Comments By Jarod(Red)

Yeah its Swift

Don't make your assumptions about me when you don't know what's been going on behind the scenes. My only complaint was sitting here not making money waiting. So your "Sitting at home complaining", and "Company waiting hand and foot for you" comments are just ridiculous. Hell of a moderator.

What have you done to assist in your situation? Have you offered any help or are you just waiting for the company to wait on you hand and foot and pay you for the inconvience you have caused them? I understand you had an emergency but you should be grateful that the company allowed you to even abandon your truck under a load with no action taken. I would be calling them to see if you can meet them somwhere in the middle or be of any assistance at all other than sitting at home complaining.

First of all I didn't abandon my truck and load, my truck is secure and parked in our drop yard. I offered to finish the load and take the truck to our Tacoma terminal before I flew home to my fathers funeral. They insisted I leave the truck and load at the drop yard and get to airport ASAP. And I did offer to meet the other driver but they told me they had driver coming though my area, which is a truck stop an hour away. I'm doing what my DM asked me to do but its hard to meet driver when hes not in my region yet. But I appreciate your assumptions on a matter that you don't know all facts too.

I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think doing your logs that way will help. In fact it will hurt your ability to drive later because you'll have logged 56 hours in 4 days before even hitting the road. You'll have to take a restart after like 1 day. If they want to pay you for that time they'll probably do it regardless of how you logged the time. My guess is they won't though, since they had to reroute other drivers to cover your load, which I'm sure cost the company money and time. Again, I would just write off the lost earnings and move on. My feeling is that if you press the issue, it will only lead to animosity and a downward spiral in your relationship with the company.

Thank you for your opinion and time, Ill take that into consideration.

So I take it you must get an hourly pay for on duty time? My guess would be no, you can't log your time at home as on duty, regardless of whether you're ready to go or not. Enjoy your home time and just be ready to run your hardest without complaint when you do get back out there. I wouldn't even mention the lost time, don't make an issue out of it and do your best to be a happy and compliant employee. That will go a long way.

No I don't get hourly pay, but I wanted to show them with my log that I have been ready to go ever since they told me to be ready to leave on Wednesday. And hopefully get paid something for it. Wednesday around noon they called me told me ready to go Wednesday night, they told me same thing Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

I'm currently at home sitting here waiting on Swift to have driver drop off a truck so I can leave. I have been waiting since Wednesday. Since Wednesday Swift has been telling me that they will have my truck dropped that night, 4 nights later I'm still waiting. I had to take flight home from Washington due to family emergency, Swift had a team pick up the truck and drop off my load, and the team was suppose to drop my truck off while they were driving through my home state. My question is, Can I log Wednesday to today as On-Duty Not Driving for my 14 hours per day? I'm sitting here not getting paid, my bags have been packed since Wednesday sitting by front door because everyday I thought I was leaving here and it ended up I didn't. Once again its Sunday and my DM said my truck should be here tonight so I'm sitting here waiting again. But I'm losing money since Wednesday.

Bubber, you have stumbled on the same thing that thousands of people trying to get into truck driving do. That is that the schooling experience doesn't even come close to your expectations.

People think they are being trained to be a truck driver, but all they are really getting is the bare minimum training to be able to pass the driving test so that you can obtain a CDL. There is so much more to learn, so many more skills to develop, but those things can never be taught in a school unless you are willing to pay about thirty thousand dollars for it. The costs of training someone to the level of being a proficient professional driver are way to prohibitive for it to work that way.

Trust me when I tell you that Swift, or any other company that is willing to train new drivers, won't hardly make a dime off of you for your first year of driving for them. That whole year is basically a training time for you. You will start out with a trainer or mentor for about a month, and then after that you will go solo. You won't be ready to go solo yet, but you had better step up your game and get serious about it. That is just the way it works. I was nervous as I could be for my first three months as a solo driver. There were so many things I was still learning. A little bit of nervousness along with a healthy amount of fear are what you need to keep you from getting over confident in the beginning. There is nothing wrong with confidence, but it needs to have some kind of a decent foundation to stand itself on.

This industry is so misunderstood by so many people that it is mind boggling, but even the new drivers coming in have their false expectations that cause them to stumble. Keep at it, and hang in there - as you develop into a professional driver you will begin to understand why they couldn't make you into one at the school, and why they can't afford to have one instructor for every two or three students. They are simply trying to get this done without going bankrupt while trying to bring in new drivers.

Bubber, Good job making bud, welcome to the team. Make sure you and your mentor are on same page before you leave.

Old School, well said sir!

I'm an Army Vet and a lot of companies out there will use you GI Bill for your schooling and help you get your CDL. A lot of Vets are getting into the industry and I think its a good thing.

Hey there Jarod, I was shut down in well below zero once in Montana. I was a little worried about the motor and the air lines freezing while I slept. I called a night time dm and he said to try just releasing the tractor break but of course keep the trailer break applied so you won't roll away. I guess this makes the truck think it is going to move and drive because in this particular 2012 Cascadia it worked great and it idled as long as I wanted it to. In calling I was covering myself by getting permission to idle documented that way I believe it didn't go on my percent idle so as not to get dinged for it later. By the way, the bunk heaters work great... Mike

LOL Hey Mike, yeah I have heard that trick too, and I actually tried it once, but I didn't realize how hard it would be to go to sleep when I know in back of my head that the tractor brakes are released lol. But I found out a good trick of just idling up setting cruise control, you don't have to idle up much just couple hundred RPM's and then set cruise control and it works great. I haven't got to use the bunk heaters personally but I went out with my Uncle last winter and they work perfect!!!!

Errol are you running OTR with Swift?