Swift Academy Richmond VA
Topic 6443 | Page 1
Just realized with the timing of all this I may not get a mentor until after Christmas. I was not planning on an extra week out of work. O well I will get through it.
Congrats! Hope you get a mentor soon.
Pretty sure you won't see a report like that on some of the other forums! Especially the part about the 100% free and awesome training that they have here.
Congrats "Cappie" and as always...thanks to Brett and the other TT mentors.
Congratulations, "Cappie" and a very nice post with lots of details . . . that week will go by so fast you won't even realize it . . . I assume your "mentor" is just what other's (like Prime) call a trainer . . . only piece of advice I offer is to be humble and pay attention . . . you will be a guest in someone else's "house" and you need to show respect and pretty well go along to get along . . . even if you get a bit of a jerk there is so much you can learn but you've already shown yourself to be a capable student . . . have fun and you will be on your own before you know it . . .
Jopa
Congratulations, "Cappie" and a very nice post with lots of details . . . that week will go by so fast you won't even realize it . . . I assume your "mentor" is just what other's (like Prime) call a trainer.
Yes one in the same I'm sure. The person you do 200 hours with before testing out and upgrading to solo Swift calls a "Mentor" . I do hope to get a good one because I feel that you can't be a jerk AND a good mentor at the same time. If I don't feel that I'm being trained well I will request another. The school was good however they have 3 weeks. What they teach is pretrip, shifting, backing and some time on the road so just what you need to know for the DMV exam. This leaves a few things to up to the mentor to teach you to say the least. Things as basic as drop and hook , actually moving the tandems not just insuring there properly locked.. words like Jake brake and DEF all not required to know for the state test so we're never even mentioned in the 3 week course. These are just things I consider common sense but the list of things I need from a mentor I'm sure is endless and I at this point clueless as to what they are. In short my expectations from a mentor is that in the short time we have teach me everything possible for the safe and efficient operation of that truck just as I would teach him the same about transporting passengers in any water born vessel and how to deal with DOT regulations and stay legal as I have learned to with USCG regulations.
Tandems:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
Tandem:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.
Drop And Hook:
Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.
In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.
Congratulations, "Cappie" and a very nice post with lots of details . . . that week will go by so fast you won't even realize it . . . I assume your "mentor" is just what other's (like Prime) call a trainer.
Yes one in the same I'm sure. The person you do 200 hours with before testing out and upgrading to solo Swift calls a "Mentor" . I do hope to get a good one because I feel that you can't be a jerk AND a good mentor at the same time. If I don't feel that I'm being trained well I will request another. The school was good however they have 3 weeks. What they teach is pretrip, shifting, backing and some time on the road so just what you need to know for the DMV exam. This leaves a few things to up to the mentor to teach you to say the least. Things as basic as drop and hook , actually moving the tandems not just insuring there properly locked.. words like Jake brake and DEF all not required to know for the state test so we're never even mentioned in the 3 week course. These are just things I consider common sense but the list of things I need from a mentor I'm sure is endless and I at this point clueless as to what they are. In short my expectations from a mentor is that in the short time we have teach me everything possible for the safe and efficient operation of that truck just as I would teach him the same about transporting passengers in any water born vessel and how to deal with DOT regulations and stay legal as I have learned to with USCG regulations.
Most of Swifts schools are the same as in the way to teach. I did the Phoenix school 2 yrs ago. Everything you said at the top post is the same there.
Good school, I got a top notch instructor for my mentor time. Finished within 3-4 weeks. He never drove except when we transferred over to Team driving. I had my 50 Hrs in 5 days of being on the truck, which bumped us to Team status. I found i drove 9.5 - 10hrs a day. which helped finish my 240hrs. Good experience.
Good luck to you, Swift always had trainers so getting one before Xmass shouldnt be to hard, Of course your on the east coast and at the time I was from the west....
Tandems:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
Tandem:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.
Drop And Hook:
Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.
In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.
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I took the high road preparation test here and aced the DMV exam for my permit and went to Swift Academy on November 17th and December 5th I graduated at 97% overall. I got 100% test scores on all but my road test where I got a -6 points. Three of those were not scanning intersections but truth is I just didn't swivel my head to make it obvious to the tester and the other 3 were ramp speed to high. I was 5 under posted and they wanted 10 under. At any rate I feel good about my scores and my overall experience there was great. I'm local so I didn't stay in the hotel but classmates that did lover the room. Fridge, stove clean rooms good area new building and everything you need close buy the shop cheep and cook in the room. As for the Academy make no mistake slackers will go home. Fail one test and you are on AP (academic probation) witch means fail it or any other test range included and your on a bus home. Fail a drug test or get busted drinking even in room on weekend and your out with no bus ticket home... your on your own. This also applies to opposite sex company in your room and they pop in to check. Your there for the school and the school alone so stay focused. With that said I don't want to make them sound unfair because that would just not be true. The tests are challenging but if you.. and I can't stress this enough PAY ATTENTION you will do just fine. It was a fun time and the 5 of us that made it out of the classroom became friends and all graduated this past Friday. We all assigned each other with nick names. It was raining one day and this guy pulled out a box of ponchos he had in his pickup.. he became "poncho" there was "marine" that use to be one "chatter" because he would never stop talking "recluse" never talked and keeped to himself and I was "cappie" being a charter captain and always the voice or reason. Anyway fun times good school and I feel I'm well prepared for my state test at DMV this coming week. So anyone that is thinking about going to this school if you live in PA. NC. or VA. I would highly recommend it. After graduation for your CDL they take you in a truck to your home state to test at DMV. There is no going home transferring your license or saying you live in the state the school is in to get licensed there. It's not a sponsored school swift pays. It is there school at there Richmond terminal and all the instructors are Swift employees so your best interests and the companies do come first. No half ass training just to push you on to fill the needs of some trucking companies paying there salaries.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
Terminal:
A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.