The start of my first year with Swift.

I made it home. Yesterday I had tried to work the split sleeper and it didn't help me the way I wanted. I ended up spending the night in SLC again. Where the split did help is it allowed me to start my day sooner with plenty of time to make him. I was back before noon. I'm still trying to figure the whole split sleep berth out. I'm getting there.

When I got to the terminal last night I already knew where my loaded trailer was at. It was on the end of the row kind of in a bad spot. I never once thought anyone would park another one next to it. Well that's what I get for thinking. I was looking for a place to drop my empty and when I came to where my loaded one was at there was another one parked right up next to it. So close I could barely get in and work the crank. To get around it with my empty I had to go up over the curb near the fence. By this time I was ready to choke someone. I got by and find a spot for my empty. I scanned my load paperwork, picked up my T call paperwork and settled down for the night.

At 4am PT I was up and ready to roll. I went to hook up the loaded trailer and someone had parked another trailer in front of it. I had to sneak in from an angle to hook up. My other issue was that the trailers were so close together I couldn't get my mirrors past to slide the tandoms. They were all the way back and I had limited room to pull forward. I slowly pulled forward and inched the trailer out. I never thought I could do it but I did. I pulled out a few handfuls of hair...well I imagined pulling it out. I don't have any to spare, and headed out.

Once I got to the Boise drop yard I met a guy who was hooking up to a trailer. He asked me what it meant when the anti lock brake light for the trailer stayed on, on the dash. We went back and I was telling him that it may be a sensor as the light on the trailer wasn't on. He looks behind the light and found out it was unplugged. Once he plugged it in the light stayed on. In my opinion, running down the road with the ABS light lit up on your trailer is just an excuse to be pulled in at the scale. I might be wrong, but as a former cop, if I were looking for a reason to stop someone that light would be good enough. Why didn't the guy who unplugged the light just deal with the issue. Get the thing fixed. Don't leave it for the next guy to clean up.

That's it for today. I'm off to spend some quality time with the wife and 30 horses...lol

 

Once I got to talking to the actual workers they all seemed to be pretty good folks. It is a pretty daunting task when you open the doors and see all that freight kind of heaved in. There were a lot of boxes to unload and a high probability of damage just by the way it was loaded. The funny thing is that they wanted to know about truck driving...lol

 

Today is my second day off and I was sent a preplan. My first question is this. Since Swift has a policy now that if you are waiting at a shipper/receiver that you must be on duty. There are specific conditions where you wouldn't be. Am I now supposed to log in as on duty to respond to a preplan?

The load they offered me is kind of frustrating as it's the same load I had the last time I came back after days off. It's a load to Reno. I talked with my DM about it the last time. Swift was having issues with this particular account because the loads were regularly late. They give you nine hours to do it in. It's a nine hour drive on good roads. They don't take into account the amount of time you'll have to spend at the shipper when picking up the load. It took me an hour the last time. That cuts the time you have to eight hours for a nine hour drive. Now there is no time to stop and eat, get fuel if needed, or use the bathroom. My DM told me he asked the CSR why they cut time out of the delivery and they just looked at him.

I have not responded to this preplan. I did call and talk to a DM to find out if it was the same account. I have to check the weather and road reports before I accept it. I just feel like it's a preplan for failure and it's my butt on the line.

I'm going back outside to enjoy the day.