Swift Average Miles Per Week

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Swift has a driver ranking system. When first starting you're Bronze, then you go to Silver..to Gold...to Platinum. The highest I'm aware of is Diamond. I'm not sure but I believe you have to be Platinum for 12 consecutive quarters, 100% on time and no accidents. You also get a special life size Superman Diamond driver decal on your truck.

All drivers that qualify each quarter, regardless of rank, get a mileage bonus as well. As a Platinum driver, running good miles, the bonus is significant. Mine was $1000 last quarter. Lepton's makes mine look like chump change with the miles he gets from teaming!!

Platinum, O/Ops and Diamond also have access to a in-house load selection board that offers up to 3 loads to choose from

 

I would add, get to know, not just your DM, but every DM in your terminal. Your DM isn't working 7/24 and won't always be able to answer your call. You want to have a relationship with every DM you will work with.`

 

Remember that you are selling your 70. Make the most efficient use of your time for driving and on duty.

In class and orientation they say you should trip plan based on an average of 50 mph. That is the average from the moment you log on duty pretrip to the moment you log back to sleeper berth after your post trip. It includes drive time, on duty AND off duty time. If you log a lot of off duty time during the day it means your average mph will actually be as little as 40 mph, putting you way behind schedule.

Here's a prime example of losing time, always taking your "comfort" and rest breaks at a truck stop. My descending preference for a "comfort" break is first a good exit ramp to "check the tires", then a rest area, last at a truck stop. If I pull off at an exit ramp I can check the tires and be sitting in the drivers seat waiting for my off duty time to hit five minutes (the Qualcomm registers a minimum of five minutes for a duty change and then goes by the minute). Parking is easy and I'm up to freeway speed again within a minute. Rest areas are a little slower because you sometimes have to drive a bit to get into a tight parking spot and make the walk to the restroom. Truck stops are the worst. Often you have to get through traffic lights and fight traffic, from the time you slowed from cruising speed until you get back to cruising speed can be 20 minutes or more. If you take three such rest breaks a day you are wasting an hour versus the easy on or off ramp.

 

If I am "checking the tires" on a ramp, I don't bother going off duty, just climb back into the truck and go. I avoid rest areas and truck stops for the same reasons Lepton mentions.

 

the only bad thing about the off ramp option is 2 fold. First its not legal everywhere and you can get ticketed for it, second if some drunk dumb ### hits you while you are parked on an on/off ramp you are at fault because it is not a safe heaven.

I do not love truck stops but i plan to be near one at the end of my hours, if there is no truck stop near my end of hours then there is normally a wal mart near where i need to stop at.

Now i am still new to soloing, but i got 2850 miles last week as a new driver and set to have that again as long as i can get out of the ice in fargo in the morning. I lost today because of ice, hell the ice was so bad a truck jack knifed at the flying J accrost the street and took out the fuel island..

 

I remember that feeling peewee. Ignore the haters I had a great time at the academy and at Swift in general. I would recommend the flatbed division they kept me rolling. Also Chris Morgan is now running things over there and he is the best office dude I have ever dealt with in this industry.