My Swift Driving Academy Experience.

Wow! Sounds like they are determined that you learn how to do this stuff. I've never been on an 18% downgrade - that is steep!

Keep it up, sounds like you are doing great Daniel!

Sounds like your doing a great job and congrats on the 18%. Steepest downgrade I have seen seen is 8%. Your school sounds like it has done it a lot differently than the swift academy I went down here in Texas. If you got any questions about Swift or anything they do you can get me on here or send me a pm or I'll even give you my number. If your ever coming down to Lancaster, Texas terminal lemme know I'm in and out of there a lot.

Day 13. Today was the first day of road training. I have Scott as a driving instructor now instead of Rick. We left the terminal at 6:30, I was the first of the 3 of us to drive. My shifting this morning was a little slow so Scott had me shift from 2nd gear to 8th gear back down to 2nd then up to 8th over and over and over again, needless to say I now have no problem shifting. After almost 2 hours it was time for the other guys to drive. We came back to the Academy at 11:00 for lunch then it was back to it. I drove for 2 more hours with no major problems, I just need to work on my recovery gears but I'll get it. Tomorrow we get to start commentary driving, that will be an interesting experience.

Day 14. The day started out with pre-tripping the road truck. Then away we went with James at the wheel. At 9:30 it was my turn to drive. I did pretty good this morning, only a couple of things I need to work on. After 1 1/2 hours we took a lunch break. At 12:45 it was my turn again, for the next 2 hours I was put through my paces. I was told that tomorrow I will be doing the Swift driving test and on Thursday I will be taking the State tests. I just have to remember to start down shifting a little earlier and calling out my mirror checks and I'll be fine.

I did a lot of in town driving today and about 30 miles out on the highway. I really enjoyed the highway driving and am looking forward to the day I'll be getting paid to do it. But first things first, I'll concentrate on tomorrow then on Thursday and then we'll see what the future has in store.

Keep up the good work Daniel. Sounds like your doing very well. I don't blame you for wanting to stay out of the northeast. I had never been there but the last month have gotten to make a lot of miles there. I really don't care for it for a lot of reasons, but this time of year it is miserable weather. I mean no offense to the good folks that live there.

Very informative post, thank you. I'm preparing to go to the Swift academy in TN. Your posts have given me the information and confidence to succeed in their program. Keep up the great work!

Day 15. After pre-tripping the road truck We set out at 6:30 this morning with me behind the wheel. Right from the start It went wrong. I couldn't shift, remember to check my mirrors, couldn't even remember to stop far enough back to see the stop lines at intersections. I thought that my Swift company driving test was going to be an absolute disaster.

After the other 2 in the truck got a chance to drive we came back to the Academy and took a break. At 10:00 Scott came out and asked me if I was ready, what was I going to say? No? So off we go and it started off well good shifts, stops, nice tracking down the road. As we entered town I missed a downshift coming up to a turn, turns out I wasn't required to shift to 3rd to go around every corner. So I started to get nervous. To combat the nervousness I figured that I'd try commentary driving. The problem with this is that it ended up distracting me, I started forgetting to check both of my mirrors during my turns and that cost me points. I ended up losing 11 points but passing with 89%.

After lunch I spent 45 minutes practicing both the 90 degree and off-set backing in preparation for tomorrow. I nailed them both 4 times straight right from the start so I jumped out and walked away before I screwed myself up on them. I spent the rest of the day practicing my pre-trip.

Tomorrow is the day that is going to really count. The State tester is coming in to test me. Pre-trip, straight line backing, off-set backing, 90 degree backing, and road driving tests. All in 2 1/2 - 3 hours. I'm going to get a good night's sleep, have a good breakfast, and give it my best tomorrow.

Good luck Daniel, I'm sure you'll pass with flying colors.

Daniel, try and relax and show some confidence - you can do this. Even if you trip up and fail, just get back up, dust yourself off, and go try it again. That's how it works - not all of us make it through on the first try. Some of us let our nerves get the best of us, but we learn from our failures, and then we go and face them down. Best of luck to ya!

Day 16. The day started with roll call and 1/2 of pre-trip. Then at 7:00 I was called into the office to talk to the state tester. Nervous didn't even cover it.

PRE-TRIP; I started with the Exhaust, and from there I went around to the engine on the passenger side then the driver's side. Next was the from the Tires, in through the Brakes to the Suspension. Checked the Doors and the Emergency equipment then moved on to the rear of the tractor, Frame, Drive tandems , and 5th wheel set-up. Next was the Trailer, then the In cab. All of which I passed with only 3 points docked from me.

Skills tests; Straight backing, Off-set backing, 90 degree backing, Nailed them all!

Driving test; Started off great, no gear grinding or anything. Then I thought things went to crap. I got nervous and thought that I was missing things and that only made things worse for me mentally. About a quarter of the way into my test I was told to do an Emergency stop.

Once I had explained the procedure, I had decided to let it go as it will and to drive as I was taught. Went pretty well until I came to a stale green light in 6th gear that changed on me and I downshifted to 5th and came to a stop. I pulled it down into 2nd but I forgot to do one thing. (how many are laughing at me now?) for those who don't know there is a switch that changes the transmission from low to high range. I didn't flip that switch down, and stalled the truck right there.

When we finally returned he asked me how I thought I had done. I told him I thought that as long as he didn't fail me for stalling I had passed but just barely. Turns out that he was grading that intersection so stalling cost me a point but wasn't an auto-fail. I was dinged 9 points total so I had passed with a 97%. Out of 300 points I could miss 30 and still pass.

So long story short, I was given my Commercial Driver School Certification, and will be attending Swift orientation in Sumner, WA on 2-4-14.