Swift Transportation Company, Inc. - Phoenix, Az.

I made the mistake of signing on as a company driver with Swift after surgery, thinking it would be lighter work than I had been doing as a very happy DART lease operator. Are you kidding me? I never heard a company say "If you don't do X, you are fired" so much. That really doesn't motivate me much.

I couldn't hang with them because they demanded that you put your ready time in at the end of a 10hr break (no matter what time or place) and be ready on standby, then, 6 or 7 hours after that they would give you a load that had to pick up in another 3 hours and then run it straight through. Oh, I know, the 14 hour day doesn't start until the Pretrip but you've just put in a 10 hour day tanked up on coffee waiting for that next load to come in "any minute" and if you turn it down?? You guessed it... "You're Fired"!

 

^^^ Lolol.

 

I've never been on the receiving end of any such thing. I can put my PTA any #### way I want, provided it doesn't look suspicious to the planners. All you have to do is put in a blank spot for your PTA after unloading and the system will go "The system has determined you don't have enough hours to do a load. To better plan you and to allow for your break, we've set your PTA at blah blah blah." But remember it's all run by computer with humans playing second fiddle. Garbage in garbage out as they say.

Just because your PTA is X doesn't mean you'll get a load anytime soon. You can set your PTA, get up at 5 am and check your QC and find no load. Well. Go back to sleep. Swift is a pretty fly company to work for because so far I've hardly ever had to do a fast run/night run followed by sleeping in the broad daylight when my body's not ready like I ran into so many times at CFI.

 

So let me get this straight. Lets say you send in a good PTA (projected time available) for 8a. You wake up at 7a, then sit around till 2-3p...to pick up a load at 5p, that has to be driven 7 hours for a midnight live unload....and somehow that is the fault of Swift?

is the company making you stay awake from 8a to 2-3p? Why is it the companys fault you didn't get enough rest, or feel rested before starting your run?? Don't think you can hardly blame the company for that. You've got a truck with a sleeper. You've got a head on your shoulders with some form of brain matter.....use it. Its common sense.

 

Not to mention, you can have a text message sent to your phone when you're planned on a load. It normally comes to your cell a minute or two before your QC. So...set your PTA....go to rest...and get a GOOD rest knowing you'll be woke up by your cell when the preplan is actually sent. Not to mention, if you DO wake up, and go in to take a shower, grab a bite to eat, etc.....and know there is a PP on your truck...all while inside your truck.

Also, when you set your PTA...yeah it is computerized. But once you reach your final, and send in your 'empty' macro, and you have 2-3 hrs left to drive, what do you set your PTA for? THAT TIME you sent MT, and show 2-3 hrs left to drive, or figure your PTA after your 10 hr break with a full 11 hr clock? Cause, even though it is computerized, a planner still has to look at your truck, see how many hrs you have to drive, and then plan you on something that you can/should be able to run. If you set your PTA for sometime tomorrow after a 10 hr break...and i set mine for when i'm actually available, even though i'm only showing 2-3 hrs left to drive...i'm still going to get planned before you...REGARDLESS of when the load picks up. Why? Because i'm available sooner than you are. There might be a 500 mi load that picks up at noon the next day. I'd still get it first, because my PTA is set sooner, and they know i'll be able to squeeze in a 10 hr break before the load is set to pick up.

 

Uh, yeah? Nobody can just sleep 20 hours at will and only an office drone would imagine that kind of sloppy scheduling would work. They know where all the trucks are. They pay extra for that. They know which truck is going to be where at what time up to 4 days in advance. If they have nothing set up, it's on them. Not me.

And don't even try to tell me they can't do it. The office people at Arrow could do it, had me a load before I dropped off for 5 weeks straight after the last time I chewed them out for letting me sit. Every single load. My last job was even better at it. If I sat for 4 hours, it was a rare long wait. And they kept that up for over a year, through winter, holidays, everything.

 

When you sit in Laredo you sit all day. Then they pop something on you at 11:30 pm that has to be picked up in 30 minutes. Your PTA was set for 5am that morning. 520mi run. This is your 3rd day in Laredo. You went to sleep 9:30PM. You grab it and get the hell out of there!

BTW go sleep in the TV room at the FlyinJ or the driver lounge so you don't run the A/C in the truck.

That might have happened before..........

I don't sleep in the day very well.

Another thing sometimes that preplan will get pulled off you in less than 10 minutes. I've seen it happen more than once.

 

dude we wont go there with lerado that happened to me 5 to manny times when i worked for swift all those years ago

 

So basicly your attitude is, "swift works for me, i dont work for swift"?? No wonder you didn't make it (or if you're still there, they'll probably cut your miles).

it really isnt hard to do what your asking, plan a truck on loads days in advance. My argument here is....why is it swifts fault for you not being rested enough for the run? I'm not saying "you have to sleep for 30 hrs", i'm saying....you set your PTA...go to bed...(gotta have the text msg/PP feature set up)...go into the truck stop and take your shower, etc., do your grocery shopping, then go back to your truck and watch a movie, or paint your nails, or clean the windshield or something.

But still, it isnt Swift's fault....

Maybe too, you might consider your DM and/or planner sucks. Maybe its time to consider switching terminals. I did a short run in chicago. After i went MT, i drove to a truck stop on I-55...ran inside got a great hot breakfast..then went to my truck. i sat for 2.5 hrs then got a PP. thats the longest i've sat for MONTHS....

 

Oh, no, I don't run for companies so big they can't organize anything. And if the DM has been there for years wasting time, being disorganized, wasting the company's money, then yes, it is the company's fault. They don't waste any time coming down on a driver for screwing up his job so why would they ignore someone in the office who can't do theirs?

I don't make unreasonable demands of the company and expect the whole world to revolve around me, I just expect everyone to work together to get the job done. If someone is dragging the team down, they need to go.

As for the being rested, I was addressing that particular example you posted. You get a full nights sleep, get up in the morning, wait all day for a load, and then the company wants you to run all night. It's not like you were goofing off all day, the timing of it has just made sure that you're going to be driving tired. It's not a big deal doing that every once in a while but if they've got you doing it every single day there's going to be a problem.

My wait times with Arrow were a day and a half between every load until I said something about it. Once they realized they had a driver that wanted to drive rather than sit around the truck stop half the time things went much better.