Swift Sucks

And it is thru the rates payed by the customer that you are payed hourly or salaried, right? How did you ever convince the customer to let you get away with that? If it is so costly and inefficient to do?

Correct, office is salary, work week is 50 hrs minimum/week. There are also less office then drivers.

I find it odd that a company that routinely has no problem delaying a driver getting payed by the mile for days at a time, now has the audacity to complain about the efficiency of their local drivers. Layover and detention pay does not even come close to what a driver can make under a load, yet company's like Swift act like it is a driver benefit because with the lack of labor standards they keep their lobbyists busy protecting, they could pay nothing at all.

The company does not routinely do anything. Essentially, pay is based on when the BOL is turned in. (Companies are not paid without a BOL). You sound like we are the one's causing this pay or wanting this. We would love for every driver to make 100k per year, but the customers would have to pay for this, and the other trucking companies would need to follow suit, and until that happens there is nothing we can do. If we raised our rates tomorrow with this goal in mind, we would be out of business within a few months. I have seen some great trucking companies out there that pay excellent, and have some superb benefits (blue cross/shield), but if there is a rough spot in the economy or fuel, those companies are belly up fast. The reason, those expenses don't go away, but income does. What happened to the superbly paid Auto workers in Detroit? They were well paid, but the economy slow down caused car sales to go down. How do you solve that problem? Lay off most of your work force to reduce your wage and benefit expense. This also rippled into their local economy, housing (glut in homes for sale driving down housing prices). Would this have happened if their wages/benefits were in the 50% of the best, instead of the 90th? Could the company then have sold cars cheaper, keeping demand up, or weathered the economy and not having to lay off as many people? I honestly dont know, just speculation.

To use your rational we should put everyone on a piece rate to save money and because someone won't pay for hourly wage.

We are paid per load, personally, I think this would solve lots of problems with wages. You actually stand a better chance of making more money this way, and your money stays in line with how the company is doing. If economy is excellent, your running lots of loads, and making lots of money. If the economy slows down, your pay goes down, reflecting the same thing with the company.

The hours of service are based on a 70 hour work week So it would be simple for OTR company's to pay a hourly wage based on that work week or even a salary. But then company's know how much money and production is gained thru their drivers skimping as much as they can get away with on line 3 to make more miles and more money for the company, and don't want to remove the incentive to the driver to find ways to cook the books that mileage pay provides

Lets look it it both ways. Below is a comparison of John Doe's trucking with 10 trucks, and 2 office employee's for a month. I have most costs associated, not all though (Business tax, Work Comp, insurance etc, unemployment, etc...) I am using a realistic rate per mile average from the current economy. It compares mileage pay, hourly pay (70 hours per week/month), and a 1 time truck breakdown for a week at the hourly rate. Each truck is running 10,000 miles per month with a 10% deadhead. On the hourly comparison, I am not taking into account a lessoning of miles that would happen, overall I am not taking into account a slow down in freight either. For accident costs, I have also been extremely leniant with. Lets say this is what you have to work with, let me know how you would overcome staying in business and paying your drivers hourly, but freight slows down, or you have a major accident, or breakdown (Remember in an accident or breakdown, your not making money, but your paying your drivers hourly wages still). If anyone see's a number that looks way off in either direction let me know. The Operating Ratio (OR) is whats really important for your business. That is your return on your investment. So 100 OR means you did not get anything back. 95 OR, you earned 5% etc..

10 Trucks, mileage paid drivers (9000 loaded, 1000 empty)
90000 loaded miles per month total.
$135,000 in revenue (Using 1.50/mile)

Expenses
Drive pay .39/mile= $39000.
Benefits, we will be on the cheap side, 20% of wages =$7800.
Fuel Cost (Minus FSC reimbursment) .26/mile=$26,000
Truck lease, $1100/month/truck = $11,000
Insurance premiums 500/truck= $5,000
Accident costs/repairs.= $1,000 total for month, minor repairs.
Utilities (Gas, elect, phone, etc..) = $500
Operating taxes (240/truck. Highway tax, fuel tax, permits etc..)= $2400
Admin. Salary (2 people only no benefits) = $7333
Tractor/Trailer Maint (.07/mile) = $7000
Building Lease= $1000

Total Income= $135,000
Total Expense= $108,033
Total Rev: $26,967
Operating Ratio= 80% (This is a great OR)

Now Hourly pay. Will assume $20/hour.

10 Trucks, Hourly paid drivers (9000 loaded, 1000 empty)
90000 loaded miles per month total.
$135,000 in revenue (Using 1.50/mile)

Expenses
Drive pay $20/hr (2800 hrs total/month) $56,000
Benefits, we will be on the cheap side, 20% of wages =$11200
Fuel Cost (Minus FSC reimbursment) .26/mile=$26,000
Truck lease, $1100/month/truck = $11,000
Insurance premiums 500/truck= $5,000
Accident costs/repairs.= $1,000 total for month, minor repairs.
Utilities (Gas, elect, phone, etc..) = $500
Operating taxes (240/truck. Highway tax, fuel tax, permits etc..)= $2400
Admin. Salary (2 people only no benefits) = $7333
Tractor/Trailer Maint (.07/mile) = $7000
Building Lease= $1000

Total Income= $135,000
Total Expense= $128,433
Total Rev: $6567
Operating Ratio= 95% (So it cost .95 to make a dollar)

At the hourly driver pay rate, one truck broke down for a week results in:

Total Rev: $4049.50
Operating Ratio: 97%



I dont have all the answers, very few. If someone does, IM me, I have a job for you! The only purpose behind this is to show how everything relates. Its an economy of scale. You may know where you want to go, but you still have to look at a map, and understand it, to get there. Maybe someone will see a way of getting there and start their own trucking company.

Wes

 

Everyday that I go to work, I see four wheelers cutting each other off trying to gain a 1 car position. Spending 5 minutes changing lanes many times, to finally end up back in my lane 2 car lengths ahead. That is my biggest pet peeve in life. The only thing I can think of for the reason behind this is people do not want a car infront of them. They dont want to be second. Only first. If someone gets in front of them, they feel the urge to pass and again be first. Just my thought, and probably off topic from what you meant.

 

All you swift drivers that have been screwed, like the fellow that started this thread you all better jump on the band wagon. The feds raided that tenn. yard for a reason and it's a very tight lipped situation that has too do with illegal license's. You are proof that they don't care if you know how to drive or are safe in a truck, your just a number to them and they need to keep trucks moving so they wont go in debt!! thats the bottom line!

 

That is a downright lie right there. I've worked with Swift for over a year and I have been delayed at AK Steel in Middletown and other places for #### near 15 hours+ before, taking up an entire day. I have yet to see even a dollar of detention pay.

I fight and argue with them to get it to no avail. Just two months ago I delivered to a place and had just started my day, still had 10.5 hours left to drive. Their power went out an hour before I got there so they had no crane to unload me. I sat there for my _FULL_ 14 hours then sat there part of the next morning and got zilch. I argued with my DM, FM and TM and to this day, no detention pay.


So basically I nearly got a 34 hour restart at a customer when I don't need one (I'm off weekends, get my 34 then) and didn't get a dime for all of that time. Swift claims they pay detention pay -- they do not.

 

Our company has one of the largest fleets of commercial trucks in the nation - every single driver is paid by the hour. That's thousands and thousands of drivers, paid by the hour.
Dunno how they do it, but THEY seem to manage............

 

Start with Chris A. in Gary, IN, please. He has asked me to run illegal several times. Along with several other drivers who I can provide names and numbers for if you are indeed serious.

 

Detention pay is automated. So the only reason it will not pay out is if you did not do your arrived at shipper or arrived at final when you got there, or you arrived after the pick up or delivery time, even a minute, and that opens the door for the customer to "fit us in", or you leave the property. Also detention pay does not start until 2 hours after the appointment time. So if your appointment is 1500, and you arrive there at 0700, that is not detention pay. Salary or hourly drivers, and some dedicated accounts are also not paid detention. As additional protection, the system automatically sends you a message after 2 hours to find out why you are still at shipper/reciever, so we can document it. The system is pretty hands free as long as the driver does their part. It even keeps track of satallite position and where you are during that time.

I found a AK Steel in Middletown, OH. Flatbed loads outbound, looks like the last time we hauled a load out of there was 8/11/2006. I went ahead and looked at the last 3 months of orders to see if I noticed any problems, and I did not. You can ask a moderator to pm with the trip number you did that you feel you were owed detention on, and I am more then happy to see why it was not paid.

 

Our company has one of the largest fleets of commercial trucks in the nation - every single driver is paid by the hour. That's thousands and thousands of drivers, paid by the hour.
Dunno how they do it, but THEY seem to manage............

This is an OTR company covering the U.S.? Or an LTL, or small regional company? If its an OTR company, please do tell the name so I can look them up and see how they are doing it.

Thanks

 

I have sent this on to safety and HR. At this point this is a general allegation you are making. Collect the trip numbers, and logs you feel this occurred on, and contact the Swift safety department, or quality assurance department in Phoenix. They will start an investigation, and if its found to be true then we will get it taken care of.