Student/Mentor Phase With Swift

Hey folks,

So I posted a little while back, about going to Swift orientation and now I'm on my mentor's truck, and so far so good. We get a long well, and I'm learning a lot, and I'm starting to get comfortable behind the wheel. It's been interesting getting used to life on the truck but I'm adjusting well, my mentor has told me I'm one of the better students he has had so that's then been nice for my confidence, and makes me feel proud of the job I'm doing.

BUT, and there's always a but. I have two little issues. First, being that when I went on with Swift I told them that I wanted to do reefer , they said no problem, you can do reefer. I know some students had to wait longer to get on a reefer truck, I however got a dry van mentor on a dedicated account.

My second issue, and probably one that Swift won't consider a problem, is that I'm in an automatic :(. This for me was a let down. I envisioned myself, going up and down the road and getting through those gears. In school that was the most fun I had. On top of that with an industry, that seems to be headed towards automatics, I feel like after my training Swift won't put me in a truck with a manual transmission.

So, I'm almost to my first 50 hours of training, and once I reach that, driver services is going to give me a phone call and ask me how things are coming along. Again, I've got a great mentor, and things are going well, but I'm wondering if there is a way to tactfully mention these issues, in a way that could work out in my favor. Or am I better off just keeping my mouth shut? I really want to start my career off right, and make sure that I do everything in my power to be in a position I feel happy with, but at the same time I don't want to be "that guy". The biggest thing for me though, is being able to drive to a manual, reefer can wait honestly, but maybe I should use that issue to aid in my other. Since what you haul, is more of a business and financial issue than a personal one.

Any advice is greatly appreciated, this is my first career, and I really want to go about this the right way.

Dan

Dan glad to here everything is working out for you. My advice is, swift if super short on reefer trainers. So what type of trailer you train on seems to not make much of a diffenrs. If you want reefer, when you go into upgrade tell them you want to do reefer. All the terminals have pamplets on the reefers, that we run. Of you can find one of us reefer drivers walking around the yard and ask us to show you how to pretrip the reefer. Most of us are pretty friendly . Second on truck and manual. My understanding is by the end of 2016 75 to 80 percent of the trucks swift has will be autos. Better fuel economy, and buy the end of 2017 All company trucks will be autos. The only manual you will find is O/O who got there trucks before the switch over. So I would be willing to bet that will not be taken off the truck just so you can drive a manual. Only time I have seen them take a student off of a truck is when the student can't lurn or the mentor has got them selves in truble. Best of luck Dan and keep us updated.

Hey Dan, it's great that you have a good mentor. Count your blessings, not always the case.

On my dedicated assignment I run dry and reefer. It took all of 5 minutes to understand how to operate the unit and another 5 minutes to understand the fueling process.

I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Thanks for the input guys. I'll just have to suck it up and learn to enjoy the automatic. But again so far it's been fun. Looks like it's time for me to get some rest.

Thanks again , Dan

Dan glad to here everything is working out for you. My advice is, swift if super short on reefer trainers. So what type of trailer you train on seems to not make much of a diffenrs. If you want reefer, when you go into upgrade tell them you want to do reefer. All the terminals have pamplets on the reefers, that we run. Of you can find one of us reefer drivers walking around the yard and ask us to show you how to pretrip the reefer. Most of us are pretty friendly . Second on truck and manual. My understanding is by the end of 2016 75 to 80 percent of the trucks swift has will be autos. Better fuel economy, and buy the end of 2017 All company trucks will be autos. The only manual you will find is O/O who got there trucks before the switch over. So I would be willing to bet that will not be taken off the truck just so you can drive a manual. Only time I have seen them take a student off of a truck is when the student can't lurn or the mentor has got them selves in truble. Best of luck Dan and keep us updated.

Wow i hope i don't get ****ty automatic. These companies will quickly learn that automatics won't last as along as a manual transmission. The cost of repairing or replacing an automatic trans vs a manual is very expensive.

Wow i hope i don't get ****ty automatic. These companies will quickly learn that automatics won't last as along as a manual transmission. The cost of repairing or replacing an automatic trans vs a manual is very expensive.

It seems that the companies never know what they are doing.

Don't you think that they have experts hired, in their shops? Deals with manufacturers to provide discounted parts? Thorough research done as to the cost vs bvenefits of auto vs manual? At first, yes there were a lot of problems, but the tecnology has improved, and In road tests, Autoshift (not automatic) transmissions hold up pretty well. A company is not going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment if they have to turn around and fix them all the time. Wait, they already do that a anyway, with manuals. But now, if an an auto truck goes into the shop, even for a non transmission related repair, it will be blamed on the Autoshift, why? Because it's an auto.

There are some obvious advantages, and disadvantages to both, but I am sure the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Wow i hope i don't get ****ty automatic. These companies will quickly learn that automatics won't last as along as a manual transmission. The cost of repairing or replacing an automatic trans vs a manual is very expensive.

It seems that the companies never know what they are doing.

Don't you think that they have experts hired, in their shops? Deals with manufacturers to provide discounted parts? Thorough research done as to the cost vs bvenefits of auto vs manual? At first, yes there were a lot of problems, but the tecnology has improved, and In road tests, Autoshift (not automatic) transmissions hold up pretty well. A company is not going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment if they have to turn around and fix them all the time. Wait, they already do that a anyway, with manuals. But now, if an an auto truck goes into the shop, even for a non transmission related repair, it will be blamed on the Autoshift, why? Because it's an auto.

There are some obvious advantages, and disadvantages to both, but I am sure the benefits outweigh the negatives.

I'm not a diesel mechanic but i have worked on cars and trucks for over 20 years. Anything that is "auto" will fail much quicker then a manual. Manual transmissions have been proven to be dependable and many of the manual transmissions in these trucks last 750k+ miles without problems from what i've read. Plus it's cheaper to fix them and replace them.

Wow i hope i don't get ****ty automatic. These companies will quickly learn that automatics won't last as along as a manual transmission. The cost of repairing or replacing an automatic trans vs a manual is very expensive.

It seems that the companies never know what they are doing.

Don't you think that they have experts hired, in their shops? Deals with manufacturers to provide discounted parts? Thorough research done as to the cost vs bvenefits of auto vs manual? At first, yes there were a lot of problems, but the tecnology has improved, and In road tests, Autoshift (not automatic) transmissions hold up pretty well. A company is not going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment if they have to turn around and fix them all the time. Wait, they already do that a anyway, with manuals. But now, if an an auto truck goes into the shop, even for a non transmission related repair, it will be blamed on the Autoshift, why? Because it's an auto.

There are some obvious advantages, and disadvantages to both, but I am sure the benefits outweigh the negatives.

I'm not a diesel mechanic but i have worked on cars and trucks for over 20 years. Anything that is "auto" will fail much quicker then a manual. Manual transmissions have been proven to be dependable and many of the manual transmissions in these trucks last 750k+ miles without problems from what i've read. Plus it's cheaper to fix them and replace them.

And yet, somehow, both Swift and Prime, , two of the biggest, most successful trucking companies around, came to the conclusion that going to these automatics makes financial sense. I wonder how they came to that conclusion?

Wow i hope i don't get ****ty automatic. These companies will quickly learn that automatics won't last as along as a manual transmission. The cost of repairing or replacing an automatic trans vs a manual is very expensive.

It seems that the companies never know what they are doing.

Don't you think that they have experts hired, in their shops? Deals with manufacturers to provide discounted parts? Thorough research done as to the cost vs bvenefits of auto vs manual? At first, yes there were a lot of problems, but the tecnology has improved, and In road tests, Autoshift (not automatic) transmissions hold up pretty well. A company is not going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment if they have to turn around and fix them all the time. Wait, they already do that a anyway, with manuals. But now, if an an auto truck goes into the shop, even for a non transmission related repair, it will be blamed on the Autoshift, why? Because it's an auto.

There are some obvious advantages, and disadvantages to both, but I am sure the benefits outweigh the negatives.

I'm not a diesel mechanic but i have worked on cars and trucks for over 20 years. Anything that is "auto" will fail much quicker then a manual. Manual transmissions have been proven to be dependable and many of the manual transmissions in these trucks last 750k+ miles without problems from what i've read. Plus it's cheaper to fix them and replace them.

And yet, somehow, both Swift and Prime, , two of the biggest, most successful trucking companies around, came to the conclusion that going to these automatics makes financial sense. I wonder how they came to that conclusion?

Most likely got an excellent deal on buying automatics.

I'm not a diesel mechanic but i have worked on cars and trucks for over 20 years. Anything that is "auto" will fail much quicker then a manual. Manual transmissions have been proven to be dependable and many of the manual transmissions in these trucks last 750k+ miles without problems from what i've read. Plus it's cheaper to fix them and replace them.

Well, the only thing I actually know about the autoshift, is that they are still "technically" built the same as manuals. The computer shifts for us. This is not the same as a regular 4 Wheeler automatic. So, in theory, the only extra parts are the computer chip, and the shifter mechanism.

You are a step ahead of most drivers, though, and can probably do more routine preventative maintenance then average driver. All I can do is cook up some food for the mechanics.