Swift ranking system. How to accurately predict when our ranking will go up...

No child left behind...
Everyone a winner...

That is exactly what these programs are all about.

With a -25 just for Fresh Start, how long would it be for even the worst of drivers to get back to zero?
I could understand knocking 5 points off. But 25? !!!
That is not simply over the top, it is insane.

I thought the safety score meant something. I guess I was wrong.
I thought Platinum meant something. But if is made easier just to get more drivers in the 'club', it doesn't mean squat.

 

they would have plenty of plat drivers if they did not go out of their way to keep them from getting play like bogus preventables or seeing they have high miles and tanking them just enough to drop the rank.

Lots of the guys that have been swift for years all seem to agree that once you have been plat for a while they will screw you over for a week or 2 just to drop you down to stop you from hitting diamond. Hell they did it to my mentor, a flat bet cut him off and blew a tire causing gater to blow one of his tires and they sacked him with a preventable 1 month before he hit diamond.

 

I've had a couple service failures that were not my fault either.
They kept me from Platinum status for some time.

Some things are unfair to me personally, while others are unfair to the best drivers as a class.
Fresh Start, and if they change the requirements for Platinum or any other ranking, are things that are unfair to the whole - as well as the company.
Actually, it's insulting.

 

IMO driver status should be about your productivity. If you are never late and always running lots of miles (which means making the company money) then that should determine you rank.

The messed up thing is that they can throw a preventable on you for anything they want. I saw them hit a guy with a preventable because a rock cracked his windshield, they claimed "following too close" or some BS. As long as swift does everything in their power to screw their drivers they will always be a company with 100%+ yearly turnover rate.

 

I've had several windshields replaced from rocks that cracked them.
Never a question.

Eckoh, you seem to have a lot of knowledge about all the bad things in your 0-1 years of experience.
From your several posts in this thread I might imagine that you have a bone to pick.
You didn't give details about the equipment failure that landed you with a preventable. Was it something that could have been noticed in a proper pre-trip?

You talk about Swift going out of their way to screw drivers, but I have not seen it in over 4 years.
Sure, I got a couple that I thought were unfair. But I've never had the feeling that Swift did anything against me simply to keep me down.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
They could have fired me many times over just for my idle times.
Same goes for out of route miles, refused loads, and any number of things.

I'm lazy, I idle too much, I pick and choose most of my loads.
With nearly every pplan I adjust the times to give myself more time.

And with all that, I never feel singled out by the loads I am offered or how I am treated.
I've refused 3 loads in a row, just to be handed a sweet one just after.

I've had many occupations and worked for many companies in my many years.
I doubt I could raise more than one hand of fingers to the companies that have treated me any more fairly than Swift has done.
At the moment I can think of only 2 that have been on-par. The Magic Pan, and The Computer Room.

Swift is not perfect, to be sure.
But neither are we.
And sometimes we have to look in the mirror, to see the flaw in the machine.

 

It was a pre loaded trailer with a rotted door i was told i had to take and deliver and the rotted door fell apart at a shipper hitting the truck next to me. I told them about the door they told me to go deliver and have it fixed after.

Like i said on the windshield thing, they will pick and choose what they want to do. Most of the time it WHO you talk to, get someone on a bad day and they screw you get someone in a good mood and they are fine.

I have no plans to leave swift at this time, but they have done some VERY questionable things to mess up my miles and driver rank and getting them fixed is such a #### hassle most people just say screw it and that is their system.

I know i guy that drove into a ditch and had to be towed out, he gets no preventable after getting stuck in the ditch. I get a preventable for a rotting door falling apart that they forced me to run with. Like i said it all depends on who you talk to that day.

When i talked to safety when they made my incident a preventable the guy said he was expecting my call because he knew it was BS, he said swift often pulls that crap to see what drivers give a #### an which ones don't. That is direct from a swift safety employee.

They have good and bad like any company, but to throw a preventable on a driver just to see if they will call BS on it is dirty business IMO

 

Eckoh...I feel your pain man, and know exactly how you feel. I've seen many of the things you describe with other Swifties I know running out of Lancaster and Columbus. It doesn't make sense to me either and much of the rhetoric is opposite of what they preach...and it seems to be getting worse.

I ran a hazmat tanker load from L.A. to south of Greely CO last week. I'm especially careful and thorough with these loads and have NEVER had an issue with anything like inspections or cops. I had just finished coming down from Loveland Pass (hazmat cannot use Eisenhower on I-70) when 2 goose stepping Nazi Colorado State Police special hazmat enforcement clowns pulled me over for a full on Level2 hazmat inspection. I thought Great!, I'm legal and will get a $100 bonus for the inspection.

Turns out these two ###hats had an agenda to find SOMETHING to justify their jobs to their superiors. They held me there for two hours, made me late, and violated me because they thought the first tote at the front, weighing 2,000lbs, should be better braced!!! WTF!!!!! Never mind that I had just gone 1,100 miles across 4 states, 5 major mountain ranges and was only 40 miles to final and that tote had not moved one inch!! The shipper and I both had installed various cargo restraints at the dock and they worked!!

I was livid and had to end my rebuttal to these two jerks and walk away before I ended up with cuffs on. I will now have that violation on my Federal PSP score. I talked to Swift about it and they were pretty much "tough ####e for you" and hit my RA score even after I volunteered video of the load securement (I video all hazmat loads prior to sealing the trailer for my own protection). They weren't interested.

End result is I got the shaft and Swift punished me cuz we all know that COPS NEVER LIE!!
I told Safety, my Term Mgr and DM that I will never EVER haul another general freight hazmat for this Company. I have to protect my CDL cuz SWIFT will never back me up.

This attitude to blame drivers for anything and everything without considering Swifts own involvement is one of the big reasons I am positive I will move on to another Company this summer. The only hazmat I'll haul now is dedicated liquids, in dedicated tankers to dedicated customers...such as crude oil or chemicals...NO gasoline!!

 

One more reason I no longer have HM endorsement.
The only time I've been pulled over for an inspection was because I was hauling a HM load.

Funny thing, though.
The cop got stung by a bee as he started the inspection, and cut me loose when he started to feel bad.
Poetic, I must say.

 

Ah, so!
It was preventable after all.

CYA!!!

You noticed it and decided to take it anyway.
As the driver it is your choice, no matter what anyone tells you to do.

I fully understand your position, and I would be upset by it too.
But in the end, the driver is responsible for any equipment they choose to use.

You can blame Swift for this, but in the end it was your own decision to move that trailer when you could have put it out of service and demanded that the load be transferred to a safe trailer.

I'm not trying to be harsh about this.
But we all have to realize that WE are the end game.
We are the ones that have the FINAL decision - NOT someone on the phone.
And we are the one that takes the heat if something goes wrong - that we could have prevented if we just said NO!!!

 

Oh man, that's sad but hilarious!!

i don't dislike or feel disrespect for Police in general... It's a thankless underpaid job for the risk.
But I have nothing but contempt and scorn for unethical snakes that have the audacity to wear that badge.