I know exactly why these two students left. The medical was a lady who is diabetic. She recently changed meds and they needed to be adjusted a little bit. She will be back as soon as her meds get back in line.

The "secret" was my room mate. He had a domestic violence charge that was from 2001. He did not disclose this on the original application so when Swift discovered the charge they sent him home immediately.

I have said this many times throughout this post, if you tell them everything up front, they will take it all into consideration. They may not accept you into school, but if you lie about it they will send you home guaranteed.

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Running in Heavy Haul division with a great mentor. Not getting OTR experience yet, but some great training!

Ford is right, when I filled out my application I told them about a charge of possesion of weed all the way back in 1981. It is a sealed record so I don't even know if it would have showed up. The recruiter said I had to talk to the security section in Phoenix about it. I told them everything and they didn't have a problem approving my background. If I hadn't told them and it came out I probably wouldn't have been approved.

Let me start by saying that I will continue to post in this thread until I have completed my training. I do not plan on abandoning this thread as someone has suggested.

So today was day 6 of the training program, and it was the completion of our classroom time. We started the morning with a couple of videos on Hazardous Materials. These are some old videos that were produced for MS Carriers, but also pertain to Swift since they acquired MS Carriers.

The first video was informational only. Pretty much just the basics.
The second video took us about 2 hours to complete. The video would pause every few minutes so we could answer questions on the segment we just watched. The test was 50 questions, and everything was covered in the video. This was essentially an open book test, and we all passed with flying colors.

Next we had a map reading class that basically acquainted us with the atlas and how to read it. We spent about an hour on the tutorial and then took a test on maps. This test was a team effort where we could work as a group. 40 questions that tested the different skills to mapping. The questions asked us to determine the distance between multiple cities, find the shortest route, compute the fuel consumption, compute travel time and other such figures.
This test was rather detailed, with a lot of group discussions, but we all passed the mapping test.

Next we had a powerpoint presentation on a healthy lifestyle.

At the end of the classroom instruction, we completed out Trainers evaluation for classroom instruction.

The last 2 hours consisted of a lot of pictures and youtube style videos on drivers that made bad decisions. We saw a bunch of rolled trucks, a few guys that thought they could make it under a 12'4" bridge and other crash pictures.

Day 7 will continue with more range time were we will continue to practice for the skills test and pre-trip inspection.

Today was Sunday, we started with 10 students and finished with 10 students.

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Running in Heavy Haul division with a great mentor. Not getting OTR experience yet, but some great training!

Or even worse they would have discovered it after you started school, and they would have sent you home. I may not have mentioned this, but if they send you home, it is at your expense. If you return to a later class and resume your training, you pay your way back to school.

Swift will only pay one trip in, and one trip out when you graduate.

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Running in Heavy Haul division with a great mentor. Not getting OTR experience yet, but some great training!

went to school on my own. got a WIA grant so it didn'y cost me anything. so I should be ok when I get to orientation. There will be no surprises.

Well, shoot, I'm certainly interested in this WIA Grant. I'm a displaced worker, where do you go and what is involved in getting one of those grants?

I got my grant in Massachusetts. I went through my unemployment office to get it. It is different in every state. When I went they paid up to $5000. I think it might be more now. It allowed my to go mto a CDL school and still collect my unemployment while I was attending.

Yeah each state, and county in WA has set up criteria for the WIA grants. I wasted two weeks filing for unemployment, even though I would never be eligible because i was self employed when we closed the business.

After filing for unemployment and attending an orientation seminar through the local wroksource, they informed us that they will not pay for CDL schools because they use up too much money in a short period of time.

Now, like i said each state and county has it's own criteria for the WIA grant. Good luck!

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Running in Heavy Haul division with a great mentor. Not getting OTR experience yet, but some great training!

Nothing too exciting happened today! We started the day with an hour for pre-trips, then started training on the driving range with our assigned instructors that will get us through the rest of our training.

We went through the same stations that we have been doing for the last few days.

For the last two hours our instructor took us for a ride around the block. He explained the basics of shifting and gave us a demonstration.

Day 8 will start with another pre-trip, and then we will spend the rest of the day shifting.

Like I said, nothing exciting happened today. We did start with 10 students, the guy that joined us on Friday retested at the DMV and passed so he is going on to his orientation. Now our class has 9 students, but nobody got sent home.

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Running in Heavy Haul division with a great mentor. Not getting OTR experience yet, but some great training!

You are going to lose some readers if you can't get a more exciting story line....fil in the gossip around town...hell you're in Lewiston, ID..nothing but excitement...who is the mayor chasing around the desk...which student fell out of bed into the pig trough...did a truck run anyone over on the driving range....c'mon liven this party up...gossip, gossip...make up lies...be a politician!

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I'm a Born Again American, conceived in Liberty
My Bible and the Bill of Rights, my creed's equality
I'm a Born Again American, my country 'tis of me
And everyone who shares the dream
From sea to shining sea.
lyrics; Keith Carradine thank you