Swift Transportation can kiss my gluteous maximus!!!

Why and how would someone stay with a company 7 months for $100.00 a week?you really would be better off working at burger king ! There has to be much more than what you are telling us

 

So I've been with Swift for five months counting the time with my mentor. While there have been times when the miles were really bad there have been other times when they were great. I've made a heck of a lot more then $100 a week. So far the benefits have been ok. The insurance is a lot cheaper then buying my own policy. I might not get home exactly when I want, but I do get home close to it. If I stay out an extra week I take an extra day off. I've had no complaints from my DL about it. I've only refused a few loads for HOS and have tried to take every other one they gave me. Even the one that was six miles.

What terminal are you out of? What was the relationship with you DL like?

It could be it's just the wrong time and the wrong job. Things happen.

 

Sheriff how long do you stay out and how many days off do you take.

 

My goal is to stay out three weeks and take three days off. I've never gotten home early, but have gotten home on time. This time I'll be out four weeks and I'll take four days off. I don't think I could take off anymore. I would drive myself and my wife nuts. I do have a project I want to start...machining an AR 15 lower from a solid billet. I may need five days next time.

 

I don't believe this story. Sorry.

 

I won't try to bash this driver just want to put my two cents in. I was with swift for about 9 months quite a few years ago i went to em to learn the dry van part of the industry after driveing a car hauler for 8 years. While I would not recommend them due to my personal experiences I think that they're willingness to train drivers is a good thing for many rookies. As the lack of oversight with the mentors leaves a big whole and the quiality from mentor to mentor varies greatly this is just anecdodal evidence as I only had one for a short time. Money wise I averaged about 700 a week but I was out for 3 months at a time and worked 7 days a week. I didn't turn any loads down no matter how short. The only thing a refused to do was driver unloads but I was lucky and that was never an issue. I went in with one plan in mind that was to learn the industry. I was not looking to get rich but I did make a living. But you do have to work your ### off to make a living. There was sitting around waiting for 2 days at a time and that was not for lack of trying on my part burning the phone lines up looking for loads. Although in the long run swift was not for me I did see quite a few drivers there that had several years in with them and were quite happy. I make a hell of a lot more money now with a lot less head ache and a lot less work but I think swift served its purpose. Although I was young and naive at the time their recruiters do make a lot of promises that aren't kept I've learned this is the case with a number of companies. Overall I think swift is a decent environment for new drivers to learn.

 

A personal friend of mine (ex Army, two tours, Big Red 1) after speaking at length with me about trucking, decided to go to Swift Academy and get his CDL. He passed and went on his mentor truck, who gave him the opportunity to put in 10-11 hour days. He developed the discipline to haul butt and gets his own truck and then....

For three months he never saw close to 2000 miles per week. His paychecks were meager. He tried everything, asking, begging, demanding, whining, being reasonable, doing dispatch "favors" and it never panned out for him. His DM (or whatever they call them) was changed, but everything stayed the same. He went in person to the manager of the terminal he was based out of. Nothing improved milewise...

He is an outstanding young man. He is soft spoken and articulate. He has a car payment. He was using his savings starting the third month he was solo. He saw the writing on the wall and couldn't stick around to catch the brass ring and gave notice...

Thank goodness he didn't use GI benefits for his Swift misadventure. He paid off the school with a low interest credit card and enrolled in college. He's majoring in Criminal Justice. Good for him. Too bad for Swift, they lost a good driver, but I think it matters not to them.

 

It sounds like he went thru alot there. I do believe all this happened, but, in swifts defense, he WAS only a rookie. It takes a good 3 solid years of hardcore otr trucking to really, fully capture and understand "THE ART" of trucking. Trucking in my opinion is not something that can be mastered. No one ever will. You will always learn something new, every single day your out there. It's an art. You have to know it, feel it, think it, work at it, embrace it, and run with it.

 

How long did it take you to master "the art" of spouting nonsense? Mastery has nothing to do with running miles driving dry van. Flatbed would be a different story, hell I'll even say reefer takes a bit to get down but dry van is the easiest and if the guy could drive 2k there is no reason he couldn't do 2500-2800 a week.

Good for your friend glad he didn't stick around and let them drive him into ruin.

 

pick up load , drop off load , get paid.
whats so hard about that ?

Really , its not like its rocket science .