Starting Swift Academy in Lewiston Oct 10!!

Well, I'm a trucker! Things are going well so far. We're driving around the NW this week so we can be sure to get home for Thanksgiving. My mentor seems to be able to get whatever loads he wants; I'm not sure if it's because of his seniority or because he knows how to work the system.

Last night, driving through the mountains in northern CA, we ran into a snowstorm. By the time we stopped in Weed, it was 25 degrees and the snow was piling up thick and fast - several inches deep on the road. I've driven in these conditions enough in my 4-wheeler that I felt fine, and my mentor said I did well. It was a good second day of training - at night, in the mountains, in a snowstorm. What more is there?

I'm in a similar situation - there's no building I can call home. I have a PO Box in Medford where I get all my mail, and have many friends in that area. One of them checks my PO Box periodically while I'm gone and calls me with any important stuff. I'm "borrowing" another friend's physical address for stuff (DMV, insurance) that needs one. Swift has always accepted my PO Box as my residence address. My car is being cared for and borrowed by friends in Portland while I'm out. It all works well for me; you may want to set up something similar.

And I was told by my recruiter that I had to get a physical and CDL permit before I showed up at the academy. However, most of our class had to get their physical on the first day, so they were obviously told something else. And I had to get another physical at orientation because the place my recruiter sent me to wasn't on the list they had at orientation - the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing! Anyway, do as others have suggested and just follow your recruiter's advice - you may want to ask specifically to be sure. Good luck!

 

Home for Thanksgiving!

"Home" is actually with a friend where I've spent much of the time I've been in this area since moving out of my place in July. But that's enough - I'm off the road, with people I love, chillaxing for a few days. Everything in its time.

So...let's see if I can recount, just for fun, where we've been and what we've done this week. We started at Troutdale, and my mentor drove to a paper mill on the coast, where we dropped a load of cardboard bales for recycling and picked up rolls of paper. We took that to Lathrop and T-called it (preplan) so we could pick up a load of Safeway stuff from Sacramento. We drove that to Clackamas, then picked up from Beaverton...something I can't remember...took that to Spokane and dropped it, picked up another load of cardboard bales, took it to a paper plant in Tacoma, unloaded, deadheaded to Sumner for the night, went up to someplace near Bellingham, picked up a load of bottled water, took that to a Winco in Corvallis, picked up more cardboard bales in Vancouver to T-call at Troutdale (the road to the coast is closed for the storm so they're piling up), deadheaded to Chehalis to get a Fred Meyer load that had a double unload in Roseburg and Coos Bay, and headed home. Whew!

We've done about 500 miles/day for the week, not bad for running somewhere between solo and team hours. I drove in some snow in Weed, then lots over Snoqualmie Pass where we had to chain up (my mentor grumbled that we would have been fine running barefoot and only had chains on for 8 miles, but it was thick and slippery, dark and trafficky, and I was happy to wear chains), spent 6 hours fighting Seattle stop and go traffic in the pouring rain (in the dark of course), and did many drop and hooks and backing to docks. The snow driving helped me feel more confident in the truck's handling, the traffic helped my shifting, and running around at shippers helped me figure out how the industry works and how drivers fit in. I'm almost done with my first 50 hours behind the wheel and feeling pretty good about everything.

On the other hand, I ran over two curbs and had one overspeed (the QC registered 0.2 seconds so I'm waiting to see if anyone says something). And I've made countless small mistakes - hitting the rumble strips in wind, getting surprised by weigh-in-motions, setting up a backing maneuver all wrong, missing shifts, etc. So it's pretty nice to have a seasoned hand along to guide me.

My mentor and I have settled into a comfortable, casual relationship. He seems to recognize that I know most of what I need to, and just have to spend a lot of time practicing to get everything right. We have pretty good communication and approach driving pretty similarly, so that smooths over our somewhat minor cultural differences. I'm not especially enjoying the lifestyle at the moment, but everything negative so far is due to sharing a small space with a relative stranger and being on his schedule. It's usually difficult, sometimes fun, and rarely uncomfortable. I'm really looking forward to being a solo driver, when I can set up the truck and the schedule in my own eccentric way. And get paid more!

We start again sometime Monday, since my mentor's birthday is Saturday. He's hoping for a Fedex load to Portland, then some other load to Dallas. I've started to realize that he's become an expert at cultivating relationships with the planners and doing whatever they need, so that in turn he can get whatever loads he wants. I guess that's a combination of seniority and working the system. It makes things easier for us, so that's nice.

It's good to have a few days off, but I'm looking forward to being back on the road, knocking out the next 4-5 weeks, and getting my own truck. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

On the road again...

Thanksgiving was nice. It was pretty low-key, and involved a lot of sleeping and time on the internet. I wanted to do something active and outside, but lacking my bicycle and pleasant places to walk or run, I just didn't have enough motivation.

All day Monday I wanted to be out on the road again - we didn't start till evening. I can't remember ever being off work and wishing I was back at work!

We picked up a few shower stalls in Klamath Falls, spent the night in Reno, and drove to SLC today. It's all been very mellow, almost boring driving across the vast empty spaces, and the truck is so light it climbs hills at 62mph. I'm feeling pretty comfortable with driving, able to shift and set up corners without too much thought. Whatever you do a lot, you get used to, and whatever you're used to seems easy. I'm not at "easy" yet, but getting there.

The next set of skills I need to learn is dealing with dispatch, selecting loads, trip planning, etc. My mentor does all of that now and I ask him about it all, but I need to start doing it myself. I guess I have plenty of time remaining for that.

The next few days will be fairly easy. We deliver around the corner in the morning, pick up the next load in Ogden in the evening, and have two days to get it to LA. I'm looking forward to a cross-country run that requires us to run at least partial team hours - until then, there's not much of a challenge. Or I guess we could run into terrible weather, traffic, or something. It's all part of the game!

And I got my first paycheck today - the direct deposit works, and I got reimbursed for the travel expenses to and from the academy and orientation, so it was a lot bigger than I expected. SCORE!!

...going places I have never been...

 

Thanks for the caution. There's a fine line between a confidence that's helpful and a ####iness that's dangerous. Same with the difference between comfort and boredom. For me, everything is still so new and challenging that moving towards more comfort and confidence is only a good thing. Driving near-deserted straight, flat roads is pretty easy, but anything else - just managing speed on little hills, doing corners, any amount of traffic - is still something of a challenge. And if that's not enough, my mentor had me drive through rush hour Las Vegas tonight, including navigating some busy streets with construction. I don't go looking for challenges - there are more than enough already!

It was beautiful driving today - the snow-dusted Wasatch mountains constantly on my left, then miles of canyonlands. I've been through the Virgin River canyon on I-15 before, but doing it while driving straight into the setting sun with a heavy load is something else. For once, I wished my mentor was driving just so that I could look around. The glimpses I saw were enough for now, though - I love the red rock country!

 

I don't think I've been on exactly those roads, but I've been all over the Colorado Plateau, driving and hiking, so I know what I'm in for around here. I just can't see it all fast enough! I'll keep my eyes out for a route that would take me through Kanab or Moab!