The start of my first year with Swift.

I think you posted this in the wrong place. Post it in Questions from new drivers.

 

So I busted my tail to get over to SLC. About 100 miles out I stopped and searched for a truck stop near where my first drop would be. I wanted a Pilot because I have showers on my card. No such luck so I went to the terminal. It didn't let me down. Lucky for me, cold showers weren't hard to come by during my previous life and so tonight's wasn't to bad. Now I'm here, exactly a week later, on a reset. It's not a bad thing. It will give me enough hours to deliver the load on time and I'll have enough to hopefully get a load back to Boise. I'm supposed to be home tomorrow. At least I'm in the area.

Nothing else really. Things do seem to be smoothing out some, either that or I've just become numb to the the situation.

 

For those of you wondering, my next paycheck, which deposits on 2/19 will be for $180. The next one will be much better, but is it really worth it? I can honestly make more money shoveling horse manure while my wife teaches horseback riding. Perhaps I can fire up my CNC mill and make some parts to sell.

 

So as most of you have probably figured out by now, when I have down time I tend to want to write more on here. Today is no different. I'm sitting in SLC waiting for my delivery time tomorrow. The good or bad of that is I'm going to get a 34 hour reset out of it. While here I decided to walk around the terminal grounds.

This is one nasty terminal!!. I've never seen so many cigarette butts thrown on the ground anywhere. It looks like thousands of them, and right be the entrance. Really folks??? Come on, just throw the things away or wad them up and put them in your pockets...Can I hear a "Smokers on line"? The bathrooms are nasty and stink. There are paper towel thrown on the floor as if they are throwing them at the can and not in the can. As I walked around the grounds I noticed a lot of trash all over the place.

On another note, in the post above I listed what my next check was going to be. I went to my bookkeeping software and looked at where I sit right now for the month. I'm at a -$283 for the month. The next check will remove part of that and the one after that will put me back into positive numbers. Is it like this for everyone? I eat the vast majority of my meals in my truck. I do have some bills I must pay from this adventure, but nothing out of the ordinary. If it's like this for everyone, why are there so many truck drivers? Right now the terminal is packed with folks just sitting. Some of them I saw the last time I was here. How can an O/O withstand sitting for long periods? I've seen the pay rate for the O/O Swift pays and I wonder, do they really make money?

I know nothing about owning a truck or what it takes to run one and make money. It just seems, from the outside looking in, there is way too much down time to make it pay. Especially when that down time isn't at home.

 

I think after three months Swift bumps you up 1 cpm, then again at four months and then six months. The way I understand it I should be at 31 cpm at 12 months.

I'm not complaining about what I get paid per mile. I wish it were more, but I also know that I just started, however I can make more money slinging burgers at McDonalds, building fence, working at the carnival. I'm sure it's just the time of year and there is no freight moving. I'm not the only one in this position. There is a terminal full of them here.

 

Back at you.