Swift Training Academy

[Ford390pwr]

I just got an email tonight from my Driving instructor in Lewiston. He sent me a link to an article that he is quoted in regarding the emphasis patrols in the Lewiston area.

http://www.klewtv.com/news/local/51434457.html

[MJC]

congrats on passing and good luck in the real world. I take my test 7/29, so hopefully I'll see ya'll on the road very soon

[Ford390pwr]

Today was day 1 of a 2 day orientation. We have 10 students in our class, and 2 of us attended Swift's Academy. The other 8 students took a DOT Physical, and had to complete a driving test.

Since we attended Swift's Academy, Dave and I only needed to take the drug test today. We had to spend the entire day sitting in the drivers lounge while the other students did their stuff.

Basically today was a bog waste of time for Dave and I. We should have a better day tomorrow because the schedule is showing a lot of different terminal associates that will come in and give us an introduction.

If all goes as planned, we will have our driver codes on Wednesday afternoon. Waiting for a mentor may take a little bit longer!

[Kevin0915]

Yeah...it took me a FULL WEEK from the END of orientation to actually get on a mentor's truck. Then THAT only lasted two weeks before i was off his truck and waiting a day for my next mentor.

Be sure you get what you ask for. If you want a non-smoking male, thats what you get. They tried to stick me with a smoker, and i for one didn't want to go to bed or sleep in a bed that smelled like the butt end of an ashtray.

[Syncrosonix]

i'm gonna be near the sumner terminal within a couple of days. i might walk over there from the rip-off shell to get myself a (free) shower. who knows if i'll see ya sitting in the lounge looking bored off your ass.

[Ford390pwr]

Originally Posted by Syncrosonix

i'm gonna be near the sumner terminal within a couple of days. i might walk over there from the rip-off shell to get myself a (free) shower. who knows if i'll see ya sitting in the lounge looking bored off your ass.

Probably! The lazy a** orientation facilitator decided it was too hot to submit anyone for a driver code today, so she is waiting till the morning to start that process. The Drivers Services manager can't do anything till we get that code, so he thinks we may get on a truck Friday if we are lucky!

I figure they told me to be ready to go after orientation, so I am staying in the hotel till i get on a truck. I will be hanging around and making my presence known so he can get me on a truck as soon as possible.

[Ford390pwr]

Today was the final day of orientation. We had a few different people from the terminal that came in and gave a small presentation. Most of the day was a bunch of useless information and a quick tour of the shop.

The terminal manager did come in for about an hour and gave a great talk on macro 10 and how important it is to get it accurate. He also spoke about fueling and fueling directions.
He spent about 20 minutes talking about DCI, and how Swift would save $16,000 a day if every driver cut there idle time by one hour. He did say that the Sumner terminal is at an 18% DCI, and the company is well above 25%.

He had some real neat calculations to show how many miles it takes to pay for an accident involving broken hinges on a trailer. Pretty neat insight, if his figures are correct. He used a profit margin of $0.13cpm, which is an old number and he said that it is currently more like .03cpm. With a minor incident of $500 damage, it would take over 3600 miles to pay for the damages. It was cool to see this on paper and putting a number to the damages.

Our class was released at 2:30, and the lazy facilitator said she won't submit anyone for a driver code till Thursday morning because it was too hot today. So now we all have to wait till at least Friday till we even have a chance to get on our mentors truck!

So some of us will be sitting around the terminal thursday just to make sure we don't get forgotten.

[Orangetxguy]

Originally Posted by Syncrosonix

i'm gonna be near the sumner terminal within a couple of days. i might walk over there from the rip-off shell to get myself a (free) shower. who knows if i'll see ya sitting in the lounge looking bored off your ass.

Don't the Knight drivers get to shower at the Gordon terminal anymore??

[Syncrosonix]

Originally Posted by Orangetxguy

Don't the Knight drivers get to shower at the Gordon terminal anymore??

i wasn't aware that they ever did. the sumner yard has some pretty nice showers, though.

[Ford390pwr]

Originally Posted by Syncrosonix

i wasn't aware that they ever did. the sumner yard has some pretty nice showers, though.

Yeah I spent a good part of Tuesday in that lounge, and saw they do have what seems like a good amount of decent showers. When we toured the shop today at about 11:45am, there were about 15 drivers just chillin in that lounge. From what I saw in the shop, I bet most of their trucks were waiting on service. The yard was just packed with tractors in line for some kind of service.

[Syncrosonix]

a year ago, they squeezed in almost 1000 empty trailers into the yard. many of the mills throughout washington closed. swift had to retrieve all of their empties at those facilities. it made for a massive cluster-fuq at the yard.

[jagerbomber3.0]

I am a little curious, what does being to hot outside have to do with submitting you guys for a drivers code?

[Ford390pwr]

Originally Posted by jagerbomber3.0

I am a little curious, what does being to hot outside have to do with submitting you guys for a drivers code?

It really has nothing to do with anything! The woman is just one of those people that are holding a grudge, and not really doing their job. During the orientation she told us many stories, and one was how she cross trained for 4 weeks to be a Driver Services Coordinator. A couple of months back, Swift hired someone from the outside to fill the open Driver Services Coordinator position here in Sumner. Now she thinks she should have been given that position over some outside new hire.

The orientation that she conducted was very unorganized. She did the bare minimum to get us all out of her hair. Hell she didn't give us any of the books or materials till the last 20 minutes of class.

The upsetting part is that this is the first class I have ever attended where I was not given a course evaluation to complete. This is one time I would have loved to voice my opinions of the course.

That will need to wait till after I get on the road, then I will talk to her manager.

[Orangetxguy]

Originally Posted by Ford390pwr

It really has nothing to do with anything! The woman is just one of those people that are holding a grudge, and not really doing their job. During the orientation she told us many stories, and one was how she cross trained for 4 weeks to be a Driver Services Coordinator. A couple of months back, Swift hired someone from the outside to fill the open Driver Services Coordinator position here in Sumner. Now she thinks she should have been given that position over some outside new hire.

The orientation that she conducted was very unorganized. She did the bare minimum to get us all out of her hair. Hell she didn't give us any of the books or materials till the last 20 minutes of class.

The upsetting part is that this is the first class I have ever attended where I was not given a course evaluation to complete. This is one time I would have loved to voice my opinions of the course.

That will need to wait till after I get on the road, then I will talk to her manager.

Danger Will Robinson, Danger Danger!!!!

You might want to hold your tounge and save comments on her performance to yourself...and the internet!!

Obviously the "Corporation" already considers her to be at her peak, seeing that they filled that postion from outside.

Just saying....save yourself some grief and swallow your thoughts!

[Ford390pwr]

Originally Posted by Orangetxguy

Danger Will Robinson, Danger Danger!!!!

You might want to hold your tounge and save comments on her performance to yourself...and the internet!!

Obviously the "Corporation" already considers her to be at her peak, seeing that they filled that postion from outside.

Just saying....save yourself some grief and swallow your thoughts!

Well, you are probably correct there! I could just keep quiet, because another student already told me that he sent an email to the terminal manager.

[Ford390pwr]

I finally received a call from my mentor this afternoon! Still no call from that orientation facilitator with my drivers code though.

So my mentor will be in Sumner in the morning. He has me getting a ride to the terminal to meet up with him around 9am.

I will try to keep the updates coming over the next few weeks.

[SickRick]

Originally Posted by Ford390pwr

I finally received a call from my mentor this afternoon! Still no call from that orientation facilitator with my drivers code though.

So my mentor will be in Sumner in the morning. He has me getting a ride to the terminal to meet up with him around 9am.

I will try to keep the updates coming over the next few weeks.

Awesome news. Kick butt out there driver. I'm sure you'll do well...

Rick

[Syncrosonix]

who'd you get for your mentor? hopefully he's worth it.

that shower at the sumner yard sure was nice. the walk back hit up a pit stop at the bbq restaurant around the corner from this shell. i ate a real good bbq chicken sandwich, fries, and chilli.

[Ford390pwr]

Originally Posted by Syncrosonix

who'd you get for your mentor? hopefully he's worth it.

that shower at the sumner yard sure was nice. the walk back hit up a pit stop at the bbq restaurant around the corner from this shell. i ate a real good bbq chicken sandwich, fries, and chilli.

Hey Syncro,

I actually saw you come into the drivers lounge, recognized that hat! Anyways, my mentor had just arrived and he was showing me how to scan docs, so i wasn't able to stop you to talk.

My mentor is a guy named Oleg, he seems like a good guy and he is really fair!

[Ford390pwr]

Today was the day that I got to meet my mentor!!!! His name is Oleg and he runs Heavy Haul out of the Sumner yard. I am not really interested in going with Heavy Haul, but he is a really nice guy and I think we will do well together for the next 6 weeks.

We met at the terminal in Sumner this morning. He was returning to pick up a load from the Costco DC, next door to the Sumner yard, that was going to the Costco on Division Street in Spokane. So first off when we met in the terminal he showed me how to scan all of the documents from the load that he just dropped off at the Costco DC from Portland. I only know the guy 2 minutes and he's already teaching me something!

We retrieve the tractor from the tire shop where they replaced a tire on the stab axle. Oh yeah, this is a 2008 FL Columbia with 4 axles and a 13 speed transmission. Nothing I have ever driven before, but that is coming soon. So we get in the tractor and I throw all my gear in the bunk. We hook up to the trailer that he already picked up from the costco DC on the way to get me. This is a dry van also with 4 axles, one of which is a stab. The trailer weighed in at 59,229 which is a little bit more than the 15,000 that I trained with.

Oleg introduced me to his DM and we got out of the terminal on the way to Spokane. Oleg drove and I sat with my eagles eye on his every move. We had some time to chit chat a little bit as he took us over Hwy 18 to I90. We fueled up at the Pilot in Ellensburg, exit 106. Again I watched very closely as he showed me the proper procedures to fuel up, get a reciept, take a leak, (I already knew how to do that of course), and get back on the road towards Spokane. Again Oleg drove until we got to the rest stop just west of Moses Lake where we switched and I drove for a while.

I got behind the wheel and got comfortable before I started out. Took off from the rest stop and got out on I90. Since I am just starting out, I avoided using the 5-7 high gears and just used 8 high to cruise. Got the hang of downshifting and upshifting from high to low on the small hills, and had no problem shifting after I initially got started. I must say, I was a little rusty after 2 weeks of not being in a truck and only having a small amount of practice in school. All in all I did very well and Oleg seemed to be somewhat relaxed in the jump seat as I drove.

We switched back over at the sprague Lake rest stop so that he could take us into town and get us to Costco in time for our 8pm appointment. We arrived at 7:35 and had to track down someone to recieve the load. We already had a preplan for a pallett trailer from Costco, but the trailer was not full so we parked the tractor in the lot where I will spend my first night in the sleeper! Oleg only lives a few blocks away from Costco, so he will return in the morning, we will hook up to the pallett trailer, and move the rig to a truck stop where I will stay till Monday morning.

This works out great for me because I get the time on the truck and I also get paid while I am here. Monday at 7am we will head back west to sumner where we will get another load, probably headed to the Portland area.

As I said in the begining of this post, Oleg is a very nice guy and he keeps his truck immaculate. I know we will be able to get along just fine. He even gave me the bottom bunk and said that I am clean enogh where he would remove the plastic bag from the mattress. I really do not want to run Heavy Haull, but this way I will learn something that others may not. At the end of our 6 weeks I can go out and run the 48.

Again I hope to be able to post updates while I am on the road, so stay tuned!