Profile For BigRig_BigBurro

Ig Rig replied:

How did you get your current assignment? Was it offered or did you just ask for it? Was there special training for it?

Great questions...I half expected you to ask...

Visa-vie, Walmart Dedicated. I knew going in that's what I wanted to do, for a variety of reasons. It was not offered it out of the gate, although I was aware of it. I requested it through my initial interaction with the recruiter and reiterated with my Driver Development Manager (assigned during the mentoring phase of training). My original home terminal was Jonestown PA (aka Harrisburg), only 18 miles south of the WM 7030 DC/terminal on I-81, so the transition was painless. I opted for three months of OTR experience first before committing to WM. Good thing, because running Walmart was a whole new learning curve, different challenges, etc. Since you already have some experience, you could probably handle it from day-one.

Once I was assigned to the account, I received two additional days of training running super-solo with an experienced WM Dedicated driver; learning the process, the "ins and outs" of the stores/Sams, backhauls, how-to get things done, and general familiarity with the operation. Due to your proximity to Johnstown NY WM DC (#6096), it would be a good fit for you. Both DC's are run in a similar fashion, except the 6096 shop is Swift run, not Walmart. I have run loads for 6096 on occasion, Binghamton WM and Sam's, Valley Stream NY WM, etc. Not a bad gig; steady pay, I have never sat for more than a couple of hours, home once or twice per week, and we get priority for any repairs. At least in my terminal, the DMs have all worked as drivers on the account (several still do), so they are well equipped to handle most of the issues a new driver will encounter. An added benefit, that is likely consistent with 6096 as well.

Happy to help you out. If you search on my name and Walmart (see upper left-hand corner search bar), there are numerous threads I've posted on the subject. There is another Swiftie on the forum, Gladhand who has been running WM Surge in NM and may eventually be asked to commit fulltime to the gig, search on him as well.

Good luck.

Wow, that actually sounds pretty interesting; especially the information you left in some of the other threads I spent an hour reading through. I'll have to keep all of that in mind. But first, I need to actually call back the Swift recruiter tomorrow morning (Wednesday) and ask some final questions. Then I need to call back Werner, because they have been shoving offers in my face that also sound interesting (like a NE Regional Dedicated for Family Dollar out of Rome, NY).

The little bit of experience I have was with Trans Am Trucking for about 7 months. I did call them up, but they will only hire out of Upstate NY now if I agree to lease a truck (which I did that before and failed at it). They only hire company drivers out of western NY and the southern tier/NYC. Blah

Oh, and I can safely assume that Johnstown WMDC delivers to NYC and Long Island, right? I'm not afraid of NYC (I thought it was easier than navigating Pittsburgh, PA and Utica, NY). I'm just curious.

And thanks for all the information you've provided on this forum.

Welcome BigRig.

Swift transitioned to auto-shift beginning in 2015. Other than a few remaining manuals, the majority of the fleet is auto-shift. The Walmart DC I am assigned to has only two spare tractors that are manual.

I think your knee is spared. Good luck!

Oh, well that's a relief. How did you get your current assignment? Was it offered or did you just ask for it? Was there special training for it?

So, I'm looking at maybe getting refresher training through Swift. July 2014 was the last time I drove a truck OTR. Swift says they can send me to their Syracuse, NY terminal for orientation (I live in the Albany, NY area. One of the big selling points for Swift with me was the fact they have a terminal so close by) and then go OTR with a trainer for 4-5 weeks. Yet, Syracuse isn't listed as a training school location for Swift. It just looks like a shop, refueling island and drop lot. But I guess the recruiter knows where I'd be going (he did specifically say Syracuse), so whatever. Also, after 6-12 months solo otr, I can switch to one of their local Walmart/Target accounts in Albany (the other big selling point).

The recruiter also said that I can have a choice of whether I want to drive one of them old fossil stick shifters, and blowing out my knee into a mushroom cloud in rush hour traffic, OR, I can choose to drive one of them fancy-schmancy, high tech, new wave of the future, and highest in human ingenuity, Automated Manual Transmissions ;P. He said I have a choice, and need to make it before the yard phase of orientation, because I guess the training is different, and so they know what kind of trainer to get me with for the OTR phase...

This all sounds too good to be true. Are there any recent Swifties on here who can confirm or correct this information? I've been lied* to (bigly... ;D) by recruiters in the past, so I have some trust issues. But especially about the transmission deal. I was able to drive stick in truck driving school okay (back in 2013), and I know the basic theory on how to do it, but the company I drove for out of school ran a fully AMT fleet, so my only experience with a 10-speed is in school. I love driving big trucks (been driving tow trucks, buses and straight trucks for over 6 years), but shifting makes me uneasy, especially with downshifting, and even more so with emergency stopping with a stick shift.

I mean, I did it before, I can probably do it again, but my brain don't wanna. Plus I see a lot of companies making the transition to AMTs, or have already went full AMT. But besides that, my worry is that Swift recruiting says one thing, then once I'm there, they're like "lol nope, have a stick or go home, cuz it's what's available, noob. trolololol."

I guess what I'm really getting at, is the recruiter telling the whole truth, or is he just throwing sexy things at me to get me to sign up?

*by lied to I mean they either misinformed me or withheld information - knowingly or unknowingly - that would have been helpful in my decision-making process during pre-hire stuff in school.