July 8th I passed my CDL Test at the DMV.

I'm starting to get a little tired of dealing with Swift though. They screwed up my original appointment time and when my instructor and I drove 120 miles to Tupelo, MS we were told "sorry your appointment was last thursday."

Long story short the state of MS made me wait 2 weeks to reschedule the test since I supposedly "didn't show up" for my first appointment that NOBODY TOLD ME OR MY INSTRUCTOR ABOUT.

2 weeks that I could have been on the road
2 weeks of pay that I could have made a car payment with

I'm finished with orientation and will be going out with a Mentor in a few days.

I know I said good things about the academy last time I posted but when my testing date got messed up things started to go bad.

I no longer had the same instructor & Instead of driving a 2002 Freightliner they stuck me in a 1998 International P.O.S. and the transmission started to go out when I took my test in it. I hadn't grinded any gears for weeks until I took my test. 8th gear would not work and it kept coming out of 6th. The examiner gave me 12 points for grinding gears even though it was the freakin transmission that was messing up. 15 points total on the road test. 1 more point I would have failed. The only other thing I got marked off for was forgetting to cancel a turn signal and making a couple of turns a little wide and one a little short (didn't bump the curb but you may have been able to fit a pencil between the tire and curb on that one). It was an island turn and the examiner says people mess up on it all the time b/c its a tight turn.

I only missed 3 things on the pre trip (nothing stupid - door latch on trailer, catwalk, and the apron on the front bottom of trailer)...

On the skills portion I got marked off 7 points (had to do some pull ups). I had to do parallel park (sigh and blind) and a 45 degree alley dock that was really tight. Straight line backing was easy. I did 1 pullup on the sight side parallel, 3 pull ups on the blind side, and 3 pull ups on the alley dock.

The examiner said I was confident and comfortable behind the wheel and that she had no problem giving me a CDL. She acknowledged the transmission issue but said she can't overlook it. It was either put the truck out of service and come back to take the test another time or take the points (we discussed this when the problem developed). She said she wouldn't have failed me for it though, but she had to take off some points for it.

Anyway I'm glad I finally got it and now I just need to get out and start making money


the test in MS is like this

on pretrip you have to get at least 86 items out of 108
on skills you have 16 points to play with
on road test you got 16 points to play with.....
(just fyi...)

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Kevin

CONGRATULATIONS KEVIN

Now the fun begins.................

Welcome to Swift driver.... How may we bend you over today.

Congrats on your CDL.....

Finish your year with Swift then move on to a better company

Northstar.............not funny......................hahahahahahahahahahaha
YES IT IS.....................HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


But seriously,............everyone has to start out somewhere........trust me I started out much worse...........

Congrats Kevin........

The Swift comments are always fun........ I actually feel sorry for any decent drivers that are stuck over there......
must suck to get picked on day after day after day after day........

If I had to drive for them I think I would have to come up with some funny acronym of MY OWN CHOOSING and post it on the back doors........
if you can't beat 'em....... might as well join 'em...........

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The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. — Albert Einstein

HAHAHA

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Kevin

Yeah I'm starting to come up with some good ones. Not sure if someone already figured them out but SWIFT can stand for a lot of things lol

We had to replace the bulb for the turn signal one day at a truck stop. I could almost hear the cb chatter... "Hey lookie over there, how many SWIFT drivers does it take to change a bulb?" We were all standing there watching our instructor. And the day one of the other students couldn't back into a parking spot "Come on Swift I hope your not as bad playing with your girlfriend as you are backing"

We didn't have a CB but I swear I could hear it...lol

I had a great time at (not with) the academy making new friends.

Here are a few I'm not sure anyone has come up with:

Sure Wish I could Find my Trailor
Two Females In a White Semi (backwards)
Sure Wish I could Fix my Truck
Sure Wish I could Fire my Trainer
Single White Idiot Following Tanker
Sitting While Idiots Fix my Truck
Shot While I Fueled wrong Truck

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Kevin

SWIFT Manual:

How to change a light bulb - Driver... Please do not attempt! Pay the next lumper you see to do it.

How do you know when your wife is messing with a Swift Driver?

When you come back after a week on the road and he is still trying to back out of the driveway.

[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link.

I was in the TA lot watching a swift truck trying to back into a hole for the night when after quite a bit of time, the Swift driver got on the radio for help; I helped him back in and he wanted to give me 10 dollars, I replied no keep your weeks pay.



Two Felons In a White Semi (backwards)
Two F*ups In a White Semi (backwards)

Sure Wish I (had a) Faster Truck (the original I think)

Stop Whining I'm F*ckin' Trying

Sure Wish I Finished Training

Slow Wagon In Fast Traffic!

Slow Women In Freightliner Trucks!

See What I F'dUP Today!



However........ I was talking about making some kind of joke that was a little more driver friendly....... I will think about it......

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The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. — Albert Einstein

I am married to a swift driver and believe it or not, he can back up better than alot of people.

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