Me and my wife are heading for the swift academy in phoenix, any advice will be Helpfull as my wife is brand new to the industry I will be down on on the 5th of November Thankz
My best advice is to listen to the instructors. They will give you exactly the info needed to complete the tasks and get your CDL. If you have a big class you will be spending a lot of time waiting for your turn. Be aggressive, don't let anyone muscle you out of your turn in the truck. You only get so many tries before testing out on a skill and there are no excuses accepted for failing. They are very eager to send people home ... or so it seemed to me it was that way. We started with 22 and graduated 7. Don't pee before class on day 1, you'll be needing the urine at 8am.
You'd better pray you're a quick learner. I attended a similar type mill course for my CDL. You have to cram tons and tons of information in to your head in a matter of hours, then when you're all done with that you get a handful of days to actually learn how to drive the truck. Me and my bud both attended at the same time. We partied all night and went to school the next day hung over three days out of five. We still managed to pass (me just barely, he actually did okay), but everyone is different. The best thing you can do is clear yourself of any and all distractions and focus entirely on school. Eat, sleep and breathe truck driving for the next few weeks. Had I been less distracted, more mature and a lot more focused, I probably would have performed alot better. Take away as much as you can from the experience. If you need extra help, DO NOT be afraid to ask. I actually came in on a saturday and worked all day to pass my skills test, the school didn't mind helping me at all. At the end of the day it's YOUR 3900 dollars putting you through, despite what any recruiter tried to tell you about "company paid training." Get the most for your money...
Thanks, i actually drove for about 6 months back in 2008 but from what i have seen is a huge change since then, i have heard an seen all the rumors and storeys out there , and And recruiters are just that "fill the seaters", but i don't wory to much swift is a huge Company who seems to love to give drives another chance and a first chance for new drivers
The DMV exam comes word for word from the Arizona CDL manual. It's a computer based test. If you're not sure of an answer press skip. The question may or may not appear again. Once you hit the passing score the test stops and the next one starts. There wasn't a Swift test that I remember taking. Maybe Toogroovy will chime in, he's at the academy as we speak.
Keep buging you're recruiter, i am in Denver Colorado and that's what i had to do, We have 1 recruiter for all of Colorado, so some times he will forget about stuff you all taked about and things you need to know
