Well 6 weeks is just about up! I spend the weekend in Spokane, again, then on Monday I will drive back to Sumner where I will get off the truck and my mentor will pick up a new student.

I was able to run the truck for the last 2 weeks, almost all by myself. My mentor did some driving too, but I was running the Qualcom, and had all contact with shippers and receivers. I did all the fueling, got the truck in for it's 30,000 mile B service, and tried to at least have my hands on everything that happened.

While in Lewiston for the B service on Tuesday, I ran into 3 guys from my Swift Academy class, and they were all testing out to go solo that day. The Lewiston terminal only had one truck, so that guy had to take the other 2 to Troutdale were they hoped to find trucks.

Talking with them, they had some pretty good stories. John was running with a Lease/Operator Mentor, and they ran all 48 states. Well John was telling me about how he was running at night somewhere in Louisiana while his mentor was in the bunk. He saw a box in the road, and thought nothing of it, at least until the box started to move! Well that box turned out to be an alligator, and he said he ended up running it over. He stopped on the shoulder and his mentor asked "what the hell was that?" He said he thought it was a gator, and he wanted to check it out. Fortunately his mentor had enough sense to tell him to keep his butt in the truck, cause that thing will eat you alive! My only question was, why were you going to run over the box in the first place?

Kurt had a great story about how he needed to use an engine override switch for over 4 hours. Apparently his mentor left the terminal even though some light came on in the FL Columbia saying the engine would shutdown. So he told Kurt to just hold this switch for 10 seconds every time that light comes on. Well when his mentor was in the bunk, he had to use that switch for more than 4 hours before the light stopped coming on. My guess is at that point the bulb in the dash had just burned out!

As I have said many times before, my training was very uneventful. I learned a lot from a great mentor, and was happy to get the training that I did. I am sure that i will have questions when I go solo, but my mentor assures me that he is just a phone call away! This by the way is how I have learned several lessons.......

My mentor had a student about 6 months ago who still calls him at least 3 times a week! This guy can't use the Qualcom, and he is always asking stupid questions. Today he called and was freaking out because he filled the fuel tanks before picking up his load at the costco DC. Well, he was 450lbs over at the scale. What did I learn? Get your loaded trailer before you decide to take on 200 gallons of fuel! We have been doing this for every load, especially since we got the Volvo. It may take a few extra minutes to double back to the terminal after you get your load, but it's easier than being 450lbs overweight.

I will be testing at the terminal on Tuesday, and hopefully Sumner will have a truck for me on Wednesday. I really want to go OTR and run all 48, but if they ask me to stay with heavy haul for a while, and they can get me decent miles i might just do it. My only request will be that I could go south to Portland as opposed to East to Spokane every day!

I will try to post a couple of more updates once I test out.

Thank's to everyone that has been following my posts over the last few months. It has been great talking with everyone that has PM'd me, and I have a few new friends because of it. I had fun posting my daily routines, and I hope that these posts will be helpful to people that are looking at starting a new career with Swift. My experience through the entire training phase has been excellent, and I am glad that I chose this route to start my career in trucking.

 

time flew! good luck on those journeys! gotta love the idiots who take on too much fuel ahead of time. especially when dealing costco loads!

 

That's pretty much what I did but not by choice. Bottom line is they've trained you HH and they'd like to keep you there. When you do decide to go OTR, you'll need to make sure your DM changes your division on your main screen. Early on, the planners would throw me an OTR load just to satisfy my wanderlust but, because of my HH designation, other planners would always head me back with inbound Costco loads and I'd start the cycle all over again.

Unlike Costco loads, most OTR loads have contingency time built into them and some can even be a little outrageous, like 5 days to run a 3 day load. You'll know if you have a good DM (INSIST on Joanna!) when he/she sees a plan like that and either persuades you to decline it or goes to work on a t-call, ASAP. In any event, a good habit to get in to is to get the miles out of the way as quickly as you can. A lot of places will work or let you in early, just ask. Otherwise, I find it's better to know I have time off on the back end as opposed to taking time off in the middle and then running into one of those contingencies. Everyone is happy when the load delivers on time, especially you.

Along that same line, do take time off and don't do it sitting in a truck stop, staring out the window. There is a lot to see and do out here and, needless to say, the more you see and do, the more enjoyable this job becomes.

Congratulations, good luck and keep the dirty side down.

 

Thanks CD!
If I do go with HH, I will ask for Joanna. She has done a really good job from what I can see with my mentor, and gets us a T-Call for almost every load into Sumner.
Currently I am assigned to Nick, and classified as OTR, but we shall see tomorrow.

I was released off my mentors truck on Monday night because they had a new student who was waiting for a mentor. Seeing as how I had 2 days left, the Driver Services Coordinator said I could run those with LCQT. I have come to learn that this stands for "Local close quarters training", which means we hostle trailers from the terminal to Costco DC, Port of Tacoma and where ever else they want to send us.

My new trainer was shocked to see that I could handle his 13 speed heavy haul truck right out the gate. I was surprised to see how much more power his day cab had than any of the other 3 trucks I have driven. This truck is awesome with these heavy loads!

He is mostly just giiving me a few pointers from his experience. He did teach me yet another way to throw chains! It seems that everyone has a different way to do it, and they all seem to think that it is the best way. This way did seem easier, as he never had to move the truck to install the chains! Now I just need to see which way will work better in snow or ice, as opposed to sitting on a paved, dry parking space.

I am still learning a lot from these mentors. I have come to find out that there are a lot of guys out there that have a great deal of knowledge, and they are more than willing to teach me.

So, one more day running local in Sumner and then I will supposedly get into a truck of my own. We shall see what tomorrow will bring!

 

I make calls to guys almost every week that have plenty more knowledge/experience than me, and I have been out here since 1986.

Advice is never more than a question away and most will be more than willing to help, don't be ashamed to ask questions.

 

I completed my 6 weeks training with my mentor on Monday 9-12, and started 2 days of Local training on Tuesday. Completed the local at 1400 on Wednesday and was released to solo, YEAH!

Well I was turned over to my Driver Manager and he said, when do you want to get started, which I responded immediately. Well, no truck ready! One is coming in tonight, driver could move out and truck cleaned for tomorrow. He said to go home and he would call me.

So I left Sumner at 1500 expecting to stay till at least Friday. DM calls Thursday at 0930 and says the truck is ready, come in at 1400 and we will get it all checked out to me. When I arrive at 1345 he said the truck went to the dealer when he was at lunch, hang tight. So i sit around till he comes up and says, new plan, that truck is a POS, so I got you another one.

We checked out my new truck, which is a 2007 Volvo, and was dirtier than my teenagers bedroom! Which is fine, I would be cleaning it anyway. So I spend about 45 minutes wiping down everything with 2 packages of Lysol wipes, and getting my gear in the truck when the Qualcom starts beeping at me.

I have my first Pre-Plan! WooHoo! The load is picking up here at Sumner terminal and going to St Paul minnestoa. Not a bad first run! Delivery is Monday 9-21 at 1000, so I have 3 and a half days to go 1600 miles. I accepted that Load and started out of Sumner at 1900.

Headed East on I-90, a familiar road after the last 6 weeks, and decided to stop at the Pilot in Spokane on Exit 286. This way I could get my free shower in the morning and have a good start on the run. Got to Spokane at 0200, and was lucky enough to get a parking spot.

Started out on Friday after a shower and some food from Zip's drive in, that place is great! Now I didn't mention this earlier, but my fuel plan was to go to Billings MT, Exit 455 Pilot. I started out with almost a full tank, and even though I thought 850 miles was a long way, I would see how it goes. So as I am passing through Idaho, and into Montana, I am seeing that I am not going to make it to Billings, I would be short by about 30 gallons. So I am trying to get in touch with someone to open me up for fuel in Butte. After sending a QC message, calling the numbers 12 times and sitting on hold for 30 minutes, i finally get the security dispatcher in Sumner. I explain that i am now 50 miles out of Butte, have 1/4 tank of fuel, and will not make it to Billings. He said I could go to St Cloud, or Rocker, both Pilots, and fill up. Thank You, crisis averted. Otherwise i was going to have to stop in Butte and try to get a hold of someone!

So I fueled up in Rocker MT, got back on I-90 and finished my Friday in Billings MT. Now I have about 800 miles to go before I deliver at 1000 on Friday.

Pretty exciting stuff! I am very happy with this Volvo, it only has 324,000 miles. Runs great, and i am getting the dirt cleaned up in the cab! This unit does have the Tempastart, so I need to play with that a little bit. Also, I am looking for an inexpensive Sony Stereo so i can hook up my XM Direct system. I had this kit for a Sony radio, so rather than buy a portable kit, i would like to hook this up under the dash.

Some other things I will be looking for soon is a better Bluetooth. Mine is an older motorolla S9, and people say there is a lot of engine noise. It works for now, but I was looking at a Plantronics unit with superb noize cancelling, they are about $100. Lastly i was contemplating on getting a CB. Need to do some research because i see them from $39 to $200. This is not a priority, My mentor never had one and we did just fine!

 

Congrads on going solo.. The first couple of weeks or more my be rocky but things will start to come around.. and on the CB, as long as you got a pretty good antenna it doesn't matter on what kind of CB to buy.. the cheap one your talking about is probably the little cobra 19 that has only three knobs and i had that for my first two months until i brought an Corba Nigh****ch 29, it worked pretty good for me so no need on going spending over $100 bucks on a radio if you don't need to or want to.. If you just want a standard CB that Cobra 19 will work just fine!! Again Congrads!! and Be Safe

 

I've had 2 CB radios since I started driving, both Cobra LTD29's. First one lasted 18 years second one doesn't look like it's gonna wear out anytime soon.

A CB radio is nice to have in the winter so you can get a headsup on traffic conditons due to the weather, notice I didn't say weather updates, because most drivers want to exaggerate the weather conditions that they just came thru so always take those with a grain of salt.

 

Congrats on going solo. Sounds like you didnt have to wait too long for a truck. When i got mine, i too spent some time cleaning it. Figure i'd end up waiting in line for Swift to clean it (if they actually would that is) and i dont like driving a truck (or car for that matter) that is dirty.

You'll probably have that truck for quite some time. My first truck was a 2005 Volvo with exactly 530,000 mi when i picked it up. I drove it for 3 months then they got me a new 2009 mid roof out of Phoenix. (the only time i've ever been on the west coast....grrr)

anyway, as far as the CB goes, you will want to get one. I bought an el-cheap-o Cobra from Wal-Mart for $40, but that lasted a month before i replaced it with something better, a used Cobra 29LTD Classic. For the money, they are pretty darn good radios. You will want to get one in your first month solo, cause you never know when you'll get to a shipper who wants to talk to you on it for dock assignments, etc. And they are good to have, not just for weather reports in the winter, but for bear, accident and traffic backup reports.

and learn from me....if you want to buy a $200 CB radio....just buy it NEW. Used ones, you never know what you're going to get, and if you DO get a deal, you'll end up paying the difference in possible repairs.

Oh...and as far as that TAS goes....that is pretty nice to have. Never got a chance to use it during the warmer months (didnt have my truck that long) but it was nice to have during the winter. once you're parked, you flip the switch, you can turn the ignition off (truck stays running) then you go back to the controls in your bunk, and you set how warm/cool you want to keep it. You also have a variable of 3-5 degrees. once the temp gets down close to where you want to keep it, the truck will automaticly turn off and on. Pretty nice to have. I've got a bunk heater that draws drops of fuel from the tanks.....you could almost cook with that thing it can get so hot.

 

I've been driving since early Nov. 2008, and i've already more experienced than you. Being "out here" since 1986 dont count when you're sitting at truck stops trying to bum rides off other drivers.....btw. ;-)