The start of my first year with Swift.

Well here I sit once again. I delivered my load in South Jordan, UT, and got permission to go to the terminal to use the scanner and shower. By the large number of people sitting outside I knew it was going to be a long wait until I got another load. I still have to take the LCQ class and of course I got here to late today and the instructor has something going on tomorrow and won't be giving it.

That's it for now. I'm sure I'll write more as I spend another night in SLC hell.

 

I can't speak for the rest of the Swift drivers, but having down time has been the norm since I went solo. I know we're still in the slow time of the years and I'd hoped we were heading out of it. As I look around and see so many drivers sitting, it makes me wonder how long the slow down will last. I do have another load lined up, however it doesn't pick up until midnight tonight. I'll put in for Layover pay and at least get something out of it.

Keep up the good work and let us know how it goes.

 

So today is a messed up day, but I did get to spend and Easter breakfast with my wife. It was at a truck stop but at least I got to see her.

Yesterday I called P & G twice to see if I could pick up my load early instead of getting it at 0300. They couldn't find the load anywhere. I showed up and sat at the gate for 10 minutes before anyone showed up. They finally found the load and after 1.5 hours I got on my way. I made it to Stanfield, OR and shut down as I had 22 minutes left on my 14.

I got a preplan to pick up another load at 0330 in Yakima, WA on the 1st and it has to be in SLC on the 2nd at 0500. I called a DM in Lewiston and told them I still had to deliver the load I had and it would burn up too much time to make the 0500 deadline. He thought it was strange they put that load on my as it should have gone to a team. He told me to refuse the load for HOS and that's what I did. A bit later I got an unsigned nasty gram saying there was nothing wrong with my HOS and the load could be delivered as fast as safely and legally possible. Not at all what I was told by the DM. I called SLC and talked to a planner thinking he might have been the one who assigned the load. He said the same thing as the first guy...."why are they putting this on you, it's a team load." He asked when I could get it there and I told him. He said he would accept the load for me with the new time. I go in to do laundry and shower and 3 hours later I return to find a msg from another weekend DM asking me if I was going to take the load or not. WTH???

I hate refusing a load and have refused very few. This plus one system is setting people up for failure and creating a false sense of urgency where none exists. I can see drivers trying to make the unreasonable deadlines and making mistakes.

 

Probably because I was in the right place at the right time. I have no idea really. It was a drop and hook so it could have been picked up any time.

 

I dropped my load off and ran over to get my new one. The darn thing was so heavy I couldn't put anymore then half a tank of fuel on. The night dispatch didn't understand what I was trying to tell them I guess and opened me up for a full tank in Yakima. I waited until Ontario, OR and got fuel there. I lucked out and was able to stay at the house for my 10hr reset and I'll be one my way soon to get the load to SLC on time. Nothing lined up after that but I am going to finally get my LCQ class out of the way.