Profile For Grinch

I’ve got an alpicool as well smaller than naenae’s mine is a 38 or 40 qt. it sits on the floor behind my drivers seat. I train so bigger in the top bunk doesn’t work for my truck. I put about 2 weeks of stuff in there. I am good with that as usually about every 10-12 days I dip into a Walmart for bread vegetables fruit and such anyway.

Jason welcome to the start of your career at swift. I say that because you can easily make a career if it suits you at swift. I am a swift flatbed mentor and grey haired as well. Ignore what the internet trolls say, a lot of them are holding on to the bad wrap the company had years ago when we were in high school. Focus on you and your goals. Pay attention in the academy. The real learning will be with your mentor on the road after you have passed your cdl test portion. While you are with your mentor ask questions when you don’t understand something and ask them to explain the why we do this and why we do that. I may be out there in Pheonix while you are there if you see a flatbed truck with an American flag on the back and a golden retriever sticking her head out the window that would be me. Good luck and feel free to reach out. I typically try and pop in here every 2-3 days.

Matthew, I guess I’ll be the first experienced flatbedder to chime. Although I know old school will chime in as well. I run with swift and also a flatbed mentor/ trainer. I don’t know your background or your logic of going with western express. But as bk stated since you are set to start Monday. Probably best bet is to run there for a year and revaluate then. Yes starting out initially the pay is low. Most companies have the first pay jump at 6 months. You will not learn everything you need from your trainer. Don’t be afraid to ask other drivers for help or questions even if not from your company. I have helped out many other drivers that didn’t work for swift that were getting ready to do something stupid or just confused.

Piano man, I’m flatbed and they keep me humming so my down time is typically limited to my 34 hr reset. Laundry, clean the truck on those day. I have my iPad to watch tv/ movie , read a book and chill. If the doggo is with me we will go for a walk and play a bunch of ball fetch as well. Typically I do 34’s in one of our terminal so there is usually another of our misfit flatbedders here as well, we tend to park together. Which scares off the rest of the company. Some days we have all cooked something and just throw it up on our 53 ft picnic table and had a buffet.

The seatbelt spool locking and the pressure drop are two different un related items.. I run a 2020 t680 myself.

The air pressure drop is simple. The air pressure regulator cutoff switch needs to be adjusted down. What is happening is it is charging up hitting 150. And it temporarily overpressurizes the gauge, that make your needles drop down. Then next shift it bleeds enough pressure to read correctly. This is a common t680 issue.

The seatbelt is mechanical only. No air. It sounds like mine passenger one. Same issues replaced the seatbelt and spool and no more issues. Sometimes you just get a bad one.

Rick. Congratulations. I am currently with swift. I run flatbed and quite often bounce through our OKC terminal. It is actually one of my favorites. I have zero complaints about swift. If I do have an issue I discuss with leadership it it is typically resolved. As Errol mentioned Swift is huge, there are many that stay and retire from it. I just met a driver last week that is at 36 years ant swift and will be retiring next year. The economy is crappy and I fear it will probably get worse before better. I have no immediate plans to change companies at this time due to that. Stability and consistency is my major decision factor. If you see a flatbed truck roll in while you are at OkC with a golden retriever hanging its head out the window feel free to say hi.

Bk, the mini kuerig works great. I have had mine in the truck about 2 years now. I just used the heavy duty pre pass style Velcro to mount it to my counter top. It doesn’t move unless I go through Shreveport. IFYKYK.

I have a pressure cooker/ crockpot that I use for various things. It works great. I usually set in all my ingredients on my 30 during the day. Hit the buttons and let it cook. I specifically went with a pressure cooker version for the locking lid as I am going down the road.. as far as mounting it I have a small tie down strap that hooks to the passenger seat goes through the top handle and the other end hooks to a metal ring by my bunk floor. It just stay cinched down on my counter top all day while driving

A successful backing maneuver is one in which the truck and trailer are where you intended and needed it to be, with zero equipment damage. Period.

Naenae couldn’t have said it better my self. Awareness of surroundings, GOAL as much as needed and more. Patience. I’m training new cdl holders in backing a 10 ft spread axle in an extended kenworth. Davey uses one of tricks I do which is always look at the location in Google maps and street view. You can get a lot of information from that.

I personally drop my trailer in our yard and bobtail home about 60 miles. And back into my driveway. The church parking lot route is a good option, we have another driver in our neighborhood, he parks his in the church lot on the edge of our neighborhood in the back corner. We also have a tmc driver I see his truck and trailer parked in a united moving storage lot up the street.