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

I'm starting to learn the limits of how long I can be on the road. I just hit 7 weeks and I have one week to go for home time.

I'm taking a 34 right now because there aren't many loads and I started it at the right time last night. I should be reset tomorrow morning. I kind of welcome this opportunity tho as I feel like I'm getting burned out lately.

My average length between home times is about 3-4 weeks. I would probably prefer about 5 weeks out but more than 6 and I start to get more cranky and just worn down. 7 weeks is really pushing it and 8 weeks is probably excessive.

In one week, next Saturday, I'm scheduled to be home in Washington. I haven't been there since late October. I have to try and rent a van, empty out my storage unit and cancel it, load and unload my stuff into a new and cheaper unit. With all this time on the road its the last thing I feel like doing on my time off. I'm reluctant and not looking forward to doing this. I also have to meet up with the soon to be ex wife and take care of something. Another thing I'm not looking forward to. At all. I really would rather just get on the bike, get to the hotel, have some drinks and sleep on a real bed.

I am looking forward go seeing some old friends and, if weather allows, getting a ride in on my bike - possibly a Mount Rainier loop or Windy Ridge up on St Helens. Its not likely since there is probably snow higher up on both volcanoes and most likely it will be wet and slick everywhere else.

The countdown begins. One more week....one more week...

 

I may have to try and get on a dedicated route sometime later. I know the pay can be so much greater. I've heard that from almost everyone I've spoken to that runs dedicated.

My only reservation is that I don't want to run the same routes over and over again. I love seeing different parts of the country and experiencing the different weather and scenery. I feel spoiled sometimes. Without this job and this kind of freedom I would never be seeing 75 degree February temps and sunny skies. So I'm not sure
what I'm going to do in the future to increase my income.

I guess my options at this point are:
1) run dedicated
2) become a trainer if they will allow it
3) go to a different company

Obviously my pay will increase just doing what I do now as I get better at this job and learn more but not sure the pay is going to increase enough to support staying in this situation. I gotta say Swift has been pretty decent to me despite my low earnings this past year. A good part of that is my own fault due to ignorance of this system and being stubborn at times. Plus, 1st year earnings suck no matter where you are from what I've heard. So this is all still pretty new to me. At one year in I'm still very wet behind the ears.



My one year summary...

I started about one year ago. I think a year ago at this time I was starting to finish my OTR training with a mentor. I know I picked up my own truck sometime in March.
I would say that with one year of driving a truck OTR that this has been, without a doubt, one of the most colorful years I've ever had by far. I spend a good amount of time on social media such as Facebook and when I read into posts about other people's 9-5 lives in an office, sitting in traffic on their commute, home obligations, staying in the same place day in and day out, etc. I feel blessed to be doing this. Additionally the opportunity to see my family so often taking hometimes back east, out in Kansas to see my little bro, getting ink in Arizona are all opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise. I think that with family obligations, especially children, that we begin to life our lives, to some degree, vicariously through our children. It's just the way it works. It's not a bad thing since our kids are our lives once we have them but by default, if you are involved in your kids lives, your life somehow becomes less of your own and more of your child's. Time starts to tick differently. Years pass by our kid's growth and achievements. This is how time is governed and marked - baby's first steps; first words; kindergarden; grade school; middle school and high school; proms; college. It's as if another whole clock has started ticking and our life's timeline becomes defined by this. It's natural and what should happen. In the absence of this kind of structure and grounding our lives timeline ticks a different way. I think it's more haphazard and illogical. Without children and their subsequent growth and progression, life kind of floats by in some weird space bending and distorting time. I'm at the age where if something doesn't happen quick regarding offspring my options may be limited to an adoption later in life and even that is unlikely as single dads without a home don't get to adopt. Not a gripe, just speaking factually. So with the advent of social media, I do get a brief insight into what other's families lives are like and the contrast to my own is striking. I'm on a whole different timeline and it's time I take advantage.

Shy of somehow acquiring a family and it's relative obligations, I couldn't imagine going back to a 9-5 at this point. I couldn't imagine going back to that life of seeing the same things day in and day out, getting into a routine. It would be tedious to me. That has always been my personality but I never knew a job existed that could meet my needs. This one has done so. Even knowing that I need some time off right now I know that after a few days of sitting off the road in a hotel room I'm gonna feel that desire to get back on the road and into my truck.

The only thing I'm really missing right now is some kind of 5 year plan. It seems like I kind of go month by month at this point without a concrete plan for the future. I know that somehow I want to find a way to incorporate this job with a significant amount of travel on my motorcycle. It's my passion and something blatantly absent from my life. Ideally, it would be awesome to somehow run hard for 9 months out of the year and then take 2-3 months off somewhere exotic on my motorcycle living cheaply off of that camping/hostels etc. If I can live a life like that I can do without ever owning a house and having that kind of stability. The only way I can see doing the house thing is if I met the right person and it progressed to where we wanted to own a house together. Otherwise I would live a life fulfilled by just running around in a truck for 9 months and spending another 2-3 on my bike in the outback of somewhere.


Motorcycle distance trip planned...

I currently have a trip loosely planned for the fall. I'm not sure how this is going to work out yet. My plan is to ride down to Tierra Del Feugo at the southern tip of S. America via Mexico and Central America. I am working on my passport in April and then will work on my International Driver's License in about May since it is only good for a year at a time. Bills won't be a problem as I have everything on autopay already. I have everything in storage with the exception of what I have in this truck. Funds shouldn't be an issue as Mexico/Central America/S. American are relatively cheap - I can keep expenses for food/living/fuel in the range of $25/day. I can do most of my own maintenance on my bike myself. I"m not using my current bike as a sportbike/racebike doesn't translate well with those types of roads down there. Plus, there are issues with storage on the bike, etc. I"m looking, with limited success, for an older Suzuki DR650 which is considered an enduro/dualsport bike. I need to get a bike for this trip that is air-cooled. One less thing to break. I don't want something too big like a monster BMW GS. I plan on spilling a lot and those bikes can get heavy. Ideally it would be awesome to find a bike that is somewhat already modified for a longer trip like this with a reinforced subframe to support bags and equipment, aftermarket and larger gas tank, upgraded suspension and seat, hand guards, better levers, engine protection, etc. I can do the other stuff myself. I found one decently modified DR up in Bellingham but the logisitics of getting it down to Tacoma or preferably out to Virginia make it an unlikely purchase. I gotta get going on this phase of the plan.
I know of a few places I want to spend a little more time. There's a few spots in Central America and Mexico I would like to surf. I want to spend some time in Cartegena and Medellin. Rio is on the list with some research on the favellas. The list is endless.

The other issue with this is how to work the work situation. Do I take a leave of absence from Swift? Do I set up another job with another company so I have something to hop right into when I get back? I would have to set it up before I leave, if a company would allow that. Would Swift let me leave for a few months and come back without going through training again? Would my CDL still be cool when I get back? These are all questions I need to start working on.

The way I see it, if I don't have the benefits of going home to a loving wife and kids then I might as well take advantage of the situation as it is. If things were different in my personal relationships then I would act differently. But, as it is, this is what I want to do.

The final consideration is time of year to leave. This is the trickiest aspect other than border crossings. Since the weather in South America is exactly the opposite of ours in the northern hemisphere, this is an issue. And, to make things more complicated, the weather changes drastically from place to place throughout Central America and, specifically, South America with it's varied terrains and environments. So I"m not sure of an ideal time to leave so that I hit the best weather. I don't want to ride in constant rain for weeks. I don't want to freeze constantly or sweat my ### off either. That's why my tentative time to leave is maybe late summer this year or early fall. This has been an issue.

It's already almost March and time is passing quick.

 

Great ideas. I've always wanted to see Chuckanut Drive and I keep on missing it. The same thing with hitting the tulip farms in bloom up near LaConner. That might be a little far for me unless I pick up that bike somehow up there. One of my favorite closer rides used to be the Hood Canal loop. We used to do a New Years Day ride every year around it. I remember one year doing that ride and the water was so rough on the floating bridge that it was splashing up onto us. I dread going anywhere on i-5 on my bike with the traffic. I got rearended on I-90 a few years ago around this time while riding and I still get nervous on I-5 in the wet when riding. I might head out over to the peninsula. If it was drier I would plan a day up to Neah Bay - highway 112 i think. Pretty nice.

 

Last night I picked up a tcall in Albuquerque and spent part of the night driving it down to El Paso. The place I was delivering to had one of the tightest alleyways I've seen. I had to go up on the sidewalk, per the workers suggestion, just to swing the trailer wide enough to fit down the alley. Exiting was just about as tight. When I got to the consignee I was early and trying to figure out where I was to get unloaded before they all showed up for work. I sent a macro for directions and they stated that this was a high risk area and that you should stay at the terminal until delivery time. That's something that maybe should have been in the plans comments. Not a big deal. Within a half hour consignee showed up and I was squeezing thru the alley. I was proud of myself for working the entrance and exit so well. I'm getting so much better at estimating my turn radius and where my trailer will go. Progress is rewarding in itself.

I was pretty beat after driving all night. I woke up yesterday mid morning and when I got the plan picking up from the terminal at midnight I had trouble going back to sleep before the call pickup. I barely rested. By morning I was beat.

After the live unload I had to take this empty to the terminal for inspection on an Electrolux live pickup. I got inspected, went for pickup and trailer was rejected for a small air leak. Back to the terminal I went and had the leak repaired. While waiting I received a vague Qualcomm message stating to report inside the terminal. Weird. I went inside and had my first random drug test. I was relieved I wasn't in trouble because last week I was getting messages from my DM, when I was north of Denver, to go to the terminal. My DM was being vague and wouldn't tell me what was going on. My mind was racing. Are they firing me for something? Am I being reprimanded? Up there north if Denver I had a long long day and the trailer I picked up from the shipper quit on me. The air brakes broke while on property and I set up Onroad to come repair it. I couldn't still around because my hours were dwindling and I was frustrated after scaling on property twice, getting the load reworked and then the trailer locking up on me blocking oother trailers in. Swift Phoenix said it was OK to leave the property for the night after setting up the Onroad repairs so I did just that. The next morning they pulled me off the load and then I got those weird messages from my DM stating to go to the Denver terminal. I started thinking about what I would do if they fired me in Denver and I was stuck there with all my stuff. I was nervous. Well apparently all it was was my DM trying to set me up there for the random drug test. We I got it out of the way today in El Paso and I'm relieved that was all it was. Big burden lifted off of me. I can get cranky at times and every once in a while I get stubborn but I would never be insubordinate. I know that is grounds for dismissal. Glad this worked out OK. On a side note, the woman that works the window in El Paso is amazing! I'll leave it at that.

 

I'm at the Walmart in Alamogordo, NM.

I picked up that load requiring the trailer inspection and it is going up to the Lowes DC in Lebanon, OR. It has me routed sort of a weird way. Phoenix suggest just following the fuel route so I will. If I went by the Qualcomm and was going directly to the consignee in Lebanon, OR from the shipper in El Paso I would basically be going due west then north on I-5. But I have two fuelstops that have me going w weird way. First fuel stop is in Albuquerque and second is in Winnemucca, NV. Definitely not going on all interstates to get there. Fine with me tho as I like those kind of routes. I'm curious to see where I make it to tomorrow.