It is what it is, i will just be happy to have a job.

 

You know, that is one thing that i somewhat laugh at. I'll sit in truck stops, or in terminals, or whatever, and guys complaining because some load they got is only paying them $1.20/mi.

Yeah, you get raped when you start out..........ANYWHERE. Doesn't matter what your profession you go into, you are going to start out much lower than where you'd be in a year or two. i forgot what i started at...might have been .26/cpm, but i've been here for 8 months, and now am up around .34/cpm on long haul loads, and anything under 300 or something, i'm getting .44. "OOoooohhh my..that sucks....you could do better going somewhere else...". Yeah, i COULD, but i chose this road, and there are no exits for the next 4-5 months. So what.....you're not living off my paycheck, i am. I am content with making $600/wk take home, sure..$1000 a week would be much better. Sooner or later i will be making that. But you've gotta start somewhere, yeah??

Be lucky to get a job in this industry regardless what it is. I've always said, dont like your job (whatever it might be)....quit and go somewhere else. there are 100 other people who desperately want your job.

 

Today was day 8 of our 18 day training, and day 1 of shifting. We started out by heading over to Clarkston WA, which is just a couple of mile from Swifts Lewiston terminal.

Our instructor is a real nice guy. His name is Bob, he has been a driver for 15 years, with Swift for 10 years and a Trainer for about 2 years. Bob is a very calm/laid back kind of guy, but he is making sure that we know what we need to know. I can't even remember how many times he said for the test you need to do it like this, but in the real world it's a whole other story.

Anyways, he took us around what the call the Clarkston 500. It's the port of Clarkston where they have some nice wide streets, not a lot of traffic, and enough room to get the truck moving in 5th or 6th gear before you need to slow down. Spent 1.25 hours going around this course and getting accustomed to the way the truck moves when you are traveling faster than 2 miles per hour.

I was able to pick it up pretty quick. Of course I had my share of mistakes, but all in all it went very well. I felt very comfortable when Bob said it was time for my student teammate to take his turn at the wheel. My teammates name is Dave, and he is about as competent at this as I am. He was also able to get into a groove and only had a few problems shifting because he couldn't get his timing just right. Basically he kept trying to press the clutch to the floor, so he couldn't get into the next gear.

After Dave ran the same course for about 1.5 hours, Bob had him peel off and get onto a different road. This was a small two lane road that runs along the Snake River. Not a lot of traffic other than us, another Swifty, and a few motorcycles. The goal on this road was to get going a little faster, then slow down. Shifting through almost all the gears, but also getting an idea of the other obstacles while going at a slow enough speed where we could get comfortable. We took this road out 27 miles from the Lewiston terminal where we turned around and I took the wheel.

So now I am driving on a real road with guard rails, a few 4 wheelers, another Swifty student (stuck behind us), and a small construction zone. The purpose of this road, and this day was shifting. So I would get the truck up and into about 6th or 7th and then start slowing down and downshifting to 3rd. The instructor behind us wanted to get it going faster, so they were always real close behind and trying to push me faster but Bob said screw em we are shifting not driving highway. I even came to a complete stop and started out again in the middle of the road and hes like whats wrong? I said I just wanted to shift all the way down, and back up. He said cool, I just never had anyone do it on this road unless the messed up so bad they couldn't recover.

After lunch Dave started driving and Bob had him go through downtown Lewiston. Now we have lots of 4 wheelers, lights, intersections, and something we never encountered before, road signs. I started to see pretty quick from the back seat that Dave was still focused on shifting, so much so that he was missing the signs, and hitting the curbs. This gave me a great chance to learn from his mistakes. Dave drove for a long time on some windy two lane roads, with a few minor grades. He even got out onto the highway where he got to go through the weigh station.

We swapped over and I got to experience a bunch of windy streets that were more residential with slower speeds, some small inclines, stop signs and intersections and a few different obstacles. We still had a bit more time to spend driving around so Bob directed me to Highway 95, which is a 7% grade that they call Lewiston Hill. I asked him what gear I should take the hill at and he said "your the driver", so I said okay I will try 6th. This truck has a small load of concrete blocks and it weighs about 15,000. I was able to crawl up the hill at 25 mph in 6th gear, and he said that was exactly what I should have done. Half way up he said want to see something cool, and I'm like NO. He engaged the cruise control and said to take my foot off the accelerator. I proceeded to climb the rest of the hill at 25mph, about 1500 rpm with the cruise control on.

At the top of the hill, we turn around and start to head back down the hill. He already said let the engine do all the braking, so I was good with that. He said what gear are you going to go down this grade in. Since I read the book, I said 5th because I climbed the hill in 6th. Well I quickly learned that 5th was way to slow, and I shifted up to 6th. Took the hill all the way down in 6th and let the jake brake hold me back at about 28 mph.

I have to say that I was working this up to be a bigger deal in my head. I felt like I had real good control of that truck the entire time, and could have gone a little faster. At the end of the day when we got back to the academy he looked at us and said that we had just done the trip that he would normally have us doing on day 2 of shifting. I would say that we are doing fairly well, and he will have an even bigger challenge for tomorrow.

Now, we got back earlier than the other trucks, so I did not hear how it went for other students, but I am sure we will get all the horror stories in the morning. As far as I know, we still have the same 9 students that we had when we started out day 8.

 

.25 per mile is way beyond getting raped. i thought i was getting the shaft starting at .30 per mile 4 years ago. How do pay scales go backward over time. Yes i know, it's a job and you have to do something but .25 per mile to leave home and drive a truck is just depressing.

 

I say ditto to Kevin's response.
As for me, when you don't have a home it's not depressing when you leave.

 

Today was day 9 of school, and day 2 of shifting. We spent about two and a half hours driving around town, and through the hills. A lot of different driving situations for us to experience.

This afternoon we spent an hour doing a Pre-trip practice test where I learned what I needed to practice even more. I was able to hit all the different parts, and did the inspection but I missed a lot of words and Washington wants to hear those words. So we will take the actual test for the school on day 10, and I will pass after more practice tonight.

Spent the next 3 hours on the range with backing, docking and offsets. I have a pretty good handle on the skills maneuvers, so I should do just fine there.

We did hear a few stories about the other students. Apparently there are a few that are getting on the instructors nerves with the way they are driving. It sounds like some of the instructors will be a little more anal so they can weed out a couple more students. Apparently one guy is getting in the sleeper and well he is sleeping. When he is not sleeping he is playing with the phone. Now add this to the fact that he is not doing so good with the driving, and he is about ready to get sent home.

Another student is having problems with managing the trailer. He is running over all the curbs, and getting real close to some 4 wheelers. Apparently the instructor needed to use the emergency brake to avoid an incident. The trailer was getting dangerously close to a sign when turning the corner.

So at the end of the day, I went back to the motel and surprise I have a new roommate. Only time will tell how this will go. Apparently he went home last week and is now returning so he can get more time shifting.

That is all I know! Started the day with 9 students, ended with 9 students and will ad the 10th on the morning of day 10.

 

I thought this would be a cool little addition to the thread. I downloaded a program called GPSED to my Blackberry. Started a tracker once we started driving. This tracker includes the driving that both Dave and I did on day 9.
day 9 | Author Ford390pwr | free Mobile GPS Tracking Service

 

Today was day 10 and it was a great day to be in Lewiston, ID. I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I love the weather here. In eleven days I have only seen a little rain, and has never been cold enough for long sleeves! I did not check the high temp today, but I bet it was about 85 degrees.

So, day 10 started on the range. Today was TEST day, and boy did that scare some of these people. So Dave (my team student), and I started with the 100' back and the offset back. We both passed with no problems and moved on to the 90 degree alley dock and 45 degree alley dock. Again we both passed and moved on to the Pretrip test.

On the pretrip we both did really well. I missed a few points, but squeaked by with a passing score. Dave did even better than I did, but he missed a step on the airbrakes test, so he will need to retest in the morning. Not a big deal, and he will make it just fine through that test.

After the pretrip test we moved on to learn how to couple and uncouple to a trailer. We both picked this up pretty quick and had a lot of fun with it. We even got to drive bobtail around the range so we could line up to the trailers from more than 5' away like all the other students were doing.

After lunch Bob, our instructor, threw me the keys and said let's go. We headed west on highway 12 to highway 127 and continued over to highway 26 in a town called Dusty where we traded seats and Dave drove. I logged 2 hours on line 4 and 74 miles today. This was a greatroad trip with a bunch of little hills and a few small towns to navigate through.

Now I turned on my GPS when Dave started driving in Dusty. He headed back over towards Highway 95, where he was able to run down the Lewiston Hill like I did on Tuesday. Dave logged 2 hours on line 4 and 79 miles of driving.

If anyone is interested, I have uploaded the GPS Tracker for today. I also shot a video from the back seat as Dave drove down the Lewiston Hill, but i will need to edit that a little bit before it is posted anywhere.
day 10 | Author Ford390pwr | free Mobile GPS Tracking Service

When we got back to the range we learned that all the other students spent the entire day on the range trying to pass the tests. As far as we could learn, everyone has taken the tests and a few need to retest in the morning. I will have more information on that later.

For our team today was a fun and rewarding day where we got off the range and out on the road. For everyone else it was just another hot day driving circles and practicing their backing skills. We started day 10 with 10 students, and when we went home there were still 10 students, so all in all it was a good day for everyone.

 

Good thread, I have always enjoyed reading peoples day to day progress and travels on here. Keep it coming.

 

you guys should take a trip down 2 of my favorite grades. one of which leads right into lewiston. it's that big, long, curvy hill along southbound us95. the other is whitebird. it's a southbound hill, too, and it tops out at 7 1/2% in some parts. it's a nasty one when it's icy.