Swift Road Test? What to expect.

Keep up the good work, I have been reading these forums a while and these angry old pot bellied dick bags make it really hard to stick around. I came here for help and real advice not just people talking out there #####.

Luckily there has been people out there who do help and dont just bash ####. =)

 

I dont chain up PERIOD if chains are required to travel on the road then it is too bad for me to drive on it so I park. My life worth more then the load traveling on chain law roads. I've been driving for 20+ yrs never chained up never will. I have driven for many companies including Swift.

 

I bought a set of used chains after an incident where NOT having them cost me a significant amount of money. Detouring around a road closure, I found myself at the bottom of a hill that hadn't been cleared. 3 hours later I was at the top...so no time to grab my back haul and a 100 mile bounce back to the house. If I'd had chains, I could've been up that hill and ready to roll again in 15 minutes.

Since then I've chained up twice. Once dumping at a highway dept yard that hadn't been cleared. I'd been there the day before on virgin snow and had no issues...but now a half dozen other trucks had come, tore it up, packed it down, and made it slicker than snot...not to mention dumping their load wherever they wanted to making it a challange to get turned around on a GOOD day. I could have waited a few days for the ice to melt so I could get unstuck...or call a wrecker...or spend 5 minutes and put a couple chains on.

Again last winter, I was doing a D&H at a customer lot that was pretty slick. Slight uphill and I just didn't have the traction on the ice to get where I needed to go...so, again, I could wait a few days for the ice to melt, call for a wrecker, or take 5 minutes and throw a couple chains on the drives.

Chains are a tool...and a quite handy one to have in your tool box. You can either use that tool to make money, or sit around waiting for the ice to thaw. Now I've never used chains to drive down the road, but if that's what I had to do to get where I was going so I could go home, then I'm chaining up. If I'm sitting at home and would need chains to get out? I'm leaving the big truck at home and going out to play in the pickup.

 

Hmmmm yes. I'm 50. Have 20/15 correctable. BP is 120/70. No roids. Last 4 years the doctor has told me i'm in better shape than 95% of the guys coming in that are half my age, that were raised on taco hell. Oh, and I have a lot more time helping Swift drivers back in than you even have driving, not because I'm a nice guy, I just don't want my truck F/U'd. So you let us all knowhow its done after you've been on the road awhile.
Oh, almost forgot, with no tickets, and no accidents ( knocks on wood ).

 

So where does one get this experience, if they aren't supposed to do it without experience? Nice loop there, you can't do without experience, can't get experience without doing.