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

I forgot about how freight would be affected by the holiday weekend.

I'm currently back at the Edwardsville, KS terminal waiting on my clothes to dry. Hint to anyone using this terminal, before you go throwing your stuff in the washing machines, make sure there are dryers that work. I waited 2 hours for the repair guy to finish his duct work on the dryers, waited patiently just outside the laundry room doorway to pounce on the opportunity to wash clothes and secure my place. I didn't find out until after I had 2 loads washed that there was 1 barely working dryer of the 4. So I guess he hooked up new ductwork to non-working dryers?! If I had known this I would have swung over to the Pilot hours ago.

Recently I left this terminal, less than a week ago, taking a load out to Chesapeake, Virginia. Despite the slow speeds through W. Virginia and Western Virginia, I welcomed a few hours free in Chesapeake. Brandi met me at Big Charlies truckstop nearby and we grabbed some Mexican (the dinner, not the person) and went back to my truck. We had a few hours together and then I was heading back on the road with a load taking me back out here to Topeka, KS. I got that unloaded this morning and I'm back at the terminal.

I got one of those mystery messages yesterday afternoon stating that I needed to come to the Edwardsville terminal after I delivered this morning. Nothing is wrong, I'm not in trouble was what I was told. Ahhh, I think I know what this is about as the message was strangely familiar to ones I got last year. So after delivering I headed back to the terminal for my random drug test. I've become surprisingly efficient in peeing in the cup just up to the line and no higher. I was done in about 15 seconds, much to the surprise of the urine handler.

I put in a hometime in Tacoma for 5/26 last week. The plan is, at least for now, to get out to Washington and arrange to have that motorcycle shipped out to Virginia. I'm also going to park my tractor across the street from this U-Haul, rent a van, go to my storage and figure out what I can give to Goodwill, what I can fit in the sleeper of my truck and, if all goes well, empty out that storage unit. It's about that time to do that. The $41 I pay a month doesn't seem much but when I take it into consideration that it equates to almost $500 a year, it's one extra bill I can get rid of. My parents have offered to allow me to store my storage unit things in their attic for now. And I can get my other motorcycle delivered there and park it in their driveway until I get a different job.

And speaking of jobs, it pretty much seems at this point that I will be wearing Averitt red instead of my blue, black, white and gold Swift colors pretty soon. I spoke to my recruiter and my final interview was the last phone interview (interview #3) so now they just need me to commit to a date to head down to Tennessee for orientation. Tentatively I stated June 15th. I'm not 100% on Averitt but I'm about 95% right now. I'm going to miss Swift in a lot of respects but with the offer of more money, more hometime and no freakin camera in my face I can't pass it up. I would consider coming back to Swift sometime later if it felt right. Overall I don't have many complaints with Swift but unless they offered me a dedicated route in VA that would give me a couple of days off a week and the changed their minds about the camera thing, I need to move on.

So I guess this might just be one of those starting a new chapter type of things. I've been on the West Coast for 11.5 years and with the confluence of all these different factors - my mom's poor health, a new love, some new Swift policies, the desire to be a little closer to my aging extended NJ family and the need to have some regular time off that I can count on - it's time to go back to being an East Coaster. At least for a while.

 

Thanks for the compliment!

 

Absolutely. I'm sure there will be an adjustment period. That's got me a little nervous but I'm pretty excited to learn a new system.

I wasn't aware you weren't with Swift anymore Lepton. Good for you for moving forward with something new. It takes some courage to move outside our comfort zone into the unknown. Good luck with the new position!!

 

Currently sitting at the Lathrop terminal waiting on a load. I've been here for 2 full days since about an hour ago.

I put my 2 weeks notice in with Swift a couple of days ago. Recently I turned Averitt down and accepted an offer from Epes. Averitt sounded awesome but Epes is going to pay me more and it is going to get me "home" for at least a 34 each week. Plus, with the Epes route, I will be passing by "home" 3-4 times a week. The Epes job I took is basically a Lowes HIW run from the DC in Chesapeake, VA up to Pennsylvania (2 stops - paid) and back for one more stop in VA before returning to the DC in Chesapeake. I'll do this routine 3-4 times per week. With the pay (.55 cpm) I couldn't pass up the opportunity to be near my family every week. The issue at this point is where to park my tractor on my time off or my 34 hr reset. As it is, I don't have a home to park the truck in front of. I'm still working on a solution to this.

Yesterday morning I missed a call from my terminal manager. He left a message stating that he has some opportunity possibly running local out of Richmond. I'll call him back tomorrow to see what this is all about.

It wasn't the easiest conversation to have with my DM about leaving. She has been the best DM a driver could ask for and if I could stay working with her forever, I would. My terminal manager has also been the most awesome. I'm thankful for everything they have done.