Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

I havent done any coke yet, just beer runs. My mentor refused loads for coke and said they were a hassle, now I can see why. I guess as a company driver you cant refuse the loads as easy though...

On the GPS subject I thought about getting the rand mcnally 520? think thats the $200 one. I cant see forking out $400 for the 720 for features I might never use plus thats a big dip in my wallet. For now I just use the qualcomm, my Atlas and my phone, I use the phone for the satellite overlay to see the warehouses and streets around it so get a good idea what im driving into. I am sure some can agree with me that the qualcomm a lot of times takes you to the wrong entrance, wrong side of the warehouse etc often, it did with me anyway.

 

What am I missing here? If you sit at the shipper for 12 hours, you should have completed a full 10 hour break and have hours. Please don't tell me swift makes you log on duty that whole time.

 

unless they release you to leave the property or do whatever then yes you must log it on duty.
Sometimes its worth asking if your allowed to leave while waiting and then put yourself in the sleeper.

 

That is a waste of hours and loss of income. Now I am beginning to understand why so many Swift drivers keep saying they have to take resets while also complaining about lack of miles. You guys are being ripped off

 

it doesnt mean its all the time, most I sat at a shipper was 4 hours, qualcomm gave 16:00 and they told us to go early, when we got there they said the warehouse doesnt even start loading until 17:00, you can get detention pay though, I didnt get it but my mentor got $30 a hour for a couple hours.

I did a reset every week but it was almost all driving hours

 

I believe you can refuse by noting that your ETA is a couple of hours later than the Preplan. That will usually pull the preplan from you. My mentor did this with a "747" (JIT load) that had a transit time that had zero allowance for any breaks en route and a likely Service Failure. Within minutes the preplan was pulled and we got another load.

Before Swift my experience with beverage companies is with Pepsi on a short haul from KC to St. Louis. We were on time for the live load and they took 4 hours to get us into a dock and another 3 hours to get us loaded. Lots of hacked off drivers at the dispatch window, staffed by folks that didn't seem to care. The unload in St. Louis took 8 hours to get into the dock and almost two hours to unload. Thankfully I was team driving, so we were still able to get to our appointment for a pickup the next morning.

Regarding the issue of your rights to park on the customer's lot if they devour your 14, I think you are legally able to do so. If they called the police to try and evict you then what can the cops do? You are abiding by the law, and the customer is to blame for the predicament. However, I'm not sure how that will set in terms of Swift's relationship with the customer for future loads....

 

i will be asking the driver recruiter about this on tuesday or wed if i go to work with swift and again when im in the door as this doesn't make sense why would they want to eat up a drivers hours that could cost them the on time delivery. as when you accept a load and due the preplan i wouldnt account for more than 3 hours at a shipper. when i drove and knew i was going to be at a shipper more than 3 hrs i would go to off duty status until i was loaded and had bol in my hands. saving available drive time is a must of course this does depend on the situation. but maybe van is much different than flatbed.

to OP i like your upto date posting gave me a good look into swift. the time it took to get your trainer was a bit crazy but its understandable. i may be training out of the phoenix branch as long as they let me in. I am anxious about getting back to driving otr if swift dont take me than i may be forced to go for out of state training at cringe crst. either way hope to see you out there someday even if im not through swift.

 

In the 10 hr example I gave, I arrived, was told it would be 3-4 hrs, and they would call.
12 min logged on duty for checking in.
Went off duty and got out the laptop.
Finally got a door after 8 hrs.
Went on duty for 7 min to get backed in etc.
Went off duty and used restroom etc.
Went on duty to pull out etc.
So like 30 min on duty, but split up so no continuous break.
Plus, my (sleep) schedule dictated I sleep after getting loaded.
For Swift, you need to log a minimum of 15-30 min on duty for pu or del.
I could have logged it all later and had 10a hrs off to complete break.
Not 100% legit, but close enough.
However, since I had been up/awake all day, night time was for sleeping, not for driving all night like a zombie.

 

And oh, if I *had* logged it as having had a break, you get bet your bottom dollar
the planners and csr would have demanded I drive all night to get the load there,
and be up for 30 hrs straight.
If you ask me, the rules can actilually work in your favor many times.
Ain't no one forcing me to do that kinda crud.
That IS unsafe.

 

yea i can see your point on that and i know some cant do the odd random hours of driving due to sleep patterns already set in there head luckily i can. granted i prefer to sleep at night and have re-adjusted my time during long trips to get back onto day driving night sleeping. shorter trips it depends on delivery times.

with the new hos coming up doubt i would be able to do what i used to do when i drove either. stupid 1-5 am restart bs and no more than 1 restart in a 7 day period there were times i did double restarts during a week but only do to loads not by choice