The start of my first year with Swift.

Im sure thats how my experience would have gone if our first couple loads werent in the snow.

First thing I told him when we hit snow was "ive lived in phoenix my whole life, never even driven a 4 wheeler in the snow." Then I proceeded to get sideways on an icy overpass in reno. Lol

After a week of him walking me thru snow driving, he was comfortable with sleeping with only one eye open as opposed to both.

 

Can we say PUCKER factor...lol. I can't imagine being sideways in one of these things. It amazes me to see truckers blowing by me on black ice, cars off the road. Glad you made it through. I go really slow on snow and ice. Maybe I'm just way to cautious but I'll live with it.

 

I just ran i70 from utah to Denver last night And was thinking about the trip after I delivered. I to use to drive really slow on snow and ice, I'd get nervous and slow down even more! I've noticed that the more I run these routes in bad weather and the more familiar i get with my equipment and how it reacts, the faster I can drive it safely and confidently. By no means, am I a super trucker, I still have guys fly past me. I don't push too hard, but I'm quickly learning what myself and the equipment I'm in can handle safely. The trick is not to get too comfortable and or confident, that's when mistakes happen.

 

Here is something I just learned about. I had read about Layover pay but didn't know how it worked. I asked about it and I qualified for it. My DL said it wasn't automatic. You must notify him/her when you qualify. It pays $50 for each 24 hour period you are available but not dispatched.

Things to ask you mentor about..take notes.

 

LMAO! Now that was funny.

 

Sheriff, thanks for the posts ,I got hooked on this thread, your personality & humour, really shows in your writing, I did chuckle a few times!
Good luck with the career!
Glad you made it home, And did you fix the water?

 

Thanks...lol

The water...in short...NO, not really. As things would have it, the temp has warmed a bit and everything thawed out. Now we have at least 10 hydrants on the place. Only a few of them were working during the cold spell. Now they all work. I shouldn't complain, at least I don't have to dig any holes this time. I wanted to tear out part of the ceiling in the barn aisle, we live in the apartment above, the wife didn't want me to mess with it now. She's figured out a way to thaw out the drain. It's funny to watch but it works. Bottom line, no plumbing this time home. Probably do it this spring or summer.

I was excited to go out and help cleaning stalls. I wanted to give her a break from taking care of 35 horses. I had dug out some ice cleats for her boots as it's a skating rink around here. We got them on and it was great. I promptly walked over to the tractor, slipped on the ice and slide clear under the tractor. She didn't see, she heard it. Another year older and I may have broken my hip. It's just bruised now.

It's great to be home, I can't remember being this happy even when I came home from overseas. I've decided to not try and stay out for three weeks. I'm putting in my home request for two weeks and expecting to be out for three.

 

That's what I had thought also but wanted to make sure. I thought I remembered you getting a lot of driver seat time. Good to know. I'm hoping I get as much. Starting orientation tomorrow morning here.

 

Something for the new folks.

If you are like me, when you get home the last thing you want to do is hear from work. I don't have good cell reception here so I turned off my cell phone. Last night I drove into down and turned on the phone. I had a preplan waiting. It's good for me as I pick up on the morning of my first day back and head to Reno. Of course no one answered the phone at Swift so I had to fire up the truck to respond over the qualcomm. The strange thing is, they gave me directions to the drop yard from my house. That came on the qualcomm with the preplan.

If you get your preplans via text msg and you want to get load offerings, don't turn your phone off. I didn't think they would throw me a bone on my first day off. That's what I get for thinking.

 

Good news. I'll keep that in mind.