Swift Lewiston starting Monday 8/1

Day 1-
Got up in the morning and everyone was gathering for the bus. We did a quick head count and only 6 of us for this class. Two no shows. Rumor was 9 people, so 3 no-show.

Got to class and right into paperwork. Personal information verification. Started reading the course catalog, expectations, rules, etc. Actually reading it, not just glancing at it and signing it. Instructor read every word to us as we followed along. Boring...must stay focused.

Discovered that there were no surprises for me as seems everything was either discussed here on the forums or was in the Swift documentation if anyone bothered to read it through. Some in my class say they didn't see the information, but what we were reading was on the Swift Online courses that we had to take prior to arriving.

Got about half way through that and four of us jumped in the shuttle for the 15 minute ride to the doctor's office for DOT physicals.

The physical was pretty straight forward and not really any different than a yearly physical from my regular physician that everyone should be doing anyways. Only thing different for me was checking my vision. 20/15 corrected in both eyes. Guess I'll stop complaining that my vision just isn't sharp enough and could be better. Wasn't any lifting weights, ekg, sleep study, etc etc that some people say they get. Blood pressure was taken rested (120/77). Did check for hernia, but get that every year already. Doctor asked about 2 medications I'm taking, explained them and he said okay no problem you're clear for two years.

Back over to the Swift academy and finished reading the course catalog. Broke for lunch.

After lunch an officer from the local Port of Entry came over to discuss weigh station proceedures, how they work, and various things they look for besides just weighing the axles. Talked about using the Atlas for route planning looking at weight and length restrictions. Finally log books, and an overview (full class tomorrow on logs) how to fill them and what they look for on log inspections. Was surprisingly pretty interesting.

End of the day we went over our applications again to verify that everything is correct and nothing left off. On the initial online application I had put 10 years work history, but this only had my most recent that went back 6. Asked about it and was told that since I had not driven before they only needed 3 years back. The only thing that was asked there was to cross out "current" for reason I left current employment and change to "attending swift academy". Technically that's not true because my self employment can be done while in school and while on the road if I wanted to for more extra money, but meh whatever.

Also asked about a dismissed charge I had that wasn't sure how to report it or if I should. Was told to go ahead and report it just in case the background check showed it not dismissed and still current. Went ahead and reported it, I have the paperwork from the courts showing dismissed just in case. It shows incorrectly. With reporting it and saying it's dismissed it might prompt whomever does the check to look into it further to find it's dismissed.

Broke for the day at 1600. Headed back to the hotel, jumped in my truck and found the Walmart across the river in Clarkston. I swear that is the biggest Walmart in the Northwest. Biggest one I have seen at least. Picked myself up some dinner and a fishing pole because I forgot to bring mine for Sunday. Would have waited till Sunday but I wasn't gonna pass up a rod and reel on clearance for $11. I'll grab tackle on Saturday or Sunday if I do decide to go fishing on my days off.

Tomorrow is log class, pre-trip handouts to start studying and I imagine drug test cause they didn't get us today. Nobody cut today (unless you count the no-shows) but I thought two were going to because of missing papers. They got them faxed up though so no problems.

 

Day 2

Logs, drug test, logs, logs, logs, lunch, more logs, log test, yet more logs, pretrip, introduction to Ed.

I hate splits (8/2 or 2/8) I'll never do one intentionally because they are too much of a pain in the butt to track the 11 and 14. Hate em. Other than splits I did great on the log test and followup "hard" practice questions. Anything that involved splits on the followup I got wrong. Grrrr luckily it wasn't graded.

Our class is the last Lewiston class to use the bound log books. Next class (and us when we go to mentor) will be using single sheet, 2 days per sheet logs, that we have to get a 3-ring binder for. Classes will be on the single sheet logs so anyone coming starting next week and on get a three ring to bring in. That also means the kinda cool ruler we got for class will be scaled wrong so is good for a straight edge but that's about it. Don't know if anything will replace that.

After a quick break got our pre-trip folders. Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Montana all have slightly different pre-trip requirements for the State exam. Apparently Oregon's is the easiest of the four. Went over briefly the folder and what we'd want to study tonight and over the next few days.

Met Ed, seems like a great ranch instructor. Starting pre-trips and straight backs on the range tomorrow.

Today we got clued in that Swift will NOT allow GPS units in the trucks as the new Qualcomms will have GPS integrated. General consensus in the class was that doesn't make sense and more like GPS's won't be allowed on the dashboard or window mounts (both illegal in some states already). That should either get clarified later or better be a good GPS in those Qualcomms and get em installed fast.

 

Day 3-

Spent too much time tonight in an air conditioned grocery store just wandering around. It was 106 deg at 5pm in Lewiston ID today. Yeesh.

Anyways, 2 trucks in one backing station, 2 in another.

2 trucks I can back all day no problems, you could probably give me 6 inches of room on either side and I'd be fine. No problems at all, I'll take my eval on either of these two.

1 truck I used the whole lane to back it...ug. Backed it several times in the morning, but only once in the afternoon. I think it was infected by the truck next to it which...

omg I wanted to get out of that truck, shoot it's tires, poor diesel all over it and light it on fire. I backed it ONCE all day all by myself. The two other times I backed it was with Ed or Junior walking right next to the truck and spotting me. I could start the lane all the way on the right and the black hole pot hole right at the start of the cones would suck that trailer right into the left side of the lane.

This compounded by this truck having a very slow reaction time on turning. So turn the wheel, wait, wait, turn some more, wait .... gah it's finally turning but it's gone too far already correct correct ....wait...wa...oh bloody hell correct...too far....###### where's that gas can.

That truck is my nemesis!

Okay calm breath deeply it's okay just go drive one of the other trucks for another 30 minutes and show it whose boss.

Tomorrow morning me and my nemesis are gonna have a little chat.

Overall pretrip I'm 75% confident with it. Inside cab and brake check 95% confident. Have tomorrow to study/practice harder on pre-trip.

The gauntlet was thrown and Class L265 is going to all pass pre-trip on Friday.