Profile For Grinch

Jean I’m a swift flatbed trainer. We are not required to team drive the truck with a student. That decision is left to the trainer to make with the student. The first 50 hours it is mandatory that the truck runs solo with the trainer in the passenger seat. After that it is based on your confidence if and when the truck would run as a team. Most of my fellow trainers in flatbed do what we call super solo. That means you drive your full drive clock, then maybe I pop in the seat for a couple of hours to position us to were we need to be if we got slowed down by accidents or weather for example.

Paul just do flatbed then you have all sorts of legal goodies that you can use to creatively give someone a really bad day and a trip to the ER.😂

Matt I’m reading this thread as I am parked in Pheonix at swift headquarters. I am a flatbed mentor based out of South Carolina. Yes you have seen stories of people waiting weeks… that is very rare and usually because the student is picky on mentor preference ie. Male, non smoker, vegetarian, only likes country music….. Not sure what terminal you did orientation, but they will get you matched up and moving. Sometimes you may hitch a ride with another driver to meet up with your mentor at a different terminal. Have patience. Depending on your mentor and comfort/ confidence level you may not start team driving till later in your time on the truck. I personally hardly ever team drive with my students. My thought pattern is there is always something to learn and you don’t learn if I’m asleep.

Steve , wallet out of pocket that will help. Try sliding your lower seat cushion forward a little, and tilting it back or forward.( your lower seat pad will tilt- not just the seat back) that will help relieve some pressure off the tailbone area. Purple pads are good as well. I just changed over from a kenworth to freightliner. And had to play with it until I got my comfort spot back. I also run my seat a little low so it relieves pressure on my thighs from the front edge of the seat.

I’ve got an alpicool as well smaller than naenae’s mine is a 38 or 40 qt. it sits on the floor behind my drivers seat. I train so bigger in the top bunk doesn’t work for my truck. I put about 2 weeks of stuff in there. I am good with that as usually about every 10-12 days I dip into a Walmart for bread vegetables fruit and such anyway.

Jason welcome to the start of your career at swift. I say that because you can easily make a career if it suits you at swift. I am a swift flatbed mentor and grey haired as well. Ignore what the internet trolls say, a lot of them are holding on to the bad wrap the company had years ago when we were in high school. Focus on you and your goals. Pay attention in the academy. The real learning will be with your mentor on the road after you have passed your cdl test portion. While you are with your mentor ask questions when you don’t understand something and ask them to explain the why we do this and why we do that. I may be out there in Pheonix while you are there if you see a flatbed truck with an American flag on the back and a golden retriever sticking her head out the window that would be me. Good luck and feel free to reach out. I typically try and pop in here every 2-3 days.

Matthew, I guess I’ll be the first experienced flatbedder to chime. Although I know old school will chime in as well. I run with swift and also a flatbed mentor/ trainer. I don’t know your background or your logic of going with western express. But as bk stated since you are set to start Monday. Probably best bet is to run there for a year and revaluate then. Yes starting out initially the pay is low. Most companies have the first pay jump at 6 months. You will not learn everything you need from your trainer. Don’t be afraid to ask other drivers for help or questions even if not from your company. I have helped out many other drivers that didn’t work for swift that were getting ready to do something stupid or just confused.

Piano man, I’m flatbed and they keep me humming so my down time is typically limited to my 34 hr reset. Laundry, clean the truck on those day. I have my iPad to watch tv/ movie , read a book and chill. If the doggo is with me we will go for a walk and play a bunch of ball fetch as well. Typically I do 34’s in one of our terminal so there is usually another of our misfit flatbedders here as well, we tend to park together. Which scares off the rest of the company. Some days we have all cooked something and just throw it up on our 53 ft picnic table and had a buffet.

The seatbelt spool locking and the pressure drop are two different un related items.. I run a 2020 t680 myself.

The air pressure drop is simple. The air pressure regulator cutoff switch needs to be adjusted down. What is happening is it is charging up hitting 150. And it temporarily overpressurizes the gauge, that make your needles drop down. Then next shift it bleeds enough pressure to read correctly. This is a common t680 issue.

The seatbelt is mechanical only. No air. It sounds like mine passenger one. Same issues replaced the seatbelt and spool and no more issues. Sometimes you just get a bad one.

Rick. Congratulations. I am currently with swift. I run flatbed and quite often bounce through our OKC terminal. It is actually one of my favorites. I have zero complaints about swift. If I do have an issue I discuss with leadership it it is typically resolved. As Errol mentioned Swift is huge, there are many that stay and retire from it. I just met a driver last week that is at 36 years ant swift and will be retiring next year. The economy is crappy and I fear it will probably get worse before better. I have no immediate plans to change companies at this time due to that. Stability and consistency is my major decision factor. If you see a flatbed truck roll in while you are at OkC with a golden retriever hanging its head out the window feel free to say hi.