Comments By Cobalt Cyborg

Long haul across Wisconsin. Lots of rain. I think we're near Kasonga (?) It's very green and no smoke from forest fires!

Got a fleet message saying it's snowing in Montana. As in: at home!

I reached a milestone: 50 hours behind the wheel. My mentor says they'll try to push us into super solo status now, meaning we'll have to start really pushing it.

We're not sure what's going to happen with the tractor v-service and windshield replacement. We're going to push for the Columbus terminal tomorrow to try to get them done, but it's likely to cost us a couple days downtime.

You'd be surprised by how many people read this stuff.

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying Swift and seem to have gotten lucky on the trainer.. I did too at my company.

Yeah, terminal rats are everywhere lol. Avoid them like the plague and you'll do great. RE: Swift. You could do a heck of a lot worse. That's what an experienced O/O told me about my own company right before I left for Iowa.

I firmly believe every company is exactly what you make of it. Embrace it, work hard and be justly rewarded. Never look back because the grass is seldom greener elsewhere.

Congratulations. Keep us posted on your adventures.

Thanks Susan.

I know Swift trucks are slow, we get passed constantly. But... slow == SAFE.

First windshield casualty already. A sidedump dropped a golf ball size rock south of Havre, MT and it got us just left of center leaving a star the size of a half dollar. Then less than 5 miles on, another one. My mentor tells me this windshield is less than 2 weeks old.

Hot showers again tonight in Bismarck, ND. I never thought a hour shower could feel so wonderful!

A near miss: some clown on a car nearly clipped my left front after passing me. I guess big white Kenworths are hard to see from 15 feet away?

The backing is definitely improving.

Now if I can just remember: Swing Wide It's a Fookin' Trailer!

;)

Stay safe.

Where's the edit button? LOL!

That's supposed to say a very challenging profession, not position. :-/

Shelby, MT. Just t-dropped a load headed for Canada and picked up a trailer headed for Maryland, right between Baltimore and DC.

So far I've driven from New Meadows, ID to Salt Lake City to Denver to Billings to Shelby.

It's going really well. My trainer/mentor is very intense. He's an excellent trainer, but it's easy to see how someone with thin skin might take it personally.

I'm here to learn a very challenging position, so my tender little snowflake feelings are stowed safely away. Far far away.

Coming out of CDL school I thought I knew how to drive and back. The ONLY thing I knew was how to pass my state CDL test. Training drivers are a gift from heaven.

Learning this profession is... Awesome. I never thought the driving would be the easy part.

I'm loving this.

My mentor is excellent. We get along very well.

Truck is a 2017 Kenworth T680S automatic transmission. Very nice truck.

We're hauling a heavy load of paper.

Sounds like I'll be driving to Salt Lake City tomorrow. We made it almost to Boise today. Tons of road construction slowed us way down.

It's Most Excellent!

I don't know if anyone besides G-Town is reading this but... if any new academy students are reading this, please take heed:

Do Your Homework, starting from studying for your CLP and then just keep on doing your homework.

I just finished Orientation and I *still* have homework! Please do yourselves a favour and Be Proactive About Doing Your Homework!

There's SO much to learn and it doesn't stop when you get your CDL: HOS, Trip Planning, QualComm macros, different tractor familiarizations... on and on.

And yeah: the forum needs an Edit button.

Well, Swift Transportation has a new driver trainee: ME! Woohoo!

Ahem. Sorry. I'm pretty jazzed.

My mentor is on his way here. He's got a load to drop at a local ammo manufacturing company. I talked with him on the phone and honestly I think we're going to get along just fine. A lot of that confidence comes directly from being prepared by reading a lot on these forums.

Example: I came with one duffle, my sleeping bag, my camelback, and a zipper portfolio for my paperwork. That's it. The other trainee in orientation, (there were only two of us), had to use a luggage cart at the motel this morning. Wow. Good luck with that one.

Anyhow my mentor wanted to make it to the terminal to pick me up tonight, but HOS said nope. He'll be here around ten a.m. He's going to have me drive right away, and we're going to take a heavy load down 95. I'm pretty jazzed about it because that's where my night driving was: I drove back from Winchester at night. He's going to take over for the long downhill near Grangeville, which is fine with me.

He's driving an automatic, which will be a new experience for me and I'm looking forward to it.

This particular mentor is spoken of very highly around this terminal, so I think maybe I got lucky.

I told him that I know that the hard part is coming now, and he said naw, as long as I can get the hang of the QualComm, no problem at all. He said that mostly, he uses about half of the macros, so I'll be studying macros, for sure.

I'm spending the night in a tractor sleeper at the terminal. The local motels are full up due to a rodeo, and also a local paper mill is in its twice yearly maintenance, so a lot of out of town millwrights and such are in town too.

It's pretty funny: everyone around here is all apologetic about me "having " to spend the night in a truck. My response: hey, I signed on to live in a sleeper, please don't apologize for making me live in a sleeper! OMG I'm having a blast!

Anyhow, tomorrow, the rubber hits the road. :-)

Downloading so not foreclosing do. Ugh.

Thanks G-Town! I'm foreclosing do I can read it in my free time.

It's going a little slow due to system issues but it's going. :) Here we go!

**Sumner. Not Summer.