Comments By AdkMatt

DAY 2

Man, this first 2 days have been going painfully slow. I know that anyone that has gone through Swift's program is probably having a little chuckle right now, knowing the mayhem I'm in for... Anyway, day 2 was a lot more learning orientated today, starting on hours of service, logging, and the cheesiest safety presentation I have ever seen. At least the instructors are energetic and pretty funny. They've already started learning people's names now that our class size is down by 25% or so.

I think things have been dragging because we're starting on stuff I'm pretty well versed in from taking the High Road Training Program. That, or it could be that my roommate ducked out of the program late last night. He said he wasn't satisfied with the tuition reimbursement program (which I think is plenty fair). But I guess his heart just wasn't in it considering he was willing to give up on it so soon.

Well tomorrow is the beginning of the real action. We're going to be spending time on the Range learning straight-line backing and some pre-trip inspection instruction. I guess this is where the real challenge begins, because it's not necessarily about what you know, but if you can actually put it to good use. Fingers crossed!

I was just there this (Tuesday) morning! I hadn't read your post yet. Watch the access road for a Grey Kenworth 148339, but I don't expect to be back till Friday now.

So close and yet so far, haha. We were in the classroom today, but we are scheduled to be on the Range this Friday, so I'll keep an eye out :D

Welcome to Memphis, Matt! I did a Memphis-Millington diary almost a year ago.

I get to the terminal on Fridays. PM me with a phone number if you want to try to meet up.

By the way Errol, your journal of Swift's training was one of the first I read when I started looking at TruckingTruth back in January. I look forward to seeing you around sometime! Memphis is going to be my home terminal, so I think we'll be running into each other now and again.

DAY 1

So today was was all about that fun paperwork, oh joy. Apparently our class is a bit larger than usual. We had 45 or so students. I say "had" because 5 or 6 have already been sent home. It seems they all had the same problem, so be aware, if you get your physical done before coming, make sure on your card: 1. The section that says "Intrastate Only" is marked "no"; and 2. The section that says "CDL" is marked "yes".

But otherwise, it was a day full of nothing in particular, long periods of talking to classmates fragmented by document signing, going over policies and coursework, and a brief drug test. Swift buys lunch at their cafeteria for the first day, which is nice, but it only taught me that the Burger King across the street from the terminal might be the only place to get a good meal nearby.

As for the people, the classroom instructors are very nice and really do make you feel good about being there. The drivers around there are pretty friendly too. I'm happy it'll be my home terminal.

The only assignment we received was to read a few chapters and do some review question, but this isn't due for nearly 2 weeks, so I'm happy with that. The real classroom begins tomorrow and we get our first range time on day 3, but that's all for today!

Day 0

Hello everyone. Normally, I wouldn't write a diary, but seeing as I haven't been able to find one on the Tennessee Swift School since they moved it from Millington to Memphis, I figured I'd start a new one. I'll try to update this nightly if I can, and I'll try answer questions if anyone has any. I'm currently on the Greyhound to Memphis as I speak, working on my High Road Training Program. Looking forward to this!

Hey folks, been awhile since I've posted. My last update, I talked about putting my house in Upstate NY up for sale, and now I've got the house sold and I'm hitting the road in a Penske truck on Monday! So I obviously have no trucking experience before, and I've done a bit of research on companies that hire out of Tennessee. At the top of my list, I think my top hope on the list would be Knight Transport, and at the bottom would be Swift. Aside from those two, does anyone have any recommendations for companies to apply to that offer company-sponsored training? I'd like to get the ball rolling the minute I get down there :) Thanks guys.

When the dispatcher asks "Have you tried honking your horn or something", I was hoping the woman was gonna come back with "No! I hadn't thought of that."

Thanks for the replies guys!

I took the stomach turning decision to give a Swift recruiter a call today. I was afraid that they might find it awkward that somebody who has never been in the business would call to just 'talk' about things, but I'm pleasantly surprised that he was quite helpful (even though he didn't really tell me anything that I haven't already read on this website, haha). But it makes me enthusiastic. Him telling me that there's no shortage of work out in the midwest. He mentioned the background check process and getting set with a residence in TN, but as long as everything checks out and I've got a clean driving record (which I do, surprisingly, for someone who lives in this winter wonderland), that they should have no problem getting me into the academy in Memphis.

And not to mention, with all of this, my real estate agent called me today telling me she's pretty sure I've got an offer for my house coming in tomorrow. So frankly, I'm finishing the day on a confident high. Happy New Year's everyone! I'll keep you posted!

Hey everyone,

So I've been looking through this website (and a few others) for the past couple weeks and I've been looking into getting myself into the trucking industry. I was let go by my job nearly two months ago now and despite having applications out everywhere (even grocery stores), there's no phone calls coming back to me. I live in a city in Northern NY (no, not like Buffalo) that doesn't really have much of a demand for OTR drivers. And even though I'm only 22, I don't think going back to college is in my cards for the time being.

I was planning to move to the midwest sometime during late 2015 because I live alone in a house that I inherited that costs way too much for me to stay in for the rest of my life. However, knowing that I'll be moving to a town right outside of Nashville, TN; and seeing from load of people how there's a huge demand for drivers out there, I think I'll be expediting my move a bit.

Assuming I can be moving out in about a month and leave my house for a real estate agent to worry about, and knowing that it'll take a month or 2 to get proof of domicile in TN for a CDL permit, how soon do you guys think it would be appropriate for me to start calling and talking to a recruiter from Swift or Schenider or some other big names out there about the possibility of getting a CDL through the company and training to become an OTR driver?

By the way, for anyone who needs that last little push over the fence if they're thinking about becoming a driver, do read Brett's Book I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I needed.