Swift cdl, can you work for another company if you don't drive for swift ?

The CDL belongs to you and only you. Where ever you go the CDL goes with you, you own it.

 

Swift is not the one issuing the CDL it is whatever state you are in. Like I went through Prime to get my CDL and mine said Missouri on it not Prime. The only issue Prime would have had if I left before my year contract was up was the $3,500 I would have owed them for the school but they couldn't touch my CDL since it is issued by the state.

 

The consideration for sending you to school is the one year contract. If you pay off that obligation before the year is up, then the contract is probably voidable. But I've never seen their contract and am not your lawyer

 

Keep in mind folks, most companies with a contract will slander your DAC with abandonment of contract if you leave before contract expires. So keep that in mind. That could keep you from driving for any other carrier every again in your life (reputable that is, not some illegal no good carrier.)

Thanks,

Sean

 

Some companies will try to tell you that you can't , but when you get you cdl , who gives it to you
not them ..DOT is the one that issues it, so they can't do a dam thing other then give you a bad reference.

 

If you quit before your debt for school is paid, then I would agree. They may also sue you, put it on your credit report, send you in to collections, or all of the above. But if, hypothetically, you were saving up your pennies and paid them off early, before the term of your contract ended, then what are their damages? The length of the contract is a function the repayment plan e.g. some companies you pay more per installment for a shorter contract, while at others you pay less per installment for a longer contract. So the purpose of the contract is to pay back the debt that you incurred. If that debt were paid off early the length of the contract would appear to be moot.

I've noticed that some jobs advertise .37cpm with 3 months exp. in the last 12 months. So if you start with a company that is paying .25cpm and may not get to .33cpm within a year, then the difference in pay to the driver is significant. So in my opinion, not only is the law on your side, as I've tried to show above, but it is also bad public policy to restrict a persons earning potential by not allowing them to seek out better employment; higher earnings higher taxes.

 

Something else is the fact that most companies will want proof of schooling if you have less than 1 year of experiance. That information may not be released before your contract is paid.

 

Swift doesn't have a contract requiring you to drive for them regardless whether or not you have the tuition loan paid off however you won't get your records until it is.

 

Not entirely true. There are more companies that don't use DAC compared to those that do including many reputable companies. I always get a chuckle out of the folks that think DAC is this big scary monster that has control over their driving careers. It's so easy to challenge any kind of mark on your DAC report and get it removed.