Swifts new Idle policy - Page 12 - Truckers' Trucking Forum

skibum_63 · **^ Top** #**111** 06.08.2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoDarville01

First off, i've heard APUs suck. They cost $10,000+ and cost a thousand to just look at one when it breaks down. Really not worth it in the short term. LONG term, if you get units that dont break down, and drivers who know how to take care of them.....i mean come on.....if you have a driver who cant take care of a $100,000 truck, and a new truck they put 30k miles on, looks more like a 300,000 truck, i wouldn't put $10,000 apu on that truck.

Strange, i have 4,000 hrs on my company issused APU.
In that 4,000 hrs only once have i had any problems, with it. Ws sent to a Thermo King dearler and they had it fixed in 60 min.

I take care of it. I include checking it, adding oil if need be during pretrips.

Love the fact i have a 1,800 watt inverter with it. Apu is plumbed into the 12 volt system as well as the coolinat sysytem for the trucks's engine. No need for warm up on tose cold days.

2 years ago, the company spent something like $16 mill. to equip all thier trucks except the day cabs. Today, that investment is more than half way paid off, with the savings of not having to idle.

semicomputing · **^ Top** #**112** 06.08.2009

Originally Posted by BoDarville01

First off, i've heard APUs suck. They cost $10,000+ and cost a thousand to just look at one when it breaks down. Really not worth it in the short term. LONG term, if you get units that dont break down, and drivers who know how to take care of them.....i mean come on.....if you have a driver who cant take care of a $100,000 truck, and a new truck they put 30k miles on, looks more like a 300,000 truck, i wouldn't put $10,000 apu on that truck.

Get a good APU with a 3 yr warranty, it pays for itself in 2 yrs, yo still have a year of warranty to profit from it. Even if it does fail after the warranty you profited.

3.14 · **^ Top** #**113** 06.08.2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by IH Scout

Apparently they have instituted a new policy, I really wasnt able to get a straight answer from the fleet manager, thats the driver managers boss. Originally they wanted the idle percentage below 40 %, then it moved to 35,..now its at 20. I had a 788 mile trip with 9.75 hrs of idle in order to sleep and they told me I was over by 26%. I had a 46% idle rate on that trip from Houston to Atlanta.

I went to the website to look at the idle policy and that feature has been locked. Rumors I have been hearing is they are going to put any driver who violates the 20% rule back into Temp A Start trucks, I will leave if they do that. I usually dont bash the hand that feeds me but if taking my 10 hr rest period on a 788 mile run is a violation, they suck.

At 20 percent a 1200 mile run should only result in a driver being able to either sleep twice for about 4.25 hrs or once for 8.5 hrs,..I guess its up to the driver on that.

When they first started getting anal about idle time, they stated 10 hrs a day, but its not their policy to allow that even, if your trip departs ona Friday afternoon for example, and delivers on Monday AM, but is only say 1200 miles, if you take 3 10 hr breaks over the weekend to keep your body clock right, you will be over the limit because they will tell you you took 1 too many breaks.

I will probably end up leaving over this, I hate to, good equipment and I get good miles and home time,but I was told I needed to learn to sleep in the truck without the A/C and if I couldnt do that, look into Idleaire,..I refuse to do either of those things.

Thoughts???

the policy isn't really all that new. they began enforcing it during the summer of 2007. that was my first full summer with swift. the first month or so, i had troubles handling the idle policy. i ended up requesting runs along the northern portion of the united states, and on occasion, canada. it worked in lowering my idle percentage.

another year rolls around, i'm running more miles than the months before. suddenly i hit a dry spell later in the month of august of last year. i was running around in the south a LOT. the heat and humidity were driving me a bit crazy. there's nothing worse than taking a shower only to feel like you're in a sauna after exiting the building. there wasn't any point in drying myself off.

anyway, the way i made it work for me was to hook up to idle aire. yeah, it's expensive. however, it kept me from being barked at from my driver manager. i ended up being one of the few with an idle percentage of 5% or less.

the way anybody else handles the b.s. policy is up to them. do i think it's right? no. i'd like to see somebody crank up their thermostat and turn up the heat, just to see how they like it. wait, they'll all probably go home and operations will come to a standstill due to the lack of air conditioning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by otherhalftw

Don't kid yourself, Jerry has tried filing Chapter 11 on his hockey team, Jerry and Swift are in some real financial trouble...just got stuck with 250 nice brand new day cabs for a contract that he didn't get (LA Harbor), now these trucks are neatly parked in the Mira Loma terminal against the fence...but they are still brand new...just unused.

jerry isn't the shotcaller anymore. he quietly stepped down in january. i didn't even know this until two days after i had put in my 2 week notice, which was early march. richard stockings is the one in charge now, and it's clear he doesn't really give a turd about the drivers. a whole slew of new junky policies were being put into place 6 months ago.

i ended up staying with swift for a total of 25 months.

48Packard · **^ Top** #**114** 06.08.2009

"Idle Time" is not ACTUAL idle time. It is "Over Idle"...ours kicks in after a couple of minutes of idling.

Last month, my over-idle was 0.79%. Would have been zero, but the last night before reset I just had to get cooled off.

I'm going to try to minimize my IT through June (the end of the current quarter). After that, from July through August and into September, I don't care. I will be comfortable. And I doubt they'll say anything, given my track record.

IH Scout · **^ Top** #**115** 06.08.2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3.14

the policy isn't really all that new. they began enforcing it during the summer of 2007.

Up until April of 2009, the policy standard was 35%, now its at 20% that makes it new, it was never 20% in 07 or 08. Reading comprehension is essential in reply to a thread and not looking like an idiot.

otherhalftw · **^ Top** #**116** 06.08.2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3.14

jerry isn't the shotcaller anymore. he quietly stepped down in january. i didn't even know this until two days after i had put in my 2 week notice, which was early march. richard stockings is the one in charge now, and it's clear he doesn't really give a turd about the drivers. a whole slew of new junky policies were being put into place 6 months ago.

i ended up staying with swift for a total of 25 months.

Somehow you think that the OWNER of the company doesn't call the shots. The company isn't public anymore, it is private, so the owner calls the shots, the employees follow directions and directives.

Explain to me why all of Jerry's family, in all the companies he owns, have "left the building", employees have been elevated to positions of authority, and the Moyes family is out and about enjoying the fruits of everybody elses labor.

Not having any actuall proof, so, IMHO the company is going under, piece by piece, maybe slowly, but sinking. Maybe Jerry doesn't want to be present with the dirty dealings being handed down, he wants an out to blame someone else for the failure.

3.14 · **^ Top** #**117** 06.08.2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by otherhalftw

Somehow you think that the OWNER of the company doesn't call the shots. The company isn't public anymore, it is private, so the owner calls the shots, the employees follow directions and directives.

Explain to me why all of Jerry's family, in all the companies he owns, have "left the building", employees have been elevated to positions of authority, and the Moyes family is out and about enjoying the fruits of everybody elses labor.

Not having any actuall proof, so, IMHO the company is going under, piece by piece, maybe slowly, but sinking. Maybe Jerry doesn't want to be present with the dirty dealings being handed down, he wants an out to blame someone else for the failure.

i don't really care either way. i don't drive for them anymore. some of it due to wanting nothing to do with the pre-summer fear campaign about being over a certain percentage on idling. the rest of it due to wanting to go back to school once the fall semester rolled around. it's not going to happen since some local employment opportunities fell through.

i'm still waiting on the ruling in the class action suit about the rip-off mileage (hhg). that case is still going on. i'm eagerly awaiting the day something happens about it. i hope it ends in the favor of the drivers.

otherhalftw · **^ Top** #**118** 06.08.2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3.14

i don't really care either way. i don't drive for them anymore. some of it due to wanting nothing to do with the pre-summer fear campaign about being over a certain percentage on idling. the rest of it due to wanting to go back to school once the fall semester rolled around. it's not going to happen since some local employment opportunities fell through.

i'm still waiting on the ruling in the class action suit about the rip-off mileage (hhg). that case is still going on. i'm eagerly awaiting the day something happens about it. i hope it ends in the favor of the drivers.

Don't mean to be a doomsayer, but in the 13 years I was with Swift, I saw this same issue and suits tried 3 times I can remember, and Swift came out on top each time. Please note, I did say WAS WITH SWIFT!

3.14 · **^ Top** #**119** 06.08.2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by otherhalftw

Don't mean to be a doomsayer, but in the 13 years I was with Swift, I saw this same issue and suits tried 3 times I can remember, and Swift came out on top each time. Please note, I did say WAS WITH SWIFT!

word.

message was too short.

BRONCO · **^ Top** #**120** 06.10.2009

Idle time only adds up when the brakes are set and out of gear . Atlest that is how this one works. I dont know if they all work that way or not.

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