My Swift Return Home

My adventure began at 515 pm Saturday evening. I get on the bus and head to Memphis to the Greyhound depot to go home. When I get there Tony ( class room instructor/bus driver) doesn't have a confirmation number for my bus ticket cuz they didn't order me one. So he tells me he will get me one within the hour. So I wait at greyhound for my ticket. An hour later I get my ticket to the wrong place. I get hold of Ms Betty she tries to get the right one but the system was closed for the day. So they put me up in the Clarion for the night. I get back to Greyhound this morning to get the next bus out and the system is still closed. When she gets the confirmation number its for the bus that leaves Monday 8 am. So she sends me back to the Clarion for the night.

Some how the system was saying I passed my eval and should be headed to my home terminal. That is why I got the wrong ticket to start with. Makes me asked the question What if I had got on the bus?

They keep apologizing about the mix up on my tickets. Truth be known I'm having a blast. Nice motel pool gym wifi and cable TV. I do have a room mate today. Later we are going out to eat Memphis BBQ.

Swift could have left me at Greyhound until my bus came in or just right out not care what happened to me. I'm not an employee at this time, just another student that says she will be back to try again. In my book Swift has treated me right and made up for the ticket problems. As soon as I can I will be back here to finish what I started.

..Ok...so who told you that you failed your eval??? Because it sounds funny that you were told you failed, but they had it in their system that you passed...

..Ok...so who told you that you failed your eval??? Because it sounds funny that you were told you failed, but they had it in their system that you passed...

It was my instructor that told me on the spot even signed the exit paper work saying that I didnt pass. It made me ask

I really do wander how long it would have to them to find out the truth had I got on the bus for the next part of the training. I'm sure it would have caught up with me real soon.

Hi Minnie,

I just wanted to let you know that I failed my first evaluation and first attempt at CDL test on parallel parking. I "bounced around the box," as I say, and got too many points. I was going to get sent home if I failed again, so I came up with an approach that worked in the end. I had a lot of time to think about it, too, because I had absolutely no practice the day between my CDL fail and the next attempt. I just kept going over it in my mind. I heard once there was an experiment where they had a group practice throwing basketball free-throws, and a second group visualizing the perfect free-throw with no actual practice. The next day the group that visualized it did better than the group that actually practiced, so I kept telling myself this to try to stay encouraged. When I went to test, I put my form on the bottom of the stack so I was the last one to test. Everyone before me failed. I was nervous as heck. I don't know if your testing circumstances are the same or not but maybe this will help. If you want to be a truck driver I encourage you to follow the advice of others here and get refocused and back to school however you can. I know how tough it can be with no income, I wish you the best in that regard and really hope you can find a way back to school.

Here is what I did. We were allowed 3 get out and looks. I saved all 3 for the parallel maneuver. I got out once to make sure my trailer was exactly half-way and two feet from the cone for the first part of the setup. Setting up is key. If you get out of line when backing up, stop. Pull up and fix it. Don't keep going and make it worse. I got out the second time to make sure I was at the proper angle to the box and had my tandems on the reference line in the proper position. When maneuvering into the box, this helped me a lot. I turned the wheel all the way toward the space and backed until I could see my landing gear split 3/4 in the convex mirror. This will be a little different for different trucks. Then turned all the way away from the space and continued to back until the truck was in the box. If you encroach on the back line, you'll just have to pull up straight.

Now. This is where the 3rd GOAL comes in. I got out and walked around the truck and saw that it was in the box. If it hadn't been, I would have seen what adjustment I needed to make. I have a feeling from what I read that if you had the opportunity to get out and look and see that the truck was in the box you wouldn't have felt the need to keep adjusting. Which is a common mistake, by the way. Don't feel too bad. I saw a lot of people fail/get sent home over parallel parking. It is how I failed it twice before. That day I passed I did it with 4 pull ups and 3 get out and looks.

I am rambling a little. The bottom line is, if you can, get out and look. If you encroach, and you can get out and look, you can see what needs to be done. It's a lot easier than trying to guess at what to do from inside the truck, especially for students. And once you get out on the road, getting out to look is a career-saver. Nothing good ever comes from guessing at what is going on outside the truck that you can't see.

Hang in there!

Girl, you just enjoy that cushy free stuff...atlest you earned that, if nothing else !! You will be more settled next time, and you will know what is expected...that is a HUGE difference. Keep your chin up...make it the only place that hurts...cuz it WILL go away after awhile.

You know, That is something swift does a good job with.. I was heading to the bus depo after my schooling in phoenix, came to find the ticket they ordered was for Santa Ana, CA (I live in Santa Rosa, CA) I ended up buying a ticket from Santa Ana to Oakland, CA and had my wife pick me up there. I called the lady that did the ordering and she said send her my gas receipts and my ticket.. First pay check from swift had the reimbursements on it... Though I had to wait 2-3 weeks for it, it was nice to know I got the money back... I've had a few other issues where they have helped me out. shop too to long to fix truck got a nice room for 2-3 nights plus meals.. best 34hr restart ever. lol

Enjoy your relaxation... never know when you'll get it again

Hey ButtonUp - that was a great help!!! Thanks for that!

Minnie Mouse - it sure is nice to hear that Swift is taking care of things in the normal "confused" corporate way. Corporations are always a mess it seems

But it's really, really nice to see how you're handling it - with such an awesome attitude. You know, the exact same circumstances you're going through with being sent home and their screw-ups with the bus ticket - so many people would have thrown a fit about the evaluation and criticized the company endlessly for how they handled everything, but you're handling it with grace and dignity and optimism and I really respect that. I've recently watched other drivers handle similarly difficult situations really well, like one of our members "Old School" who was sent home several times (for medical reasons) and then let go before finding another company, taking another shot at it, and finding his way in successfully.

For anyone getting ready to start their career in trucking, please understand that you're going to have plenty of setbacks, ups and downs, and challenges along the way. There is nothing smooth and straightforward about getting your trucking career started. And there will definitely be times you'll be frustrated, stressed out, and even tempted to drop the whole thing and walk away.

But don't.

You have to see it through. Minnie Mouse is handling everything perfectly. You work through the challenges with determination and a great attitude. That's how you get your start in the trucking industry. Expect to face numerous hardships along the way and refuse to give up. And do it all with a smile.

Minnie Mouse, so sorry about your difficult entry to the industry, but glad to see your great attitude. Let me encourage you to figure out some way to get back in the game - I know the difficulty of limited funds, but if you can figure out somehow to get back in quickly it won't be long till you're earning a paycheck. We all wish you the best!