Just put in my application.

Road week went great. There were 4 of us to a truck, plus the instructor, but there's plenty of room in them. Day one was spent learning how to shift on a remote highway, and unfortunately I was the only one out of the 4 to get the hang of it. The other 3 never really got it, and it ended up hurting them badly when we switched to city driving for day 2 and 3. Since shifting was 2nd nature for me after day 1, I was able to focus on actually driving the truck around the city. The other guys were just fumbling everything because they didn't have a good shifting foundation. Today, day 4, was the road evaluation, and I was the only one in the truck to pass. I received 8 infraction points out of 30 allowed. One guy didn't do too bad, he might have actually passed if he didn't make a left turn right in front of an oncoming semi. Another guy was grinding gears for about 1/4 mile and through 2 intersections so he auto failed for "not having control of the truck". And the last guy was just painfully bad at everything and probably shouldn't have been behind the wheel in the first place. Tomorrow is the real deal, my CDL test, and I'm feeling confident. Just one more night in this crappy hotel...

 

Yes, I'm happy with Swift's training. This is how I perceive their approach: Instead of offering a longer course that would sufficiently train anyone and everyone to drive a truck (community colleges and private schools for instance), they just throw us to the wolves and let the cream rise to the top. I would estimate that 60-80% of everyone that shows up on day 1 does not receive their CDL. The 95% pass rate that is posted in the range classroom only refers to the CDL pass rate, and the 60-80% of people I referred to before are gone long before the actual CDL test. Can't learn to straight back in 2 days? You are gone. Can't learn pretrip in 4 days? You're gone. Can't learn to offset back and parallel park in 4 days? You're gone. Can't learn how to operate a truck on public roads in 4 days? You're gone. Nobody here holds your hand. You sink or swim. So to give you a more specific yet vague answer... the Swift school is sufficient for people capable of passing the Swift school

 

And I forgot to add... the academy mainly serves to give us a foundation and to get our CDL. The actual "training" happens when you are out for 6 weeks with a mentor.

 

To be clear, they don't "grant" you a CDL for driving a few hours during one week. You earn a CDL by passing the Arizona state CDL test, for which the Swift academy prepares us.

At any rate, I passed the CDL test today. 16 attempted and 5 others passed. Some are being held back to do another road week, others will retest for their CDL tomorrow, and a few are being sent home. I'm now sitting at the airport waiting for my flight home.

 

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