Hi everybody I will soon be graduating from sage school, and i was wondering if anybody could clear up a few issues regarding recruiter truth? living in western montana...will i be free to come home every 2 weeks * will i be able to get on a dedicated run canada maybe...allowing me to get back the missoula area alot of weekends? * will i make money and keep moving? * is the family plan deal of 2on 1 off any good? * will i be away from home for the whole 6 or so weeks of training? *and finally is lewiston one of the better swift terminals? thanks to anybody who bothers to reply to me...
Haven't been to Lewiston yet. As far as Missoula, I have been there a couple of times with loads. Here's what I might do in your shoes. Run OTR for about 3-6 months, keeping your nose clean, then try to get on the Grandview Washington Walmart DC dedicated. They make regular runs up to Missoula. I talked to one driver out of there and I'm sure there are many stories like his, but he typically takes a 2 or 3 or more stop load out of the DC (distributing center) makes his deliveries and if it works out (last stop in his town) sometimes he can sleep at home with his wife and family a couple times a week. I was a 'surge' driver (when they have too much freight for their dedicateds to handle, they pull OTR drivers in the vicinity in and offer them a taste of the dedicated world) out of there last summer at just 3 months of experience. I could have pushed and requested to stay there but I am from California which is an area they don't service as opposed to Missoula and I couldn't be assured my dedicated spot back after hometime because you never know where Lathrop (home terminal) will send me next after coming back.
The only thing I can address is the Lewiston terminal, but I was only there once. Dirt lot, organized parking. I never had any shop work done there. Folks at the window were friendly, showers clean. The only negative is that it's at the bottom of the Lewiston grade.. a steep slope coming from WA state. I came in empty and left with 61k in the box, so climbing that hill was a bit of work.
That's how I remember Lewiston... went there once when I was hauling oversized wind rowers out of John Deere in Iowa on my way to Oregon. The lot was dirty and a bit muddy, the facilities were... less than impressive, but they did a really good job keeping them clean. The yard seemed fairly well organized. I came across US12 (which was my permit route) when I went there.
If I wanted to be getting back and forth to Missoula, I would want to be out of the Sumner terminal. Lewiston does a lot of paperloads to everywhere, not so much to Montana. If I were a new driver under training I would pick Lewiston. Huge parking area, fairly low traffic industrial park area...great for training w/o any pressure. Small but clean terminal, that's sort of off the beaten path. Relatively free of distressed downer driver types. Several eating places within walking distance, and a river nearby. As far as the 6 weeks go, it's best to think that you are going to be away from home for at least 2 months. I haven't followed training requirements for some time, but when I went thru what was presented originally as 6 weeks was really 42 days driving. And there are little glitchy things that happen like having your trainer quit and needing to restart, realizing that staying on with a paticular trainer will likey result in your death, and needing to restart, finding out that if you had only logged things a little differently you would have averaged 6 days a week driving instead of five. At least Swift faithfully paid the training stipend. good luck
plan on being gone the entire 6 weeks and it will very likely be closer to 10 weeks. Lewiston is a dirt lot and small, i have very little experience with the staff and non with the shop. never heard or the 2/1 family plan. not likely you will get a decicated run as a rookie driver. if you are willing to run all 48 you should stay busy. Sumner is heavyhaul Costco Washington, Oregon only, never to Montana.
Training is 240 hours now. Lewiston people are really cool and most of the drivers seem pretty happy. Sumner is largely heavy haul, but they do run some regular stuff. You will have to put at least some time in before you can go to dedicated. At least, that's the way it usually works. Dedicated fleets are not subject to the "family plan." Since you live so far from the terminal, I'm not sure how it would work for you. Not all terminals are doing that. As for the rest, I don't think I can be of much help.
Confirm on Sumner. While it's a mostly a HH terminal, it also is home to the JC Penny dedicated account. They are all "feather loads". I did 3 stop runs to the Spokane area out of there and the heaviest load was 20,000lbs. I believe they have a couple of Montana stores served on that account. Most OTR for the area is dispatched from Troutdale.
All Sumner OTR is planned from Troutdale. Sumner, it appears, has largely turned to local and regional stuff. All of the decent bobtail parking is given over to day cabs. Like they have to haul laundry in from their trucks or take a shower at the terminal! Prima donnas!
I ran out of Lewiston term until I moved to MD in March....Was living in Billings. All the people there are cool. Try and get Kelly she is cool...never had any issues and always had a load and miles. Just try and make sure u have a load before the weekend.....weekend folks suck. Small terminal tho...but never saw it unless i needed to pick up important paperwork that couldnt be faxed.....i ran allot of I80 back and forth.....trying to get home every 2 weeks might be hard tho....i was usually out 3 weeks.....Everytime i went to MT i had to make stops all over the state before i could go home and when I was rdy to come back they would either DH me to seattle or worland, wy to get empty cans.
