Beginning my Process with Swift

Day 7 Father's day was interesting. We were told to meet the bus for class at 0530. 0530 rolled around, then 0630 etc., you get the picture. The hotel didn't have any personal phone numbers for the staff just the office numbers which of course nobody was answering. Numerous voicemails were left on the office phones and finally we were notified to be ready for the bus at 1100. Well, after that was settled we finally got the day underway. A total of six tests were taken, 3 logs, 2 map/trip planning and hazmat. Looooong day. A couple of videos were watched and we finally finished up about 2030 last night. Whew.

Day 8 today was our last day of classroom instruction!! Life on the road, finance and budgeting and Decision Driving presentations were given. Some logbook review was done with three entertaining practice run scenarios given we had to plan and log out. I enjoyed that exercise. A few mildly entertaining videos were shown and the coup de tat video at the end of the day was a runaway truck ramp demonstration in Lewiston, WA. Quite a good video. Classroom and instructor evals were filled out and class 722 said goodbye to the classroom. Tomorrow brings the range again and learning and practicing our respective states skills. It's supposed to be 102 ambient tomorrow, weeehaw!! Until then, peace.

 

That's right LOL interesting day for sure. I was disqualified for the bloodletting due to being in Europe in the eighties and the outbreak of mad cow disease. Never mind some 20 years later I'm still kicking LOL Got a free hat anyway. Amusingly, the videos seemed to be lulling our poor instructor to z land as well as some(most) of us. The fight was valiant.

 

Day 9, hot as blue blazes! A/C's and clutch brakes were giving up the ghost left and right. Got some good range time in though despite the heat. New class 723 was at the academy so we had the range all to ourselves. Got started learning and practicing on the 45 alley, FL blindside jackknife parallel and the FL pullup stop (whoopee). Continued refining the offsets. Nobody had very much time if any to wait on a rig so that was nice. Looking forward to tomorrow and getting these maneuvers down pat. Supposed to be 3 degrees cooler LOL The new class will get their first day on the range for their intro to straight line backing and the Memphis/Millington furnace. Laters.

 

Well haven't written in a few days but days 10,11 and 12 went very well with final test outs today on skills tests. Our class was finished by lunchtime with everyone still with us passing their required skills tests. Travel lady came in and talked to us at lunch and handed out our bus info to our domicile terminals for road training and ultimate DMV testing at the end of next week. We return to the range tomorrow for day 13 and practice practice practice. Then back to the hotel, just enough time for a quick shower and down to the Greyhound station to part our ways. I'm on my way to Ocala, FL with a DMV appointment Friday the 2nd. Wish me luck! I'll try and get a post or two in during next week's road training. All in all, I'm very pleased thus far with my experiences with Swift.

 

I absolutely agree with ya Sonny, all of those guys are true professionals and great instructors. Been off the Greydog for about 2 hours now here in Ocala FL ready for road training to start tomorrow morning. Have an appointment with DMV Friday morning for the CDL tests. Busy week ahead and I'm sure it'll go by SWIFTly.

 

Well, this past week was... hectic. I don't know how else to describe what I went through on road training except for that word. But, it was worth all the sweat and stress. Did I say stress? Our road trainer in Ocala, FL is top notch and took two guys with limited to no knowledge on driving a big rig ..... forward ..... LOL to test at the DMV in basically 3 days. Thursday (yesterday) was her DMV style test eval before the final thumbs up to go to DMV. Oh yeah, we both passed !!!!!! Set for Orientation back in Ocala on Wednesday the 7th!! Onward!!