Going with Swift....Good or Bad opinions please

No! You don't say? Ahh!

 

Orientation is still 3 to 4 days, and you will likely have to go out with a mentor unless you have verifiable proof of past driving experience.

 

Swift is an okay company. You'll get the occasional store deliveries to well known places like Sears and Walmart. Most times you'll get DCs. The places that bale paper and old metal cans are the worst. Odds are good you'll get a volvo if you go solo. They're pieces of crap but stop on a dime(relatively speaking). You won't get asked to run illegal. If you can't make a run on legal hours, they usually find someone else to do it. In fact, they seem to have a bad habit of pulling load preplans you WANT to do, sometimes while you're in transit for a previous one. You'll get a lot of drops and hooks. I only occasionally got an "o dark hundred to early morning" run, and this was something I took as a normal part of the job anyway. If you notice your truck has the Temp A Start system, ask to have it gotten rid of! Finally, they have a lot of terminals and drop yards. If you're in an area with jam packed truck stops, there might be a Swift terminal nearby on your route. Avenel NJ drop yard is a hole in the wall, but I've utilized it just for parking if I'm caught out in the NE area. Lancaster terminal has a couple people that set up a catering table to feed the drivers with really good meals. Decatur and Memphis are within walking distance from some restaurants. Watch out at Memphis. If you get off at I 55 and go down E Brooks, the first driveway you come to is THE EXIT! You want to turn across from the Burger King.

I didn't have too many complaints at Swift other than my Volvo and the occasional messages about idling. I only left because their method of calculating total miles had some really screwy math and remained stuck at bronze for the duration of my employment(1.5 years) and I also felt I could make better money at Crete. But Crete is another story. I'm actually headed to Trans Am now.

 

"Has anyone on here been to the Gary terminal"

Gary sucks! It's usually the terminal to get full parking the earliest, or at least out of the terminals I've seen. It's notorious for requiring the use of creative parking when you roll in at night.

 

Truck shuts off when the in cab temperature reaches a certain point on the thermostat and then restarts the engine for A/C or heat when it reaches above(for A/C) or below(for heat) another certain point. The controls are in the bunk, but it's that process of restarting the engine that's annoying. It rattles the truck like crazy and takes several cranks to catch. They may not have it anymore on the newer trucks, but the first time I rolled into Memphis, the shop people said they had instructions to have it removed because it was costing them money and beating up starters.

I said "As long as I get to idle as long as I want, I have no problem with that."

Heat is not a problem anyway because the trucks have a bunk heater(unless it's just really that #### cold out there).

 

I am just a driver. Sorry but I am old and too cranky to share small spaces with another person. I want to be able to pass gas when I need to, and cuss as loud and often as I like when I'm in the truck. There are people with much more patience than I have that can teach much better than I can. I will, however, answer questions on here when I know the answers. I am mostly in Lancaster, or somewhere fairly close. Look me up when you are in Texas.