Seems druid2874 is a cheerleader for Swift (Students With Idiots For Traniners) and I thought only JBH had plants. LOL I have heard for a long time that Swift was bad news. And unless things have changed, P.A.M. (Penny A Mile) is another slave wage company. In 1999 they only paid newly graduated drivers (now I know graduates do not make as much as veterans) $.22 per miles and kept miles around 1800 miles a week. $396.00 before taxes and other deductions. No matter what kind of ETA you would give your dispatcher it was not uncommon for you to sit for days waiting for a load. One time when I was on the truck with my husband we had a load to deliver in Mi. We kept our dispatcher advised of our ETA hoping he would get us a load. We dropped at the receiver 2 hours early on a Friday. 11 am in the morning. And we sat and sat until Monday morning when they got us a load finally. I haven't seen anything about P.A.M. on this forum and I know this was about Swift but I thought I would throw this in for good measure.

Back when I was just first starting out, I nearly went with PAM. Today I'm glad I didn't. PAM offered to train drivers in those days for free if they signed a contract to drive for them a year. I think the penalty was around 3500 bucks for students who did runners on their contracts. Luckily, as it WAS just plain luck, I went to a mill, which also turned out to be a mistake. But with PAM, I'd have defaulted on the $3500.00 charge if I'd have quit during that first year. At least I kept my credit report clean by going with the mill.

Turbo and others... Yep it's me again, and I know I said I would not be back, but here I am, for the specific purpose of offering up my apologies to all that I slammed (especially TurboTrucker and the person I referred to as a 'whiner'). Kind of took me a while to cool off and come back, but here I am. I was wrong in my approach, wrong in my delivery, and most likely wrong in my content on the company as a whole (although I am still an employee, still pulling down a good paycheck and getting my miles, and still driving the same KW900L, now with over 200,000 miles... took a three month break from driving to work in the office), but not convinced. I accept that others (and apparently ONE HELL OF A LOT OF THEM) have other opinions, and I apologize for my lack of decorum in my nasty responses. I am still happy with the job and the folks I work with. I got 11,500 miles last month (qualifying for the maximum productivity bonus of $250), and will get it again this month. I am still 'left alone to do my work' and get full support from my office staff. Due to the company's less than stellar reputation, I am DOT inspected AT LEAST once a month, and of course, have never had a violation. Anyway, one of the DOT guys that inspected me said 'I don't see too many Swift drivers that have their stuff together like you do', and that got me to doing a bit of research on my own. Guess what? I concede that a large portion of this company 'does NOT have it's stuff together'... yep, you are right... all I can say is that I am glad I am shielded from that stuff by my staff. I also did some Q and A's with a lot of other Swift drivers, and once again, I admit that you are right... most of them were unhappy and looking to leave. "My little reality as I know it" does not seem to fit the reality of the vast majority. Please accept my apologies for my unprofessional behavior. In the future, I will only write when I have something of value to contribute. In the mean time, if anyone is considering this company, you better look at working out of Albuquerque as an IELC driver if you want a fair shake. They hire from all over the country (you don't have to live in Albuquerque). Otherwise, I would stay away from the J.B.'s, U.S.A.'s, Swift's and the like. Lesson learned, crow eaten, back on the road. By the way, you NEVER worked as hard as I do! hehehehehe! Madman

How do I know Swift sucks?

1. All the help-wanted ads in papers every day of the world.

2. Orientations that look more like boot camp inductions. Every week at their orientation terminals, the orientation classroom area looks like a Wal-mart the day after Thanksgiving. And these newbie drivers aren't there because Swift is a growing company. These drivers are there because they are replacing all the drivers the week before who quit because Swift sucks.

3. Swift terminals have acres of clean-out trucks sitting around waiting on new suckers to come drive for 'em.

4. All the links to bad testimonies lead to websites that were put together with hard work. The builders of said sites wouldn't have put in all that work if they were simply 'whiners'.

So, before you start badmouthing us EX-Swift drivers, and I thank the good lord above that I can call myself an EX-Swft driver, just know that the people you label 'whiners' far, far outnumber the polyannas like yourself. I mean, if a few guys complained about Swift, I could see your point and maybe even agree with you. But Swift has like 125% turnover, meaning every new hire today will be gone in 9 months. Those numbers don't lie.

Have you ever thought that just MAYBE Swift is using you as their poster boy? They treat you well, and have given YOU the big W900L KW, a truck I NEVER saw even the best trainer at Swift drive, so they can point to you and say "look how we treat our drivers!"

Or maybe you're just another plant who is trying to sell drivers a crock of #### at that crock-of-#### company called Swift transportation.

I'd never work for Swift again, no matter if I drove for the Albuquerque terminal or drove the studly, chrome-covered W900L. No damn way would I do it.

Madman, your third post beat my first post.

After reading your second post and third post, I can tell you're not really a "plant". I suspect you are a indeed a poster boy, though. A walking billboard, so to speak.

When I drove for Swift, I NEVER saw drivers in W900Ls. Yeah, not just the W900s, but the W900L model. The NICE model.

Do you see why I think you're a "poster boy"?

Sorry if I sounded like a smart ### in my first post, but again, I was making my call based on your first post.

Peace out.

The key thing here, in this post about Swift, as well as the posts about JB Hunt, is that there is limited tolerance here for trips off into fantasy world. We don't blindly accept unlimited praise of companies known to have issues, nor do we allow someone to come on here and trash those companies without being challenged. On both sides of the issue, you will get a polite request from someone on here to back up whatever statements you make about a company, pro or con.

We have had people come on and trash their former employer, and people make them either prove their issues, or their postings will be taken with a great deal of skepticism.

In the case of Madman and our new JB recruiter, all that is asked is that you tone down the rhetoric, acknowledge that there may well be problems with where you are at, and then work to solve those problems. If you work at a company with known issues, and you don't have those issues, then you are the perfect source to tell others what is needed to get along there. Maybe you have found the answer that many others are looking for and can share it.

After all, no one likes to see people go to work for any company, and then be turned away unhappy a few months down the line. We all want to see people find great jobs that are going to work for them. And of course, there are people out there who want the moon and the stars handed to them and don't want to do any work in return. But on avrage, if a company has a lot of problems listed and a high turnover rate, then there are some issues to be looked at. And the guys that are working successfully there are ones who can help by presenting their employer realistically, not solely through rose colored glasses.

I agree with both of you, especially about presenting a company with 'rose colored glasses' when it is known to have problems. Here is some more data and opinion for you to mull over.

1. Swift's turnover was 127% last year (two points higher than Burky reported.) The Albuquerque terminal's turnover was 68%. Just under half of Swifts.

2. The majority of drivers working out of the Albuquerque terminal drive for IELC, as Albuquerque is the only terminal that IELC currently works out of. IELC is the company that purchases and leases trucks to Swift's owner/ops. IELC company drivers (like me) drive the repos and excess purchases that cannot be leased. Sweet deal. And yes, it is a KW900L, with the Cummins ISX (no kitty cats, unfortunately).

3. For 2006, IELC is purchasing more W900L's and a whole bunch of T2000's, all in various colors. Us IELC company drivers have yet to see a T2000 under our butts.

4. IELC runs freight exclusively for Swift, and uses the same system as Swift drivers and O/O's

5. I attribute my good experiences over the last three years to the Terminal Manager. The man is a born leader, and a former driver. He hires drivers to fill his staff. Everyone in the office, from Terminal Manager to Driver Managers (dispatchers) are former drivers. I think this is specifically why his terminal does as well as it does. All of the 'carpet dwellers' know first hand what the drivers are going through, and they really chip in to help out.

Okay, now here is a question that I will pose, and answer for you, so you can say "AH HA! I KNEW IT!"... Would I work for Swift out of another terminal? The answer is not just NO, but HELL NO.

Sure hope this helps clear up my points a bit. Also, further research I did on my own helped clean up those 'rose colored glasses' I was wearing.

As for being a 'poster boy', I kind of doubt it. First, I'm a Grandpa, so the 'boy' thing just don't hang!

Madman

Then the real question is. WHY can't ALL Swift Terminals run like yours?
It would then be a great place to work.Yes I know they wouldn't get Kwhoppers.Just stripped down small sleeper VNL670's.

__________________
SKULL, THE INTERNET GOD!

Hey, guys. I enjoy reading ALL your posts, no matter if they're rhetoric or just some minor claim. It's all good.

Madman, when I say you're possibly a 'poster boy', I'm saying maybe Swift is setting you up to be successful so they can use you as an example. Companies need these "walking billboards", and you may be one without knowing it.

But with the Swift-Albuquerque terminal's turnover sitting at about 68%, that hypothesis looks unlikely to be true. That is, unless the whole damn TERMINAL is a "billboard", which may be the case.

One question, though. What happens to this terminal and its regime if the terminal manager flies the coop? I assume Swift today is the Swift of yore. That terminal will go downhill and most of you guys there will be giving up your nice hoods, as this terminal will sink into the same hole that holds the other terminals.

I can't even imagine a W900L decorated in Swift's scheme, let alone a W900L used as a Swift COMPANY truck driven by a company driver. You kinda stunned me with that part of your post.

I do appreciate your follow-up to the previous, and it's refreshing to see someone actually do it. There is absolutely no hard feelings whatsoever.

My basic position has always been that for the inexperienced driver, Swift in GENERAL is not a good place to start. The long term outlook is bleak at best. The horror stories are out there.

As you have so eloquently illustrated, there are for sure, pockets of places that a driver could land with Swift, that offer better than average odds in satisfaction. That would be true for any company. Sometimes all it takes is to draw a good dispatcher, who cares about the people he supervises, and refuses to play the games that so many others play.

Thanks for your candor and your honesty. It truly gives people what they need to digest a situation, in order to arrive at a decision, and if they cared enough, Swift could learn a thing or two by reading what they look like, in the eyes of drivers, in order to clean up their kitchen.