I'm going with Swift!!!

I never thought I'd have to play catch-up on reading my own thread!!! Thanks for all of your concerns, I'm really sorry I had everybody so worried for awhile. Maybe I can give you an idea of why it's hard to post.

I'm sitting here at the Swift Atlanta terminal and it's almost 11 PM. I haven't had a shower in 2 days (until I started with Swift it was probably years since I skipped a shower), and I just finished a "34 hour reset" sitting in a truck where my mentor usually sits. After driving for 6 days staight which was crowned by an 8 hour wait to get loaded by a shipper, I was simply exhausted.

I have a fantastic mentor who is a company driver. From what I've heard, getting a company driver is usually a good thing because the owner/operators who lease their trucks through Swift have been known to be more likely to view their students as an extra log book. My mentor takes pride in being a mentor, and in my opinion, finds it important to identify with that role more then any other in his life (I can usually read people pretty well).

As Chris mentioned, taking two weeks off before getting back in a truck was a bit of a challenge. Add to that the fact that I needed to learn an 8 speed transmission and it made things interesting for awhile. But having a mentor who seems to like me, and genuinely cares about my success has made all of the difference.

The truth of the matter is, as much as I hate sharing a truck with somebody (and I hate it with a passion), having him with me during this process was neccessary, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to drive with him.

 

So where to start? I wish I could have posted from the beginning, but I really needed to size things up before I felt comfortable with bringing and using my laptop. I'll try to keep things true to memory as much as possible.

My three day orientation was pretty interesting. I arrived at Jonestown, PA a day early and had it in mind to rent a hotel room a day early so I could get situated. I hadn't thought things through and forgot that Jonestown is very close to Hershey Park, and since I arrived on a Sunday all of the hotels within a 30 mile radius were occupied. At the Days Inn where Swift drivers stay while they attend orientation, I was told of an obscure hotel that had rooms available, and being the highly skilled truck driver I am, proceeded to forget the directions the hotel clerk provided me. So I found an empty church parking lot and proceeded to sleep in my car.

Needless to say the next day I checked into the Days Inn early so I could get a hot shower and get comfortable. I was immediately grateful that I aborted plans to shave all my body hair and rent an adult film because my roommate arrived early as well (okay, some of the details might have been added there to make the post seem more interesting). Anyway, my roommate let me know he's nicknamed "Herb" (decided not to give his real nickname) and seemed like a nice enough fella. He used to work as a steelworker and other blue collar jobs such as painting and roofing, but had been unemployed for 2 years due to the economy (and I suspect a drinking issue as well).

He proceeded to talk my ear off for the rest of the night, and actually some of what he said was pretty interesting, but I couldn't make out 80 percent of the jokes he told because well.....I guess I'm not as worldy as I thought.

The next day was the first day of the orientation and the day started with 28 folks, a huge amount for an orientation, even for Swift. Several of the truck drivers were experienced drivers who were planning to join new Swift accounts such as Sams Club, or existing accounts such as Costco.

 

So the first day was mainly to seperate the drugged and unhealthy from the truck drivers. Being that I was looking forward to yet another physical with a blood pressure test, I did the responsible thing and had extra coffee for breakfast, and a combination of a footlong Bimpie Sub and Doritos all of which were provided at Swift's expense. Actually, I didn't *know* that the first day would be the physical or I wouldn't have had those things. So when they stated there would be a physical, I began to be worried.

But don't worry, Swift really wanted to make things interesting, so when it came for me to get my blood pressure, I sat at a table and faced three folks who were visibly upset because they had just failed their blood pressure test and were obviously told to sit in the backroom to get a second try to pass the test. I figured the only other thing I needed to ensure I would fail was a highly trained C.I.A. interogator accusing me of being a spy for Pakistan, and a sign posted by the folks failing the blood pressure test stating the following: "Fred, join us at the table of blood pressure failures, so you too can fail at your career before it has begun." Since my blood pressure usually tests *low*, it tested 2 points above the ideal normal, a minor miracle for me and only the second time that has happened (the first time was when I was 15 and passed out due to heat stroke after 110 degree weather in Venezuela).

My background information also cleared, as did my employment history. So basically the first day was a vetting process and those who made it through that day were either going to be set up with a mentor. Those who were experienced drivers needed to pass a driving test with an extremely well dressed and decorated Swift "Safety Officer".

Needless to say the next day I had to resist eating a second bag of Doritos to celebrate passing the physical...