Comments By BassPlaya

Well, week one is in the books, started with 7 in the class, on the 2nd day we lost 1 and gained 2 on the third day. So we have 8 now, and 3 instructors, pretty good ratio. Watched fmcsa vids and logging vids etc first couple of days , then pretrip vids Wed morning and hands on pretrip walkaround from the teacher , then after lunch we all just worked together ,helping each other learn. By Thursday afternoon, quite a few of us were pretty good with pretripping and our in cab brake testing. We have to have prettip test down by week 5, but i think next week many of us are going to try testing out. That just gives us more driving time. We have a 2 mile course we can practice driving and a seperate backing pad area, and are allowed to drive as much as we want, so pretty cool. We will also have 1000 miles otr driving we will be doing. So far, pretty exciting and am glad i chose this school. Its a local vo tech college. Ill update as progress is made.

Well another newbie here, though I've been on here often gaining much insight and information. Thanks to Brett for the program, I passed all 3 tests today for my CDL permit, have my 2yr DOT card and school is paid for and I start in March at the local college. From what I've researched, its supposed to be the best and one of the oldest schools in Florida. Its always been a dream of mine to drive, and like others here have posted, life happened and then 20 years went by, and next thing you know your in the perfect situation to fulfill your dream. As I've been preparing for almost a year now to start on this new chapter in my life, it is bittersweet, as I'm self employed and have wonderful customers, I've had to let them all know that I'll be leaving to start a new career. They have all been keeping me so busy, it has taken awhile for me to wind things down, and set a date to start. So with that, as I've enjoyed other posts, and have gained a lot of info, maybe someone will enjoy reading my journey and I can help document some valuable info, and help others in their journey. Thanks again Brett for this website, it has been and continues to be Awesome!!

Lots of Black Bears in them there woods, going through Ocala National Forest, I live just North of Ocala, and we go hunting out there, not for bears:)

I've been driving for Swift for about 1 year now. A couple months ago I got hooked into the Georgia Pacific dedicated group. My area is Georgia Pacific business basically from Oklahoma - Texas east to the Carolinas and Florida. I want to put down a Trucking Truth Diary of a typical week of my GP dedicated route and see where it goes.

Monday. 453 miles, 9 hr driving, 11 hr total on duty. One pick-up.

St Petersburg, FL (start) - Palakta, FL (Pick up) - Ashburn, GA (stop)

I started this week in St Petersburg, FL. I had made a delivery to a Walmart DC close by and Saturday I started my 34 hour break.

Monday I had a delivery in Palatka, FL, about 180 miles from St Pete, with a 1000-1200 window. I figured an average speed of 50 MPH so 180/50= 3.6. Add a half an hour for pre trip, so the show started at 7 a.m.   The GPS brought me through Ocala, and then through Ocala National Forest. The forest was a beautiful ride on 2-lane highway, mostly trees of course. I got to the GP plant just after 10 a.m. I had never been here before so at one point I went down the wrong road in the plant, found a turn around, and went on to drop the empty trailer. My loaded trailer was on the other side of the plant so another few minutes at 10 mph.   I pre tripped the trailer and noticed the trailer ABS light was on. I double checked the connection, my air tank is full, and the light was still on. I called Swift On Road office and they said I should go back to the Ocala terminal for the repair. But that was 1 hour / 50 miles in the wrong direction! (I was supposed to head north for Atlanta.)

Drove the 50 miles back to Ocala terminal. (The ABS light was out like it's supposed to be!) Talked to the trailer repair tech, who checked out the light and found nothing wrong! A loss of 2 hours!   So nothing left to do but head north on I-75 and see how far I can get with my remaining 5 hours drive time. On the way up I kept my eye on how much time to my destination in Austell GA (north west of Atlanta.).

I stopped at a truckstop 170 miles short of my goal. I figured 170/55=3 (55 this time because it's almost all interstate). Add 1 hour because I have to go through Atlanta morning traffic = 4 hours drive time. Appointment time is 0900, so I start at 0500. Getting up at 0415 to start my pre trip. This appointment is for a live unload, so I should be maybe just a little bit early but certainly not too late.

Congrats on your CDL!!! I'm in Florida and seriously thinking about Swift school. I could do the local college but I'm thinking if I'm gonna be with the same company for a year anyways, why not save my cash and just go through Swifts academy? I really want to go OTR and out west, and it seems they have the lanes I'm looking for, maybe not the equipment but that's ok. Looks like ill be attending the Memphis location too. I may rent a car to get there, I just don't wanna ride bus that far, as I would also never Team drive, hehe:) Enjoyed following your diaries here and Good Luck out on the road DRIVER!!

FINAL UPDATE

Ok, so I got my CDL yesterday, and I finally graduated from the academy, so I'm going to take a few minutes to give my impressions on the program as a whole for those of you who are considering applying for it.

So overall, I had an enjoyable time here. I never felt that I was ever under too much pressure, and I passed the majority of my evaluations the first time around.

Classroom time was nicely paced and they did a good job of instructing you on (probably) most of the things that they shouldn't trust your mentor to teach you. The tests were never too challenging, and you never felt that you were going too long without a break.

As for the skills range, this is where I have the most criticisms. By the time we made it to the range, we still had about 40 people left in the class. For those first few days, you only have 1 instructor with your class. The way they 'teach' here is that they give you a demonstration of a skill and then it is up to you to have the natural aptitude to pick up the skill on your own before it is time to evaluate on it. Very seldom would I see an instructor go up to someone who who was having a hard time to give them some pointers. The only time I would see instructors really trying to help students was just before they re-evaluate on a skill they failed the previous day. In the case of most of my classmates, the help came too little, too late. I'm not saying this is the instructor's fault. Swift certainly has the capacity to put more instructors on that range or reduce the class sizes so struggling students can get the extra help they need. The range can have upwards of 80 students on it at one time with only 3 instructor. It doesn't take a rocket scientist.

Road Training, however, was an entirely different experience. Here's the only spot where I'll mention a name, but my road instructor, Doug was, without a doubt, the best part of the entire program for me. As we learned shifting, cornering, up though the final day, he was completely engaged with us through every hour of those long days. He'd give us plenty of praise when he noticed us doing well at something that we were having trouble with, and he was always able to laugh it off if we happened to make a silly mistake. And when we had our breaks, he was always just fun to have around and talk to. He was genuinely confident in our abilities going to the DMV to test for our CDL.

However, our mediocre experience at the backing range would be our group's downfall. On testing day at the DMV, 5 of us went to go test. I was the only one to pass that day. 3 of them failed on their 90 degree back, and 1 failed because of an unsafe act during his road test. I almost failed the 90, gaining 9 points (12 is the max). On the range for my evaluation, I took 0 points. I feel pretty good about my classmates chances though. They get 2 more chances at the test, but It'll be a few more weeks without a paycheck for them.

So that's pretty much how it all went down. Would I recommend the program who is 100% new to the idea of trucking? I'm not sure. Quite frankly, I would recommend that you look into the idea of attending one of the many private Truck Driving Schools that does job placement afterward. You may spend more time there, but, realistically, your chances may be better. As for myself, I've been on this forum reading and using the High Road Training Program for nearly year and have been playing around with a simulator for several months. So if you're like me in this regard, Swift can get you there and can do so quickly.

So that's pretty much all I have to say about that. If anyone has any questions, I'll check back at this topic once in awhile and answer those as best I can.

But for now, orientation for me will start in a week, and I'll be starting a new topic to blog about the mentorship experience through December.

Thanks for the well wishes everybody!