The start of my first year with Swift.

You can't be serious...this is scary!

 

Very, very serious. After tax and the $100 advance I have to live off, my last check was $74. I picked up a load and was over weight. Shipper closed after I left so I had to return in the morning. What would have been 14 or so hours of drive time turned into 5 extra days of sit after SWIFT rescheduled delivery and refused to let me drop the load at the terminal. 700ish miles for 7 days on the load. That's fair, right?

 

Well, whatever you do. come back and tell us about it (if that's Ok with Sheriff), because guys like you two are giving us a great insight into just how tough it is to survive (and even make reasonable money).
I'm staggered by the tenacity and what you put up with from the Companies.
The tough economic conditions in the US and the tight labour market seem to have produced a breed of guys who will endure a lot and work hard to improve their lot.

Couple of questions;
first for Sheriff - I asked about the pallets when you carted the bottled water about 4 pages back.

second - (since we don't have moveable tandems here)
If you're running light and the postion isn't critical and you ran with them right back, does it mean that the trailer gets into a weave more easily at higher speeds, than if you have them forward.

 

When I had the water reloaded they removed two pallets from the front and two from the rear. It was originally 2 pallets wide front to back. They reloaded 1 pallet wide for the first two on the nose, then 2 wide all the way back and removed the last 2 pallets from the load.

As for speed wobble trailers, we don't go fast enough for that! Lol like sherif said, tandems back generally keeps you more stable but it also kills your turning radius. Skateboards for example, a longboard is more stable at high speeds because of its longer wheel base but won't turn on a dime like a standard sized skateboard.

and now, I'm sitting in the parking lot of MVD in AZ. Guess I should get inside and get these endorsement tests done! Open up my opportunities. I have a feeling i didn't study nearly enough.

 

Passed em all! Missed 2 on doubles/triples, 2 on tanker and 4 on hazmat. Background check is started, showed up 2 minutes late so couldn't finger print today.

 

Sweet! That is crazy about fingerprints! That would have set me off! My twic background came back in 7 days, the hazmat background is still not here. So don't get in to big a hurry.

Sheriff,
Hope all is well!

 

Yes I followed the description of the tandem action fine. You didn't seem to see that I used the word "higher" rather than "high' because I knew you'd bite if i used the latter. I notice that the owner ops like Sergei Drachev run at no more than 60mph most of the time because they know that the fuel cost is coming out of "their' wallet. Obviously they're doing a balancing act between the cost of more driving time and the increased fuel cost.
I would have thought that the increase in fuel consumption would rise steeply over 60 since wind resistance increases as the square of the speed, not in a straight line so I'm always a bit surprised that when I hear some of the Co drivers complaining that they're not allowed to run at 75mph. Do the tractors have trip computers with a real time fuel fig so that new ops can learn how to modify their driving style in order to pick up the fuel bonus?

and for Mrh-
"It was originally 2 pallets wide front to back. They reloaded 1 pallet wide for the first two on the nose"

When you are only one pallet wide, do you have to strap them? (and to what?) Most semis here run side curtains and generally only food delivery trailers have fixed sides. The drivers don't have to strap these but if you get caught not strapping on a curtainsider you're in deep dooo dahs for an insecure load.

 

I did not have to use straps or load locks on that one. All the pallets were touching, and loaded with about 2k lbs of water. Pretty secure already. But there are loads that need to be secured further. empty kegs, cereal stacked tall, boxed napkins, most beer loads in general for some reason, anything that might bounce out of place in transit. I carried both straps and bars (load locks). The bars stretch wall to wall and have a ratchet type mechanism that extends one end of the bar until each end is secured to the trailer walls with their rubber feet. As for straps, just about all swift trailers have vertical metal plates on each side of the trailer from front to back spaced about 4' apart or so with many notches spaced top to bottom that the straps fit into. Ratchet down the straps to secure that way.