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

My loan with Swift should be paid by now. I have to check on it. Supposedly it should be paid off in the first year by us then the second year we are with Swift they start paying us back. As I understood it, if we stay for 2 years with Swift our training is free.

I'm going to find out about this.

 

Sorry to hear about his termination. From what I've read on this forum it seems that smaller companies are worth a shot and might give your husband a break. The larger mega carriers might not want to take him like you had mentioned. I don't know how any of that works when it comes to someone getting stuff on their DAC and a termination.

I know that there has to be some individuals out there who try to profit off any thing us truckers do to their property, or that we are suspected of doing. In the instance of the damage to the curb, if that curb is hit all the time that property owner might report it, even wait for trucks to hit it, just so he can make a claim against the trucking company. Then he gets the money, doesn't fix the curb and waits for the next individual. Just speculating. Same type of thing with the scratched pickup truck. Even if your husband didn't do it the pickup truck owner might have been waiting for someone unfortunate enough to be nearby. I've heard similar stories.

I remember delivering to a Sears out near Montrose, Colorado (or in Montrose) and it was a tough, blind side back to a very narrow dock. The corner of the Sears store was mashed in and obviously hit numerous times. I asked one of the employees about it and she says that a truck hits the building about once a week on average and they make a claim. I then thought that that was odd that they make a claim against a trucking company for damage, most likely get paid and yet the damage looked old and unrepaired.

Good luck to your husband on finding a new trucking job. Check the smaller, local companies. There's probably better advice tho then mine on this forum as I"m still a newbie. Take care...

 

At the Columbus terminal...

I'm disappointed to see that two of the three washing machines are broken. This is usually the best terminal to do laundry thanks to the fact that there are 3 washers and 3 dryers and that it only costs $.25.

Now there's a line of about 3 other drivers waiting for my washer to free up. I also thought the showers had curtains. Not a big deal but it seemed like I remember them having curtains. I wonder if this place is under new management or it is going slightly downhill. Or it's just coincidence.

I'm hoping that they keep this terminal in the best shape as this is probably one of my favorite terminals of all the Swift terminals. It's also where I tested out over 1 year and 3+ months ago. I also did my simulator training here when I tested out. All in all I think I spent a few days here testing out, taking tests, close quarters training, simulator training and whatever else before I hitched a ride with a Swift driver up to New Boston to pickup my first truck.


Yesterday's load and the second "date" with her...okay not really a date but...

Yesterday I left Richmond to pickup a load down in Chesapeake, Virginia, east of Norfolk, that delivered to a Walmart DC near here in Grove City, OH near Columbus.

My B Service was done in the afternoon and I had to go pick up an empty trailer south of Richmond. I was already starting to get a little tired from being woken up early to get my B Service done.

I knew I wouldn't make it far last night.

I grabbed the empty, drove another couple of hours to Chesapeake, picked up the load after waiting for Onroad to answer the phone to report prior trailer damage and made my way up to the Walmart in Newport News to shut down for the night. The load was about 39,000 lbs., contrary to the 44,000 lbs I was planning on, so I knew with a little over 1/4 of fuel that I could get it to scale right. It would wait until the morning when I hit my first fuel stop north near Richmond.

Earlier I had been talking to this girl I had the date with. I let her know my plans on this load, that I would be picking up in Chesapeake. She wanted to drive down to Big Charlies if I shut down there again. It was cool that she offered but I know that I didn't want to stay the night at Big Charlies again and that if I hit the Walmart in "Bad News" Newport News that I would be only a few blocks from where she lived. I told her that I was going to be at the Walmart and no sooner had I parallel parked my truck, she was driving towards my truck. So I spent another couple of hours with her and we ate a pizza we had ordered.

She was fantastic. Affectionate and attentive, it's such an odd and refreshing experience. My exwife was completely incapable of affection. I knew this going into it with her but I made that mistake thinking that either she would change (she didn't) or that maybe I would adjust to it (I didn't). I was attracted to my ex for her bad girl attitude but as it turned out she was just a bad person to the core, not just reflecting the image.

This new experience is what I needed. She understands my job and knows that I love what I do. She knows about my upcoming trip in October and my passion for riding. She is great with all of it and her attitude is that even when I'm out on the road that I"m just out at work. She will see me again soon and that "absence makes the heart grow fonder". She is awesome.

She is excited that I had asked her to my little brother's wedding. I"m excited she said yes.

And, since I really don't need it at the moment, I deleted my profile off that stupid dating app I had on my phone. I"m not going to miss that thing...

 

Got my fingers crossed for him. Sounds like if TransCarriers has him in orientation then he is good to go. Congrats!

 

I just started reading it. Thanks for the link. That might be kind of interesting although I haven't thought much about leasing. Something to consider.

 

2nd day at the Columbus terminal.

I still like this terminal overall despite the broken washing machines and missing shower curtains. It's not bad and I like the set up. Most importantly I like the staff here. I like them up in WA too but I like the facilities a little better here.

I was giving a load option earlier but it would have required me to go back to sleep this afternoon (I'm not tired) and wake up to pick up around 2300 and live unload at 1000 tomorrow morning near Roanoke Virginia. Last time I tried to do this type of thing, go back to sleep in the afternoon and wake up for a 2300 delivery I couldn't fall back asleep. I lied there awake and finally got tired about 2200 right before I had to get on the road to drive all night. That night was a tough one and I was sleepy. Not the way I want to drive.

So being as I already have one period of 0100-0500 in and I can get another tonight, and considering that my recap hours coming up aren't great with some as low as 4 hours, I figure it would be better to get this reset in since I'm almost there anyway. I was really on the fence about taking that load tonight but I don't want to risk it. The memory of that sleepy night driving overnight a couple of weeks ago is still pretty fresh in my mind and I would rather not see things that aren't there in the dark tonight.


Exercise and not getting fatter OTR...

I'm going to try and start a new regiment of walking and slow jogging around the terminal perimeter tonight. It's that time. I've lose weight since starting with Swift, probably about 30 lbs., but it's not nearly enough. That was over 1.5 years in duration. I need to pick up the pace as I've hit this plateau and stayed there at this weight for a long time.

Problem 1 - with losing more weight with this job is the sedentary nature of sitting all day in a truck and then just sleeping afterwards.
Problem 2 - with losing weight is that I have always had the bad habit of eating late. With this job it's even more prominent. Typically I buy those generic Slim-Fast's at Walmart. Box of 10 for about $10. I have one when I wake up and sometimes another during the day. Otherwise I've switched to picking at some cold cuts - ham or turkey- while I drive during the day. That is all fine. Keep the meals small throughout the day and have about 5 of them to keep the metabolism going and burning fat. However, when I stop at the end of the day I have this sense of trying to reward myself for driving all day and not having a sit down meal. So I usually shut down and relax watching a movie while I eat my first and only real meal for the day. It gives me a little sense of normalcy to be able to actually throw some chicken or a little frozen pizza into my lunchbox cooker and enjoy a real meal instead of just the daytime snacking. But the problem is this is my biggest meal of the day, even if it's not that big by itself, and it is not long before I go to sleep. It's the perfect way to slow your metabolism and get fatter. Or, in my case, just not burn any more fat. I've got to get this thing dialed in.

It's one of those things where once I get down to a decent weight my body will burn off fat more efficiently and regularly. But as it is it's all slowed down. To give an example my weight upon moving to Washington State was about 180, which at the time, felt like I was about 10 lbs overweight.

I grew up very skinny and it wasn't until after high school and I got into lifting that my weight climbed from about 145 to 175. It was a good weight. I kept that weight for years. When I moved to WA I was the 180 but it wasn't that bad. I stayed around that weight and it climbed to about 220 when I got married. But at the time I was exercising quite a bit and lifting on my lunch breaks and again after work. So I felt good.

When I lost my last job around when I was married and I took jobs on the computer that required hours of sitting my weight creeped up. My eating habits changed again for the worse at that time, eating only one huge meal of complete garbage every night. Before I knew it I couldn't find a scale that would weigh me. At my heaviest, about 8 months before leaving for Swift school, I weighed in just under 370 lbs. I was nearly dead.a

One morning I had a small stroke - what they call a TIA - Transient Ischemic Attack. It is like a temporary stroke that doesn't last longer than 24 hours but it is a sign that a major stroke may be right around the corner. It didn't last more than a bunch of hours but at the time I had no idea what was going on other than the paralysis on one side of my body. I was alone in the house I used to share with my exwife and at the time she had moved out to her mom's until I could move out of our house. It scared the crap out of me as I sat there in the bathroom regretting what I had become, regretting everything that I did to get to this point and feeling alone not able to move one side of my body. At the time I couldn't call anyone as I couldn't speak. I couldn't focus my eye on the one side. When it went away, hours later, I called my little brother whom is medically trained and he told me what had happened. It was an eye opener.

Some people can be big/large/fat/obese or whatever and they function relatively normally. They carry it well. I wasn't one of them. I could barely walk the few feet to the mailbox without my lower back screaming in pain to the point where I needed to stop and take a break. It was ridiculous. Again, nearly dead. I remember my looking down at my feet and feeling disgusted by how thick and swollen they were, especially on the top. I could barely get shoes on. When I learned that that was blood pooling in my feet and extremities due to the fact that my heart wasn't stronger to get the blood, as it circulated, back from my feet up to my heart. I felt sick just thinking about it at the time. That was up until about May of 2012 and I was just under 370 lbs.

I was kicked out of the house and cut a little weight before moving in with my buddy and his roommate out on the east side of Tacoma. I entered that house at 335 lbs. Although I somehow lost 30+ lbs before moving in, I was still in about the same near-death shape. At that time I hadn't slept in years, literally, staying away at all hours and just catching micro-sleeps a few seconds at a time. Otherwise I hadn't lied down in a bed, on a couch etc. for years to get actual sleep. My sleep apnea wouldn't allow it as I choked my self awake constantly. What was the point of lying down. So I didn't.

I moved into with my roommates and almost immediately I found a used CPAP machine on Craigslist. I bought it for $200, the only money I had at the time. I worked a few days temp labor and found an unused, unopened mask on Craigslist for cheap and bought that. That night I forced myself to use the CPAP and for the first time I got rest. Maybe the first time ever in my life I got rest. I kept using it and the weight started dropping off because I was getting rest.

At this time I couldn't make one push-up. I could just drop to the floor and lie there on my stomach.

I got the cajones up to get myself to the gym. It took months as I couldn't face the gym goers right away in that kind of shape and that big. It was tough as I knew I looked huge. But I went and then I went the next day. Before long I went to the gym when I wasn't working to escape. It became like a mini vacation every day. It was routine. Ride the bike over and park up on the sidewalk in front of the window of L.A. Fitness where I could keep an eye on it in the sketchy East Tacoma neighborhood. Go inside, change quickly so no one would see how huge I really was, warm up on the treadmill. Hit the free weights, follow up with some Nautilus machines and finish off with more treadmill. It was my only escape from that little bedroom with the air mattress and the memories of my recently failed marriage and her infidelity. I sweated just walking and the effect was compounded in the gym. I sweated profusely the entire time and sweated for hours afterwards, despite showering, as my body tried to cool down. Yet it still felt great.

I started to hit that first push-up. It progressed slowly. I would do 2 push-ups a day using my weight for resistance. And the number continued to climb...

I was poor living with my roommates mostly now working temp labor as they had jobs come in. My diet was the same everyday. Cook frozen chicken breasts and the little bag of $.99 mixed veggies. A little Ms. Dash and that was it. The weight dropped quickly in conjunction with using the CPAP machine nightly.

I entered the Swift academy in January 2013 at 274 lbs., almost 100 lbs lost from a year prior. I'm now somewhere around 240 lbs with a target weight of 170. I wanna hit that 170 mark so I can know I lost a rounded 200 lbs of weight but I will probably bring my weight back up to about 190 and maintain it there. Now I'm up to 25 push-ups at a time and I use the push-up bars (Walmart about $10-15). I keep 40 lb, 30lb and 20lb. steel dumbells on the floor between my seats. I use one of those thigh squeezie things for chest. I use the hand squeeze things (about $8 at WAlmart) for forearms and I have the bands for overall conditioning. I can squat with my cooler.

Now I just have to dial in this diet, stop eating at the end of my shift and pickup on walking around truckstops and terminals. Gotta take this to the next level and get over this plateau.