Swift Average Miles Per Week

Hous and Lepton thanks for the information I'm studying for my CDL permit and considering applying for Swifts trucking school.

 

I've covered concepts I teach when I'm training, with Untethering yourself from having to take 10 hour breaks at truck stops and the need to limit your time Off Duty by efficiently taking care of bathroom breaks. There's another concept that is important that I call "Work Up".

Work Up refers to using as little time to get your 10-11 hours of drive time done, then ONLY taking a 10 hour break to start your next driving shift. If you take a full 14 hours to finish your driving day and take a 10 hour break, then you will be starting the next day exactly 24 hours after you started today. However, if you are able to finish your driving while only using 12 hours of your 14 hour clock, by limiting your Off Duty time to only the required 30 minute break and two bathroom breaks of 5 minutes (along with 20 minutes Pretrip and 5 minutes Post Trip), then you can start tomorrow two hours earlier than you did today. That's "Work Up". If you can do that over the course of 7 days you've gained 14 hours.

When can you "Work Up"? If you are dispatched on a load without appointments for live loads or live unloads, on drop and hooks where the customer will ship or receive 24/7, then you can Work Up. If you are dispatched on a load that is a live unload that shows a firm appointment, you can often call the customer and see if they will receive earlier than the appointment shown on the dispatch. Then you can Work Up.

Often at terminals I hear drivers say something like, "Well I'm taking my time because the deadline for delivery isn't until tomorrow at noon" or "Hey, this is great! I've got three days to run 1000 miles! I can take my time!" If I'm given a load offer that has three days to drive 1000 miles the FIRST thing I'm going to do is call my DM to ask, "What are the pickup and delivery windows?" The DM has access to a lot more information than is given in your load offer or dispatch. Often the DM can tell you that the load can deliver early, or that it is a firm appointment. The ONLY reasons I'd accept a 1000 mile run with three days to deliver it is if I can "t-call" the load somewhere along the route (dropping the load at a terminal for another driver to take to delivery) and get another load, if I'm low on available hours on my 70 hour clock and need to take my time for more recap hours to come back, or if I've been "running and gunning" for days and I feel like I could use a break...

... or if there's a casino along the way and I can run hard and take a 34 hour break and make some money at the poker table...

Don't just accept loads with long delivery times blindly. Work with your DM, with the CSR, and/or with the customer to see if you can run hard and deliver earlier than the dispatch indicates. "Work Up" as you run, even if it means you will arrive much earlier for a firm appointment. On a three day run you can work up to taking much more than just a 10 hour break at the end of your run. Then you have time to do laundry, or go shopping for groceries, or just plain SLEEP to catch up on rest while you can on the road. Otherwise I plan my runs to wake up at least 45 minutes before my 10 hour break is up, shower if I'm at a truck stop, or make my coffee if I'm parked overlooking the Sierra Nevada's and watching a herd of deer, and when my sleeper berth time goes from 9:59 to 10:00 I'm immediately logging On Duty for Pretrip and my day is STARTING.

 

15 minute pre trip ... flag post trip. Been doing it that way on paper and on EOBR ... multiple audits, all passed.

 

15 min pre trip is what dot requires. SWIFT Can Say something but It means NOTHING as you are following the law.

Just like swift says you must be on duty while at a shipper or reciver. Sorry but no one is gonna stay on duty for a 5 hour live load.

Also personally the way I look at my hours is as a 70 hour block. You never "gain" hours you ony lose them. Most my loads I get are over 800 miles. So I look at when I deliver and do my trip plan from there. If I have 3 days to do 800 miles I am asking to deliver early or t call.

Personally I try to do 500 miles on pure drive days as that's about 8 hours of driving. On the day before delivery if it's an early delivery I get to the closest safe haven for a short trip in. If it's a later appointment I plan for that. For example my current load; I was just told I can deliver tonight however it is 164 miles away and only 2:26 left on my 11 so I cannot make it. Therefore I asked if I can deliver before the 11:30 time I was slated for and I got a solid maybe so I will get up around 5 am and drive in as they do not open until 7 then get my next load at Memphis and start heading home as its my home time load.

As is I am about a day behind as ice in Fargo kept me parked on saturday. After hearing a truck jack knifed and took out the fuel island across the street from the loves and the guys were saying I 29 south needed ice skates I decided to park it.

 

Swift rescinded/clarified that about a month after they initially came out with the hard on duty at customer ... all you have to do now is show reasonable time to check in and out ... you can sit off duty/sleeper the rest of the time.

This happened over a year ago. So if I'm reading our profile correctly - less than year/ this past August - Swift has never had a policy in force requiring you to be on duty the entire time at a shipper or receiver since you been with the company.

As for pre trip ... DOT actually requires that no time be logged, only that you do it. 15 minutes is Swift policy.

Now all that being said, the various Swift safety officers at the terminals are a conservative bunch and that will lead you to believe/encourage drivers to go beyond policy, to ensure their terminal has no violations.

Trust me, I've pushed the logging rules far enough to require a personal one-on-one with the head of safety at my terminal.

 

i was told at orientation as well as in the swift "training" videos you are supposed to be logged on duty while at a shipper but no-one does it. Also DOT does require on duty time for a pretrip. regardless, as long as you are DOT legal swift cannot really do anything, they would like more then legal just to cover their ###.

 

Swift issued a PDF and a video over the QC specifically stating that you did not have to be on duty the entire time you were at a shipper.

As I said they are going to oversell you, to ensure that you meet the requirements. Heck, when I went through orientation, they tried to convince us to log 30 minutes for pre trip.

 

1800 to 2200 the first few then you will get more. They want to make sure you can deliver first. Just take what they give you.