Profile For Bsrlinmaz

Also, I overlooked your question about which dedicated accounts the recruiter was referring to: she called them "Dollar Accounts", but admitted that she referred to all the accounts such as Dollar General, Dollar Store, and Family Dollar, etc. as "Dollar Accounts"...so I feel she was purposely not being specific. (I did not know there were so many stores with similar names).

Just found out this site doesn't allow me to edit or add to a post once I have submitted it...

but I wanted to add that I am aware that I have to tell employers about my legal issues...made sure I spelled it all out in detail to the Swift recruiter when I spoke to her...I won't be let go because I failed to fully disclose something.

Thank you very much to both of you for the information and advise.

Can someone with experience in the linehaul portion of trucking tell me whether the requirement by most carriers for a driver to have a Haz-Mat endorsement is pretty much written in stone...or will some work around it? I have a felony from the '80s that prevents me from ever getting a Haz-Mat endorsement and/or the TWIC card...so if I know ahead of time it is something they 100% insist on, then I'll know not to waste anyone's time by applying.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

I'm currently in a private 160-hour CDL school in Phoenix, AZ (start 4th week tomorrow, Monday), and have some questions after talking to recruiter who came to the school from Swift; and hoping current Swift drivers can give me some answers and/or advice:

1. When I finish the training at the Phoenix facility, I then go out with a driver/trainer...how long does that last and what is the pay rate?

2. Recruiter "says" I can get a dedicated route, where I would drive to same stores/locations, and know where/when I'd be driving each month...but aren't those type of positions something a driver with more Seniority would be getting, while the F.N.G. (me) gets left-overs/crap, until I can demonstrate dependability, skills, etc.? (And I have no issue with that...the new guy/gal always has to "earn" their way into a job, no matter what industry it is, in general...)

3. Because of legal issues (which I'm not going to go into here) I cannot do O.T.R. in the normal sense (where I would drive and deliver, but not know where next trip would take me until I get the next load from dispatch)...so I need a position where I would know ahead of time where I would be going to/from each month...that's why I asked question 2 above -- so the recruiter "says" I should be able to get a dedicated position. But my experiences with big corporations is that generally the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing...so I'd go from the recruiter into training, finish training and then get a truck somewhere down the road and when I ask about dedicated positions be told something like "Don't know who told you that...currently have no available slots in that section/division..." and then I'd end up sitting and not be able to drive?

The length of the runs does not matter, I can drive to any of the lower 48, as long as I would know where I will be going to/from before hand for each month. Can a driver from Swift with experience regarding how such things function there advise me whether I'm going to be able to drive there with the current restrictions I'm dealing with? I currently have my CDL-A Learner's Permit, with all endorsements except Haz-Mat and passengers/bus (the legal issue prevents me from ever getting Haz-Mat and/or TWIC card), if that will further complicate things for me?

It appears to me that all the big companies like Swift that are willing to hire someone like me with no experience, and brand-new CDL have a bad reputation, if one believes all the negativity on the internet...but since I am brand new with no experience, etc., my options are limited, so my thinking is pick one and make the best of it until I get the experience...because without the experience I do not have enough information to base a decision on, regarding what makes a good company to drive for, etc. And after I get the experience/miles under my belt, I may find that things aren't as bad as so many make them out to be, and I end up staying. Anything really wrong with that way of thinking, am I overlooking something, etc.?

Sorry for rambling on...but have a lot of questions/concerns, and have mortgage payments etc. looming and need to get into $$-making gear soon. Really hoping I've not screwed the pooch by paying all this money to go to the CDL school, and then finding out I can't make money with it (because of my legal issues) -- if it comes down to it I'll drive a garbage truck in the city if that's what it takes to keep the roof over-head, but that is way down on my list of options/preferences.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Sorry for bringing up an old thread, but didn't want to start a new one for same subject...can others with experience "Teaching" give advice to help someone trying to learn to dbl-clutch? I am trying to "un-learn" 40-plus years of other manual transmissions, and this just is not working at all at the moment. I am in 3rd week of 4-week course (private school, and there is no "teaching" here...they tell you how you should do it, then yell and scream when you don't "get it" right away). Up until yesterday I have been in the truck 4 times, approx. 10-12 minutes each time to practice backing, and then yesterday we went out on the road, four in a truck and I tried for about 20-minutes...failing totally and completely.

Sorry, realized I am rambling about the school...need advice/help to learn to dbl-clutch...they want to test us end of next week (today is Wed., we test next week, Friday), and I can't make even one shift properly at this point. I know different people have different ways of teaching, so I am desperately hoping that hearing the same thing from someone else, but in a different way, might help me to "get it"...if that makes sense.

Just finished reading this thread from start to finish...and want to say THANK YOU 6 string rhythm and all the others in this thread who've shared their information, insights and advice regarding LTL. I'm starting 3rd week of private CDL school tomorrow (Monday), and can't thank you enough for enlightening me about a portion of this industry I was not really aware of.

I'm in the Phoenix AZ area, so have a lot of options, and this thread just opened my eyes to an entire new set of options. Thank you for taking the time, when you were just starting out as brand new driver, to share what you were learning/experiencing...this has been a very, very educational thread for me, whether I go the LTL route or not.

Never stop being thankful for getting the job you got , and never let a day go by that you're not thankful to be with your family.

Thank you for the reply.

When the DOT Number on the DSW Tractors came back as Swift, I thought I'd mis-typed it and after I realized I'd typed it correctly that was when I started wondering about the situation...as I said I am still in school and know nothing about how all of this works, but assumed that DSW would have their own DOT Number on their tractors.

I am attending CDL School, in the 2nd week of four, and know little to nothing yet re: how some things work regarding the ownership of trucking companies, carriers, brokers, and leasing from one outfit to another...so my questions may be about things that are "normal", but to someone who is new to all of this, this situation made me want to ask questions:

Recruiter for a company named DSW came to class. Afterwards when I look up company name in Google I found their website at DSWDRIVERS.COM, but when I ran the DOT Number from the side of the truck it comes back as "SWIFT LEASING LLC". Then at a site called http://www.quicktransportsolutions.com/ I entered DSW Trucking, with no results, but just DSW came back with a match to DSW Brokerage., with a different physical address from the one on the brochure given out by the recruiter in the class.

Is the DOT Number on the side of a company's Tractor unique to that Tractor (ie. a company with five tractors would have five DOT Numbers) or is the number the same on all five tractors?

If one were hired by DSW would they really then be working for Swift, since that is who the DOT Number on the side of the truck links back to? I heard through the rumor will that was the case in this instance...and that a cpl. drivers claimed that when calling their DM (at DSW) from the road about issues they were told to call Swift...but I have no way of knowing if these stories are accurate.

Anyone have any information regarding this situation they care to pass along to a student such as myself?

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Thank you Chris. I have a kennel/cage...folds flat when not in use and is approx 4ft x 2ft x 5 or 6 inches when folded (there are others that are half the size that would also work, depending on the size of the animal)...so I'll plan to carry that so as to be prepared for the unexpected.

Thank you for your time and assistance.