The start of my first year with Swift.

Well, yesterday was the start of a new week and it looks like there might be a wrinkle in the pages of the story book. When I picked up the load the address on the bills didn't match the address on the dispatch. I told dispatch and a bit later was told to take it to the dispatched location.

When I arrived I gave the bills to security, the broke the seal and checked me in. THEN they said, you are supposed to be at the other address...."but, but, but" was my response. I got directions and away I went. I had sent in my Macro to say I was at the destination and it told me I was to far away. When I got to the new location it did the same thing. I contacted my DM and he got me dispatched to the new location, where I had been for 15 minutes already. Now the receiving line was full. I waited about an hour to bump the dock. The workers went to lunch....it was only 10am! Oh well. I was there for right at two hours. I sent in my empty call and got a msg wanting to know what was taking so long. I'm guessing I won't get detention pay for my time but still had to explain it.

Now lets talk deadhead. I finally got caught up in that fiasco. It seems that if they send you to the wrong location to pick up an empty trailer, you get paid for one mile. If they send you are dispatched to the wrong location, you get paid for for the original mileage, plus one mile. Now granted I guess I probably only had an additional 30 miles in the two screw ups, it's the principle of the thing. Not big enough to make a fuss over. I figure I need to pick my battles. My mouth has always gotten me into trouble.

Last thing....PAY ATTENTION TO THE SIGNS!! If it says no trucks, it means no trucks. Just saying.

 

Hi Frago, thanks for trying to get the thread back on track. I'm the one who made the last comment about the deadhead stuff. I'm done with it as well.

 

So I'm sitting in Ontario at the TA. Much better than Mira Loma, but it costs money. There doesn't seem to be any loads out of here right now.

My post yesterday mentioned that I didn't get paid for all the running around I did looking for empty trailers and being dispatched to the wrong location. Today, when I checked my pay sheet, I see I was credited with an additional 45 miles. That more than made up for the running around.

So far I've found that Swift has been very fair with me. When there has been a glitch it's because I didn't understand what was going on or I hadn't input the right information. This goes with pay or anything else. Everyone has been very helpful no matter how many stupid questions I ask. Now the other drivers for Swift might be laughing their guts out at me because of my getting myself in a jam yesterday, but, many of them pitched in to help direct me out of the way. For that they can laugh all they want. I greatly appreciated the help. After I was moving in the right direction again, a young guy, who'd seen what went on, walked past and gave me a thumbs up and said not to worry. So no matter how they may look at you when they know you're new, in the end they jump in and help out. Thank again!

I think I did manage to make the security guard at the gate in Mira Loma mad at me. I didn't understand what she wanted me to do so I sat there at the stop sign. She was so mad when I finally did move up that she would barely look at me. Oh well, everyone has a bad day.

Until I get another load I'll be standing by to stand by.

 

I finally got a load, but I don't leave until tomorrow. That gave me time to do some laundry.

The the washer and the dryers are $2 a load respectively. You don't have to use quarters as they have a card machine on the wall. That kind of made it nice. The showers are $12. They have a game room, a guy that sells remote controlled helicopters and other stuff, there's three fast food places, and one restaurant. There is a lot of parking but it's best to get here by early afternoon as it fills up pretty fast. I'm at the TA east location. There is another one across the street and it's the TA west. I drove through there but don't remember much about what's there. The Rodeway Inn is right next to it if you were tired of sleeping in the truck. I'm sure there's places to eat there as well.

The showers are pretty nice. I think there are 25 in all so there isn't much of a wait. They were clean, the towels were clean, and the water was hot. Much better then most of the Pilots I've seen.

I was lucky enough to have a friend near here who came down and took me to dinner. If you go north, on the other side of the interstate, there is just about any kind of food you want, and some nice hotels. You have to get over there and drive around to see them. I don't know if I would chance trying to walk there. The on and off ramps are nuts around here. I doubt it would be much of a taxi ride.

I will say this about California and it's something I thought back in 1998 when I was training in Fresno. The service I've gotten at the restaurants has always been great. The servers have always been very friendly. It seems to me they take pride in what they are doing. Most of the servers where a bit older, maybe college age and up. I think that has a lot to do with it. The people in general have always been very friendly. I can't say that about every place I've been.

 

So here's a mid day update. For those of you who don't know, driving in Cal. is a lot like hurrying up to wait. It takes about two hours to go anywhere.

I was sent to get a trailer and it was 15 miles from where I was. It took me about an hour to get there. I had planned on that. My next stop was the shipper. Because I left early I figured I had a bit over two hours to go 50 miles. I barely made it on time. Once there I sat and waited while they moved empty containers from the docks. It was pretty confusing. Not much room to maneuver when trying to back either. I had a nice Asian guy help me. He said it took three guys and 30 minutes for him to back in. With his help, I was able to bump the dock in short order. When I stopped he started yelling, "Swift driver, Swift driver...." It was pretty funny. He had gone to training at Swift but then never worked for them. He said he'd lied to get his cdl and when he got it he purchased his own truck. Pretty funny guy.

The guy who was in charge of the guys loading me was very friendly. He liked to laugh and cut up. Little did I know there was a price to pay for that kind of service. He said he was going to load me high and tight. They pushed in the pallets, unpacked them, and stacked all the boxes by hand. When I saw it I wondered just how in the world I was going to keep those boxes from falling down. No one carries that many load locks and I don't have straps. Oh well.

When it came time to seal the load the above mentioned Foreman asked me for a couple of bucks so he could eat. I thought I was back in Afghanistan. "Mista, Mista, please, please, just one dolla." All I had was a buck in my pocket so I gave it to him. I know I'm a sucker, but I figured a buck was pretty cheap to keep him happy and perhaps not screwing with the paperwork in some way. For all of those who are going go yell at me for it....just stop. I got it. I'll deal with it another way next time. I sure hope this isn't something that goes on everywhere.