Swift New Recruits

Okay, I'm going to go ballistic here. Why is "moving your truck" slowly and for a short distance so important???? This should be a very rare consideration if you have any common sense whatsoever. Being a top tier driver is not about squeezing every minute out of every day. It's about longevity, safety and sustainability.

I can move 20 feet at 1 mph and my company can track it. I've had to move once or twice in 4 months out of necessity and because of unusual circumstances. Don't get all caught up in these petty details or you will die of a brain hemorrhoid. Manage your clock, don't push the envelope and save yourself all the aggrevation.

Okay, I'm going to go ballistic here. Why is "moving your truck" slowly and for a short distance so important???? This should be a very rare consideration if you have any common sense whatsoever. Being a top tier driver is not about squeezing every minute out of every day. It's about longevity, safety and sustainability.

I can move 20 feet at 1 mph and my company can track it. I've had to move once or twice in 4 months out of necessity and because of unusual circumstances. Don't get all caught up in these petty details or you will die of a brain hemorrhoid. Manage your clock, don't push the envelope and save yourself all the aggrevation.

I disagree, managing your clock efficiently is part of being a top tier driver. If you start your clock to drive 5 miles to get unloaded and it takes 5 hours you just shot yourself in the foot that day with poor clock management. If you're parked close and roll in off the clock and start your clock after you are loaded now you can use your clock for driving instead of sitting there getting loaded on your 14. I'm still learning to be a top tier driver, but what I have learned is to think about everything you can do to make yourself better and how you control your clock is definitely one of those thing you can do to improve your performance.

Matthew wrote:

You can move a short distance without starting your clock, you use this to dock without starting your clock. After getting loaded/unloaded then you do your pretrip and roll to your next appointment. You're first year is all about refining your training, including clock management. For instance I will do my pretrip in the fuel Isles while fueling.

Matthew, not true. Swift’s logging system is configured to go on the drive-line once 5mph speed is reached. This was recently implemented in March. You can no longer putt-putt around like we used to.

Second; fueling and PTI can’t physically be done “effectively” at the same time. It’s also required to apply remarks to any work performed on-duty while not driving. And finally, you will block the fuel aisle if you are performing the PTI correctly. It only takes me 10 minutes to fuel, but definitely not an acceptable amount of time for PTI.

I strongly suggest abandoning this practice. It will eventually get you in trouble; either with your company and/or DOT.

He wants to argue everything today on here.

Matthew wrote...

If you're parked close and roll in off the clock and start your clock after you are loaded

This is log falsification.

Not sure who you drive for but the telemetrics on most of the newer trucks electronically mark time and location when log status changes. Accurate within plus or minus 3’. You cannot hide or move very far without the system knowing it.

So basically if you can drive off-duty, moving the truck from your break location and not go on the drive line, once you actually drive after you are loaded, the system will mark time and date of your location when you move to the drive line.

If a DOT officer pulls your logs he or she will very obviously see that you moved your truck while off-duty from point A (your break location) to point B (your shipper or receiver destination). Get out your checkbook at that point.

That said personal conveyance is a bit of a grey area and possibly not available through your system anyway. Since I do not use personal conveyance I am not completely versed on the law, but I am fairly sure driving from a parking spot after your 10 hour break to a shipper/receiver is not considered personal conveyance and must be done on the drive-line.

Unless you are parked in a lot within several hundred feet of your pickup or delivery, you are pushing your luck doing this. And God forbid if you were to hit someone...or something driving off-duty to a pickup or delivery location.

Matthew wrote:

You can move a short distance without starting your clock, you use this to dock without starting your clock. After getting loaded/unloaded then you do your pretrip and roll to your next appointment. You're first year is all about refining your training, including clock management. For instance I will do my pretrip in the fuel Isles while fueling.

Matthew, not true. Swift’s logging system is configured to go on the drive-line once 5mph speed is reached. This was recently implemented in March. You can no longer putt-putt around like we used to.

Second; fueling and PTI can’t physically be done “effectively” at the same time. It’s also required to apply remarks to any work performed on-duty while not driving. And finally, you will block the fuel aisle if you are performing the PTI correctly. It only takes me 10 minutes to fuel, but definitely not an acceptable amount of time for PTI.

I strongly suggest abandoning this practice. It will eventually get you in trouble; either with your company and/or DOT.

I don't do my ptis in 10 minutes, you're right in that respect and I agree entirely with doing it in 10 minutes being undoable of you do it correctly. I am sorry to hear that you cant roll into docks off the clock anymore in swift trucks. While I am sure that forces you to not bend the rules as much as is done at other companies, hopefully with the relaxing of rules in june we wont have to bend the rules to do our jobs effectively. I feel like if we didn't spend 3-4 hours getting loaded/unloaded all the time we wouldn't need to try and roll in off the clock. Back to the pti you can start and do some of it in your parking spot and then roll to fuel isle and finish while fueling, this is what i do so I can check the coolant and oil before starting the engine. I can also check the locking jaw and lines before moving. Things like brakes and tire pressure can be checked while the pump is fueling. I dont need to hold the hose in the tank, if nervous about it falling out I can use bungee cords to hold it in.

We do have pc driving. It's a 1 hour per day limit and is implemented dot compliant. You can pc either bobtail or with an empty trailer, but only to the nearest safe parking place. I do not use PC to get to appointments. And yes you're right it is a log violation to move off duty like this, I'm not arguing that point at all. It is a we bit silly that I am handcuffed by a 70 hour in 8 day clock so I bend the rules to try and be more efficient. Most of my rolling into docks is parked on the street next to appointment then driving onto their property when its time. Or parking on their o/n parking lot and then moving in.

Okay, I'm going to go ballistic here. Why is "moving your truck" slowly and for a short distance so important???? This should be a very rare consideration if you have any common sense whatsoever. Being a top tier driver is not about squeezing every minute out of every day. It's about longevity, safety and sustainability.

I can move 20 feet at 1 mph and my company can track it. I've had to move once or twice in 4 months out of necessity and because of unusual circumstances. Don't get all caught up in these petty details or you will die of a brain hemorrhoid. Manage your clock, don't push the envelope and save yourself all the aggrevation.

I disagree, managing your clock efficiently is part of being a top tier driver. If you start your clock to drive 5 miles to get unloaded and it takes 5 hours you just shot yourself in the foot that day with poor clock management. If you're parked close and roll in off the clock and start your clock after you are loaded now you can use your clock for driving instead of sitting there getting loaded on your 14. I'm still learning to be a top tier driver, but what I have learned is to think about everything you can do to make yourself better and how you control your clock is definitely one of those thing you can do to improve your performance.

Matthew! Earth to Matthew! Did you even read the last sentence of my comment? "Manage your clock..." And then the first sentence of your reply was: "I disagree, managing your clock is part of being a top tier driver". Dude, you need to pay attention and think things out before typing.

If you think parking close and rolling in and getting loaded before you start your clock is an acceptable practice, you are going to have a very short career. There are so many things wrong with your thought process, I don't even know where to begin. After you are fired, you will have plenty of time to watch your clock.

Bruce...

If you think parking close and rolling in and getting loaded before you start your clock is an acceptable practice, you are going to have a very short career.

Bruce...woe, easy there big fellow.

Before Swift reconfigured their settings to put us on the drive line at 5mph, I would creep to my trailer from tractor parking and perform the full PTI once hooked up. Then I’d start my clock on-duty with PTI in remarks. The drive was off-duty but not on the drive line because speed did not exceed 15mph and/or 15 minutes. Distance? About 1/8th of a mile, no more.

They allowed us to do this because the location did not change and it was a controlled, private parking lot and not a public road. Now, looking back it was obviously wrong otherwise they would not have lowered tolerances.

I did that for 6 years, exactly like that until a month ago.

Sorry for venting. My philosophy is that the drivers who try to eke every minute out of every day are sacrificing safety and maybe their mental health for a few extra dollars in a day. Lot's of new drivers come out of the gate with the hurry, hurry, hurry mentality. But I see the experienced drivers here are much more mellow and therefore much safer. New drivers are much better off if they start slow and easy until they gradually gain the experience to be at top efficiency.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I see Matthew advocating "bending the rules" as a way to get more miles and I see this as a common rookie mistake. I can't say I'm totally innocent of this, but I think I quickly learned that the rules are there because of a good reason.