The start of my first year with Swift.

GOOD NEWS!!!!

I made my delivery on time...HINT. READ AND UNDERSTAND THE DISPATCH..Both myself and my DL were under the impression that I couldn't deliver early. I was sitting near the entrance and decided to read the dispatch one more time. What we both thought was an appointment time was actually the end of the delivery window....HAH. I made it.

I hooked on to an empty trailer and I still didn't have marker lights. I checked the fuses and they looked good. I finally called on road and they sent me to the Lathrop terminal. I'm glad they did. It was a tight trip getting here and I almost pulled over. I had done a split sleeper to deliver my load on time and I was running out of drive time. I pushed as hard as a Swift truck can and my time ran out as I pulled in the gate. WHEW. I was able to get a hot shower, my drive tire fixed and the electrical problem fixed. There is lots of parking. This is by far the best terminal I've been to. It's quiet here, cool, clean, and easy to get to. New folks....remember this.

 

It's been a few days...or it seems so.

So, since my last post I sat at the Lathrop, CA terminal. I was two hours shy of completing a 34hr reset when I as asked to go get a load from a driver who was too tired to deliver. I said I would and off I went. I met him at a TA about 50 miles from the terminal and he looked beat. He said he'd never picked up and delivered on the same day. He ate a big dinner and was just to tired to go on. The bad news is that by the time I was asked to go and get the load...it was already late.

I hooked on and took off. I got the routing....I am so glad I did this at night. I had to drive through Oakland and the traffic was bad even at 2100hrs. I don't know how anyone makes a delivery there in the day time. I made the delivery and everyone was happy. They deadheaded me back to Lathrop and I got back around midnight. The night dispatcher told me that they would have a load for me in the morning. He said that they didn't have a local fleet there and anytime someone helps them out, they are the first ones to get a load. Sure enough, at 6am I got a load to Salt Lake.

As I was sitting in my truck looking at the weather I heard a knock on my window. I think it was the tire repair supervisor. He was walking around checking tire pressure and said I had two flat tires and two low ones. I was pretty impressed. He told me where to park and he replaced the two tires and aired up the rest in about 30 minutes. One thing new folks should know. According to Swift, if your tire is below 88lbs of pressure, it's considered flat and you need to get it fixed. No one had told me that before.

Now the bad news. Last week I only had about 1200 miles. With the load I have now, it delivers on Tuesday, I'll only have about 1000 miles this week. That isn't enough to pay for insurance and the loan payment. I'm hoping things get better soon.

 

I guess I didn't explain it right. All of the tires were on the trailer. I do have a gauge and I do check my tractor tires. I have an air hose and I put air in them as needed.