Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

I didn't know Virginia had the enhanced driver's license. If that is an option I will definitely get it. I know WA state has that.

 

Yes! I didn't know I even had to have the micro SD card for it to update. That was the mistake I was making over the past 2 years in trying to get it to update. And, yeah, mine used to crash quite a bit. I even had to push in the tiny reset button every now and then just to get that thing to work right.

The 520 is basically the same thing as the 720 so now I'm curious to see these new updates. Funny how one can be so excited about updating a GPS - I tried to explain this to my girlfriend. But when you use something every single day and you spend as much time in a truck as we all do, it makes sense. Wooooo hoooo GPS updates!!

 

Thanks. I think I'm still going to do the phone interview and take it from there.

 

Flat motorcycle tires on the interstate and taking dirty pictures from G to X...

Had a great last day off until I got a flat on my rear motorcycle tire on the way back up from Brandi's this morning.

Last night had some drinks at some borderline dive in Norfolk. Brandi knows (and is sometimes frustrated by) my love of taking photographs. I've been carrying this cool little camera with me everywhere. I picked it up not too long ago and it is fantastic. I got tired of carrying around a big DSLR everywhere since it garners too much attention. So I picked up this Ricoh GR. Any of you photo savvy individuals might appreciate this. Imagine a camera almost the size of a Point and Shoot but with an APS-C sensor, set focal lengths for street photography, an outstanding high contrast black and white mode, full manual controls with a prime 18.3 mm lens and a nondescript body. Okay, for those that haven't fallen asleep...

I bring this camera with me everywhere. I was at this bar called Greenies in Norfolk downing a Long Island Iced Tea followed by something called an Orange Crush while Brandi was having a few Blue Moons in the bottle. We took some pictures of ourselves out on the rear deck where we had been sitting and moved the party inside to the bar. We grabbed a booth and I continued taking photos discreetly while the rest of the patrons went about their business drinking and being merry.

I told her that certain parts of her upper body looked particularly appealing in the dress she was wearing and I took a picture. She went along with it and soon she was tugging the top of her dress down, discreetly, while I took more pictures. It was still PG at this time bordering PG-13. But it was working for both of us and we knew it. We talked about how crazy this was getting and how crazy it could become so with that, we left and decided to go back to her place where I was set to stay the night anyway.

To leave out any more incriminating details, and to avoid any censorship, it would be safe to say that the picture taking adventure went from PG-13 to R to X quickly as we moved from the kitchen to the living room couch to the bedroom. Like that song...."oh what a night". I'm getting back on the road very, very relaxed despite the rear tire flat I suffered on I-64 later this afternoon.

 

Very true. I bought a class 10 micro SD and it's working great. I love the new updates and they added a new voice "Claudia". No more crashes either.

Definitely worth the update.

 

Sitting near Kansas City waiting on a load.

I had my phone interview yesterday with Averitts HR person and it went well.

I got a surprise call today from the Averitt guy that is in charge of this new account in Virginia Beach and he interviewed me as well. That also went great. A little while later the original recruiter I have been working with called and left me a message stating that the phone interview today counted as my second interview, en lieu of the in person interview, and that I would need to call him up to schedule when I would go to Cookeville, Tennessee for my orientation.

I'm pretty excited and seriously considering this job. It's .45 cpm, $1000 sign on paid out at 3 and 6 months in, home in Virginia Beach for 1-2 days per week, new auto Volvo with APU (not sure how I feel about an automatic just yet but I hear apu's are nice), and there's stop pay with 5-6 stops per week. So pay is good. Not as much as a good paycheck at Swift but better than a bad paycheck here. Mileage is about 2000 miles per week, mostly east coast including Nova Scotia down to Miami and as far west as Ohio down. There will be about 1 NYC delivery a month he stated. That's something I have to weigh in since I hate driving in the city. Delivering to the Bronx or Brooklyn scares me, especially when it comes to finding parking. I don't know how people do it. I would use a 48' trailer for NYC deliveries.

There are pros and cons. I love driving the western states and seeing those parts of this beautiful country. I would also have to figure out what to do to get my motorcycle and storage unit things out to Virginia without breaking the bank.

On the positive side, the cpm rate seems good, from my research it seems drivers are happy there, I would be home 1-2 days a week to spend time with my sick mom, see my family, reconnect with my Jersey family and friends, and Brandi is there.

I guess I'll think about all of this over the weekend. I'll always say Swift has been pretty good to me. They've been fair and right now I have the best driver manager one could ask for. But this camera thing kills it for me and if it's not Averitt it will be somewhere else.

For now I'll stay excited about this new opportunity and think this over.

 

That's exactly what I have been hearing too. I actually love shifting but, yes, in traffic it is annoying and my clutch leg does get worn down. I guess I won't know what I'll think of it until I actually drive it. But I'm pretty sure I'll end up liking it like everyone else.

I hear it works pretty good going down steep grades as well, as far as it finding the appropriate gear.