Swift Training In Fontana California

I'll try to keep this stuff cohesive and short for anyone looking for information. On the first day of leaving, I headed over to my closest greyhound, it was around an 11 hour drive (including layovers) to get from Sacramento to our destination in Claremont. We got off there and the motel 6 provided by swift was right next to the station, so we walked right on in. I got to choose my roommate there, a person I made friends with on the bus heading the same way.

I'll be honest with it, the area isnt particularly the nicest part of town, but it is well enough of a base for the month or so we will be here. There are plenty of cheap food options nearby including a few fast food chains, starbucks, and a grocery store pretty close by. The motel they will set you up with is a pretty standard motel. However I will specify that there is no continental breakfast, and the rooms have no coffee pots or anything of the sort. They do come equipped with a microwave and mini fridge however. There is no dressers, and our door doesnt have a do not disturb sign either. The wifi has given us some trouble for the past 2 days now, we cant connect to it, and brought it up at the front desk. They said theyd have a technician check on it.

As for the shuttle, we are meant to get to the lobby by 545AM in order to catch the shuttle. Due to the volume of students, it is often a two trip ordeal for the driver. The first bus gets packed quickly. The driver goes to fontana and then comes to pick up the rest of the students after that. If you get in the second lot, you wind up at the school about 15 minutes before 7, when class starts. L.A. has really bad traffic so you can expect the ride there in the morning and the ride back at night to be particularly long.

Now, as for the school itself. Some things apparently recently changed, tuition before was 3900 and is now 6000. You sign a contract 5 days in agreeing to swifts deal-- school and motel is covered for now but they take money out your paycheck every week for the next year to pay for it. If you work for them a year after that, they reimburse you every week for it. So if you stick with Swift for 2 years, the class becomes free. Orientation consists of a short question answering time, and then you jump right in. They changed the schools schedule, before apparently you came in from 7 to around 230, then went back, and class was 4 days of the week. Now, we start at 7, and dont leave until 530pm.

So before you come down here, realize you will be in class for 10 hours a day, 6 days of the week. Sunday is the only day off. You will jump right in day one and begin studying air brakes and combinations in order to test for a permit 3 days later. I wont lie to you, it's quite a lot to learn in a very short time. So come ready to study hard, even at the motel when you get back to it. Think of this as a 4 week job interview, they want to see that you are committed to this career and lifestyle, and that you are capable at keeping up that commitment for long hours of every day, and on time. Someone was already sent home today for arriving late, punctuality is KEY.

Day one swift will also administer a hair follicle test to you. They will take a sample from your head or from your body hair if it is too short. Keep in mind if you pick body hair, they will take a large sample. Most of the people here that picked body used a leg, and one of their entire legs got shaven each, down to the skin.

We are doing DOT physical and urinalysis tomorrow, the hair test is done day one so they can send it to the lab immediately. If you PASS, you will hear nothing from them over the course of the week. If you fail, they will pull you from class and make you go home. MAKE SURE you pass this test, or you are out of this industry for a long long time.

I will update this journal more whenever I have time to do so, I'm going to be studying a lot however because I really want to get into this industry, so updates may be slow over the month. Hope to see you all on the other side, on the great open roads!