Swift training school any one out here been there.

Discussion in 'Swift' started by my2girls, Sep 29, 2007.

  1. ford390pwr

    ford390pwr Light Load Member

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    Jun 15, 2009
    Hoquiam, WA
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    WIA is a government financial aid of sorts. it stands for Workforce Investment Act, and it's purpose is to re-train displaced workers for a new career. It is available in every state, and it would be beneficial to you if you can get the funding.
    It's availability depends on the area where you live. I was not able to get any funding through the WIA just because they had no funds available in the County where I live.
     
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  3. ford390pwr

    ford390pwr Light Load Member

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    Jun 15, 2009
    Hoquiam, WA
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    So we had been running great this week with about 650 miles for Monday and tuesday! By 0700 Wednesday, we had two preplans that would get us about 700 miles for the day.
    Just as we left Costco in CourDlean ID, the truck started acting up. All the gauges started sweeping up and down, and all the dash lights started flashing. There was no throttle at all, and this was very intermittent. We were doing 35mph, then 12mph. The mentor was driving, and he knew that he could make it to the FreightShaker Dealer in Spokane, so he limped the truck there.
    We called the Driver Manager and told her to take us off those 2 loads, we would be sitting in the shop all day.
    Now, Tuesday was my first payday! A whopping $356, and all of it went onto my Comdata card because there is no direct deposit set up yet. So I got online and found a Bank Of America and started walking. Google said it was 2.9 miles, and I had all day so what else was I to do.... Anyways, it seems there is a lot of construction here in Spokane! So I ended up with a few detours which made my walk a little longer. So as I neared the address for the Bank I realized that it was no longer there!
    Called the B of A hotline, and found another branch. Anyways, when all was said and done, I had walked a total of 11.3 miles today. Needless to say, my feet are now killing me!

    When i got back to FreightShaker and asked to get into the truck to retrieve my contact numbers they had just pulled the tractor back into the shop and had found the part. The tech said it was a CPU which controlled all of the electronics for the truck. he would have it in and programmed in about 2 hours. I called my mentor, he went home for a while, and he said he would rather get a fresh start in the morning. We had no preplan, and all the loads would have been gone by now. So he got me into the Super 8 motel for the night.

    I decided to walk down the street and get a good sandwich from a place up the street from the motel. This time I only walked 2 blocks, but it started pooring as I was ready to leave the restaurant! I ended up waiting a few minutes and the rain passed, for the most part.

    Hopefully, the mentor will decide to work at least Saturday now since we lost a whole day of work. It doesn't hurt me any, I get paid the same whether I drive or sit all day.
     
  4. otherhalftw

    otherhalftw R.I.P.

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    CA...gold discovery foothills
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    Just top clarify...a 13 is a 9 with four split gears on the high side...just FYI!
     
  5. ford390pwr

    ford390pwr Light Load Member

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    Jun 15, 2009
    Hoquiam, WA
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    Nothing too exciting to report here. The tractor was ready at about 6pm on Wednesday, but we waited to get it till Thursday morning. I spent the night at a Super 8 in Spokane and had a good meal at a local pub.

    We got in the truck and headed to a T/S to wait for a load assignment. Nothing came down till 2pm, so we sat around watching movies at the Petro in Spokane all morning.

    One thing we found is that when the dealer replaced the CPU and reprogrammed it, they used different settings than it had before! Now the high rev limits at 1700 rpm as opposed to 2000rpm, and it appears that we are no longer governed for speed. At least not at 62mph as we had been before, but I don't want to go over 65 too much with Big Brother watching and all.

    So we got a live load to pick up in Walla Walla prior to 1900. I drove to the juice factory, we got loaded and I drove again till we got to the Pilot at I90 exit 106 in Ellensberg. The mentor got some rest in the bunk, and then he drove the rest of the way to Sumner while I got some rest.

    Now we wait at the Terminal in Sumner for another load, but nothing as of 1000 on Friday. Looks like I may go home again, no sense in sitting at the T/S all weekend and losing out on my training time!

    I have my replacement phone sitting at home. Oh yeah did I mention that my Blackberry went through the washer a couple of weeks ago? Well the LCD is bad, the camera don't work and the Keypad is a little hard to use. i took it apart and dried it out the best i could but was only able to send and receive phone calls, and tether it to my laptop for internet.

    Thank's to everyone that is following these posts, and thank you for all the encouraging PM's, you know who you are! I don't want to post mindless dribble, so I will try to keep the stories as interesting as I can.
     
  6. bugsy6

    bugsy6 Light Load Member

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    Jun 4, 2009
    Daytona,FL
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    Ford Thank you for the updates.I have followed this thread from the start.
     
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  7. Mooniac

    Mooniac Medium Load Member

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    May 19, 2008
    Vancouver, Washington
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    Where you at Ford? Had hoped you'd share your GPS tracks like you did in school. :biggrin_2557:
     
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  8. ford390pwr

    ford390pwr Light Load Member

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    Hoquiam, WA
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    Sorry to dissapoint, but if I had the GPS tracks for my last 3 weeks they would be pretty boring! I am running with a mentor from the heavy haul division here in Sumner WA. Something like 98% of the loads that we get are from the Costco DC in Sumner to a Costco store in Eastern WA / Idaho, or Oregon.

    I have been keeping a record of my travels in a Spreadsheet, mostly to keep track of the days that I spend on my mentors truck. I have pasted the spreadsheet to this post for all to see, but as I said it is pretty much the same run on I90 with a few detours to the Lewiston ID area. We only had one trip south of Sumner off I5, and that went to Vancouver WA.


    Friday, July 31, 2009 Sumner – Spokane, Division St
    Saturday, August 01, 2009 Petro, Spokane
    Sunday, August 02, 2009 Petro, Spokane
    Monday, August 03, 2009 Spokane – Sumner – Union Gap
    Tuesday, August 04, 2009 Union Gap – Kennewic – Sumner – Kennewic
    Wednesday, August 05, 2009 Kennewic – Clarkston – Lewiston – Sumner – Vancouver
    Thursday, August 06, 2009 Vancouver – Sumner – Tacoma- Sumner - Coeur D Alene
    Friday, August 07, 2009 Coeur D Alene – Lewiston – Sumner Home Weekend
    Monday, August 10, 2009 Sumner - Coeur D Alene
    Tuesday, August 11, 2009 Coeur D Alene – Sumner - Coeur D Alene
    Wednesday, August 12, 2009 Breakdown Spokane
    Thursday, August 13, 2009 Spokane – Walla Walla – Sumner
    Friday, August 14, 2009 Sumner Home weekend
    Monday, August 17, 2009 Sumner – Spokane, Division St
    Tuesday, August 18, 2009 Spokane, Division St – Petro, Spokane (No loads @11:15)
    Wednesday, August 19, 2009 Spokane – Mattawa – Sumner – Kennewic
    Thursday, August 20, 2009 Kennewic – Clarkston – Lewiston – Sumner – Spokane
    Friday, August 21, 2009 Spokane – Sumner – SpokaneSaturday, August 22, 2009 Spokane – Coeur D Alene – Spokane (Petro)
     
  9. ford390pwr

    ford390pwr Light Load Member

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    Jun 15, 2009
    Hoquiam, WA
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    I have not been posting as many updates as I had originally planned, but there is not much exciting news to post. As I previously mentioned, I have been teamed with a great mentor who is teaching me a lot! Running the Heavy Haul division is a lot of the same trips on I90, but at least we are staying fairly busy. I go into the drivers lounge in Sumner and can count anywhere from 10 to 20 drivers just sitting around every day! When we go to Lewiston I usually see between 3-5 drivers waiting for a load.

    We have been very lucky! Just Thursday we pulled into Sumner without a new load and thought we would be spending the night. It turns out there was a load going to Spokane that someone moved the refer to the Sumner terminal to fuel it up and when the next driver went looking for the refer they couldn't find it. It was already 6:30pm and Oleg was talking to the night dispatcher who said if you can find the trailer, you can have the load. Of course the trailer was right there in the yard and we just had to look for it. So we came in with no load, and left about 45 minutes later with a trip to Spokane while all those other guys just sat in the lounge watching television.

    OK, so on Thursday morning I was driving from Kennewic to Clarkston and we were on schedule to be about an hour early for our appointment at Costco. So Oleg said "I am going to teach you how to shift without the clutch". I have been watching him do it all along and have done it a couple of times in the low range gears. I understood that it was all about matching the speed to the rpm's and i have been trying to perfect that. So he grabs the stick and had me hold it like I normally do and said "release throttle". We were shifting from 3-4, so he did the shifting and I just paid attention to how it felt. I proceeded to shift from there through all the high end gears and I looked at him and said, "What the Hell! That's a lot easier than double clutching." I have been floating the gears ever since with only using the clutch from 4-5 a few time when I had the rpm's too high to get out of 4th.

    I am getting real good at backing and I know now that it just takes practice. I pulled into the Lewiston yard and he said to park it in a spot between two trailers. I took a look and decided that an angle back was my best approach. I got the trailer in a spot with about 10 inches on the drivers side, 2 feet on the passenger side, and at one point i had about 3 inches in front. When I got out to take a look I went to the front and he followed me and said, "WOW, that's a real tight spot!" I knew I had the room, I just wanted to visualize how much space was on my blind side, and exactly how much was in front between the fender and the front of a parked trailer. Anyways, I was able to get the trailer in the spot in one shot only using a pull up to center it in the space a little bit.

    I am doing most of the backing at the shippers. Being Costco stores, it is almost always a straight back with a few 45 degrees. The truck stops that we use have a good amount of space so i am having no problems getting into those spots.

    Lastly, my mentor is not happy with the truck he has now. He requested an OTR truck so that he can get some better loads. He has been doing heavy haul for over 2 years, and wants to get out of his "Freight Shaker" and into a newer Volvo. He asked the fleet manager to find him a truck and we just found out there is a Volvo that will be available on Monday. It is still licensed to run heavy haul even though it is only a 3 axle truck. I am excited because now that I am getting comfortable in this truck, I get to learn a different rig. My mentor says that he likes the Volvos better because they are quieter, more comfortable and have better storage. I just want to see if we can run some OTR together so I can experience that while I am still on his truck.

    Again, thank you to everyone that has been following my posts. I am by no means a journalist so I hope that I have been able to keep my posts somewhat interesting.
     
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  10. ford390pwr

    ford390pwr Light Load Member

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    Jun 15, 2009
    Hoquiam, WA
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    We ran really hard this last week and made up a little but for the previous week with 3800 miles. I managed to get back to Sumner for the weekend and will spend a couple of days with the kids before we hit the road hard again on Monday. The bad part is that my mentor got stuck in Sumner without a load and needed to find a ride back home to Spokane.

    Even with the busy week we did get out of that Freight Shaker and into a really good Volvo. Its a 2008 with 202,000 miles and is fairly clean. We had to dump our stuff in it and run another load, so we have a lot of cleaning and some organizing to do, but it's a really great tractor. Best of all, it was a chance for me to drive yet another piece of equipment.

    In my limited experience with the Coulmbias, and this Volvo I would have to say that the Volvo is a much better rig. Every Columbia I have sat in has a gap around the door seal where your fingers can fit, let alone the wind and cold air. This Volvo is air tight, and it is 100% quieter in the cab. I can't hear the refer as much in the sleeper, and the controls are very well laid out. This thing is set up like a car, from the horns, to the cruise control, to the turn signals that cancel, to the power steering.

    I still want to see the inside of the new International Pro tars that Swift is putting into service, but so far I really like the Volvo.
     
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  11. Texas-Nana

    Texas-Nana Princess Drives-a-Lot

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    Apr 23, 2008
    Nana's empty nest
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    I liked the international, however we never got a team one only the small solo so I hated the lack of space and lack of storage.

    We're in a volvo now and it's got it's good and bad points too. However it's MUCH quieter.
     
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