Comments By Matt S.

Today the seriousness of the whole profession sunk in for four more people. We had the map reading exams consisting of two separate tests and four people got sent home. The class started with 16 and we're down to 11. On the 3rd day you can tell who is really serious and who is not. I met one other guy who seems to have my same level of determination and drive. While he is only 29, his work ethic and attitude are impressive beyond estimation. He doesn't have much money so I treated him to a decent lunch today. This guy has a young wife and a son whom it's obvious that he loves dearly and wants to do everything possible and legal to get them out of poverty. I really admire the way he talks about and adores his wife. He speaks lovingly of how she keeps him in line and cares deeply about him. I want to see this guy succeed and I'm gonna do everything I can to help him. Thus far he's failed nothing and in no danger whatsoever. We're off for turkey day but the two of us are going to get a jump start on studying pre and post trips so come Saturday morning, we're dreaming about slack adjusters, pittman arms, and air compressors. Y'all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Today we had the three exams on logging. Exam 1 and 3 were 100%. Exam 2 was 95%.

Turned in the 4 open book exams early. First three were 100% and the fourth was 87%.

Tomorrow will be a half day due to the holiday and the two map exams in the morning.

No rest for the weary :)

Oh and let me pay some additional homage to the High Road Training Program. It literally reduced the amount of textbook reading that I had to do by an order of magnitude. I found I could literally take many of the open book exams based on the learning from HRT. The amount of time savings cannot be underestimated. It has freed me up to do a lot more studying on the pre-trip, a 116 item behemoth checklist.

Congrats and good luck to both of you. I am looking at Swift as a possibility for myself. I talked to my recruiter at Swift today and I having difficulty where I currently reside in Florida (to far south). Lucky for me my parents own a few condos in Tampa and will rent one to me so I can be better located so companies will hire me. My recruiter at Swift told me to move and change my address to the Tampa home and they will send me to their training site in Tenn. I am scheduled to take my permit on Jan 8th. I look forward to your experiences in school. Brian

First day was a lot of paperwork and a drug test. We have three chapters worth of homework to do. Woohoo! I'm writing this during my class break because there will be no rest for the weary tonight :-)

Sean S, hope it's going well for you. Day 1 we ready lost someone due to not bringing their driver's license to school. This one left me scratching my head. How do you come to a driving school without your basic license in hand and ready to go!?

Well, after a long couple of months, I'm finally here in good old Richmond, VA for the Swift Academy. I decided to drive down instead of take the grey dawg simply because I want some freedom and the trip was only about 4 hours versus a 6 or 7 hour bus ride. My roommate is a pretty cool guy, laid back, and on his 3rd and final week. The hotel Swift put us up in is actually really nice: the Candlewood Suites. It's clean and comfortable.

There was no time like the present to tap my roommate for advice and he said be prepared to work extremely hard and have a good, positive attitude. I can thank truckingtruth.com for already preparing me on that front. I found out that I will most likely be training on the Volvos and they have 8 speed transmissions. Well, I'm nervous and excited as hell. More to come tomorrow night.

Hello all. I ran across this site a couple of months ago when I first decided to look into trucking for a living. Since then, I was accepted into Swifts training (through a 3rd party recruiter), only to have that rescinded for reasons I thought were odd, but...

Since then I have started taking the high road training and looking into alternatives. Most companies I looked into weren't taking new students from my state (I'm in Maine) so I had to find another way to make it happen.

For the last 6 weeks, I have been working with my local career center to get a grant to pay for private schooling. It took a ton of running around and getting local pre-hire letters before even starting training, but I just signed the paperwork and am on my way to complete my enrollment paperwork at the local private truck driving school.

If this is really what you want, do what you have to do to make it happen. I couldn't afford private school, but was able to put in the legwork to get it paid for and I can't wait to get started.

Thanks to Brett, Daniel B, Old School and all of the other great contributes here for giving so much of their time and knowledge to help people like me get prepared for a new phase in life. The information you have all provided has been priceless.

On to the next chapter...

Wishing you the best!

Thanks for all the advice everyone, sounds like it might be just another struggle of starting in the industry, maybe I'll throw some extra blankets in the truck haha or an arctic sleeping bag

I used to do a lot of cold weather camping. Why not just pick up a 0 degree sleeping bag and you should be fine for all but the most extreme of conditions. At least your struggles are happening in cold weather as it's so much easier to warm up than it is to cool down. Keep your chin up, bud!

Yes And I leave for Swift richmond on the 1st of decemeber

I hope to see you down there! :-)

Hi all... I've been reading and leerking for over 2 yrs now. I feel like I know a lot of you just from your post. Quick low down, I've passed all 5 written test in Texas and I hold a CDL permit and I'm finally headed off to school this Sunday, needless to say I'm a little freaked out but excited at the same time. I don't want to ramble so here it is... any advice for winter time training or any training would be greatly appreciated. I've got my georgia boots and a duffle bag and I'm ready to do this. Thanks in advance, I really appreciate it. You guys are all great...

Nice! Wishing you all the best. I'm leaving for Richmond this Sunday.

I'm chomping at the bit to get started on training for Swift Transport in Richmond on Nov. 24th. I just know this week is going to drag by. I'm marking time and trying to keep busy by reviewing HRT.