Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

That's good to hear then. I'm going to talk to my DM early in the week and let him know. I have to have something to come back to when I return from vacation. Since I'll be picking up a truck in Richmond when I come back, I'm hoping they have a Prostar. I may have to call up Richmond when I get back and wait for a decent Prostar to come in or possibly just take whatever they got for the time being.

Great news!!! Just updated myself on your thread.

 

At the Pilot in Decatur, Illnois. Been a headache these past 2 days and I'm dealing with the weekend crew at my terminal. My DM is off weekends.

I had some trouble getting an empty yesterday. First place didn't have one. Second place had an empty trailer with a gazillion nails in it and there were no comments on the plan stating that the trailer had to be in great shape. Since I was already on a tight schedule to go pick up this live load I just picked up the debris and was on my way. I just made it to the shipper, slid the tandems back and docked. A guy came out and stated that the nails in the bed of the trailer were excessive and that the trailer wouldn't be loaded. So yesterday I had a total of about 180 miles, all empty. Day before mileage was 170. The two days prior to that were 594 and 403. Before that was time off.

So trailer with the nails issue went unresolved yesterday and I parked at a Walmart. This morning the first load they gave me was to drop this trailer at a shipper that needed a trailer and then to bobtail to another shipper to take a load going out to Syracuse, NY. But the first place that wanted the empty wanted a clean, damage free trailer that would be inspected. So I was out that load since I couldn't drop the nail trailer. Now they are telling me to deadhead up to the terminal to get the trailer fixed - up in Manteno, IL.

Feeling a little burned out already and I just got back on the road. Is it too much to ask to just drive this truck with freight?!?!

Off to Manteno so I can sit up there.

 

Keep a positive attitude always. Never let anything I say or anyone else says on here discourage you. We each have our own experiences and it varies from company to company, terminal to terminal and from driver manager to driver manager. I contribute to my own success or lack thereof as well. I just report things here as honestly as I can and my emotions are also twisted up in it so that plays a part. Just a tough stretch lately for me with Swift but it will pass.

Honestly I feel there is a little resentment building up with me over time and whereas before I could easily get a few good days after a rough spell that would make things better, it's getting to the point that the resentment is becoming a little more deep rooted and tougher to get rid of. It's starting to pile on top of itself with each paycheck and bad event. I'll get past this, may talk to the Lewiston terminal on Monday and see if I can reach the fleet manager. Gotta make a change I think. What's that definition of insanity...doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. Possibly appropriate here.

 

I have one and tried pulling up a few but they were buried in there. Most of them pretty much flush with the wood flooring. Once I couldn't get a few of them up and seeing how many I was against I called it quits. I wish I had a crow bar or something similar. That would have probably worked even if it took a long time. I'm still trying to figure out why they used so many nails and for what purpose. And the nails were pretty thick ones. Lengthy. I've had trailers with nails in the floor before but I've never seen anything like this before. I'm wondering if they were used to secure the pallets to the floor.

The thing that sucked about it all was that I picked up the trailer and cleaned it out (except the nail issue). The comments on the load didn't say anything about the trailer being immaculate or "undamaged". So I ran with it. As I got about a block from the shipper the QC voice stated something about the trailer having to be food grade, entirely clean and damage free and that the shipper was very particular about the condition of the trailer. I didn't know anything about that at the time I picked up the empty. If I did I would have grabbed a different empty or found one somewhere else. I don't blame the shipper at all, I just wish there was some other kind of communication other than the QC voice telling me this a block or so away from my pickup.