I have been doing my research for about two years now and I am finally taking the plunge. Now, before I get jumped on for choosing Swift let me tell you that it was not my first choice. However, with no local companies hiring drivers without experience(if they were hiring at all), I didn't have many options. Even the large carriers were either not hiring in my area or required experience. So, after reading everything I could find and talking to many company drivers, I picked Swift. After an extensive wait I finally started orientation today. We started with 10 people in our group but lost one in the first 10 minutes. He found out that he would not be able to take his truck home and decided to leave. The rest of us spent the morning doing are physicals and drug tests along with verifying our application. After some pizza for lunch we spent the afternoon watching videos and doing our road tests. I would like to clarify that it wasn't really a road "test". We drove the 1/2 mile from the terminal to the highway and then 10 miles down the highway to a gas station where we switched drivers and went back to the terminal. We were told that the purpose of this test was just to make sure that we could shift and were not going to be dangerous with the truck. We returned to the hotel and were fed pizza once again for dinner. I hope to update this often to record my journey with Swift. This will be a completely honest account of what I experience while I am here. I do not have any crazy beliefs that this will be an easy career or that I will get rich doing it. I have always wanted to try it though and do not intend to live my life wondering "what if". Feel free to ask any questions and STAY SAFE. Yonder
I wonder if the recruiter lied to him. At any rate, it is somewhat entertaining seeing people get up and walk out of orientation. I've been through a few when I first started with the big companies, though not Swift. It seemed some drivers came just to argue and make a show before walking out. Though some sure had good reason. Good luck.
The big thing that gets me at a orientation is the people who flunk the drug test. They know they are going to be tested, why do they even try??? My very 1st time, at Barr-Nunn, one guy told us at lunch that he would probably fail. His friends had a going away party for him a few nights before he left, he smoked a bit. Just a couple of hits. I just had to ask him why, since he knew they would test him. He said he hadn't thought they really would test. Duhhh!!! What was it Forest said, "Stupid is as stupid does"?
Also, meant to ask, Swift drivers don't take the truck home? I was told the driver did. There is a Swift driver around here that parked his truck in the back lot of a local small restaurant.
road dust is correct, it all depends on how far away you live. They were willing to give him a job but would not let him keep the truck 200 miles from the terminal. I agree about the drug test as well, I don't understand how anyone would fail when they should know that they WILL be taking one. At least they fail it though, I would rather not share the road with any more of those people than I have too. Common sense just isn't that common anymore.
I was told if you live within 30 miles of a terminal, you park the truck at the terminal. If you live farther than 30 miles, you take the truck home. HTH.
That is what i had been told also. They are getting tougher on out of route miles and this person lived a bit off the beaten trail and didn't think they could get many loads very close to his home. This is why they told him no. jtrnr1951, I have been practicing for the drug test my entire life. I have never used narcotics so I feel well prepared to pass those tests.
Finished up day 2 of orientation. We received a stack of books that included that FMCSR pocket book, two hazardous material books, benefits information, and the company manual. We also had a 3 hour long session on doing log books and how they handled falsified logs and logging errors. For lunch we were able to pick between a salad, sandwich, burger, or chicken tenders. After lunch we watched some videos on accidents and rollovers. We were given our comdata cards and the terminal manager talked to us for a little bit. Although he was very direct about some issues that you will encounter at Swift, he did say something a bit scary. He was discussing what he expects you to do during your time with a mentor and specifically talked about driving down some mountains. In itself that is not bad but he directed the class apply steady pressure to the brakes all the way down! I really hope someone chimes in to correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that is a great way to heat up your brakes and lose air pressure. It just seemed like dangerous advice. We are all waiting for the drug tests to come back so we can get our driver numbers tomorrow and find out when we leave with mentors. We were told that many of us might not go out until next week but that we shouldn't be waiting more than a week. So far Swift has been about what I expected, maybe even better.
