Swift Truck Driving Academy

I thought I might tell you all about my experiance with Swift's academy as I go through it.

First a little about how I got in there.

I guess it was two weeks ago I did the online application, I was contacted by a recruter maybe 2 hours later at about 7 or 8PM. I talked to him a bit and he pushed my application through. He called me back two days later and told me that they had an an opening because someone cancelled and he asked me if I wanted it. I told him I sure do and so he told me to call him the next morning to conferm. Well it turns out that someone got to it before me so I had to wait two weeks before I could go. The weeks go by and Monday I get a call and I am told I have a couple of warrents for tickets. I tell them no i dont i took care of them. They wanted proof so I send it to them. The next day they call me back and say everything is good and did I want to come on the 9th. I told them wait a sec I leave today, you guys have already given me the bus ticket. They ask me who gave it to me and I tell them my recruter and they ask me to hold. They come back and say ok your right your all good to go. I ask are you sure? They assure me I am.

So I get on the bus at 11AM after it was late 40min. Took a scarry 3 hour ride from Houston to San Antonio. It was scarry because the guy driving could not stay in his lane and did not know how to maintain speed. he also was darting in and out of traffic. I get to San Antonio Safely at 2PM. Now I wait for two hours for the Swift bus to come and pick me up for the hotel. I climb on the bus and there is a woman there to take your name and make sure your supposed to be there and give a little breafing. It took maybe 10min at the most to get to the hotel. The hotel is not to shabby, we have a mini fridge and microwave. There is a continental breakfast in the morning.

Woke up today at 5:30AM the first offical day of school. Went down and grabed some breakfast and waited till about 6:30 or so and my class and I 30 in all were taken into the conferance room. We met a couple of school staff and started the paperwork portion. After maybe an hour we are all hearded next door for our DOT and Work Well physicals. Everyone had to try for the flatbed division and if you couldnt then van division only. After I was done with that it was back to the hotel to wait for everyone to finish. We lost 5 people with the physical, they were sent back to the hotel they packed up their stuff and a Swift bus was there to take them back to the bus station. After the physical we were put on a bus and taken over to the Academy. We were taken inside and were told what we were going to do the rest of the day. We were given some time to eat lunch. After lunch we got a tour of the driving range. The equipment looked great, it looked well maintained and clean. After that we went back inside to do the rest of the paperwork. We stoped at around 5PM and came back to the hotel.

And that was my first day at Swift Driving Academy, So far I am excided and feel really good about this school.

Sorry for any spelling and grammer errors.

 

Thanks Doubledragon5 and Bamanation that is sound advice.

Day 2

Today I got started at 5:15. Used to working nights so this early morning stuff is going to take some time getting used to. Anyway I met and befriended a guy who drove down here and drives to the academy so I get to ride with him and dont have to take the bus, so I get a more comfortable ride out there. Get to the Academy around 6:45 or so and get ready for the class. First thing we did was finish up the paperwork we didnt get to yesterday. They are very honest with us and work with the people who have questinable backgrounds. We have till friday to be able to leave before we start to have to pay, you even get your sitting fee back. After Friday you start oweing money, there is a scale to how much you owe on what day you leave. After the 11th day you owe the whole amount. Some of us had to take a SLE exam today, if you didn't bring you high school deploma or GED you had to take it. 3 people failed it and went home. Down to 22 now. After all that we watched a video on Haarrasment that defines the diffrent types and why it is wrong (for those that didnt know already). We then went into log books, watched a video and then were given our first log book. We are required to keep our log books up to date as any other driver. We were given a lecture on log bokks then had a total of 6 tests on it, all open book. We were told how many test we have to take and pass on Monday (5) and what happens if you don't, we get a total of 6 trys. 3 trys this week and three times next week. What is cool is that here in Texas is you take a writen exam for your pre-trip instead of doing doing one in front of an examiner. Can't think of anything else to write so time to go back to the books.

 

No problem, I am more then willing to answer anything I can. I don't know everything but these instructer seem to be open and honest I can ask them anything if I dont know the answer.

 

Good luck to you too jnb.