MyecRunners Blog (Team Driving)

Hey everybody! Just wanted to catch everyone and anyone who's interested up on our experience thus far.

We decided to go with Swift and started school this past Monday (08/24/15). We are attending a private driver training school contracted out through swift.

Day 1: Monday 8/24
Today was fairly slow going as we had a lot of paper work to fill out. Many of our fellow class mates were coming in without their permits as well so we found ourselves 3 days ahead of the rest of the class so there was a fair amount of down time for us while the rest of the class spent time studying and reviewing information for the permit test. We went ahead and went over it with them to refresh ourselves on anything forgotten. We were told we could go out and practice our pre trip on the trucks on Wednesday while the other students were at the test site. Looking forward to that! The instructor touched on log books just enough for us to be able to fill out todays. They have us keep a daily log just as we would if we were driving to help us improve on that by the time we leave. Its a very good way to learn!

Day 2: Tuesday

Today was very similar to Monday, with a lot of paper work and more review for the permit test which we had already come prepared with. Lost a few students already that I assume must have decided it wasn't for them.

Day 3: Wednesday

Today we had to show up at 5 am for our DOT physicals. That lasted about 2 hours...blah. We both passed with flying colors though! Lost a few more classmates to various issues related to that. I believe we started with around 22 students and have fallen to 9 so far. Plus side to that is the instructor to student ratio has improved and we feel fortunate to have such a small class considering the class ahead of us is over 30 and the one behind us is expected to be near 30 as well.
After the physical had finally concluded, we started class. We went over log books more throughly and tested on that. Today was the most exciting day thus far for us because we finally got to go out into the yard and start our pre trip practice! Just looking at books and pictures of trucks gets boring after while. More of a visual learner so getting out there and physically doing it really helps! The rest of the class had to go take their test most of the day so we got one on one instructor time with the pre trip! Very thankful for that! The instructors are very good and knowledgeable! Many of them have been actual test examiners before for many years so its almost like cheating to have them walk us through the pre trip! Jakelyn is jealous of me because she went to fill up her water bottle and while she was away an instructor randomly asked me to get the keys to one. I'm thinking he just wants me to get them so he can move it. I brought them over and he says, ok hop in and start her up! I looked around and was like...me? Couldn't help but notice a grin on my face so I hopped in and fired it up! After the air tanks had filled up he asked me to hook up the the trailer behind me. All the while I can't believe he's letting me do this. First time ever hooking up so kind of exciting! lol Got to hook all that up and learn how to get everything in place. Then I got to drive it across the lot to another location which was a lot of fun! And then unhook. I guess you could say were still in the honey moon phase of trucking so every little thing is exciting! lol So Jakelyn came back about the time I was unhooking and she was like Whaaaat?! So I find myself in the dog house for that.
The rest of the day was more pre trip practice.

Day 4: Thursday

Today we went over maps and trip planning. That was very helpful information. I want to touch on that more in the future. We also went over Hazmat and tested on that. All the class work as been somewhat slow going but very good information and we both couldn't be happier about our scores sitting at a 99% so for in the course work! Finished the day out with more Pre Trip practice. So off and on we would go out and pre trip while the other one pretended to be an instructor to help each other improve whether it be speaking up or saying things in the proper way. We have a good time working together on all of that.

Day 5: Friday

Today is the last day in the class room. Went over more log book information, Maps and trip planning, and the rest of the class finally got to start learning pre trip with us. It was good to have an instructor taking us through the pre trip again with the rest of the class. The more repetition the better! By far the most exciting part of our day was finishing up with straight line backing for the last 3 hours! We both did really well! It was really fun to start operating the truck and getting the feel for everything! Nice little confidence booster going into next week! We are very excited to start next week because we finally get to start doing backing maneuvers and driving on the road! Monday we are practicing Off-set backing all day! Tuesday were going on the road with the instructor so that will be stressful but we are both looking forward to it! Not sure on the plan for the rest of the week but I know it consist of a lot of skilled maneuver training and traffic driving.

So far this experience has been a really fun adventure for the both of us! We both love learning new things and taking on a challenge! We will try to maintain a daily or at least weekly blog on here to keep everyone updated on our progress! It will be helpful for us to log this experience on here, helps to be able to retain more about what you did!

If anyone has any tips or advice feel free to comment below! we are always open to new ideas and tricks of the trade! You guys next to our instructors are our most valuable asset!

Thanks for reading! Sorry it was so long!

Paul and Jakelyn (MyecRunners)

 

Sorry about the hold up! When I get time off I'll leave a more in depth explaination on how the training turned out!

But in the mean time, we both got our CDL's the same day! I have been OTR with a swift mentor since Wednesday. Jakelyn just started with hers today because she had to wait on a female mentor. I haven't heard from her where she's headed to first. I have been in Dallas Texas and now in Jackson, Mississippi soon to be headed to Michigan!

We have to complete 200 hours behind the wheel with mentors before we get our own truck. Kind of annoying but a must. Good learning time. It started off slow for me but its picking up. Getting adjusted to this lifestyle has been difficult for the past week but I'm actually starting to like it now that I'm starting to get used to the long drives and sporadic schedule. It has been stressful taking in so much information like trip planning, improving backing, shifting and city driving skills but I know we will pick up on it sooner or later and things will start to smooth out.

Everything is going really well though we have a lot to learn and absorb over the next 5 weeks or so but we got this! Going to be worth it!

 

Technically we are still in the early stages. We both have about 120 hours to go before we are back together in our own truck.

We are planning on leaving a more detailed update once we get home time after the initial 200 hours separated. That way I have my laptop instead of phone to type. I'll know more by then too about the whole process.

It has been a long journey from initially contacting the recruiter to going to school to get our license to going to orientation at swift to our 200 hour mentor program and finally getting our own truck to team in. All in all about a 2 month process.

So far we both have nothing but good things to report about the whole experience. We're really looking forward to getting started on our own.

As far as pay goes I can't report much yet as we have not been upgraded to full driver status yet until after our 200. Right now we receive $9.50 for drive time behind the wheel and $7.25 for on duty time. Not great but it gets you by while you train. I try to max out my 14 when I can and it makes for a comfortable paycheck until we get regular pay.

The pay for teams however is very competitive from the research I've done. .50 a mile. So I'm very happy with that. It's prorated based on the distance you go. Can go up to like .65 I think it is if you drive less than 300 miles or something a day. Which is good news for us because we eventually plan to go to a more local team hub they have that's just 10 min from home. Operates just in the Midwest basically.

Hope some of that helps. I will report more details in a few more weeks but that's kind of a quick run down.

 

I will add that so far the miles we have been averaging with our mentors teaming has been acceptable. I've been getting around 2,500-3,200 a week myself not including my co driver so that gives us good things to look forward to. It seems like it's pretty easy to get 500-600 miles a day at least 5-6 days a week per person.