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

Sitting at the J in Boise right now while the CSRs and planners are trying to figure something out.

They put a plan on me that is a live load/live unload from Boise Cascade. I called Boise Cascade to find out whether I needed an appointment to pickup. The planner that msg's me didn't or wouldn't get back to me on this question. Boise Cascade said that another driver had picked up this load going down to SLC already. So I let my old DM know and that's where it is right now. Waiting.

I had an Office Max multi-stop load in the SLC area. Went down to Vegas to t-call another load going to L.A.

I spent the night at the Wild Wild West truck lot again and walked down to the Orleans Casino about 3 traffic lights down. Lost money but they have a nice movie theater upstairs if anyone is ever in the area and wants to catch a movie. It was a nice distraction to do something "normal" like catch a movie and eat fake buttered popcorn. I saw that Marky Mark movie based on the true story . Sole Survivor or something like that.

They had me t-call the L.A. load because I had to pick up a repower up in Ely. I drove the 250 miles north bobtail and picked it up. It was another Office Max, 4 stop load starting in Elko, NV and hitting Twin FAlls, ID and then 2 stops in Boise. I finished up this morning.

Got a preplan I'm going to check right now. Be safe.

 

Another reason I don't like that stretch of I-70 in Colorado in the winter. I'm still pretty sketched out from the last time I had to cross that months ago.

Is that what a failing to chain fine is? $1000?!

Do you drive teams Lepton or are you a trainer?

 

I'm back in Amarillo at the Pilot. I got a load out of Lewiston, ID going down and over to Oklahoma City. A good run and pretty uneventful as far as weather goes. I stopped at the Lewiston terminal to scan some paperwork and take a shower. It's the first time I've been at that terminal since my pee test back in Swift training. I wanted to walk over to the training range and say hello to the trainers but time didn't really allow for it. I had to get rolling again. Hopefully Ill be up there again some time soon.

I did get the chance to go up the Lewiston grade twice and down on a couple of deliveries up to Moscow and back to Lewiston. I forgot what a cool view that is of the twin cities down below. My pickup was from the paper plant and I was following the GPS. When I crossed that bridge in Lewiston and should have taken that immediate left turn after the bridge, I instead went straight up that main road up the hill. I was feeling kind of tired that day and my attention was showing. I saw a sign for a truck route to my left after I went up the hill and I ended up in a little residential neighborhood while the GPS rerouted me. I realized that this wasn't the best place for 75' of truck and ignored the GPS from that point forward as it was leading me further and further into trouble. It didn't feel right at that point. I slowly worked my way back around to go back out the way I came in and went back down that main street hill, crossed the bridge and went back near the terminal. I called the terminal and asked how exactly I get to that paper plant across the river. She told me. I should have called to begin with. Crisis averted but it was stressful and being tired didn't help.

There was some snow and slickness going over Lookout Pass. 4th of July was clear if I remember right. The rest of the way was pretty much cake.

I'm sick again with nasal issues. It's starting to get aggravating as it makes it tough to sleep, especially with a CPAP trying to blow air down a completely stuffed nose.
I've been cooking soup and trying to rest as much as I can. I got these Zicam Rapidmelts that work pretty well. They help.

I'm now on the road for 6 weeks without a break or hometime. I'm feeling it a little bit and looking forward to some time off at the end of this month.

I'm still running on recap hours. I only had less than 5 hours to drive today. Today I drove from Lamar, CO down here to Amarillo. I have about 250 miles left to go to Oklahoma City and I should just about make it tomorrow morning for a 0930 delivery time. Actually I should be pretty early.

I'm still trying to figure out how to go about getting a different truck. This one has quite a few issues and I'm reluctant to sit at a terminal waiting for it to be repaired. I know if I put it into the shop up in WA that 3/4 of the issues won't be addressed and I'll be left aggravated. I'm not sure what to do about it yet. I may check with the Oklahoma City terminal and see if they got any available Prostars after my delivery tomorrow.

My first day was a lot of back and forth up and down steep grades so my mileage was low. 402 miles the first day 2/13 and my 14 was running out. A lot of sitting. The next days my mileage picked up and I ran it pretty hard considering the weight and conditions.
613 miles on 2/14
627 miles on 2/15
224 miles today due to only having less than 5 hours.

 

Oh I bet you do at this point. Wish I could say the same.

It took me a long time to get used to weather changes from lower elevation to higher. I used to ride up onto Trail Ridge Road up in Rocky Mountain Nat Park wearing only shorts and light gear because it was so warm down in Boulder. Once I got up to 12000 feet I would be freezing. I just couldn't get it thru my thick head that the temp would change so drastically.

I didn't realize that Swift had a TJ Maxx dedicated run. I'll have to add that to my list of dedicated routes Swift has. So far I know of Walmart, Target, Dollar General and now TJ Maxx.