Potential Swift Driver
Topic 792 | Page 1
Welcome aboard Mason!!! Sorry it took so long for me to respond to ya.
Congrats on getting your permit and I'm glad to hear our High Road Training Program helped out. That's a great way to memorize a large volume of materials, isn't it? 
One thing I highly recommend is that you go through the Logbook and Weight & Balance sections in our High Road Training Program. That is critical knowledge you're going to need and some of it - especially the logbook rules - can be really confusing. That's the last thing you want is the pressure of learning really tricky but important information in a short amount of time. If you can knock those out before training begins with Swift, you'll be way better off.
And you're right - those weeks with a trainer can be rough for private people (which I am myself), especially if he's a jerk. Unfortunately, a lot of them are. But Swift is an excellent place to get your career started and we get a ton of great feedback from students there so I'm optimistic you'll really like it there.
Never hesitate to ask any questions and keep us updated as things progress. We'll be here to help out any way we can.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Logbook:
A written or electronic record of a driver's duty status which must be maintained at all times. The driver records the amount of time spent driving, on-duty not driving, in the sleeper berth, or off duty. The enforcement of the Hours Of Service Rules (HOS) are based upon the entries put in a driver's logbook.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.New Reply:
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This past week I started down the road to becoming a truck driver. Monday I got the go ahead from swift to go to the hospital for the DOT physical and to acquire my permit. I did both of those things yesterday. I ended up passing the written tests with no less than 90% on each one on my first try. The DMV people were apparently very impressed with this. College may have ended up being a waste of time but at least I learned how to study and do well on tests! I also give credit to the TruckingTruth's High Road CDL course. That was very helpful.
Assuming I make it through the process, I will leave the swift school with my cdl plus the endorsements for doubles/triples and tankers. I choose not to do HAZMAT at this time so I would have less to remember. I also did not want to deal with the whole TSA background check. I am working with limited funds and can’t spare a lot of money right now. I had also planned on getting the passenger endorsement but forgot to tell that testers at the DMV to add the test to my list.
Anyhow, in just over a week I will be on my way to Idaho for swift training! Woo hoo! I have driven with a trailer before so I should do just fine once I adapt to the larger rig. I anticipate the hardest thing will be the 4 weeks with the trainer. I am just a very private person, so they could be 4 very long weeks.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
HAZMAT:
Hazardous Materials
Explosive, flammable, poisonous or otherwise potentially dangerous cargo. Large amounts of especially hazardous cargo are required to be placarded under HAZMAT regulations
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
Doubles:
Refers to pulling two trailers at the same time, otherwise known as "pups" or "pup trailers" because they're only about 28 feet long. However there are some states that allow doubles that are each 48 feet in length.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.OOS:
When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.