Swift School stinks in my own opinion

[Simplicity]

I failed their road test in Ocala for orientation and was told the Milington school could be an option as I already had my CDL. They do not let you GOAL when you back during their testing. I confirmed this and wanted in wiriting but they would not. Their backing lanes are 9ft wide compared to the other schools who test at 12ft wide. I tested out at Roadmaster in Orlando and got my CDL from them. To me their school was easy compared to Swifts. I was and am thankful for the instructors there. I am challenged as I have a learning diasability. Therefore, I did some 1 on 1 for my pretrip with Big John and passed with flying colors the next day. If I needed help, they helped me out.

Swift: For the offset demonstration, my instructor hit five cones and I hit none. John says he does not get to be in a truck every day and used this as an excuse. I had not backed one up in a year, and I was able to hit the lane dead center and got her straight in a 9ft box with 3in on each side. Swift may be a good company, but in my opinion their school in TN sucks. I had trouble with the pre-trip, and got no help when I asked. They referred me to the study sheet.

Simplicity

 

[patriciajnsn]

Somebody else here attended a swift school and the next day he went home.I guess they did everything but encourage him.They downgraded him and yelled aat him.Pretty much told him he'll never drive trk.Glad u got your CDL thru another school.All it takes is some one on one time.

 

[Road Dust]

I too was a little annoyed with the lack of one on one time at Millington, especially since it was a sharp contrast to the school I had attended previously where students were told every move to make and not allowed to do anything any other way. One of the instructors at Millington explained it to me like this. If the student is allowed to do something over and over, then eventually they will find their own way of doing it, it will eventually click, and they will be more likely to apply it to any situation they might come across in real life. But if they are told ever move to make in order to pass a test, ie memorizing a exactly how many times to turn the wheel or using a specific marker to know when to start turning the wheels, well it might not apply to every location you end up in otr. Also, every student learns differently and letting them find their own way is sometimes better than forcing some other drivers techniques on them. Yes, it was frustrating but I found the instructor was correct. It eventually clicked after practicing it over and over and learning by my own mistakes. There was only one other person in my class that did not pass and she was given the option of staying another week.

 

[MustangLX]

If the student is allowed to do something over and over, then eventually they will find their own way of doing it, it will eventually click, and they will be more likely to apply it to any situation they might come across in real life.

That is the only way to learn any manual skill, trucking or otherwise.
That's how I learned the fundamentals of backing; by just getting in the truck and doing it over and over one night when I thought nobody was watching.
I was in the Army and they didn't really care if we knew how to back or not, but I wanted to learn so I could get a real job when I got out.

 

[patriciajnsn]

Backing I would say is the hardest to learn and why many don't succeed.People including myself when I first started tends to treat a semi like a car.They forget they have a 53 ft trl and over steerr.But like you all say,you do it over and over and over,you'll get the concept of it.The real practice comes in when you're out here.