Profile For Maverick (Tom H).

So what are you doing with Swift right now? Are running OTR, regional, or did you get on with one of their dedicated accounts? I see it's been a year since you've posted last. We have quite a few Swift drivers in here now. For a while it seemed a lot of people were going with Prime but an awful lot go to Swift these days and people are pretty happy over there. A couple of our moderators are on dedicated accounts over there and they're quite happy with it.

I got the opportunity to test drive the target dedicated account as part of the surge during the Christmas rush last November and December here in New York, I really liked it and got tired of sitting entire weekends because of "slow freight" so I knew where freight wasn't slow and am now permanently on this account. And am now living the dream here in New York

As of today I no longer owe anything to swift. I started out on this journey to become a truck driver a year ago, swift offered me a veterans scholarship where they paid for my training and all I owed them was one year of service in return. Well today is my one year mark as a solo driver with swift. I am proud to say that this year was accident free and all deliveries were 100% on time. I have heard in this forum that within your first year of driving that there will be days that you feel like throwing in the towel and quitting, well I never felt that way this entire year in fact I really enjoy this occupation, I do believe being in the military aided in the ability to spend time away from the family. I can't wait to see what year two has in store...

I made it through the swift mentor training program and passed the written test and the drive test and am now a rookie solo driver for swift, let the new learning experience begin.

I have been doing some more reading about swift how serious are they with the notarized letter of unemployment? If I have been unemployed for some time would that be a problem?

I was unemployed for 8 months due to a layoff from my previous employer and they did not require me to have a notarized letter and I am currently half way thru my mentorship training

Congrats on getting your CDL I think we may have been in the same class there in Fontana.

And his truck number is 972286 and is sitting in jurupa valley at the moment

Well my cherry has been popped met my mentor at the terminal last night around 11pm in Fontana he drove to go pick up our load in Perri's ca and then drove to banning and asked if I wanted to drive and I jumped at the chance so I took off down the highway and drove for 5 hours thru the night and arrived in Phoenix around 6:30 am ish what a rush that was time to get some rest so I can finish out my hours later

where did you pick that load at? kraft? ross? p&g?

how's your mentor treating yyou?

how do you like it so far?

what are you driving?

9 speed 10 speed 13 speed?

did you get all your rewards cards yet?

what's your truck number?

I'm like a little kid lol.

is your mentor owner op or company guy?

is he swift or central?

Mentor is great he has been driving for 19 years and does not yell but then again I don't give him a reason too

I like it so far hope it keeps going this way too

We were using a loaner freightliner but on Tuesday we are going to use his freightliner it is an older one but still a 9 speed he clutches so I doubt I'll learn to float but he is smooth at it

He is an owner op with a fleet of about 5 or 6 trucks, when he learned he has a horrible mentor so he vowed to not be like that.

He is swift

At the end of the day the blame will more than likely fall on the trucker for the simple reason being that he has a commercial drivers license and is considered a professional driver!

Man we know what you're sayin. Everyone feels that way in the beginning because the schools and companies are indeed trying to cram as much information as possible into your brain.

Now I see you did quite a bit of the High Road Training Program but you basically stopped after the permit part of it. You barely touched the logbook section and never did the Weight & Balance section at all. Now you're getting ready to go out on the road and you're going to have to know that stuff too!

Hang in there man.

And for everyone else that's getting ready to get started in trucking, you'd better listen closely to what JakeBreak is saying and prepare yourself now for it. You're going to have to know a ton of information. The easy way to learn it is ahead of time, at home, using The High Road. The hard way is to learn it once you're already out there.

Here's how our training program breaks down:

To Get Your CDL Permit:

• Rules & Regulations
• Driving Safely
• Transporting Cargo Safely
• Air Brakes
• Combination Vehicles
• Pre-Trip Inspection
• Driving Exam

To get your CDL endorsements which are optional but highly recommend:

• Transporting Passengers
• Doubles And Triples
• Tankers
• Hazardous Materials

Two sections we've built ourselves with info you'll need for everyday life on the road:

• Logbook
• Weight & Balance

Two sections for anyone considering flatbed:

• Cargo Securement
• New York State Coil Endorsement

I agree Brett after doing the high road twice I was so prepared for school and it made it a breeze I even picked up shifting quick and passed my permit test and all the exams for the license on the first try and now I'm on a mentors truck and having a blast. I can' thank you enough for putting this site together.

So what has happened at school it has been a while since you posted

Well my cherry has been popped met my mentor at the terminal last night around 11pm in Fontana he drove to go pick up our load in Perri's ca and then drove to banning and asked if I wanted to drive and I jumped at the chance so I took off down the highway and drove for 5 hours thru the night and arrived in Phoenix around 6:30 am ish what a rush that was time to get some rest so I can finish out my hours later

Well done!

thank you

OK so as I was going through this training I realized the there was really no difference in what was going on than what Mr. Smith wrote about his experience with the swift academy here in Fontana so I did not continue the day to day log. But as of today I am now the proud owner of a class A CDL what an experience it was and I found it to be a fun and enjoyable experience as well. Now I am waiting at the Swift terminal for a mentor not sure how long it will take but am excited for the next chapter in this career

day 1

Start at 7am everyone is in a big classroom upstairs and they give you paperwork for the school repayment and take each student one at a time and copy their license SSN card and any permits and med cards you have if you don't have your med card then you redo it with their physician.

While waiting for the physical you sit in the big room and they play different safety videos. Here is a good note before you come make sure you have a good phone number to the office of your primary physician along with a good fax number in case the physician here needs to have your physician sign a paper that you are cleared to operate a commercial vehicle. I had to do this because I am on blood thiners , they just needed to make sure my condition was under control.

Thanks for the encouagement , I am currently on the grey dog headed up to Fontana from San Diego it is only a short 3 hr bus ride not like those long rides guys take to get to prime, let's get this new career started....

Hey Scott, How was that first week?

Got the call today that I've been waiting the weeks to get. I've officially been accepted into the Old Dominion family! I'm so excited!

CONGRATS

I have made the choice to leave swift before finishing my first year. I did not want to when this other company first offered me a job, however swift did some things that just made it very hard to keep with them in the face of the new offer.

Basically it works out to a 9cpm pay raise for doing the same job and according to the drivers i have talked to the same average weekly miles. Also the new company has or allows you to have everything swift says you cannot such as pets and power inverters.

I am giving more then 2 weeks notice with Swift and will turn the truck in at a terminal to make my departure as professional as possible despite some of the unprofessional people i have dealt with at swift.

What happened at swift to make you leave

That is awesome to hear, Congrats on making it solo, I leave Monday from San Diego to go to Fontana and start school on Tuesday, I have been following your posts religiously, love hearing about your experiences. Hope my experience is similar and all goes well. Stay safe and keep the wheels turning.

Hey there Mr. Smith, how's it going out there on the road?