Getting back on the road...orientation with Swift as a flatbed newbie 2/3/2014

As an experienced driver you can go and do your road test and medical before orientation. Especially since you live right there.

 

A long time ago in a different career I worked on glove design and production for some top outdoor brands. Part of my product testing was ice climbing in some rather extreme temperatures and conditions. Two things to look for in a glove for working outdoors is first to have pre curved fingers (the fingers are shaped with a half grip). This eliminates the material bunching as you try to grip something, so you don't have to remove the gloves to handle items like carabiners, ice screws, ice hammers, wrenches, chains, etc. etc.

The second thing to look for is a gauntlet that cinches around your lower arm/sleeve. If you are digging around in snow or reaching through a load to grab a strap it is a good thing to have that protection around what would have been the cuff of a normal glove, you won't get snow inside your glove.

This link will show what I'm talking about, a pricy glove. I recently bought a knockoff pair from Walmart for about $20 that works great for chaining, pumping fuel at 0ºF, or other outdoor work around a truck:

http://www.altrec.com/mountain-hardwear/mens-jalapeno-gloves/

If you can't find a pair at Walmart for cheap, then shop at any outdoor products store that serves the snowboard or ice climbing market.

 

You can get a new mentor anytime you want. If you were given the impression that you have to stay with one mentor or it looks bad for you to change mentors that is wrong. A driver in my flatbed class had 5 mentors before he went solo. The mentor gets paid for all the miles you drive plus a $1000 bonus when your training is complete. After having a dry van mentor then later going to flatbed training and talking with others in the class, I think it would have been of great benefit to have had a flatbed mentor. A flatbed mentor will know flatbed and the guys in my class that had a flatbed mentor gained invaluable experience with them and clearly had a better grasp of securing a flatbed load of which there are many different kinds. They got experience that is impossible to get from a dry van mentor. The flatbed class is only 5 days total. You can learn a lot more with 6 weeks of being on a flatbed truck. There is nothing to driving dry van compared to flatbed. Learning tricks of the trade from a flatbed mentor is the way to go. The axle spread on the flatbed trailer is another thing you have to get accustomed to. It's like driving a van with the tandems all the way back all the time. Last think I'd like to say is all mentors will just want you to drive as much as possible to get them as many miles as you can. They will drive you to exhaustion. Any accidents or tickets while your driving are on you. Make sure to do a full pre trip when they hand the truck over to you. You will be responsible even if you are in training. You have to watch your own ...

 

When I started with Swift I started in dry van, but enquired about going flatbed partway through my training. I was told that if I wanted to go flatbed I'd have to go through training again with a flatbed driver.

 

I've been driving van for a few months now for Swift and two weeks ago went to flatbed training. They haven't made me go out again with a mentor. That would have been a deal breaker. I had a hard time with the mentors I had. Probably would have had a problem with anyone. It's too small of a space for me and another person. I don't know if it's different at the Phoenix terminal but other's in my class went from van to flatbed without a mentor as well. It was only if they were straight out of school that they went out with someone. Five day class total. I did get assigned a new DL. He's cool but young and has never driven. It's very dirty work. I need somekind of jumpsuit to wear over my clothes or something. I can only imagine how the summer's gonna be.

 

Haha I'm feelin it having to tarp and strap two local loads here in phoenix. 83 degrees is pleanty hot. But gotta build up some endurance probably wouldn't be so bad.