False Swift Start

300+ hours? No. I just re-read my post. The school was supposed to be 5 weeks long maximum. There were 10 students in the class, which is considered a large class for the school I went to (the class after ours had just 2 students). There were 2 regular teachers, and one extra teacher who helped sometimes. So, the class after ours was a one-on-one class. That is, one teacher to each student.

A few of the students in my class drove trucks before, so the class was a refresher for them. In the yard and on the road, the teachers mostly concentrated on freshening up the students who had driven before so they could get their CDL and then help with the rest of us who had never driven a truck before. Some of them did not stay. They got their CDL and were never seen in class again.

There were 4 of us left at the end of the 5 weeks who did not yet have a CDL, and the director of the school allowed us to stay longer. By the end of the 6th week, there were 3 of us left, and we were allowed to stay 1 more week. I did pass the DMV tests and got my CDL A during that 7th week. There were 2 students at the end of the 7th week. I understand they were granted yet another week, during which one of them did pass the DMV tests and got their CDL A. Out of the original 10 students in the class I was in, 9 of us got a license.

Doing the math I can see it was impossible to have driven 300+ hours. It was closer to 200.

I have decided to try and get a job working on a dock, and maybe work my way up to driving from there. If I find a job working on a dock, I will certainly make sure everyone knows I have a CDL A with T X endorsements, a TWIC card and a passport card in my pocket.

 

Why I waited so long to get a job. Actually, why I waited so long to look for a job, since I still do not have a job and I am still looking:

I went through the WIA program. Long story short if you do not know what that is, the government paid for my training. I was (am) considered a Dislocated Worker because the company I worked at for many years outsourced my job and closed the plant. I was part of a mass layoff. It had been many years since I looked for work, and my skills were considered antiquated. Sometime between starting my career and losing it, I became a dinosaur. So, I had to be retrained.

During the time I was taking all the tests and classes and jumping through all the necessary hoops in order to get the government to pay to have me retrained so I could start applying for jobs in the new future career of my choosing, I learned once again how long the government can take. I was deciding between taking training for two other totally unrelated career options, but ultimately decided I wanted to be trained to drive a truck, abandoning the original two considerations. I decided to give it my all and learn to drive a truck and learn how to be the best possible driver in the process.

Fast forward to the end of truck driving school. I was issued a temporary CDL A. I decided I wanted to take the tests for the endorsements. So, after the DMV driving test, I asked them not to mail my license because I wanted to take the endorsement tests. My teacher advised mr to do this, otherwise they would charge me another $30 to get another license with the endorsements.

I spent exactly one week studying for the endorsement tests, when I went back to the DMV and aced all the tests. They gave me a different temporary license, but the new one had endorsements printed on it. The endorsements printed were "T N" (doubles/triples and tank). It did not have "X" (hazmat) printed on it. I had to get fingerprinted and approved for the hazardous materials endorsement.

The DMV told me I will get my new hard license in the mail after my investigation is complete by the FBI. If they approved me, the new CDL A would have all the endorsements. If not, it will arrive in the mail anyway, minus the hazmat endorsement.

While I was waiting for my license to arrive in the mail, I was applying for places online. What I learned was, everyone wants experience. Once again, I was faced with the dilemma of trying to find a job without experience, just like I did fresh out of high school, almost four decades earlier. What I discovered was, CRST and Swift were probably the only companies who would give me a chance without experience. I was considering CRST, but in the end decided I wanted to go with Swift.

I started communicating with a Swift recruiter using the phone and email. They were pressuring me to commit to an orientation start date, but I decided I did not want to start without actually having my new CDL in my hand/pocket. It finally arrived almost six weeks after I was fingerprinted, and it had all the endorsements, including the hazmat. I was really jazzed the day it showed up in my mailbox!

The DMV passed me During June 2010, but I did not have my license until August.

While I was attending driving school, my class C license expired, and I had to get an extension on it, so I had a drivers' license to drive my car. My passport had expired too, so I had no picture ID. When I was fingerprinted, I wanted to apply for a TWIC card too since I would do that in the same office, but I could not do that until I had a valid picture ID. When My new license came, I finally had a valid picture ID, and I immediately enrolled for a TWIC card, and applied for a US Passport and a Passport card.

I decided not to start orientation at Swift until my TWIC card arrived. It only took exactly one week, probably because I was already checked out when they approved my hazmat endorsement. I decided I wanted to go to orientation when I got the TWIC card, and just wait on the passport(s). They would come in the mail, and I did not need them anyway. I did not need the TWIC card either, but it just happened to arrive before my scheduled start date with Swift.

But alas, my Swift start did not happen anyway. It was a "False Swift Start".

 

I am not wanting to get in to politics here or compare the merit of my home's esthetics to other states in this great country. I am a proud third generation California native and am certainly not ashamed to say where my roots are, wherever they may be. In retrospect, and irregardless of that fact, yes I wish I had known about the ninety-day deal. Since I did not I will just have to take whatever actions are necessary. Finding a job within three months of being issued a license might have been mentioned at some point. If it was, I missed the comment. I made the mistake of thinking I had five years to find a job with my new CDL apparently, since it says it does not expire until my birthday in 2015.

I will no longer consider either CRST or Swift as a future employer. My particular personal history is one of strong union beliefs. We all have our own belief system, and I respect whatever anyone happens to believe for themselves. I believe in unions, and in particular the Teamsters union. That is just me. I have learned that both CRST and Swift are very anti-union companies, so my working for either of them would not work because of my strong union beliefs.

 

Great suggestion. That is exactly what I was doing yesterday, not cold calling but looking in the yellow pages at trucking companies. I think the cold calling you suggest will begin today. I was going to do that anyway. Thank you for validating my decision.