Hey Swift drivers, don't be lazy and inconsiderate....

you mean 'cupcake' ?

I've said before, i really dont care what you call yourself. All i know is this is a forum to post/voice your opinions. And my 'opinion' on this issue is based on fact. As for the highlighted portion of the text above, all you have to do is answer this simple question. Did you lease on a 3rd party truck to Swift, or did you lease a truck thru the parent company of Swift called IEL ? If you leased on a 3rd party truck (i.e. purchased/leased from a dealership of some form...leasing from IEL isnt 3rd party, in case you didn't know) sure, i'd consider you more of an O/O than a L/O. However, if you DID lease a truck thru IEL (basicly...SWIFT, cause they own IEL, so hereon will be called SWIFT) you're leasing a swift truck, relying on swift miles (as per your lease agreement...and yes...i've seen two drafts of the lease since the beginning of the year) to make your payment, paying SWIFT your insurance/qualcomm/EZPass/performance bond and the accounting service. Hence, as the example i gave, dependant. not 'independant'. Sure you get to pick your own loads, get to fuel where you want, take whatever fuel route you want, etc...but that ALONE does not classify you as 'independant'.

I've heard how hard it can be to make a Lease/Op work out and make a profit at. Those that can do it...i take my hat off to them. Those that can't...just dont know how to run a business. (i.e. you gotta learn to live on a budget, regardless how "good" a check was one week or another...cause you'll have "bad" weeks)

and as far as 'you tried to get on with IEL and were turned down'. Hardly the case. When Swift came out.....er.....i mean IEL....no, i mean swift....with their bittersweet "deal" giving drivers "8-week no truck payment"...i started talking to P.J. in Greer about leasing. Right then and there P.J. looked into my mileage, on time performance and service failure record. You know that 9500mi/mo benchmark they set? really dont mean anything. If you are above it, great....if you're below it, you can STILL lease a truck, but you'll just need a letter of recomendation from your terminal manager. Trust me, i just spoke with 2 LEASE/OPs here at the terminal for the last 3-5 hrs. But in speaking with P.J., i found out that the truck payment (with this 8 week "deal") AND the down payment were being deferred, when all the ads posted at terminals made it sound like the DP was being waived. Not at all....AND....get this....Swift was charging you a service fee of $250 for deferring the DP.....WHEN IT WAS PART OF THEIR DEAL????!?!!!!!!! Hokey-Pokey.

The reason i'm not in a lease truck now, thru swift, isnt because "i dont qualify cause i'm a sucky driver" as i'm sure you're thinking....it is because i've CHOSEN not to, because i dont like knowing my (inflated) truck payment is going toward a truck i'll probably never own. you run over 11k a month, and you kick in .09cpm to your balloon payment. and if you dont make the balloon at the end of the lease to 'buy' the truck? you lose out on your .09cpm. "Oh, but they'll put you into another truck and you start to lease that". Oh yeah...ok....so now your paying 100% interest on a truck. Just like renting an apartment or a house....getting ZERO equity.

Hence, why i'm looking at 3rd party trucks, after 18-24 mo. i'd have a truck that was totally paid off, and what i was spending on a weekly truck payment is now going directly into my pocket as PROFIT.

You dont like me? who cares. Nana dont like me? who cares. If i lost a day of sleep for every person who didnt like me, or who i p!zzed off....i'd never get any sleep. so honestly, i dont care.

and for the record, i never once brought up your race or your gender as a negitive. the only one who keeps bringing it up LIKE I SAID IT....is you. I have a few navajo aquaintences, but don't really call them my friends. So that makes me a racist? I have more white friends than black.....so that makes me a racist? What if all my friends were left handed.....that makes me discriminating toward right handed people? what if they were short or fat? tall and thin? who the F cares. again, its like the obama argument over the CB. if you disagree with his policy, you're automaticly a racist, but if you agree....you're an obama-lover. how elementary.....

 

wouldn't bother me.

was at a terminal the other day.....here is another gripe......drivers, pick up after yourselves. someone had ordered chineese, ate, and then left their crap laying all over rather than throw it out in a trash bin 4 ft away. Lets not even talk about the bathrooms.

Kudos to the janitors who actually clean up after us drivers, in OUR lounge, in OUR showers and in OUR bathrooms. We are grown people. Nobody should have to clean up after us. (let alone be told to take a shower as one driver was told by a member of the terminal safety department...cause he STUNK !!!)