I have finally started school with Swift

Today was day 1 of an 18 day training program, which we will do in 17 days due to the July 4th holiday.
We started with 14 students that actually arrived in class, and 9 more that were no shows. By the end of day one we lost 1 student to an invalid license. He said that when he got his CDIP they punched his old license and gave it back to him. Of course that license being punched by the DMV made it invalid, and he was Swiftly sent home.

Most of the day was filled with paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork! They want to make sure that you understand that you will owe them $3900 for training. Apparently you can go home before Day 5 and not owe any money. From day 5 through day 11 they charge a prorated amount, and after day 11 you owe the full tuition.

We also completed Swift's Work Well assessment, and completed our DOT physicals. Two students need to return to the doctors on Day 2 and try to pass the DOT physical.

The information supplied by recruiters was completely incorrect! Even though I specifically asked the recruiter if I should get my air brakes, doubles / triples, or combination endorsements and she said "No you will be trained properly to pass those tests in school", this is incorrect! Now I will take the combination and air brakes tests at the DMV in Clarkston WA on Tuesday after class.

I would like to post about this class till the end, so stay tuned.....

the info the recuriter gives is always 90% wrong did they give you a starting pay rate before you went ? heard that they cut it by 3 cpm just asking. good luck to you :tears:

They said .27 cpm, but that is yet to be confirmed!

Today was a good day with a test on Combination Vehicles and Air Brakes. We all passed those just fine.
Next we did about 4 hours on log books, and took 5 tests on the log books. Seems that everyone passed the tests, but we will review the answers in the morning.

I did not mention this before, but we must get an 80% or better on each exam, or group of exams. Anyone that does not pass an exam will be given an opportunity to take the test again on Sunday.

The hardest part of the day was the fact that we had to do our drug screen at 05:15. Of the 12 students, I waited till about half of them went because I really did not need to go. If you try to pee and get stage fright, you have 3 hours from that time to fill the cup or you will fail!

Of course I felt like I had to pee, so I stepped up to the plate. Tried and tried for about 5 minutes, but just couldn't get a drop. So I stepped aside to let others go ahead, and continued to drink about 2 gallons of water over the next 45 minutes. When all of the others completed the screen, I went in and pee'd like a pro. Best of all it was not dilluted from all the water I drank, so I was good to go!

I was in the bathroom every 30 minutes for the next 4 hours getting rid of those 2 gallons of water.

Now we did lose 2 more students today. One was due to a medical condition, and the second was because of a secret that Swift uncovered when we had to review the details on our applications. Just a word of advice, TELL THE TRUTH! If you tell them everything up front, they will look at the specifics and give may give you a chance because you were honest. If something comes out later, they will send you packing 100% of the time.

After class I drove over the bridge to Clarkston WA and took the Combinations and Airbrakes tests at the DMV. Missed one question on each test, and passed just fine. Paid the $100 for my skills test and I am now good to go!

So, at the end of day two, we have droped two more students. This puts our class at 11 students, down from the 14 that we started with.

We received an answer to the question today. This link shows Swifts cpm pay as of December 2006. This is the current pay with one exception, there is currently a $.01cpm pay cut for all drivers. So, just subtract $.01 and this is the pay!
http://www.swifttruckingjobs.com/doc...ng%20Scale.pdf

Hey, i went to Lewiston for my schooling. Say "Hi' to Vicky and Ed for me. I found out from talking to a guy based out of Lewiston at my home terminal when i was there, that Junior isnt there anymore. He got married, and he and his wife are running team, and he is O/O with Swift.

I started school there August 13th and grad. first week of Sept. 2008. Ask if they remember Cheez-It and Bret Michaels. =)

Oh, and not all recruiters are scumbags. The one i got never promiced me anything, never said 'you'll be getting 3300 miles a week'..or anything like that. I actually went to class and had MORE paperwork than i needed, such as my driving history printed directly from the DMV before i left. etc.

Will do! Vicky was great! She started us out with days 1 and 2, but had to go out on the road with students that are 2 weeks ahead of us.
We will see more of her and Ed next week when we start on the range! I will probably get Vicky or Bob as my instructor and then they will take us to the WA dmv for the tests.

I've never heard of anyone promicing anything.

Promicing or promising? Sure wish some of these drivers learned how to spell correctly.