Comments By BJess

Week 2 of training complete and home for the weekend. Things are going well. I continue to get more comfortable handling the truck and figuring out little things like how I like my seat types of easy food to bring during training. Got myself a blue parrot headset for hands free phone use so I can keep in touch with friends and family while driving.

Still trying to get more comfortable with my backing but most places we go has a ton of room. I haven’t gotten brave enough to challenge the truck stop parking yet but since we’re running team now there isn’t much parking going on. I have been doing well backing in between trailers at shipping and receiving yards so confidence is building.

As for training it is going well. My trainer really lets me get myself in and out of my own jams. He answers any questions I have and after I struggle to do something the right way he then tells me how he would’ve approached it. I appreciate this style as I’m figuring things out for myself and then get the lesson to help do better the next time.

Finally got out of Florida the other day taking a load up to Athens, Ga. going back there for. Midnight delivery tomorrow. The dedicated account is really nice and consistent. Also going to the same places a lot makes it real easy. I drove around 2400 miles last week from Sunday afternoon to Thursday night. I’m at 94 hours of the needed 200 to get my own truck. My trainer says we’ll go in a talk to our manager for the dedicated route this Friday. He’ll be working on getting me a truck lined up and we’re gonna see if I can park my rig at the Walmart DC near home since we pull chep pallets out of there and back to Jacksonville. My manager is in charge of the pallet thing along with the water account.

More to come....

Things sound like they're going very well. It makes me very happy to hear that your trainer is training for the right reasons. Unfortunately far too often we hear about the unsafe, unprofessional drivers that train for the additional income and don't really train. Keep the updates coming!

Yeah that’s for sure. When I trained with Swift 20 years ago I had a very good trainer. I was a very successful driver for them back then before I left for the local gig. Fast forward 20 years and I got lucky again.

As much as team driving doesn’t really appeal to me I’m looking forward to getting home Friday for our reset so we get back at Sunday as a team operation for the next 3 weeks. It will give me the invaluable experience of planning and making decisions for my leg of the day while having a seasoned veteran to bail me out should I get myself in a bind.

It may be that I’ve gotten lucky in my experience but I personally feel that Swift has a good program for those who choose to take it seriously and fully understand what they’re signing up for. While I have no experience with their driving school I would expect that it would set you up well to succeed with their company policies.

I asked my trainer last night since we don’t have it on our truck how do you check the brake lights on a trailer alone? I was taught many years ago to depress trailer parking brake, pull down the trolley bar, and walk back to ensure brake lights are working.

His answer: a chuckle and he reaches behind the seat and pulls out a small oak tree branch with a Y on one end that he cut long enough to put the Y on a cross bar of the seat and the flat ends depressed the brake pedal.

That my friends is just one item of what 35 years of driving experience will teach me. I think it falls under the category of “a truck driver always has to think on his toes and overcome obstacles on his own!”

Been on the road training since Sunday afternoon. So I’m really enjoying this and my trainer is very laid back. He has 35+ years experience and really just loves his job and his family. Makes things much more relaxed as I work on my skills.

Doing good on handling the truck on the road and better than I thought I would do on backing since it’s been a while since I drove. Gotta log 200 hours behind the wheel to get signed on solo so a good 3 weeks to go yet as we go home for our 34 hour reset Friday afternoon. Ask my trainer to set aside some time at one of our accounts to let me practice different backing maneuvers as we have a setting to avoid that counting as driving time. We’ll be working on that as much as possible even though he feels that I will have it down fairly good just doing the daily routine. I’m looking forward to next week when we start running somewhat of a team so I can observe how he handles the truck driving and backing. So far I’ve driven all but maybe 30 miles of our 1600 and should easily do 2600-2800 for the week by Friday AM.

We haven’t left Florida yet as I am being trained on the dedicated account he runs which I will also be on once training completes. Has been no shortage of drive time as I’ve exhausted my 11 hours of drive time for each 14 hours. Mostly all drop and hook so it’s nonstop running then take the 10. Little bit of a layover at the terminal today but my trainer got to go home for 14 hours and I got some much needed sleep. With my pick up here I was able to go have a good lunch and pick up a few items from Publix to put in the fridge. Heading to Miami tonight then back up to Lakeland to complete my next 11 hours of driving.

One thing about this gig is that if you don’t like night driving it’s not for you. I personally love it. From Punta Gorda to I-75 and Florida Turnpike junction I probably didn’t see 40 vehicles on the north bound side.

I’m very thankful that I chose to go back to Swift after all these years out of the business. So far everything I was told by my recruiter or local Ocala staff has been as good or better than promised.

More to come!

I did orientation at Swift in Florida last week and class size was reduced to less than 10 and single occupancy hotel rooms. Starting training Sunday on a dedicated route. They have next to no office staff working at terminal but the shop is open. Seems like they are taking very good precautionary measures to keep people safe. Also, lots provisions free of charge to drivers when I was there last week.

Well being at Swift orientation Monday turned out to be a “right place...right time for me!” More to come on that...

It also pays that I’ve learned to listen closely to everything said thanks to the TT. All of the support given on this website is truly amazing and I thank you all.

It’s blew my mind how many people show up at orientation looking sloppy and yapping the pie hole. Not clean and complaining before they are actually even hired. Saying things like “I’ll just leave and go home” or “I’m just here to get a few months under my belt” before they’re actually even hired. If you’re all that why are you even here superstar???

As has been said on TT time and time again It turns out that Looking professional, paying attention, and asking questions is quite important. Everyone’s trying to outdo the other on things that mean nothing. All the while annoying the people who are hiring you to do a job.

Long story even longer....

I signed up for OTR because I knew I had to earn my stripes. I knew I was going 4-6 weeks of OTR training. I knew I would run OTR after that training and I was fine with it. I was just trying to get back in the seat and control my own destiny. Well it turns out that because I listen and do what is asked of me in a punctual manner, I will be training on a dedicated regional route that will put me on that account after training. It will also give me an “in” on the Walmart dedicated out of my home town that I mentioned a few days ago.

Brett, G-Town, Old School, Navvy, Errol, and everyone....I thank you!

Even “TODD” from the military and smooth roads in Germany gets a thumbs up!

Thanks for being grown ups and guiding me! I owe my success to you!

BJess

Awesome. That happened quick.

What sort of training program are they putting you through?

I will be doing the minimum 200 hours BTW training with a mentor/trainer. Should take about 4 weeks unless we run team a little sooner. I’ll keep updates as I have them. They told me to expect to leave as early as Wednesday afternoon. We will see how it goes!

Well I’m having dinner with the family and I’ll be off to check into my hotel. I’ll be going to Swift in the morning to attend orientation. I’m a little stressed out about the road test as it’s been a while since I’ve driven. Maybe I’ll get an auto shift for my road test which will make the task much easier. Guess I’ll find out in the morning.

After I committed to this decision Cypress called and wanted to offer a 2 week refresher course followed by 4 weeks of training. A southeast regional position with weekends home is what they are hiring for. I kinda wish they would’ve called sooner but I felt obligated to Swift since they had already sent me for my physical and drug test. I had also done a load of online paperwork to get set up for the orientation. I did inquire about potentially training with a dedicated account driver since my goal is to get on the Walmart account that runs from the DC near my home. I guess I’ll see how I feel about my decision in time. I’m all in to get back out there just hope I’ve made the right decision.

BJess,

It would appear that the Swift offer would be the best deal for you. The ability to be a rehire, close enough to home makes home time easier and the Walmart account would probably never go away. I know Indian River is food grade tankers and Cypress is flatbed and I do believe SE Regional but I could be wrong. Good luck and have fun.

Navypoppp, I agree with the Swift thing for sure. Flatbed could be a good thing to learn especially if it’s Southeast only. I know Cypress has a terminal in Deland NC which is very near where I grew up and still have some friends so there is that. Just not sold on me at 48 wanting to deal with tarps straps and chains. I know I definitely don’t want to do it in Minnesota in February! As for Tanker, definitely something

I am interested in because so much fuel moves through Port Canaveral and the pay is quite good and home daily off 2 per week. That’s at least a year down the road and a tanker endorsement away at a minimum.

Swift dedicated out of Walmart 15 minutes from my house is very attractive as well. And, if I didn’t like it there will always be more options with Swift. Also, not sure how it works but, they say that my daughter can take her college courses online and they will reimburse me. I’ll have to look into that as my youngest is now pushing 17. The benefits at Swift seem to be as good or better than many.

Thanks Auggie. I have sent an email to Cypress to gain some information before digging any deeper with them. I’m finding many companies that will hire students out of school won’t hire someone in my situation hence the reason I’m contacting before filling out apps. I will look into Indian River Transport. I’ve seen them around but don’t know much about them.

It seems that since I worked for Swift before that they can bring me on as a rehire and I can go to orientation then right out for training. This looks like it may be the quickest way to making money. They also run dedicated out of the new Walmart DC here in Cocoa at the 524 exit in Cocoa that I could work towards if I wanted.

Thanks for the insight and I’ll keep everyone up to date.