Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

I'm not sure about all the negative responses. I guess some people are unhappy in their jobs and may be in any profession. My philosophy has always been that if I'm that unhappy doing something then it's just not worth doing regardless of the money. I haven't always followed this philosophy to the letter though but I do try.

I love doing this. Not sure how I will feel down the road but I do know I've always loved driving. I think as far as changing the image, that is up to us as drivers. I know I have seen plenty of disgusting habits and people out on the road but that is them personally. I'm sure they are just as much a slob at home or anywhere else but maybe we see it more due to the public nature of truck driving. It's up to us to improve the image.

Don't let what anyone says get to you and what you want to do. You make that decision by giving it a shot yourself and if then you don't like it then at least you formed your own opinion.

As with anything, being intelligent will get you farther and possibly make you more efficient. The degree itself won't help you get ahead in the job but having an advanced degree never hurts in any position as their are aspects of working towards a degree - motivation, intensity, diligence, etc. - that will carry over. When I've told people about my background (only if they ask) they act like what did I do wrong to do this job. I think it's the wrong attitude as this is something I want to do, not "have" to do.

Be a smarter driver. Work hard, think about what you need to do, plan ahead and think customer service. Have some self respect and pride and you can go far in this profession.

The freedom in this job can either make or break you. You determine your success and I think that is awesome.

Personally, I would never go back to an office job, legal, retail, etc. I know at my age that it is not for me. Do what drives you and have fun at it.

Kewl, now I'm in on the secret. I had no idea but now I know what to order next time.

Checking out that link so I know what to order next time.

 

I'm at the truckstop off 76 in Pennsylvania, not far from Reading, PA.

We have live load tomorrow morning just north of here and then drive back to the Columbus, OH terminal. At that time I should have between 236 and 238 hours total and we are going to see if the driver coordinator will allow me to test out and go solo. I will find out tomorrow - keeping my fingers crossed.

Columbus, OH's terminal is supposedly the 3rd largest Swift terminal so I'm hoping if I do test out that they have a truck available soon. Tomorrow night I"m at a motel in Columbus and test out on Tuesday if all goes as planned.


More to come tomorrow...

 

Thanks Bigdubber! It's been worth it and I"m pretty excited to be doing this. Same to you, be safe out there!

Thanks Jakaby!

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Just because others dress or act a certain way doesn't mean we have to do the same. I also agree that the slobs out there are probably slobs at home and slobs before trucking. I see the truckers out there that carry themselves with some self respect and it really shows. Sometimes I think some of the truckers need their mom around to give them a slap for acting up.
Kudos for helping to clean up the image. I think if we want to be treated with more respect by those outside the profession we need to bring out A game. It goes a long way.

I've seen and heard both sides of the owner/operator and company driver coin. Seems like advantages to both depending on personal circumstances, the risk you are willing to take and the way you manage your money. I would think about leasing maybe later but, again, it depends on whether it would be profitable enough to weigh against the risk.

Cool. I will keep it in mind. I need a satellite radio in a bad way now that I'm going solo. I can't get enough of it since being exposed to it in 3 out of the 4 mentors' trucks. I can listen to the comedy channels all day and night and they keep me going. It's definitely worth the expense to me.

 

Monday night into Tuesday morning 3/25-3/26....

I checked into the Super 8 here in Columbus last night. My mentor was cool enough to bobtail me over to the motel in his truck before he headed home to save me the inconvenience of getting all my stuff out of the truck at the terminal to only reload it into the shuttle van. Cool guy. I was friendly to the guy at the front desk and he returned the kindness with bumping me up to a suite last night. Not exactly Caesars Palace here at the Super 8 but the upgrade was a cool gesture and the room was nicer. Cool guy!

My last and fourth mentor has been a mentor for a few years. He has no Swift points on his record and no DAC points or anything like that. It shows in his training and handling things as a mentor. Like we had discussed we both wished I had started the process with him to begin with. He was good company and cared about me learning. No one is ever perfect, definitely including myself, but his imperfections were definitely outweighed by his expertise and ability to train.

They had a shuttle going from the motel over to the terminal this morning at 6:30 AM but I was tired as hell this morning so I took the later shuttle back over to the terminal at 11:00 AM so that I could sleep in. As I found out when I got to the terminal this morning, that was a wise choice as they wouldn't have been able to road test me earlier in the morning anyway. I was at the terminal probably 10 minutes before they set me up with the woman giving me the road test. She was cool and an ex-Marine.

The truck was a beat up Volvo with the mini sleeper in the back. It's the truck they use for all the road tests and it's pretty well used. The trailer was the standard 53'. She did her own walk around of the truck, declining my offer to do a pretrip and asked me to get familiar with the controls inside the truck. It was a 10 speed and the gearing pattern was different than the Columbias and Cascadias I have been driving. During my OTR training I drove 2 Columbias and 2 Cascadias. I gotta say I like the Cascadia a bunch.

Immediately I noticed the 10 speed pattern. Oddly and different than the Freightliners I have been driving, when you go from 5th to 6th in the Volvo you have to go from 5th (all the way down to the right) to 6th (splitter up and all the way to the left and down). It's somewhat of an unnatural pattern, at least to me. She told me she doesn't really grade or you don't really lose points on grinding since we are not familiar with the truck. Wheeeww....thanks for that as I grinded the #### out of those gears for the first 13 minutes. After that I got used to the truck and was kind of surprised on how smooth my double clutching and down shifting have become over the past few weeks. Pat on my back. There were times I did forget what gear I was in and a couple of times I had to do a "reset" of sorts, slowing way down and getting it into 2nd to start over again.

Weather wasn't too bad. It was cold and large snow flakes were falling but the roads weren't bad. I was warned by my last mentor about the course having some tricky parts with tight corners and railroad tracks set up right before traffic lights. I was nervous yesterday after hearing about this and nervous again when I first started driving. My last mentor was actually the safety guy a few years back giving the road tests so he knew about the possible course. Sure enough, that was the course I took. I never noticed the tight corners as I didn't really have any close calls. My tester actually complimented me on my driving a couple of times and it made me feel pretty good. I came across the railroad sections two or three times. They were railroad tracks set back from the traffic light. The trick, if you want to call it that, was to just hang back before the railroad tracks before proceeding through the light to ensure you didn't get stuck whereby the traffic light would be red and your trailer would be left hanging out on the tracks. Everything went smoothly and I was cautious, probably extra cautious as the line of traffic behind me would unhappily attest. We finished the road test back at the terminal where I was instructed to back between two trailers. A 90 degree back. Instructor jumped out and watched me skills or lack thereof. I initially set up my back too far from the trailers so I didn't leave myself adequate room to swing the tractor around. I pulled back up and did a reset. Each time I did a GOAL and honked before backing. I think I did about 6 GOALS altogether and it was taking me longer than I wanted, probably about 20 minutes or more to do the back. Embarassing but I told her I was being extra cautious. She again complimented me on the fact that I GOAL'd and honked as some people dont do that and have to be reminded. When I told her I went through the Swift academy she said that explained it. She likes the Swift graduates since the Swift academy hammers these things into us constantly. Kudos to the Swift academy for making my day easier.

I never once saw her writing anything down. I'm not sure they do but she didn't so that was kind of cool. When she said she was done I asked if I passed and she said "of course". Yea, I'm officially a Swift driver!

I went upstairs and talked with the student driver coordinator. No trucks here (yet at least) at the Columbus terminal. They have 3 Prostars sitting in the parking lot that are spoken for and there is a list of drivers waiting for trucks. I told her about me being "homeless" and no real home to return to so, if possible, I would rather not be sent back to Washington to get a truck if it means I have to pay for a hotel out of pocket. Food on the road over these past 6 weeks has been bruising my bank account like nobody's business. I asked, and my last mentor had told her, that I prefered to wait out in Virginia if I need to as I can stay with my parents at their house (for free) while I wait for a truck if it is necessary. She was very busy today with a 20 person orientation going on and people hounding her for everything. I felt for her. And it was her birthday.

I'm set to take the shuttle back over to the terminal in the morning at 6:30 to take a Close Quarters Backing course at the terminal. Then at 1:00 PM I am taking the driver simulator course. In between I'm going to try and get to her to find out about getting a truck. She mentioned something about shipping me up to New Boston, MI for a truck but having talked to my 3rd mentor tonight (the one out of New Boston), he said I would have a better chance of getting a truck down in Memphis. So, I don't know but I'm relaxed knowing that I made it to this point. I'm happy as hell and just relieved to be here. I'm cool with whatever at this point.


I'm really looking forward to getting my own truck. My last mentor was the most accomodating of the bunch but it is tough to live out of a couple of duffel bags for weeks on end. Dirty laundry is somewhat mixed with the clean, it's a PIA to access stuff, the bags get in the way, it's always a process just to go to sleep as I need to spread out my sleeping bag and set up my pillow every night the way a cat kneads it's sleeping spot on a blanket although I'm not as smooth as the cat. Additionally, I can't really pick where I eat, when I sleep, etc. as I follow the lead of my mentor and go by his choices. I'm really looking forward to getting a little cooler, hitting up Walmart and buying some good food and having my space. I can't wait to start exercising again and eating somewhat healthier (and cheaper) food.

To back things up a little....

 

My dad lives through my experiences somewhat vicariously as he loves to travel but doesn't so much. At least he doesn't do the kind of traveling I do across the great U.S.A. by big rig seeing every state somewhat intimately. My dad isn't really the trucking type as, although he is from very blue collar roots and in his early days worked very blue collar jobs, he had worked his way up through Hartz Mountain out in Secaucus, N.J. from the position of a surveyer to that of V.P. of Construction. There, in between, he worked as a civil engineer somehow earning that esteemed position through dilgence and perserverence without the benefit of a college degree. I remember when I was younger him squeezing some college classes in at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Jersey's own MIT) but never earning a degree. From a tough and humble Hoboken Irish Catholic beginning to that of a white collar position he earned his way without handouts or easy routes. If I ever become part of the man he is I would be content. He lives through my experiences as his own were spent between the hours of 5:00 AM to 8:00 PM daily providing for his family - his own desires and dreams taking a cold back seat to that of necessity. His fascination with designing bridges and roadways is now matched in his allure towards my own travels so I do my best to relay to him what I find.

So I try to answer thinking back of some of the places but how do I rank the unrankable. Every state, every locale has it's own distinct flavor, as unique and individual as those that live there. So, I stumble through my explanation to him trying to find the words to somewhat adequately describe my own limited and short-lived experiences...

There's something about driving past those small, vintage towns set in the hills of NY state or Pennsylvania - history oozing from the buildings and smaller streets, low overpasses not configured necessarily to accomodate a rig. I feel the history in these places. Down in Louisiana the tin-roofed country shacks, people porch sitting and great food secretly hidden behind unpretentious structures, the accent as alluring and pleasant to my ears as smooth caramel glazed over butter. The dry and taupe hues of the warm deserts of S. Texas and Arizona, saguara cactus' arms reaching high to the sun while little, pointy shrubs green and alive live off the desert floor. Southern California with its hills and grades, sunshine and warmth, houses clinging to hillsides that will undoubtedly slide someday, the residents content to soak up the landscape and live on it at least temporarily. Contrasting, the beauty of the Bay area with water and hilly cities cloaked in fog and orange bridges mysterious and as beautiful as any city in Europe. The plains of the midwest, forever traveling flat to the horizon with rolls of golden crops and sky as big to match. The Pacific Northwest with immediately noticable grey and gloom hiding intense snow capped volcanoes and forests as green and lush as rainforest, climbs throught mountain passes that reveal dry, brown valleys below - the Palouse and high deserts of the Pacific Northwest unknown to most foreign to the region. Lakes of Minnesota and stars brighter than anywhere, Utah with landscapes so foreign to appear alien, salt lakes that stretch out white to the mountains beyond. Where do I begin? So I struggle unsuccessfully to describe what I experience hoping that he agrees to take that ride with me when I get some hometime back in Virginia.