Why is Swift the "whipping boy" of the industry?

I really tried to take it in good humor while I was there. Note that I always pick on the company (or keyboard pushers) and rarely dig the drivers.

Story: Was in my 2nd week and had to do a back between two really pretty Petes. Both drivers got out, helped guide me in and one even brought me a cup of coffee. We then spent the next hour sharing stories over coffee, while I picked up some great tips. They didn't treat me as a "Swifty", just a new driver who could use a hand. They really set the mood for me with other truckers. Now sure, they didn't want their rigs bent, but were really nice about it.

As much as drivers like to pick on the company, it's been exceedingly rare that ever transferred to me as a driver. Overall, I'd say we still have a pretty good brotherhood here (or sisterhood so Nana doesn't smack me).

 

It's just that Swift is easy to pick on. I see enough bonehead moves by drivers from every other company and owner/ops that it's just not Swift.

As far as I'm concerned, out on the road its all about getting the freight moved, and if we can help someone else out - newb or old timer, Swift or otherwise - we should.

 

Not that Swift is bad.....But if you get lost....don't follow the Swift truck in front of you......Don't ask me how I know this......

 

Man, it's just that they wanna see if you've got enough cahones to follow them under that 11'-3" underpass up ahead of 'em!

 

Naw.....I was on the phone with the Petercar salesman....Thought the Swifty was going right on the interstate....That's what I get for thinking.....

 

Part of that problem is the one giving the drivers directions. My hubby complained about this until he figured out it was easier to call the receiver and get directions. After that he ignored the qualcomm for directions.

I'd have to say you must have made the mistake of thinking the Swift driver knew where he was going. lol

 

Unless it is Nana's truck. She ALWAYS knows where she is going!

 

I don't think that was Nana......Nana can keep it between the lines.....

 

Of course I know exactly where I'm going! Utah is south of Arizona right?

 

You guys want a horror story? Here's my Swift horror story. I worked for Swift for 2 years and 3 months and everything was good until the last six months when my miles all of a sudden went to hell. In any event, although I had no preventables, no tickets on my MVR, and no service failures, I was fired for insubordination, but the reality is I got screwed about as royally as one can get screwed.

Just prior to getting fired I was involved in an incident that resulted in the inside of my truck catching fire and burning up. I also lost all my stuff that was in the truck in that fire and I had a ton of stuff.

It all started when my truck was put in the shop at the Lancaster, TX terminal just before I was to take home time after being out about 4 weeks because I had a bad driver's side drive tire and I was also getting a lighting module fault when I would start the truck. To make a very long story short, due to a comedy of errors they ended up keeping my truck in the shop for 12 long days and then late on the 12th day, they finally gave me my truck back but told me that they had disconnected the front marker lights because there was a short somewhere and they couldn't find it.

In any event, I called my DM and asked him who was going to pay for my tickets should I get pulled over by the DOT and he told me to go talk to the shop manager about that. It was the typical pass the buck Swift BS. Anyway, when I tried to talk to the shop manager I found out that he had already left for the day at 5 o'clock. Thus, as desperate as I was to get home after being refused a loner truck repeatedly I decided to take the truck regardless. A big mistake!

Anyhow, I had to bobtail to Ft Worth to go pick up an empty and then rush to the shipper about 5 miles down the road to get loaded on time, which was supposed to be my load to go home for long delayed home time, so I had to get moving in a hurry.

Hence, I drove to the location where the empties were and I found and hooked up to an empty. Then I started driving to the shipper to pick up my load. After driving a couple of miles down the road in very heavy traffic, I noticed my eyes, nose, and throat started burning, so I looked down, and when I did, I saw smoke billowing up into the cab from the lower part of the dash.

So I hurried up and found a safe place to pull over. Upon pulling over I set the breaks, killed the truck engine, and then hurried up and jumped out the truck to disconnect the pigtail from the trailer because I figured it was the extra juice the trailer was drawing that was causing the fire. I also unhooked the fire extinguisher in case I needed it.

Then I called 911 and gave them my location and asked them to send a fire truck ASAP. Next, I called on road and informed them what was going on and then the terminal to give them a heads up and about the same time I hung up with them, flames started shooting out the top of the dash. So I climbed up on the steps and emptied the fire extinguisher on the flames and managed to put the flames out.

Anyway, to make a long story short, about five minutes later the flames flamed back up, my fire extinguisher was now empty, and the inside of my truck burned up before the fire department finally arrived and put it out.

Okay lets fast-forward a little bit, after taking home time and going out one more time in another assigned truck they miraculously found for me the very next day after the fire and after having previously lied to me about available trucks, I was treated like I had the plague. When I asked about being reimbursed for all the stuff I had lost in my truck, the fleet manager said he would have to check with the terminal manager and call me back. He never did, even though I kept leaving messages on his voice mail.

As a matter of fact, the day before it was time for me to leave to go out again, he got another fleet manager to call me and line me up with my first load. The excuse was that my fleet manager, who was brand new, by the way, was tied up in a meeting. Yeah right!

My DM had left to go on vacation the day following the day I was assigned a new truck or the following day after the incident, and when he came back about a week after I had been out, I told him what was up and he was very apologetic and empathetic towards my plight and said that he would do all that he could do to help me out.

Then approximately two hours later he called me back and told me that he was ordered by the fleet manager not to talk to me about the incident because the fleet manager that refused to call me back or take any of my calls, for that matter, had told him that he had already told me everything I needed to know and ordered him not to talk to me about the incident, even though the fleet manager never did call me back as he had promised or even return any of my calls.

Anyway, for the next two weeks I continue to get treated as if I was radioactive or something. In addition, they also made me sit in Calexico, CA for 4 days, before finally giving me a lousy 650 mile load to Albuquerque with way too much time on delivery. Then after forcing me to wait to deliver that load, they then made me continue to sit at the terminal in Albuquerque.

Then when it became obvious that they were not going to get me home for Easter as I had requested three weeks earlier, I decided enough is enough. I then sent a qualcom message to my DM and told him what the fleet manager had told me, which was, “I'll check on it with the terminal manager and call you back,” but explained to him that the fleet manager had never even called me back as he had promised he would and that if he didn't have the courtesy to take my calls or to even call me back and tell me what the terminal manager had said about me being reimbursed for my stuff, that I was going to call the terminal manager personally myself first thing in the morning and find out once and for all.

Anyway, the following day first thing in the morning I get a call and lo and behold it was the fleet manager who then fires me for what he claims is insubordination. I was told to leave the truck at the Albuquerque terminal where I was and that Swift would only pay for a bus ticket home. Nevertheless, I declined the bus ticket, rented a car, and drove more than 1100 miles back home at my own expense instead. I further tried to call the terminal manager several times also before I left and after I left, but no one would even take my calls.

In any event, I ended up never getting reimbursed for all the stuff I lost in the fire. As a matter of fact, the hotel receipts I had incurred burned up in the truck fire along with all my stuff and even though I called the hotel and had them resend the receipts to the terminal in Lancaster, I still never got reimbursed for what ended up being a 13 night hotel stay either. In other words, I got screwed about as royally as a person can possibly get screwed, even though before the incident I was an excellent driver, never had any service failures, preventables, or tickets. In the end, all I received was payment for my lousy 650 miles and the layover pay for my last week of employment, and I could never get anyone at Swift to ever take any of my calls.

Oh, while I was still on home time that last time before I left to go on my final outing for Swift immediately after the fire, I received a phone call out of the blue from another swift driver who identified himself as a friend and former trainer of another driver that had stayed at the hotel at the same time I did and knew about my incident. Anyway, after explaining how he had heard about my incident, he also said that he had been with Swift off and on for over 20 years and that he was participating in some sort of committee that consisted of both drivers and management, and that he wanted to get my permission to use the details of my incident at their next meeting. In any event, I eagerly gave him permission. Then after shooting the bull with him for a few more minutes, before we hung up he warned me to be very careful because he had seen numerous other drivers in my predicament with similar type incidents get canned to protect incompetent shop managers, which is exactly what happened to me.

Indeed, I became the sacrificial lamb to protect the job of an incompetent shop manager. After all, it is much easier to replace a driver than it is a shop manager, and so what if he is totally incompetent. Thus, they fired me on trumped up insubordination charges to protect his job. Then they made sure no one would take my calls. It was the perfect setup.