Talking to Swift recruiters about Flatbed

I just moved from Boise,ID to Marble Falls, TX. I finished Swift Academy in San Antonio a week ago and been writing about my experience to help others that follow. I am glad you will do the same. The more information to help others the better.

GOOD LUCK, HOPE TO SEE YOU OUT THERE!...

 

You can work out of any terminal.... I think....

 

Remember your home terminal is where your DM works. It doesn't matter where you live. I was talking to a guy today that lives in El Paso but drives out of Lancaster. Houston guys the same thing, drive out of Lancaster. I know guys from Ohio that drive out of Phoenix. The thing to worry about with flatbed is will they have a load to get you by the house once in a while.

 

They just give us van loads if it comes to that.

 

You can work out of any terminal, but you need to be mindful of the possibility that you could be required to park the truck at the Troutdale terminal and drive home for your home time. If you live in an area where flatbed freight is hard to come by, they're not going to want to try loading that truck out of that area. That's probably why they're not hiring flatbedders out of Boise. It was one thing when I ran out of Eden (NC) and some of the flatbed drivers opted to run out of Greer or Gary - they could still park their trucks at Eden for their home time, because Eden was a terminal which they ran flatbeds out of, anyhow. Some areas, it's easy to get freight out of. Others, not so much. Some areas, you'll find it difficult to get freight to go on a particular trailer type.

 

Eden is no more.

 

Yeah, and so is Shoals. Been aware of that for some time, although if I was told correctly, they shut down Eden shortly after they spent the money to pave it, put in the security gate, etc. Made sense for them to pave it.. I can remember just a couple times seeing trucks get stuck in the large puddle which came to be known as 'Lake Hewitt', but I don't understand why they shut it down so shortly afterwards.
Home time was difficult for me then, as well. I lived in Mississippi at the time, but I usually had to take my home time either in North Carolina (I had relatives I could stay with in Raleigh) or in Virginia (I had a friend I could crash with in Fredericksburg).