swift orientation in columbus

I have decided to go swift and have been told orientation is the 26th. Can anyone give information on what to expect? I have just graduated and passed my driving tests. Is it best to go solo or do they offer teams? Do they have solo people who are looking for others to team with? I was told 3 day orientation,1-4 wks with trainer at $450 wk, wk 5-6 at $500 wk then on own at .25 mile and .01+ for haz mat. Is this correct? Any information would help.

 

Well seems noone has info about columbus. I have pre-hires from us xpress, watkins and shepard, trans am and possibly kllm also. I have decided to go with Swift. I will attend the 07/26 orientation in columbus. My recruiter is Kris and has been really helpful. There are 3-4 other people from my class due to attend also within the next few weeks. I chose swift after much thought while reading many, many posts here and also talking with other drivers. Will post more as time goes on.

 

left for swift on sun., i drove. got room at the econolodge rooms are not bad. friend from tdds school rode with me and we were roommates. picked up at 7:30 am mon.. class was to be about 36 or so but about 28 showed. 1st day drug tests and physicals and paperwork. worked on this til 5 pm then back to motel. 2nd day trng videos, driving simulator, more paperwork and classes. p/u at 6:30 am - 5 pm. 3rd day drove to swift with all gear signed out of motel at 6:30 am. classes, trng videos, paperwork and wait for driver code. did not receive driver code on day 3 so was told to go home and call after 9 am. called next morning did receive code but still waiting for mentor. friend is from wv and came with me back to akron to visit with his family and friends here, same situation. he called after 9 and got code and mentor info., from wv also near each other. he leaves out sun with fresh 70, home every weekend.
i waited all day for the call about mentor. did not receive one, will call today before noon.

class at end was about 23. will update later about my take on swift so far and the class later today. overall was fine.

 

I thought orientation went very well. Gail was staight to the point and let everyone know just what to expect, never assume anything and listen and look at the big picture.

Alittle about myself. I am a 10 yr. military veteran, SSG. 6 yrs throughout central america, stationed out of Fort Davis, Panama. I never expect anything to be easy and always try to plan for the worst. Try to have a backup plan for the backup plan. I have been in the situation many times when you have 1 hr to get your gear and go, never knowing where until the last minute. Have deployed many times not knowing my return time. I am/was used to being on my own and making quick decisions and rolling with them. I got out in 94 and entered the manufacturing industry and quickly became a machinist. I never had any schooling on this. I studied on my own time and picked the brains of all the old timers I could. I was ahead of my peers and started making some pretty good, well, should say great money.

In late 2008 manufacturing finished taking its nose dive. Most/majority of the jobs are overseas now. So many people are out of work that the employers are paying half of what they used to and want you to do twice the work. Their thought is with so many people out of work and needing/having to get a job that the wise thing for a company to do is make money off the situation. Now they are paying next to nothing and require that you provide all the tooling needed and be able to do everything across the board for the meager wage. The last couple of years I have been doing this, provided 15k worth of my own tools, made own tooling because shop too cheap to buy right stuff, all aspects of machining, all manual machines, all cnc machines, writing programs at the machines and in the office on the comp., doing labor work, maintanence, shipping and putting up with the decline in safety/health and shop maint. All this for a wage less than what I was making back in 98.

I left the industry this last April and started at what I consider to be a great school, TDDS in Lake Milton, Ohio, Lt. Dann really knows how to relate to people. I know some people who are O/O and they said to just go get my cdl without school and I could get a job anywhere. I had a gut feeling and researched this extensively. Hell, I could drive a truck no problem, but knowing all the safety issues, govt. regs., hos logging, I had no clue of it. A person gets out of schooling what they put into it. I have learned many yrs ago, that no matter what school you go to, do it their way. I dont care if you know of or think you have a better way to do it, just do it their way. That will give you one more option to chose from in doing something. After you leave school, it is on you, and it is better to have many ways/options to have to do things.

Well this has gotten to be abook. Sorry about that. will post later today about spec. of the orientation and everything on getting a mentor.