BF/GF team heading to millington, TN 2/2/15

Good luck you two.

I went through the Swift academy in Idaho a little over 2 years ago. Still driving for Swift.

Something I may suggest for your final test on pretrip. Get yourselves some 3x5 index cards and break up the pretrip in the way that you will later pretrip your own truck. Sounds silly but it works. I got this idea from someone in my class and it made the final pretrip exam that much easier. Just rewriting it all on the 3x5 cards helps.

Are you guys planning on teaming once you get off the trainer's trucks? Some here might have some tips for couples that drive together. I went to class with a guy and girl whom met in class, started dating and then drove as a team once they got off the trainers' trucks. It didn't work out well although they stayed together after leaving Swift.

Best of luck in this new endeavor. Be safe but have fun with it.

 

We are already well into having our entire pretrip memorized. The cards certainly helped me! We miss a reflector or light here and there but we have most of it locked down. I had no experience with the inner workings of a vehicle before coming here, so I spent the first couple of days getting really familiar with truck parts. We were really only tested on in-cab/air brake check on the range. I've been given the impression that exterior is covered more thoroughly during road week.

We are planning to team together. I've heard plenty of horror stories since we arrived about couples who tried to team together only to split up within the first year. I'm definitely open to suggestions from anyone knowledgable in making team driving work for a couple. We've lived together in 1 bedroom for the last 6 months or so, but a truck is even smaller and more confined and I know how cramped quarters can turn little disagreements into major problems.

 

We survived range week! Today is test day on log books and trip planning. I was the first one to finish the logbook test--Spectacle was right behind me...that's either really good or really bad. We find out today about travel arrangements for road training. We won't be training in Millington. We will probably go to S. Carolina. Tony did tell us we won't be leaving here until Monday because of bus schedules...not sure what that'll do to our schedule for next week. We aren't scheduled for DMV evals until March 6...but funds are gonna be running pretty low if we don't start getting paychecks when we planned. Makes me a little nervous but we're still ahead of the game and doing better than a lot of our classmates.

I'm glad we'll have tomorrow off! No range, no travel. I'm planning a French toast breakfast for the two of us and my roommate...it'll be served sometime around noon when I crawl out of bed.

 

One thing that I can tell you about the pre-trip test is that watch out for the little things. They are what can mess you up. I remember when I did mine many, many years ago. I was done and said so and the tester kept asking me if I was sure and I said I was. He asked me 3 times so I went over and over in my head what I might have missed and said that I was done. I ended up with a 99%. I missed something very small. The city horn. Best of luck to you both.

 

LOL ... same thing I missed.

 

You two are correct Kevin at Millington is awesome. How many times have you heard "I'm just sayin"??

If you road train in Greer say hello to Pete and Steve, just say from a former student. Pete called me ####### a few times, all in good fun.

 

LOL I know Kevin and Walter. I had those two for range training. Kevin must have stopped using the phrase. I had him down pat impersonating. I'd heard Walter went to road training so if he's back on the range that's good.

Yeah Greer has been backlogged for months. Seven in our class from SC had to go home for two weeks. Be patient you'll get there.