Comments By G-Town

I’ve been following this post for a few days now Charles. I agree 100% with the experienced mindshare of this forum. I hope you are using it to assemble your war chest of knowledge. It will serve you well.

Some context, I was trained by Swift and drove for them about 8 years. Point is, Swift falls into your definition of “starter company”. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with them and wouldn’t change anything. I was treated like gold.

At no time before or during my training period with them and throughout the first couple years of my tenure, did I consider going to another company.

I’ll offer the following piece of advice…if you are accepted into Primes program, commit 100% of your efforts and mental capacity to learn this craft and work towards top performance. Thinking beyond the first couple of months is futile…waste of time and energy.

Bluntly put; at this point in time you do not know enough about this industry and career path to evaluate and consider your options a year or two from now.

Walk before you run. Best of luck to you.

Awesome news! Congratulations on your return to trucking.

Safe travels.

Good luck Bruce.

I agree with others…I have several friends and family who recovered relatively quick and experienced a much improved lifestyle as a result.

You’ll be back ravaging our highways in no time!

Hi Errol…

Let me catch you up on current events…my neck of the woods has changed.

Built a house in lower slower Delaware (west of Lewes) and permanently moved about 2 years ago.

Drive a walking floor chip trailer, occasionally an RGN trailer and operate a loader for a land clearing company. I haven’t been on an Interstate for two years.

I plan to retire here.

Yeah, G-Town, back at it. Still teaching CDL. Last year I was in your neck of the woods - Scranton for about a month.

I am looking forward to a new trucking job soon. I haven't pressed that button yet, but checking things out. I'll keep TT posted.

Errol wrote:

I drove for Swift for three years. Thousands of drivers. The most important people in my job life knew me by name, and we worked closely so that I was always driving ($$$).

I was with Swift for 8 years. I concur with Errol’s reply to you. When I left I was making top pay and treated like gold. Same opportunity exists at most every company offering Paid CDL Training Programs

Not sure of your information source, but I respectfully suggest (with emphasis) that you ignore it and educate yourself on the Trucking Truth website, starting with the links Davy posted for you.

Nice to have you back Errol.

Good thread y’all! Nice to see a consensus like this.

My sincere condolences Moe.

I’ve had to endure several close losses like this, some expected, some not.

Perspective…redirects one’s focus on what is truly important.

*like on this Old School!

Chose the same educational path with my children, for the exact same reasons.

All three are successful and happy, standing on their own two feet.

If you have to drug someone to get them to go along with your plan, you might consider it's your plan that's the problem, not the person righteously opposed to it.

I love this statement!

My wife and I raised three children. Early on in their public education we were advised that medications would help our children do better in school.

We seriously questioned that approach and decided we'd take them out of a system that relied on such logic. We did the homeschool thing. Our approach was uniquely our own, and we worked with each child individually, allowing them to particularly pursue the things they were interested in.

Two of them chose to go to college after we "graduated" them. Both of them obtained their respective degrees with honors in a timely manner. The child that chose not to go to college leads a very successful life in the mountains of Colorado. None of them ever needed the pharmaceutical companies assistance. They simply needed someone to work with them in a way that made sense.

I'm convinced most of our education and our medication is purposely designed to control our behavior and how we spend our resources. Freedom from tyranny sometimes requires radical actions. Personally, I love freedom.

This right here… place tension on the fifth wheel lock making it impossible to release it.

Totally 100% agree!

Yes, there are drivers out there that will pull that pin just to screw you over. Get into the habit of doing a good walk around the truck before you get back going. Another think you can do is set the trailer brakes first then pull forward a tiny bit to put pressure on the 5th wheel. Then set the tractor brakes. Even superman would have a hard time pulling that pin handle.