My Swift Adventure

It was so hot one night I freeked out and got clostrophobic. Woke up panicking. We use the windshield curtains VS the bunk curtains now.

Hotternhell in Laredo tonight. We leave for Michigan tomorrow. My mentor went to Mexico for a few hours. There is a guy down here that advertises on the CB to haul folks down there and back for $25. Guided tour. My GF would kill me if I did that.

 

Going into Mexico is a good way to smuggle a STD back across the border LOL if you make it back???

 

Probably. I'll just sit here at 2009 Kenworth Street and listen to some CD's and talk Mopars on line.

 

Sounds like a good ideal to me. Besides if mentor does that I'd be just like you sitting in the truck cuz my girl would kill me. LOL

 

I have been home twice since Feb 8th. Both times under a load. I got home Tuesday 11:00, left out Wednesday 03:15. My 6 weeks is up 3/26. My mentor is almost a week over on his home time. His home time counts towards my 6 weeks.

We are doing a series of JIT loads. Car parts, and a load for Central Freight from Memphis to Irving TX. Now have aJIT 2 stop driver unload for JC Penny. LOts of sleep time today for 4 am first stop. Baton Rouge, then Arabi LA (New Orleans) T-call to Lancaster TX. Then maybe AZ?

Maybe I will finish in Phoenix and get a truck and roll home?

 

BTW since I have been under a load since I left home I should qualify for 4 days off?


From what I am hearing Swift isn't to good on getting you home. They did come out with a message a day or two ago encouraging drivers to stay out until April 2nd as freight is hot.

One message I got was from the head honcho, "you have been ontime for the whole month!"And don't think this hasn't been noticed. I bet they keep an eye on you if you don't too! :laugh:



Also learned that most of our freight is out West of the Mississippi. Easiest run ning and the customers are usually pretty friendly.

 

Irving, TX? Really? Guess what. I grew up there. 20 of my 24 years. In fact, that is where I am now. My parents still live here and I'm temporarily staying with them while I train for my CDL. If you're in town on the weekday, watch out for a white Peterbilt 387 or a white International 9400 with a vinyl sticker saying "Fluid Transport" on it. It's full of students! LOL. Actually, the one to really watch out for is the International because those are the students who just started. Those in the Peterbilt are graduating very soon, which is the one I am in. Both are coupled to "BRIGHT" branded trailers, both badly beaten up. (The trailer attached to the International actually has a rip and holes down the passenger side of it from a student who never graduated; I don't him personally though.)

 

Well, made it thru my training this week. Tested out on wednesday and got assigned to my first truck and dispatched on my first load later that day. Unfortunately, I never made it out of the terminal in Columbus. When I started my truck, the first thing I noticed was it wasn't building air pressure. So I took it over to the shop and 4 hours later, they kinda got the massive air leak fixed (it still had a leak, but at least it could build pressure) but found that there was oil in the coolant. Great, the motor was blown. I didn't mind anyway cuz the truck was a real turd, but I was just upset that the load was already late because of this and now I'm afraid I was gonna get a service failure on my very first load.

So I go up to the Drivers window in the lounge and tell them what is going on and they say I need to call my DM's number which will ring into afterhours dispatch in Memphis (since it is now 11 PM). 2 hours on hold later I never did talk to anyone, so sent a message on the QC, went back up to the window and was able to get removed from the load. At 1 AM, I finally go to sleep in the truck and go see my DM in the morning and let him know what happened.

He said not to worry about any service failure. Since it wasn't my fault, it wouldn't happen. Then got me on another truck with a new load. Since I've been out for two weeks, he worked my home time into this load. I picked up an empty trailer, deadheaded home, and pick up my load monday morning. Just getting started and it's been an adventure already.

The last couple weeks out with my trainer was really hectic. We picked up a load in Columbus heading to Salt Lake City, then got "relocated" to Fontana. I guess that is a fancy term for a 600 mile deadhead. From Fontana, we picked up a Fed EX load in El Segundo going to Indy. They called it a 747 run and it's one of those JIT runs. No time to stop for anything. From Indy, we got another Fed Ex run to Detroit, then Detroit to Newark, NJ, back to Detroit, and back to NJ, all Fed EX, all back to back, and no time for a break, until the last run when we had about 10 hours before it picked up. Then another short break and one more Fed EX run to Atlanta. Talk about exhausting! Things slowed down abit from there, which was alright since we were working on heading back to Columbus to finish me off.

All in all, my training experience went pretty good, but I'm glad it's over. Happy to have my own truck and be out on my own. One thing I did learn is that I definately could not ever do a team situation, or be a trainer myself. I can not sleep on a moving truck. Hopefully, my sleeping problems are over.

 

I can sleep in a roliing truck. Just when the co driver snatches gears, and hits the brakes too hard is what wakes me up.