My Swift Academy Journey. Will it be a swifty one or not?

Hey folks. Finally have a chance for an update. We delivered a load to Nashville yesterday from Bakersfield area. Driving into Nashville last night was the most challenging driving I have ever done. It was dark, raining, construction, loaded and traffic. When we finally reached our destination and stopped, I had an overwhelming emotional release. Hard to describe, But my hands shook and and tears poured out like a baby. Wow, what an drive. But, I got us to where we needed to go without hurting anyone or damaging anything. I just took it slow (not so slow that I was a hazard to others) and easy and intensely focused on driving.
Then, this evening we were heading East to Salt Lake City. Roads were smooth, traffic was light and it was an absolute pleasure driving. My mentor went to sleep in his bunk and I just had a wonderful zen of peace and tranquility. I just clocked the miles along and, it was just a pleasure to drive. Quite a contrast for the 2 evening's. I still have over 5 hours on my clock. We stopped and I was thinking it would just be to take my 30, but my mentor said we were shutting down for the day. Yep, I'm disappointed, but we will be able to deliver tomorrow and we don't have a next load yet. So, I'll accept his wisdom. I trust him. After having me drive last night, you'd think I would have doubts. But, he knew I was capable and he told me most of his trainees he would not have let drive through what we did. IDK. It is a feat I do not intend to repeat anytime soon. But, MIT definitely was a confidence builder overall.
So far, my experience with Swift has been wonderful. All I have met have been great to me and I earnestly believe if one wants to develop the knowledge and skill to drive a rig, their program offers it. But, those that show up thinking Swift will spoon feed train them are gonna be disappointed. You have to put forth effort and allow yourself to embrace what they are teaching. I'm trying my best and so far it is all good.
Thanks for your continued encouragement and support, it has helped and is appreciated.

Till I get a chance for the next update, I hope all prosperity and safe travels!

 

I think my mentor is a mixed bag. Those things he, in my opinion, seems deficit on are things I am not too worried about being able to figure out. Where my mentor does excel is in his experience. He has been a mentor for over 16 years and really knows a lot from that length of experience that many mentors haven't quite figured out yet ( You only need to drive for 6 months before you can become a mentor and most mentors do not have the years of experience he has). Things I am learning from his experience have to do with which loads to accept and which to reject and strategies for finding truck parking outside of the big Flying J, Pilot and Love's lots that often get filled up. Stuff that really only come from hard gained experience. So, overall, I'm fine with my mentor. No mentor is gonna be perfect. BTW, no lot lizard crap or pee bottles and that sort of stuff from him.

Anyway, I am on home-time. He had some family stuff planned awhile back, so this has been scheduled for awhile. I only have about 19 hours left to finish. We had hoped to knock it out before his home-time, but it didn't happen. I go back tomorrow morning and it should only take us 2 or 3 days to finish up my time, depending on how our loads go. Then, I test out and get my own truck. My biggest weakness is probably backing and maneuvering the trailer where I want it to be. But, that is just gonna take time and more practice. I have been doing the majority of our backings and maneuverings already, he is not hogging that from me. And, I'm probably about as proficient as most are at this point anyway (My mentor says I'm much better than he was at this point and I'll do fine. I'll get better and more confident as I continue to drive and park). Otherwise, I think I'm about as ready as I need to be and I'm sure I'll probably have some, oh crap, what do I do know, moments in the future. But, Swift, so far, has had pretty good support and aid, so I figure whatever I end up getting myself into, I'll be as able to get myself through as anyone who is similarly experienced. I have 2 HOS violations so far, but I call BS on them and having issues with the Comdata terminal regarding both of them. One is for 11 hours and 4 minutes of drive time and another for 8 hours and 44 minutes without the 30 minute off-duty break. I won't go into the details, but the errors were more with the Comdata terminals than with me. Lesson learned, watch the #### Comdata like a hawk!!!! It lies, doesn't update when you update it, etc. Anyway, I've talked with the folks that matter regarding these issues and they aren't making a fuss over them, other than to re-enforce what I've already figured out, watch the dang Comdata terminal like a hawk and make sure it logs things correctly!!!
My biggest problem so far is simply that it sucks having to work again. My situation allowed me to take about a year and a half basically off-work. It really was a nice personal sabbatical and was muchly needed. But, it was only temporary and I knew at some point I'd have to start working again. That time has come and I'd really prefer to stay lazy and at home watching TV and putzing around with whatever I wanted to. But, a new chapter has begun and I must work again. No problem driving a truck for a living, especially since I get to go traipsing around the U.S. Just a problem actually working again.

I'm anxious about what truck I get. It has been a mixed bag so far with others from the Academy I got to know. Some ended up with literally brand-new trucks and some with fairly high mileage older ones. It seems to be just the luck of the draw. I have asked for a Volvo. I'm in a 2017 Kenworth now, which I like except for the placement of the Engine Brake controls. Numerous times, I've ended up turning off the traction control instead of turning on the Engine Brake. I've also been spoiled by being in an Owner/Operator truck instead of a company truck. As an Owner/Operator we have a higher governed speed, fuel when and where we want, take whatever route we want to take and idle the truck whenever we want. I'm not looking forward to a slower truck, being told what route you have to take, where you have to get fuel and when you can idle your truck or not. But, it's the deal and I'll just have to deal with it. All the other company drivers do and they seem to survive just fine. Guess I probably will too!!! However, it has been a huge incentive for me to think about getting my own truck someday. That decision is way too far down the line to consider at the moment. But, I have been shown some of those advantages.

Anyway, sorry it took so long for an update. Things are well. Thanks to this forum, I'm not running into any significant problems. My expectations have been pretty much where they needed to be and that was gained from reading the many many posts from so many others. Several of the other students I attended the Academy with are complaining about stuff that that I already knew could happen and I've expected.

Thanks and I'll let you guys know what truck I end up with and how it goes from here. So far, thumbs up!!!

 

Well, I didn't provide the details that show otherwise in my post, but I did provide them to the safety and other folks that matter in this. Our Qualcom has been glitching on us and randomly locking up and we have had other hos inaccuracies that haven't caused violations. My mentor and I suspect our specific qualcom unit is having hardware or software errors and may need to be replaced. Also, my mentor has been having hos errors too, just none that have caused any hos violations. Most errors can be corrected, to a degree. But, hos violations create flags that aren't able to be edited and fixed in the truck. I haven't heard anything about Swift fixing or replacing our qualcom unit as of yet. But, we have started taking pictures of our hos screen whenever we make updates (things like switch from on duty to sleeper berth) so in case we have further errors we can show we were operating properly but our unit didn't update correctly.
And, sorry for calling the qualcom a comdata. Rookie mistake, get away from the truck for a couple of days and I have to relearn everything. Lol.

 

Got back on the road today. During my hometime, a new (to us) qualcomm unit was installed in our truck. Hope that fixes our problems. We got a load from Phoenix to Corpus Christi TX. Hopefully we can get a load right back to Phoenix, because this trip should give me the hours I need to complete my Mentored training. All's good. We are in Anthony TX for the night. It is the 4th time, while I have been with my mentor that we have stayed here. Hey, it's a good place and they always seem to have parking.
I'm a Lord of the Rings fan and to the West of this spot is a little hill/mountain that reminds me, almost, or Erebor, the lonely mountain, from The Hobbit. I'm weird.