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

That's a good way of looking at it! I did save $10 with only $182 down. Now I feel better...

 

So a few observations from a new trucker. I could be right or wrong but they are just things that I have noticed...

- Some trucks suspiciously cut over in front of me. I'm still trying to determine whether this is a "spite Swift" thing or it's just generally an #######. Now there is the outside chance that it is accidental...someone's tired, the don't know the length of their trailer, not paying attention, etc. I'm sure that's the case sometimes. But other times I'm just not sure. This is of course under circumstances whereby someone wouldn't have to get over right away. No one behind them. Not approaching a hill. Etc. Just empty to light traffic. I had a double trailer pass me a few weeks ago that for no good reason got in front of me just barely missing my bumper. No signal. No flashy lights. Nothing. Honestly if my truck wasn't limited to 62 mph and we ended up in the same truckstop there would be words exchanged. If I ever had the personal knowledge that someone took out their general dislike of Swift with a specific act towards me it would escalate.

- I like driving around the western half of the country better than my native East Coast. My last runs were from Alabama up to Baltimore then a pickup in York, PA down to Richmond to get my hometime. Truck stops, in my opinion, are scarce and not as good as the ones back west. Driving is crazier and more reckless out here in the East. People as well as truckers are more rude. Give me a friendly wave on a Nevada backroad from another trucker any day. I miss it.

- People drive like crap everywhere. People cannot merge everywhere. My safety cushion is taken everywhere. People can be rude or friendly anywhere.

- Rolling scales are not accurate. When in doubt, rescale.

- A cb is a good thing about 30% of the time, in my experience. The other 60% is conversations that have nothing to do with me, racism, arguments, and pointless challenges to fight at the next truck stop. It is worth having though for the 30% of good.

- Satellite radio is a savior. Can't live without it.

- Never fail to help someone else out because you never know when you might need a hand yourself. Twice so far I have been approached while sitting in my truck for the night to help another driver out who needed an extra set of eyes to back his truck in. I'm glad they asked and would rather have the slight inconvenience of a meal and relaxation interrupted then to know they backed into another truck or over someone.

- I love my $88 Coleman cooler. It has paid for itself two fold already.

- Act and dress professionally around shippers/receivers and you will be treated better by them. Not always, but sometimes. I throw on my Swift hat and shirt, boots and jeans and feel they treat me a little better. I could be wrong but it sure doesn't hurt.

- Prepare for the unexpected. Leave enough time. Nothing more stressful than having 22 minutes left on your clock and 11 miles to go to the terminal on I-95 south with construction every few miles. Plan accordingly and destress.

- Exercise keeps you energized throughout the day. More below on this...

 

Something I feel pretty strongly about is getting some exercise while in the truck. It seems to keep me more alert while I drive and puts me in a great mood. I'm slowly trying to fine tune my regimen but here is what I keep in the truck and use regularly...

Most of this, if not all, is from Walmart...

- One resistance band. Looks like a giant, thick jumprope with two sturdy handles on the end. Walmart @ about $20.00

- One 30 lb. dumbell. Walmart @ about $30.00 (Maybe as a backup chock for the wheels? )

- One Shakeweight. Yes, it looks like I'm jerking a giant #### in the truck but I don't care. More power to me. I figured this was another gimmick but surprisingly it works and you get tired pretty quickly. I only know about 2 or 3 exercises with it but I consider them a supplement to the rest.
Grocery Outlet @ $12.00

- Two squeeze handles. Walmart @ $5.00 - I squeeze the hell out of one of these while driving. Do one hand until tired and then switch. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. In just 2 weeks I have noticed much stronger and defined forearms.

- MMA exercise kit. Walmart @ $30. I just bought this kit and haven't used it yet but basically it has a retractable jumprope that can be used as a jumprope or for other resistance exercises. It also has a belt that goes around your chest with built in loops. You put on gloves that have built in loops and you attach a stretchy cable between the gloves and the belt around the chest. You can do pushups with this on or just throw punches and elbows. The resistance is an additional workout. I look forward to looking like a moron at the truckstop with this.

- Cat walk reverse inverted pushups. I put my gloves on and do these pushups off of the catwalk behind the tractor. Keeps me from being on the dirty truckstop ground. I can't do pushups inside the truck anymore since my cooler is in the way. These reverse inverted pushups are great and can be squeezed in at fuel stops, etc.


I've been working out mostly in the morning before I start my day as it gives me more energy. I give myself about 10 minutes to somewhat wake up and then I go to work on it. If I'm not too exhausted after a day of driving I will do some Shakeweighting and dumbells at night before settling in.

Some easy exercises done with the dumbells are...
- curls (palm up, palm down, palm sideways)
- single arm rear extensions into a double arm once exhausted.
- side raises
- front raises
- shrugs
- shoulder presses

Most of these exercises can also be done with the resistance band.

I'll post about the MMA kit, whether it's worth buying or not in the future.

 

The 9-1-1 incident...calling the police on myself.


So I thought this day might not ever happen or at least would happen way down the trucking career road but, alas, it was not meant to be. It happened a few days ago.

I was tired, just about at my drop off location in McCalla, Alabama. The GPS said turn so I did. However it was telling me to turn just a few more feet up the road. I turned early and made the left. I went down the road and almost immediately, "out of route!" said the GPS. I rerouted it and a little more up this particular road it told me to make a right. I made the right turn at a convenience store as instructed and once I swung the trailer safely around this tight corner I saw a sign. "Trucks over 6 tons not permitted". My first thought was maybe I could get down the road a little before the truck restriction. Nope. I looked more closely at the sign and the restriction started just .2 miles down the road. Crap. I'm screwed. My next thought was maybe somehow I could jump out of the truck, check the road behind me that I had just left and, if clear, run back to the truck and back safely onto the road which I had just came. Impossible. Not only would it be a blind back and be severely unsafe but the road was busy enough that most likely once I saw it clear it would not remain so. I sat in the truck for a few minutes blocking this side road alongside the convenience store trying to think of any way other than doing the inevitable.

There was no other option that I could see so I began to look up a non emergency police number online on my phone. There was none. I called 9-1-1 and explained to the dispatcher that this was not an emergency, that I could not locate a non-emergency phone number, hence my call. I stated where I was, description of my truck and the situation. He was friendly as could be and told me the police would be out shortly. I always dreaded the day I would have to call 9-1-1 to get me out of a sticky situation and here it was. I wasn't nervous, just businesslike and thinking that the most important thing was to get out of this jam safely.

About 10 minutes later two different Sheriff cars showed up. Dang I'm getting old because these two cops looked to be no older than 20 years old. They were both very friendly and understanding and asked which way I wanted to get myself out. They explained that I had to go back the same way I came as the other direction down the main road petered out to no where basically. At least no where for a truck to go. I considered backing straight out across the street and then making a right turn back down the road where I came. But it looked like there was an outside chance I could swing a tight left turn through the convenience store parking lot and completely turn myself around without backing. My general rule is don't back when I don't need to. So, I didn't. The police blocked off traffic in both directions as I crawled around and made this tight turn. It worked! People came out of the convenience store to watch the whole charade. I felt like that elephant in a china shop navigating my way around the stop sign, under the store's fuel island awning and back into the street. 10 minutes later I was dropping my trailer down the road where I should have been to begin with.

I'm glad I got that first "call the police on myself" incident over with. The next time shouldn't be as tough but I'm hoping it won't be for a very long while...

 

Good info. That would be pretty stressful. I need to do the preview option more often than I do. I always use my atlas but at times, in the smaller towns, there isn't enough detail for the auxillary streets. I'm really not a huge GPS person although I do see how it helps. Most of the time I will write little directions up on the upper, left hand corner of my windshield with my dry erase markers. I do this a lot. I'll write down exit numbers for truckstops/fueling, streets that seem tricky or special instructions sent with the delivery messages, etc. But whenever I start nearing the end of my shift and I get a little tired or worn I start getting sloppy. I've been getting better at putting myself on an internal "red alert" type mentality during these times to ensure I don't screw up. It still happens but hopefully will be less so over time.

Oh, I've driven myself into near disaster before. I specifically rememeber being detoured off the main highway a while back in Pennsylvania. There was something like a 70 car pile-up up the road. Totally unforseen of course so there were no detour signs, just a trooper directing us off the highway. I took the unmarked detour and then pulled over a little ways up the road to check my atlas and see where to go. A cop pulled up and said the highway was open again and that I needed to go some convoluted route through some small town to turn around and head back to the highway. Thinking this sounded too complicated I went straight up the road a little ways and saw a business with an empty parking lot. It was about 1:00 AM so the lot was empty. However, again, I was tired a little and a little stressed so I came to the point in the road looking at this parking lot and driveway thinking..."should I pull in and do a back to turn around or roll the dice and see if there is something better up the road?" I decided to pull into that parking lot and didn't see the crazy angle going up into the lot. As I pulled in I dragged my ATS (?) bar on the back of the trailer in the street. It took me about 1/2 hour to slowly do a blind nighttime back around this business. I must have G.O.A.L'd about 8 times to be safe. That was good. Finally getting it turned around I left the driveway dragging the ATS bar again. No damage but the noise and the fact that I could possibly do damage or get caught up out there scared the crap out of me.

I've learned a lot through tiral and error. I learn something every single day.