Comments By Big T

*hit submit by accident*

I routinely pull 45k pound loads out of and into that area. You are not supposed to use jakes in wet or icy conditions so what will you do in those situations?

That's tough Moe. Hopefully you can get on with May and get some proper training done.

Something to point out though. The jake not working is not an out of service issue. Would I bring it up to the shop? Absolutely. The ECM codes I'm not sure about, but if they say it's ok to run until you get back then I would do my run and put it in the shop when I got back. One of the joys of working with the big boys.

Back to the jake issue though. You were picking up 30k and aside of the hill out of Yakima and the climb towards Moses Lake you were going to be on flat ground in dry weather. Jakes are a convenience, but not a requirement. In fact for a good part of the year you wont be able to run your jakes due to road conditions.

Proper gear selection and controlled braking would have allowed you to make your run safely, allowed your company to service their customer, and prevented the headache you have been dealing with.

Without training though how would you have known that though?

I'm going to ditto Kearsy's comment. Right now Swift is using flying j which is cool because I've earned shower power, but for a while it was TA or Loves. It all depends on which company is giving the best deal at the moment.

Every company out here has horror stories. In your situation you don't really have a lot of options.

Something to think about though. Your brother has less than a year and has two preventable accidents/ incidents that were major enough to be terminated for them. Is it a good idea to put your career, earning potential, and safety in his hands?

Personally I would wait till you both have a year of experience and he shows he has learned from his mistakes before you jump ship.

Consider this: you settle some place that will take him and he has another wreck. Now you are stuck somewhere you may not want to be.

Not knocking your brother just putting some food for thought out.

Congratulations Daniel. "Just wing it" is probably the best parenting advice I ever heard lol. You will also find that a lot of people without kids are like some of the newbies that come through here. Somehow they became experts without having any experience beyond what their dad, uncle, friend did.

Thanks Jamie!

Haha Old School please do come. Always a pleasure to meet the legend. We need advice. Our linehaul dispatcher has 8 kids and I asked him for advice this morning and he said "just wing it". I'm sure you can do better!

Rob, I get the feeling that that's how it will go from here onwards. No one ever warned me it would be this difficult to get the first one though. He's set to arrive End of January 2021.

Companies that hf are looking to see if you've used. They don't care if it was two weeks or two months. If you pop positive then you go home.

Beyond the use, if you pop positive it means you have already lied on one federal form. Your physical asks if you've used any illegal or illicit drugs in the last two years. While it may be legal in your state it is still illegal federally.

To your point about being a number. Starting out, especially right out of school, you are just a number. The majority of new drivers don't make it 90 days. So until you prove yourself you are just a number.

It's not difficult to prove yourself even at a mega carrier. Everyone at my terminal knows my name and the driver qualification leaders at any terminal I've taken a student from know me as well.

Not really a caring issue. As Rob pointed out it is expensive to bring in new drivers. Pre Covid it wasn't uncommon for Swift to have 60 drivers in orientation between students and experienced drivers. That is just one terminal.

Why would you compare apples to oranges? Pre-employment drug tests are not the same as randoms. You are dealing with a sample of people that may not be aware of the hair tests, or drug use in general. Compare that to current drivers that are fully aware of protocol.

Then they are comparing numbers to testing results from over 20 years ago?

Maybe I'm missing something, but if they're wanting to improve safety then they should maybe due a study that includes random hair sampling along with the ua tests of current drivers.

There is a reason why million mile accident free drivers are praised in this industry. It is really hard to accomplish. When you consider all the different scenarios, environments, and hours we run it is expected that at some point you may have a wreck.

This is a performance based job and those that perform well do get some "slack". Especially if they own up to their mistakes and show what they learned. Which seems to be exactly how you handled it.

Thankfully it was just a sign and some landscaping that can easily be repaired. Not cheap, but no one was hurt.

Mike if multiple applications hurt your DAC this industry would collapse. A lot of drivers tend to job hop so they are always putting in new applications.

I would fill out the app on this site and between that and your school you should be in a truck soon.

I keep two cases of one liters under the bunk. Plus whatever I'm currently drinking at the moment.

11 hours?? Ick! Yes, everyone should always keep water in their truck. I have some in the fridge, and in a cabinet and keep another case in the sidebox.