Well I am a different people, and I have a gripe, not with Swift as a company on the whole but with certain key management individuals. I will not pass my differences with Swift beyond that, I don't disrespect the drivers, I still offer my help to any Swift driver..I more than some, understand what the goings on inside Swift are. Yes they have problems, so does every other company running freight, especially the training companies, remember training company isn't just for drivers it also includes office staff, shop staff, and every position within the company.

As for the Instructors, and all the personell in the academies..they do care and know who gets hired. They have a position as Instructor, how they do their job reflects on their performance as well as how their students do when testing for the CDL. They totally understand the process within Swift, since they have been through it themselves, they put time in as drivers, Mentors, and Swift employees to get to know the workings. Every day, a fleetwide report is generated from Phoenix, telling each Manager what the operating level is and it is broken down by zones and overall levels..this is then copied and given to every D/M and planner so all personell (office) know where the good freight areas are and the bad freight areas are. D/M's need this information to advise their drivers when to accept or decline a load pre-plan from the area planner. Good D/M's do anyway, the not so good and bad D/m"s well a different story there! This information also goes to the Academies, so that the Academy personell can let the students know what is going on with the company, they are also instructed NOT to paint an over-rosy picture to the students, that would be foolish when you thnk about it.

97% means that a particular zone may have 120% booking of freight, but another zone may be -30%, when all zones are averaged, it is easily attainable for 97%. Certain areas might only have 5 trucks within the area, unloading that day, but the booked freight could be 30 loads..that is over the 300% that Swift uses to establish their operating load percentage. As you do not understand, or probably had never taken the time to learn about the dynamics of what the planners, D/M's, sales, and logistics division do, or how they get their percentages, don't try to cast dispersions on what the figures really are.

What would OOIDA know of the internal workings of day to day business of this or any company, from overall stock market numbers, or business projections to investors would be the only inside information OOIDA could gleen any information. Since Swift is now a private company, there are no stock numbers to go on..they are going on complaints from drivers like you, but they don't see much positive from drivers like Texas-Nana.

Yes we all agree Recruiters lie..they have quotas to fill on applications and also on approved applications..what these percentages are is not known by anybody outside of recruiting..since I don't lie well..recruiting was never even a thought for me...but they have nothing to do with, or are concerned with the load percentages from the zone or nationwide. Each recruiting area is given a quota for their region, not the nation, for their region...regions are determined by terminal location only..not national numbers!

Western Fleet Manager...who might this be? Each terminal has, determined by their total truck and driver count, "x" number of fleeet managers. Phoenix has three, Lathrop has two, Sparks and Troutdale and Lewiston each have one each terminal is different. Since your location showing here in your info box says Arizona, I will assume you were out of the Phoenix Terminal...so western fleet manager is that zone of the Phoenix planning area...don't inflate your story with inflating somebodies position please.

Back in May, and the previous 3 months, like every other company, Swift was extremely low percentage wise. They were still trimming their total fleet size down to a level that would sustain the company, and the drivers. More to business than just the drivers, some business education would help you understand the operating issues of a mega company.

See above for the first part of this section. As for the academy being a cash cow...probably a real profit getter for Swift, but for your government handouts..Swift gets tax breaks for every student they accept and hire, this agreement is through the Department of Labor, reward for getting people off the unemployment/welfare system and working...no other comment from me regarding this...as I know the earned income right now is not good.

Swift does not deny that their miles aren't what they as a company would want, let alone what any driver wants or expects. I think you were expecting more than what was available, but your 1200 miles per week was actually about average for the Feb-May freight that Swift had available...yes teams and Mentor trucks were getting preference over solo drivers, but that is because of the freight rates certain shippers pay for the team movement, along with other factors.

The shower issue has always made me laugh...why would you need more than one shower per fill of your tank? Every truck stop offers a shower for either 50 or 75 gallons of fuel. The drivers that did not get hit with the shower loss, were the drivers on dedicated driver unload (like Dollar Tree and the likes) since they need a shower after unloading a full trailer onto a roller rack...did you try this fun thng.I did Kmart dedicated out of
Sparks for almost two years, roller rack un loads are fun, they keep you in shape...hell I could see my toes back then from fingerprinting every box in the trailer!

Damaging your finger on the job...I'm going to let this one pass!

Ford; keep your goals set high, freight is improving, Swift trucks are moving..not to the levels we were in the past, but improving all the same. Depending on what terminal you will run out of, will determine if you will have a wait for a truck when you get your CDL and get finished with your Mentor...don't be gentle on your Mentor either..if you have a question, no matter how dumb YOU may think it is...ASK..make sure your Mentor allows you to hit as many docks as he can...the hardest part of driving a big rig is the thing we do the least of...BACKING! Pay attention to his teaching, to the information he offers, no matter how redundant it may be..driving a big rig is always changing, minute by minute, a never ending series of little things that never remain static, always, always changing. Stay focused on your task, learn all you can...the day you don't learn something, or discover something new...is the day you need to hang up your keys!

Good Luck to you Ford!

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I'm a Born Again American, conceived in Liberty
My Bible and the Bill of Rights, my creed's equality
I'm a Born Again American, my country 'tis of me
And everyone who shares the dream
From sea to shining sea.
lyrics; Keith Carradine thank you

Thank you Otherhalf.

However...........was that a typo? [quote][I don't disrespect the drivers,/QUOTE] I figure so since I've read other posts. Anyway.........I know you respect me and I respect you; that's really all that matters.

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[quote=Texas-Nana;942023]Thank you Otherhalf.

However...........was that a typo? So , let's all have a group hug now.

Just to add a little bit to this. In Lewiston, the Academy instructors are now able to keep track of students that have graduated. This started being tracked in January 2009. Of all the students that have graduated from Lewiston since January there are only 7 students that have been terminated by Swift.
The instructors do care about the students and how they do once they are in the fleet!

I am sure that this is all correct! Now here is what was explained to us by the Academy manager:
Swift is a self insured carrier, the first 2 million dollars for any accident comes from Swift. Anything over that comes from one of the large Insurers.
Now for some figures, $2,000,000 for an accident. The Lewiston academy has an operating budget of 1,100,000 for 2009. The tuition collected from student for 2008 was $220,000. These numbers were presented to us to show that they do not make a profit on our tuition.
It was explained to us that Swift makes money when they train new drivers correctly, so as to have less accidents.

Thank You otherhalftw for that advice. I have already learned in life that you need to listen to those that know what they are talking about. I will be out of the Sumner WA terminal, and I am hoping for a good mentor. I have already had a few reccomendations from other Swifties, but I will take one that is available to get started.
As for now, I am just taking it all in.

Well we started out the day with 9 students, even though we ended day 3 with 11. One student voluntarily left, because he was having trouble with all the written tests.
The second student got sent home because of an old arrest in another state. Once again, tell them EVERYTHING, even if you think it has been long enough since it happened.

On a side note, I had a Domestic Violence charge in 2005. Without all the details here, I never went to jail, and did 12 months probation. Because I informed Swift of this on my application, and was fully vetted by Swift's Security department, I was accepted into the school, and will be hired when I graduate. Some of the students that have been dismissed had the same charges from 2001 and older. Since they were not honest on the application Swift sent them home as soon as they found out about the charges.

Day 4 started with the class splitting into groups by home state. Each group observed the State pre-trip inspection. This was very detailed and each step was demonstrated by the instructor.

Next we had 4 different stations on the driving range. We split into teams of 2 students, with on group having 3. With 8 trucks each student had a truck except for the team of 3 which had on student switch in.

The stations included a Straight back, offset back, and two different docking stations. We rotated through the stations for one hour at a time, for eight hours today. This was a great day with a lot of hours behind the wheel. Everyone learned a lot today, and we all saw great improvement on the range.

Ford -
I, sincerely, am glad you had a good day but with regard to your statement about being hired when you graduate, I believe you could see there are no promises. In fact, when I was speaking with someone about my student loan there, they, specifically, stated there were no guarantees with regard to job placement with Swift upon graduation. (This came up with that #87 in line and months before I got into a truck issue). I spoke with the loan people at this time and they were quite clear the loan is my responsibility job or no job with Swift.

[quote=Windjammer2;942178]
Grow up cowboy. Otherhalf and his wife T'sW happen to be friends of mine so yes we might just have a group hug. As for the question if it was a typo.......yeah I misread his post. Big freaking deal.

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[quote=Texas-Nana;942607]Hey Nana -
First, please don't even suggest I'm a damn TX cowboy - not in this lifetime

Second - it was not I who asked about the typo. Why, that was your good friend otherhalf!

Just to get the facts straight.

It's fun just sitting back watching all the enthusiastic Swifties, soon, no doubt, to be former Swifties. The numbers are WAY against you.

Suggestion? Keep the DAC clean, although from what I've seen and heard, having a clean DAC working for Swift is virtually an impossibility. You might want to have resumes out there.

You obviously think I am stupid, and did not do any research about Swift! I have read all the posts, blogs, and sites that complain about Swift. I have also talked to a lot of drivers that are still with swift, or moved on after completing the contract to pay for school. I probably know more about Swift than most students that sign this contract. I also know that I will be successful here just as I have been in other endeavors.

Yes, they even tell us in school on day 1 when we sign the contract that there is NO guarantee of employment with Swift. This is because you can't get a job as a Swift driver if you can't get your cdl.

Your experience with Swift is different than mine. As has been stated several times in this post, when you went to school freight was down. That is why you were on a list of 87 drivers. This time of year freight is up for Swift, and will get better in the coming months.

As with all the other students of swift's academy, when I get my cdl, I will be offered a job.

[quote=Windjammer2;942627]
Actually it was I who asked Otherhalf. Just to keep facts straight. As for suggesting you're a Texas cowboy........sorry but I didn't.

Until now, I've never been anything but kind to you and sympathetic. I've disagreed with you but always been kind and sympathetic to your situation. How sad that you find it not only impossible to move on in your own life but that you seem to have such a twisted need to attack me.

Weird. Very weird.

If the only place in your life that you can make yourself feel like a big man is on this thread on this forum.............how very sad for you I feel. Go drive your bus, be happy, have a wonderful life, make a ton of money. I hope you do ALL of those things. I pray for nothing but blessings to be showered upon you by God.

I won't be answering you directly any longer. If you make posts that I disagree with I'll address that but as for personal conversation I won't be replying to you. Any further insults by you will be forwarded to forum staff.

Oh, and forget about the offer to buy you a cup of coffee, you're a little to manic for me to be willing to meet in person.

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