Just graduated Swift Academy - Corsicana, TX - In-depth analysis of my experience

Funny you suggest the cut-outs. At the motel room, I made little paper cut-outs of a tractor and trailer and went over things as I understood them. I think this helped a bit. The Academy should utilize small models in the classroom early on to help the visual learners grasp the concept. Thanks!

 

Hahahaha. And I know who YOU are! Emery came home for one week afterwards in order to recompose herself and take a quick break. She heads back down to Corsicana later today to re-take the last week and try the exam once more. Fingers crossed! (( I have been to the Lancaster terminal twice already with my Mentor. I'm based out of Oklahoma City))

- I still need to finish posting the rest of the Academy story and start talking about my mentor training! I'm dragging behind, guys. Sorry. Updates shortly!

 

Days Eleven – Sixteen
While focusing on learning, I fell behind on writing daily updates, so I will compile the remaining days into just a few entries. This part focused mainly on a few more days of backing maneuvers and then several days of “road training.”

Several classmates did not pass the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] week (backing training) and so our class dwindled in size yet again. For those that successfully passed their evaluations, we finally started learning how to shift out on the road using the “double-clutch method.” With 2 or 3 students per truck, we took turns driving up and down the Interstate service roads, going all the way up to 8[SUP]th[/SUP] gear, and then back down to 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] or 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] gear. Since Emery and I were from Oklahoma, we were assigned our own Instructor, J.V. Jackson, who was by far one of our favorites. We started with a technical overview of gears, RPMs, and what road speeds correlate with each gear.

On one of the final days of road training, we went into the town of Corsicana and mixed it up with actual traffic, signals, turns, and more. Finally, we all took a “road test” that was similar in nature to most state CDL road tests, although the Swift Instructors are much more lenient than the State Examiners – at least in Oklahoma!

Day Seventeen
Being from Oklahoma, we had to test at an Oklahoma State Exam site, requiring us to drive from Corsicana, TX up to McAlester, OK. Often, students drive up to Ada, OK, but apparently we couldn’t get any exam reservations there.

We were joined by two other students from previous Academy classes who had not passed the State Exam, and so the four of us, plus J.V., drove up the day before and stayed at a much, much nicer hotel near the Exam site.

One booked into the hotel, J.V. allowed us to practice backing maneuvers in the adjacent truck parking lot, which I was thankful for. He singlehandedly made me realize that 90-degree alley turns are not simply a “formula” and instead, are a very dynamic, fluid, ever-changing backing maneuver. While true that you always start a driver-side alley dock by cranking the wheel all the way to the right, as soon as the tractor-trailer begins to bend, it then becomes a game of chess, with the driver always trying to think one-move ahead of the rear-end of the trailer. By predicting what it will do in the next 10 feet, one can gently turn the wheel this way or that way in order to guide the rear of the trailer into the docking area.

He then showed us how to do it flawlessly while reversing at a more… accelerated pace. Safely, I might add… but swiftly. ::

The Final Day – State Exams
I was the first to volunteer in taking the exam. I was tasked with a pre-trip inspection starting at the fifth wheel and proceeding down the side of the trailer. While I did not miss any parts, and could ramble through it in my sleep, the militant female State Examiner standing behind me taking notes made me more nervous than chasing armed crack heads into dark alleys as a cop.

Once through that, we moved onto the in-cab inspection and air brake test. As I neared the end of my air brake test, I was waiting for my brake knobs to pop out as I neared the 20-40 PSI range. It was then that I realized that both brakes were already set. I had forgotten to push them in before starting my whole test! I looked at the Examiner and simply told her, “Umm... Let’s start over, shall we? I think I missed a step.” And without giving her time to say no, I restarted the air brake check. Whew. She said nothing and gave me a passing grade.

Sadly, Emery made the exact same mistake during her brake check and panicked once she realized the problem. Emery had been nervous all morning and her nerves were fried at this point. She surrendered to the testing anxiety and wasn’t aware that she could start over; the Examiner couldn’t tell her that she could, either, as it could be construed as helping her or cheating, and so Emery failed her in-cab/brake test and was unable to proceed to the road test.

Back to my road test; it went well until the half-way point. I made a sharp turn through a neighborhood and as I exited the turn, was very close to the edge of the narrow street. The Examiner then told me to pull to the right and conduct an “emergency stop” and describe the procedures. The rig was already as far over to the right as possible from the exiting of the sharp left turn I had just completed and so I simply came to a stop and checked my mirrors to assure I was not blocking any “driveways, roads, or fire hydrants.” As soon as I began to put on my emergency flashers, so stated that I did not use my right turn signal to indicate I was pulling to the right, and to simply disregard the entire procedure and continue. I missed every single point for the emergency procedures, railroad crossing explanation, and uphill/downhill procedures. I assumed that had maxed out all of my points and I had failed, but we continued.

As we neared the next intersection, another sharp left turn in a neighborhood, all I could think about was, “If I did fail, she probably wouldn’t tell me until we got back to the exam site as I was in control of a very large vehicle and logic would suggest that Examiners are warned about telling students they failed until they have safely exited the vehicle.” I chuckled a bit at my own thoughts and then started my left turn; a turn that I took far too wide and had me on track to not only drive up over a curb with my steer tires, but would have had to drive several feet into someone’s yard. I stopped inches from the curb, threw on my flashers, checked my mirrors, and backed up about six feet, cranked the wheel hard and completed the turn without brushing the curb. Sweat was dripping down my face – or at least it felt like it. “Did that just auto-fail me? Had I already failed due to the previous mess-up? Did I correct my wide turn in an acceptable manner?”

I continued on and she told me at the next intersection that had I not acted so quickly and efficiently in handling the wide turn mishap, she would have auto-failed me. My jaw dropped. Whew! I was still in the game!

As the test proceeded, I racked up a few marks for grinding a couple of gears and missing a speed limit sign placed at a turn, but with an almost distasteful look on her face, she said I passed. Whoo hoo!

She also added that in the future, I needed to refrain from “talking with my hands” during “commentary driving” and to keep them on the wheel. And that I rode the clutch too much. And that I talk too much in general. She seemed relieved that my test was over.

But, hey! I was officially a Class A CDL holder now!

The other two students that were taking the exam that day failed for their 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] and 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] times, respectively. Once we made it back to Corsicana, we learned that out of our entire class, only myself and one other student successfully passed the exams on the first try. That is staggering and only solidifies my theory that more time needs to be spent with students on their backing maneuvers and related skills.

Prior to entering into this Driving Academy, and after reading over the dozens of stories posted on the internet and forums such as this, I thought that most students would pass on their first try. I really did believe that the Academy would prepare just about anyone to succeed in learning the skills needed for the State Exams.

Apparently, I was wrong.

Having spoken to other students, both with Swift and elsewhere, it seems that we did in fact get a bit shafted during our training. Many others report that that the majority of their class passed on the first try, or that they received exceptional training and personal attention when they had problems. Perhaps our was the exception to the norm.

Overall, I WOULD recommend the Swift Driving Academy for anyone wishing to get their CDL. I have heard some serious horror stories about other schools. I think the price is fair, as well, for those who wish to simply finance their tuition and work elsewhere.

I give it a 7.5 out of 10 overall; and closer to 8.75:10 had we received a bit better instruction on the range.

Orientation was nothing special - the same thing rehashed several times on this board already.

Mentor Training

I am now a few days into my Mentor Training and had my first load on Friday. It was an intermodal load (shipping container) and took us from Oklahoma City down to the Union Pacific Dallas Railyard, not far from Corsicana, Texas! Haha. We returned with an empty and wouldn't you know it; my first trip and it requires a night-time, 90-degree alley dock to park the trailer between two others. I did pretty well with a few minor corrections as it was a really tight spot. I barely had room to get my tractor back in front of the trailer without scraping the front bumper on a row of other trailers in front of me!

My mentor typically takes weekends off and so I don't leave out again until Monday, the 29th. We head to northern Colorado according to our pre-plan and I'm excited! I love Colorado and have not been back for several years!

Cheers, everyone!