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

Congrats Doc, you made it brother. Good luck to you.

 

As a fellow driver out of new Boston (Detroit) congrats and lv a truck for the rest of us newbie's. lol

 

Take pictures of the truck all around. Take close ups of any dents. A woman tried to say I hit her and showed the cop a ding in the front of my truck. He believed her until I showed him pictures of the exact ding dated two months before.

 

Are you suggesting to CYA, and never trust anyone? Lol

 

I'm officially half-way thru just did my midterm. Hopefully joining y'all out there in solo-land soon.

 

way to go doc cant wait to see the truck

 

Exactly right about taking pictures. Always, always, always, ALWAYS be ready to take pictures at a moments notice. Always have an iPhone, iPad, regular phone camera, or something to take pictures. As soon as you can, invest some money in a digital camera with a USB cord that you can load on a laptop so that you can e mail pictures when you need too.

Take pictures of the truck before you even put keys in the door. Take plenty of pictures of the inside as well, taking note of every little hole drilled by the previous tenant. Every dent, scratch, scuff mark, hole, crack, and chip needs to be noted in a dated file. Keeping a camera handy also helps if you have an accident. Something else I have taken pictures of before is a load that I wasn't very confident in the manner it was put on the trailer. I took another picture when I opened the doors at the receiver if anything fell over or shifted. Something else to always take pictures of is any high-value loads at both the shipper and the

I'm not saying people could take advantage of you. What I'm telling you is that people WILL take advantage of you if they think they can get away with it. Always be ready to answer questions and provide documented proof of anything you assert to other people. For instance, any and ALL communication I have between me and various people at my company has been documented either on the Q-Comm or by e mail. When someone asks, I will always let them know I trust two people -
1. Myself
2. Not you

Congratsulations Doc. When they handed you those keys you became a truck driver. You are going to pick up on new little things like the above everyday. You are not the first person to ever haul a load. You will not be asked to do anything that you haven't trained for, nor hasn't already been done thousands of times before you. Find your routine that works for you and go with it. Relax and know that the truck is not going to do anything unless YOU tell it to do. Keep at it, learn something new everyday, and be safe.

Most of all, know that the guy passing you up in that slow Swifty truck could be Jakaby himself driving naked

 

Congratulations, Doc! All I drove in Richmond was the International, sweet ride. Wish you continued success, and be safe out there brother.

 

Congradulations doc watson . you're a real hunter s thompson with your prose about chasing the american dream and all that...

 

So where's some pics of your new ride? Just dying to see what they end up putting you in. After following this thread from the beginning, I'm giving serious consideration to joining you. All the horror stories don't scare me, as they are part of the "titration" process of becoming a full blown OTR trucker, and I suspect would be similar no matter where I choose to go. I'm looking real hard at Swift, Roehl, and Werner. But it looks like you may have found the better choice for me. I say this mostly because of the training facilities and support you have received from the good folks you have encountered. I intend to document my experience, borrowing elements of your writing style to make it entertaining, and giving the readers here a true to life look at what goes on. Thanks for the inspiration.