Swift - New Pay Scale complete details

Indeed I do... I thought it was go to school and if you make it you got a cdl. Then ride with a trainer for 3 to 4 weeks and if he thinks your ready you upgrade. Apparently there are a few things I'm missing and I need a mentor before I even get to school LOL

 

Why do you bother showing On duty time for 7 minutes..? Does the DOT actually buy that? Might as well skip it if you're only logging 7 minutes.

When did Swift start paying 49 CPM? Their team rate isn't that high at 15 years xp.

 

the first 50 hrs (first week) with a mentor he will be in the passenger seat. After that if the mentor feels you are ready you will run team for your remaining 150 hrs behind the wheel.

 

OK so that is a total of about 4 weeks with mentor. What happens if he gets home time during my time with him. Do I go home as well and meet back up.

 

It depends where he lives. If your mentor's hometime is nowhere near your home you will stay in a hotel while he is home.

 

On Swifts dime I hope... or is that on me

 

Swift will pay for your hotel. If your mentor is an O/O they will pay up to 3 days of your hotel and after that your mentor is responsible for paying for your hotel. Either way you won't pay for it.

 

I have never understood the people busting on swift, or JB back in the day. Yea, they are the largest target. Kind if comes with having more trucks than just about any other 2 company's combined.
And as many drivers have said "you have to start somewhere". From what I have seen the swift driving academy is as good as most other schools that cost more money. The schools like the one I went to in 1991 do not exist anymore. Where school was 8 weeks long and with small classes. All covered under government loans and grants.
So if the choice is paying for a 3 week school, or going to a company school for 3 weeks. I would choose the company one, and save my money.
Plus swift has done allot since Jerry took over again to raise the bar on driver areas at terminals, and started to pay attention to keeping drivers, or getting them back.

The new pay is a push in the right direction. Nobody likes doing short haul. With the current HOS short haul with fixed pickup and delivery times make life hard on the driver. You end up running all the hours you can, just to park in a place you really don't want to, in order to setup for the next load. Short loads really change your start and end times, since you are at the mercy of the customer service person that fixed the appointments. Sure, you can legally do them. But they are normally set to with way to much time or tight, so that you are parking in receiver lots out of your 14 with no food or facilities in sight.
With long loads this is not as big an issue. Also HHG miles hurt more on short loads. Since you will still loose the same number of miles on each load as on the long ones. But it is a higher percentage of the loads miles.

Anyway. Sorry to ramble. I think they are really trying. But only time will tell.

 

I'm currently working for swift now. As soon as this yr is over I'm moving on. Swift has good training program and everybody has to get experience somewhere but it's not somewhere I want to stay imo. The problem most ppl have with swift is the middle management in the company. Your success or happiness at swift will hinge on what terminal you are operating out of as well as who your driver manager is. I've found that a lot of dm's simply don't give a #### at swift. Also I've never driven 3000 miles in a wk with swift. With my DM I would be lucky to get 2200. From what I have seen swift likes to balance ppls check book. If you do pretty well one week they have a habbit of sitting you the next week. Moreover, there's a huge problem in this company when it comes to getting folks home on time. If I've been out for over a month and I'm suppose to be going home I would like to get there at some point especially once I've given like two and a half weeks notice. Nevertheless, you won't get there on time you will start getting random loads in every other direction besides your home. This is a frequent problem. That and them screwing up my check in payroll repeatedly. Like I said it's a place to start off don't stay imo

 

I am new to this thread, and my question may have been already answered somewhere else, so thank you in advance for indulging me...
I am seriously contemplating 2 company driving academies, Swift being one (Lewiston, ID). Once I am solo would I still get paid miles while empty? Do I keep the same trailer at all times or do I pick up new ones with a load?... maybe there is another thread this question should go in...(?)