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

Hey all!

I just graduated from the Swift Driving Academy in Corsicana, TX on Friday, July 19th, 2013.

My wife attended with me on Swift's 2-for-1 husband and wife tuition plan, and while I am really excited that we both passed the Academy, she did not pass her Oklahoma state CDL exam, so she will be relaxing here in Oklahoma City for a week and then returning to Corsicana for a few days of additional training and then take the state road test again. It wasn't for a lack of instruction; she knows her pre-trip and in-cab stuff like the back of her hand, as well as being a pretty good driver. But on test day, she let her nerves get the best of her and just shut down. She is in much higher spirits and is kicking herself for allowing anxiety to get the best of her. She's a little spitfire, for sure, and I know she'll do great on the next go'round.

The Oklahoma tests are pretty tough compared to other states; Texas only requires a parallel park and from what I hear, a relatively short road test, whereas Oklahoma is a random lottery pick of backing maneuvers and dishes out all 6 basic maneuvers on a regular basis. The road test was at least 45 minutes, too.

I also think our Academy experience could have been a bit better when it comes to backing training. The instructor team is rotated each week with each new incoming class, and I feel as though we got a bit shafted during our backing week. Nothing against our instructor personally, as he was a great guy, but he was relatively new to "teaching" and I think Swift needs to have those instructing to attend a week long class on HOW to teach.

I have been keeping a pretty in-depth log of my daily experiences at the academy, although on several occasions I did not have the energy to write up a summary at the end of my day. Long, blistering hot Texas days often made me want to just climb into bed with the A/C blasting and pass out, but I will go ahead and post what I have written so far.

I start Orientation this Tuesday, July 23rd, and will let you know how all of that goes, as well as keeping a log of my mentorship experience!

A bit about us:
I'm a 30-year old former police officer that left the force and went to work in Corporate Big Oil as an investigator. There was a lot more money in that field, but living in the suit and tie, 9 to 5 world didn't cut it with me, so after 3 years, I decided to enter the world of trucking. It's been a life long fascination for me.

My wife is 24 and stands a paltry 5'0". She had to use a big, fluffy pillow behind her to reach the pedals at the driving academy! Hahah. Anyway, she was in the corporate oil world, as well, as a Petroleum Landman. Together, we decided this would be a great career and so we set out to make it happen!

I run several websites, and decided to start yet another for this endeavour. We both love the outdoors, prepping, and traveling, and so the name of the new website will be: OffTheGridOnTheRoad . com. I'll be keeping an interactive log of what we do and where we go; perhaps videos, etc.

We own some land outside of Oklahoma City where we are building a great little off-grid cabin with shipping containers, and once we have a few months of experience on the road - and if we like it - we will likely move out of our city apartment and live between the truck and off grid cabin for awhile. We'd like to use this time to see other parts of the country in an effort to find a place to buy a house eventually, or perhaps more land, but we're taking it one step at a time.

I will say now that I mostly enjoyed the Swift Academy. Other than the week of range training - or the lack thereof - I really thought it was a professional place and taught us a LOT of information in a very short timespan. They had a great instructor staff, as well as pretty decent training rigs. The academy utilized a former terminal, so it had a modern and clean classroom that was likely the former office space, as well as a full garage bay and other amenities. I would certainly recommend it to others looking to pursue a trucking career.

Anyway, without further ado, here is part of my Swift Driving Academy experience and future updates will follow us as we progress in our career with Swift!

- Kevin

 

Swift Driving Academy - Corsicana, Texas
Day 0
My wife and I arrived in Corsicana around 8:00pm, Sunday evening, after a five hour drive from Oklahoma City and found our way to the motel that Swift was utilizing for student housing; the Corsicana Inn. There, we were met with a locked lobby and no front desk attendant in sight. After waiting for about 10 minutes, a young lady finally appeared from a back room to check us in. I informed her that we had a reservation under our name, to which she replied that the motel had none. Once I mentioned that we were there for the Swift Driving Academy, she checked my name against a list and proceeded.

As she quietly punched in some data, I requested a first floor room in the very sparsely booked motel, and was met with a resounding, “No… we have none available.”
Very well, I thought; strike one.

We were given a single room key and the attendant turned and walked away. A stunned moment passed as I awaited her to inform me where my room was located, but she did not return.

We finally found the room – at the far back corner of the dimly lit motel parking lot. We scoped out the room before lugging our baggage up the stairs and were met with disgusting accommodations.

I should note that I’ve stayed in some raunchy places before. While I’ve lived a pretty decent life by some standards, I have had my fair share of grungy reality. I’ve lived under bridges, on the side of a mountain, in a horse barn, on the road, in a van, a tent, a small garden shed - even a hospital closet floor and broken cruise ship after Hurricane Katrina took my house. I’ve couch surfed in some rather unsavory locales, so I’m no stranger to such places. That being said, I am now 30 years old and aim for a higher standard of living.

However, the Corsicana Inn reminded me of walking into a crack house back when I was a police officer. For five years, I worked in the worst of the worst ghettoes that New Orleans had to offer, and that is the only thing that I can compare this motel room to. The double-bed room was filled with the lovely aroma of stale urine, and counter surfaces were covered in a rainbow of stains and burn marks. I won’t even get into the nastiness that was called the shower and toilet but needless to say, I could distinctly identify at least three different people’s hair clung to the tile sides and faucet. Strike two.

My wife and I returned to the front desk to request a new room, and one that was not only clean, but had a single queen bed, as specified by Swift for married students. This presented an entirely new set of difficulties that the front desk attendant obviously had a hard time dissecting as most students bunk with another roommate in a double room. Once settled, we were given a new room key and I noted on the map that it was a first floor room. Shocking, huh? Apparently they do have some available.

Upon examination of this room, it was certainly disgusting, as well, but not as bad as the first. We only had to contend with a chair covered in obvious semen stains, a few hairs and dried urine on the toilet and shower tub, the “cable TV” that had no coaxial cable linking the television to the wall, and some toothpaste stains on the bathroom counter – aside from the anticipated and usual unknown floor stains, dust and dead bugs along the walls, and broken light fixtures. As we unloaded the truck and brought luggage into the room, our magnetic door key failed to open the door, giving my wife the lovely opportunity to stand guard outside the room with half of our luggage as I ran back to the office and had to wait on the attendant once more to get a new key (no, I did not place the key next to any electronics or magnets. I was very careful to avoid that; the card simply did not work).

Was it too pretentious that my wife and I drove to Wal-Mart and purchased a cheap set of bed sheets and new pillows?

Aside from the prostitutes in the parking lot, and the slow driving johns and junkies, the rest of the night was rather uneventful and we went to sleep, ready for Day One of the Driving Academy.

Day One
We arose early for class, as it starts at 4:00am during the summer hours. We headed to the former Swift terminal-turned-academy and got situated in the large garage, shop-like classroom. We had a class size of 12 students and one was immediately sent home for some paperwork snafu.

I was already aware that we would have several days in the classroom before heading out to the range and actually driving the big rigs, but the first day consisted of company introductions, rules, and a small pile of legal documents to sign.

After this, we were whisked away by van to a local occupational health office to take our drug tests (standard DOT 5-panel urine analysis,) which costs $30 each, if I recall correctly. The rest of the day mostly focused on more paperwork, course schedules, and related materials.

Day Two
We moved to a much nicer classroom in the main portion of the building. I could tell it was once the “office” portion of the truck terminal. Our classroom instructor was Charles Calloway; a large man with a decade of over-the-road experience, who spoke in a very concise, monotone, and thoughtful manner. I say thoughtful not in the sense of always cheerful or considerate, but one who truly ponders before they open their mouth. This is both a positive and negative aspect, and I’ll leave it at that. Overall, I enjoyed having him as our Classroom Instructor!

This second day of training covered topics such as how to maintain and update your Hours of Service logbook, how to read a map, trip planning, and related topics.

Day Three
This was our first day outside in the rigs, and we began learning how to reverse the truck in a straight line, as well as pull forward. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth; never leaving Reverse or 1[SUP]st[/SUP] gear.

It was good to learn what it takes to correct minor mistakes or trailer drift, but by the end of that first range day, most of the class had it down without any major issues. There were a few students who just could not understand the physics and mechanics involved in handling a vehicle that has a pivot point, but there were no serious issues.

Day Four – 4[SUP]th[/SUP] of July
Once more, we arose at 2:00am in order to get ready for class and arrive early. Since we drove our own vehicle, we left at our convenience while the other students waited at the front of the motel for the Swift bus to pick them up. It is literally an old prison bus converted for student transportation.

Once more, we worked on straight-line backing all day; back and forth in a 12-foot wide lane. I did a bit of quick math and determined that I had driven, in reverse, over eight miles by day’s end.

While learning how to reverse, we could see the students in the class ahead of us practicing backing maneuvers on the other side of the range and I wondered how long it would be before we started learning to parallel park a 70-foot rig in an 85 foot space, or how to perform a 90-degree reverse into a side alley.

By the time we left the range and returned to the hotel around 3:00pm, we were both incredibly sore from handling the worn-out clutches in those training rigs. I should note that my wife, Emery, stands at a mere five feet in height and has a hard time fully engaging the clutch. In order to do so, she has to sit in the front half of the driver seat and quite low, but we plan to bring a very thick, firm pillow with us the next day to place behind her in the seat.

Too tired to stay awake, and knowing the alarm would sound at 2:00am, we did not stay up late in order to watch the fireworks displays. We were both asleep before 5:00pm.

Day Five
Friday was full of more straight-line backing, however, towards the latter half of the day, myself and three other students were instructed to head to the back range and begin learning offset backing and parallel parking. We were all given one group demonstration of how to perform it properly and then left to our own devices to figure it out.

That afternoon went as well as could be expected, and I was excited to spend the entire next day learning these maneuvers, thinking that we had an advantage. I was under the impression that no one would be able to work on these until the following week, and my class was a whole day ahead of schedule! By day’s end, we were informed that Saturday would be canceled as the instructors and staff were off work due to the recent holiday.

Emery and I returned to the roach motel and sat.

Day Six
Having the entire day off, we decided to do some grocery shopping. The motel room had a small fridge, but no microwave. We don’t eat microwaved food, so it wasn’t a big deal to us; however, I assume that most trucking students would need a microwave to survive, so I felt sorry for anyone who got shafted like that.

We had noticed that our fellow classmates typically ate the cheapest food that was available: highly processed microwave burritos, cheap cans of genetically modified soup, and a lot of junk food, such as candy bars and sugary pastries. Most of the students in class drank several sodas each day and never once brought healthy vegetables or fruits for lunch. This is a staggering problem, not just in the trucking industry, but across the nation. We’ve both tried to impart a bit of knowledge and gingerly persuade some students to give their food decisions more thought, but we don’t want to come across as even more pretentious or holier than thou than we likely already do.

Emery and I both believe that proper food choices are the foundation of most things; sickness, emotions, thought clarity, brain power, mood, etc.
We looked around on the internet for a decent grocery store in Corsicana and found none. The local H-E-B grocery or the Walmart Supercenter were our only choices, so we tried HEB first.

We could find no organic foods and very few choices that were not laden with chemical preservatives and pesticides. We settled on a limited number of items, mostly (and sadly) conventionally-grown fruit and vegetables, along with some deli meats, and returned to the motel room.

Being the preparedness-oriented individuals that we are, I had brought two 1lb. propane bottles and a small, single burner top, along with a duffel bag full of easy-to-prepare food from home. I was able to cook up some organic wheat pasta and cheese in our lovely, dimly-lit room before going to sleep. Strangely enough, I felt like a meth cook, sitting on the stained floor of such a sordid motel while trying to light the burner and wondered about carbon monoxide buildup. C’est la vie. Tomorrow is another day.

Day Seven
We returned to the classroom in order to take tests over what we had learned about Hours of Service, logbooks, and map reading. We also watched an introductory video on hazardous materials – more of a company awareness certification than anything – and then were required to take a lengthy test on this hazmat topic. The test was open-book and asked many, many questions that students would not know if they did not have an open text book in front of them.

Questions revolved around what sort of explosives cannot be loaded with other materials, the various hazard classes that freight is sorted into, weight limits, packaging, labeling, and much more. I felt as though this entire topic was being rushed and crammed down our throats simply to comply with Federal “Hazardous Materials Awareness” requirements for commercial vehicle operators. I completed it feeling as though I had learned very, very little and could not answer any questions if someone were to ask me the next day.

I experienced this quite often in the law enforcement world, attending classes in which I learned nothing from in order for the department to declare that we were “trained” on these topics so that they could continue receiving financial assistance from the federal government.

For the map reading, which required some basic math skills, as well as the trip planning tests, almost half of our class failed. We were given one hour to complete the 20-question test and while I consider myself pretty handy with a map and math, it took Emery and I about 40 minutes to complete it, although much of that was spent writing out the math equations as we did not bring a calculator.

Those who failed the test were only able to complete approximately 1/2 of the 20 questions. I recommend future, would-be student drivers to bring a calculator and start learning how to read a map ahead of time – or refresh yourself on basic arithmetic.

In the Swift Academy, you are given only one chance to be placed on academic probation, but that does not apply to the classroom portions. If you can’t quite master the backing maneuvers, or road tests, you will be placed on probation and stay behind a week to take that portion over. If you still cannot succeed, you will be sent home. As much as they warned us about passing the classroom portions, they allowed those who failed to retake the tests after a few days of studying.

Day Eight
Once more, we were in the classroom. On day eight, we covered topics such as “Life on the Road”, physical and mental well-being, reviewed logbooks, laws and regulations, and other such topics.

We also viewed a few videos; none very graphic, just a few dashcam recordings of crashes caused by excessive speed or not paying attention. It was a laid-back day for the most part.

Day Nine
We were both excited to be going back to the driving range on this day, but that is where the enjoyment ended. The entire class was given a demonstration of how to perform each maneuver, and once more, left to our own devices. In what can only be described as a circus, students were trying to control a very large vehicle with very little instruction.

I consider myself a quick learner, and with my “driving instructions” written down, I tried several of the different stations: offset backing, 90-degree alley dock, and parallel to both the driver and blind side. It was much more difficult than I had expected, and with a mighty steep learning curve.

Assuming that the Instructors were giving us time to figure it out on our own and get a feel for the trucks without the anxiety of someone watching your every move, I wasn’t too concerned at the end of the day when just about everyone said they were having a hard time with backing.

Again, I incorrectly assumed that the following day would be filled with one-on-one instruction or Academy staff members out on the range evaluating and assisting the students.

Day Ten
Expecting to have an Instructor next to our trucks at some point, giving tips or feedback on what we were doing wrong was apparently far too much to ask for. Several of the students were still having an incredibly difficult time mastering the basics of the truck’s movement and there were no Instructors to be found.

Apparently we had only one Instructor assigned to handle eleven students spread out over several acres of driving range in almost a dozen different trucks. The teaching side of me expected the Instructor to go from truck to truck, or station to station, and help each student understand what they were doing wrong, or how to correct their mistakes, but instead, I saw the lone Instructor whiz past on a golf cart once or twice an hour, giving only a fleeting glance at what we were doing.

This became the topic of discussion for each break and lunch. Some students didn’t mind being completely left alone, and those students were doing better than others. Personally, I don’t mind being left alone as I will figure it out regardless, but I felt sorry, once more, for those students who needed help and were getting shafted, as well as the fact that we were paying to be taught this material. I expected more personal attention. Even a little.

Emery was having a few issues in some of her backing maneuvers and when she asked for help, it was given in the form of the Instructor giving her a sideways glance, or rolling their eyes and coming out to her truck for all of a few moments to instruct her once.

I’m not a teacher. I have no formal training in educating others. But I would expect more of a hands-on approach to teaching students. Some need more personal attention than others, while others excel when left alone. The Swift Academy takes drivers who have driving experience and a good safety record and places them into teaching positions without ever having them learn how to effectively teach.

This blows my mind.

When addressed, I was met with replies of, “Well, I have a bunch of other students who have to complete exams and pre-trip inspection tests, and I can’t sit out there and watch you guys all day.”

Pardon me, but having spent $3,900, plus another $500 for our roach motel room, I would expect a bit more personal attention, as well as more than one Instructor who is already stretched too thin.

This situation placed several students, my wife included, in a feeling of being “behind.” Knowing that road tests would be quickly approaching, followed by the state exams, by the time some students became comfortable with one backing maneuver, the entire week was over, leaving them incredibly anxious about all of the other maneuvers and pre-trip material. I really believe that a few extra days need to be spent on this topic. (spoiler: only 25% of my class passed the state exams and obtained their CDL on the first attempt.)

Day Eleven + will be posted in the coming days...