that there were negative items on there that they didn't know about. That was my fear. Not sure how this type of thing happens w/o a driver's knowledge but it sounds like some shady stuff if companies are doing this to drivers. I am lucky so far in that mine is clean. I thought I heard there was a way for us drivers to get a copy of our DAC but I don't know how that works just yet. I'll have to look into it.

Averitt opportunity...
I have recently been thinking that I don't think I'm ready for an East Coast dedicated route just yet. It sounds like a good opportunity and I've heard mostly good things about Averitt but I can't pull the trigger just yet until I can figure out what I'm going to do with my motorcycle and storage unit out in Washington. If I committed to this opportunity there is no telling when I will get back out to WA to figure out the logistics of getting my personal items back here to Virginia and then, of course, the issue of my bike out there. But I'm tempted to go ahead and do the phone interview with these guys anyway just for practice - see what kind of questions they will ask.

Hometime...
I'm still on hometime and getting some relaxation in. Heading over to Brandi's house in just a few minutes to spend the night there. She's taking me over to the DMV tomorrow (too crowded today) to get my WA state driver's license transferred over to Virginia. Not sure why but it sounds like Virginia charges something like $70/year for 8 years for a CDL. What else can they possibly tax out in this state?!?!

Hoping on the bike and getting rolling over there. Return to the truck early Wed. morning. Not looking forward to it at the moment but I'm happy that after almost 2 years I was finally able to update my Rand McNally 720. Long time coming for that update.