Swift...

Yeah drug test is urine, you would be surprised how many fail. When I attended training we did drug test the first day and the next day there were a handful of people missing.....
my physical was pretty lame, they sent me to a Swift approved clinic, the guy asked me my weight and height, checked my blood pressure, then had me do a urine test where they test for proteins and other stuff. Then a doctor came in and asked me some questions about my health, had me do some stretches and answer if I had pains etc. That was my whole physical....I am not sure if everyone has the same experience but a few I talked to in training said their physical was lame too. Just a couple months before that I had a REAL physical with my actual doctor which included blood test and other real test but wasnt "good" enough for Swift since it wasnt an approved clinic...

I go out with a mentor hopefully this week so I cant answer that part, the swift academy manager from Swift told us they have great mentors, ok mentors and crap mentors but trying to weed them out. If you get a bad mentor you need to request a new one and report them right away. Dont ever accept a horrible mentor, some sign up only for extra money thats involved.

 

Mentors???? Some are good some s re nightmares I personally had a great mentor and a lot of stuff u will just learn on your own but lot of thesee mentors are just doing for money they care less about the students if u get a.bad 1 call in and get a new 1 you need to learn not just drive there truck and make them money.

 

Exactly, i was told after your mentor you have to take a test involving backing between trailers and stuff so if you get a mentor who doesn't teach you anything then its your own fault in The end if you cant pass some test any normal driver should know.

 

is there any mentors,coming into lancasters this week(04-25-2013)...

 

you should be asking Swift not the mentors since they have to get you setup and they contact the mentor to contact you. Its sort of a waiting game and a list of people waiting.

 

Sure would be nice if the academy actually taught backing also. Got my student and the first time had to angle back could not. Asked why, they only had them do one at the academy. They mostly taught off set, straight and paraell(sp), so that is more to learn.

 

I agree with you on that, I asked to learn more, their response "you will learn that with your mentor" I dont know about some people but I would like to learn and practice things before going out in the world.
Tomarrow I finish orientation and I hope there will be a mentor ready for me, I also hope to get a decent mentor who can teach me things, luckily I learn stuff quickly. I watched people struggle at the academy with even straight line and skills, those are not an issue for me but I need to learn all the docking procedures.

 

You will learn backing with your mentor. There are 40 mandatory backs, and of those, you will have to do 10 blind side, 5 at night and 5 during the day, and right now with daylight savings time, it is hard to get those night time ones done. What I do with my students is try and get many done either at a truck stop on the weekends when they are mostly empty or at a terminal. Pop off 5 at one time

 

I have no problem with that, I would like to get even more in than just that, if my mentor is willing to train then im willing to learn.