Swift Sucks

This is the response from one of the recruiters in my area. I totally forgot that we do use outside recruiting companys. That may be the hold up.

Hi Wes!
I do things a little different. When they submit an application I give them a time frame to call me back to give me enough time to get their mvr/dac back...or if we need their criminal. We might play tag a bit, but pretty much they know what is going on throughout the process. It is hard to determine who this person is working with...an actual swift recruiter or a third party contract recruiter. I am tending to believe it might be a contract. They need to have the file 100% before scheduling. The really ugly part about all of this, my first available spot for San Antonio students is April 23......
Did this help?

 

Wes, be careful. I just had to pick up my brother from s.c. to get off of a swift truck. Go anywhere but don't go there. my brother signed on in ca. they were going to fire him in s.c. and send him home. because of his ability to pick up on the very subtle things going on and calling me we were able to get one step ahead. I live in the Atlanta area, so they never saw it coming. he was coming to greenville on a run and their terminal is about 10 miles. I met him at the welcome center. when they pulled in his mentor told him to call this 800 #. he told the mentor before i do that i need to use the qualcom. he resigned on the spot before they fired him. he had the worst experience. i had a hard time believing the stories and my husband are O/O. They have an unbelievable program. they put you with an O/O and he gets his miles plus the trainees. the first truck he was on he got to drive 45 mins. after it got dark and on the I80 in the Reno area. after he tells the trainer he's not comfortable in the dark yet because he's not even used to the equipment, the guy drives for ends up being a 22 hour day. then he requests to get off the truck, they bus him from stockton to fontana and give him another guy who lets him drive about a block and claims he can't have his beer load shaken up, so he can't drive. the guy starts coughing up blood and gives the option to go to a hotel while he gets himself taken care of or get off the truck, he got off the truck. try # 3. he finally gets what appears to be a decent mentor but now he's black balled because he rolled the 1st one under the bus. so he stayed his truck for a week, the guy wanted to keep his run so he could get the miles. his expression must have been priceless when he told him I quit, right here and right now at the rest area. save yourself the trouble with swift. go to a company that's going to treat with a little respect.

 

If you have to, walk around like the Savage flogging yourself with knotted ropes while mumbling: Stay away from England. Stay away from Swift. Stay away from England. Stay away from Swift. Stay away from England. Stay away from Swift. Stay away from England. Stay away from Swift. Stay away from England. Stay away from Swift. Stay away from England. Stay away from Swift.

 

With all the pressure in this biz, I can only assume that it is almost as hard to find the people to be Driver mngr's as to find drivers, I would not want the job, no matter what the pay.

 

Not to mention recruiters. Ask Mr. Dude here about that end of it.

Actually, I'm sure you'd be fine as a driver manager if you were at the right outfit. This company would be a small or medium-sized outfit that isn't publically held and NOT listed on NASDAQ. You want no part of those that must answer to stockholders.

 

Yes thanks.

Strange though, since we last spoke, I never got a call back and he said he would call me back this past monday the latest. Since I never got a call, i decided to leave it alone and go elsewhere...I did not even know when the next class was since I was never told.

I was working with a swift recruiter out of el paso Tx.. think his name was ian or something like that.

 

I have read several of your posts. Well thought out and articulate all.

But have to say that you are another office person that does not have a good grasp on reality when it concerns your drivers at Swift and other OTR company's.

When you are payed based on the miles you are able to generate for yourself and the company, do you think that the average OTR driver has the luxury to turn down all the loads they get that force them to drive tired, illegal ? Not at what Swift pays, unless you like sitting and being poor.

I have worked for OTR company's with a lot better reputation then Swift and payed more, and they ALL tried to put my driving career in jeopardy with their incompetence. If I had a buck for every time a dm, fleet or terminal Mgr tried to cajole me into excepting loads I neither had the hours or the rest to run I would have a good sized bank roll.

Now you have these 9-5'rs getting payed hourly or salary telling you to stay on sleeper time for 2 more hours because their customer delayed you on their dock for 8 hours and then you can drive 11hours strait and still deliver the load legally and on time. And if the poor slob at Swift co says sorry, I was not able to hit myself in the head and go right to sleep when I got here so I could drive 11 hours strait with out any breaks to deliver that load of TP. That driver at Swift co and many other OTR carriers will feel the pain of such insolence.

Drivers, Swift has DAC and they control whether you make your house payment or see your sick child, and if you start making waves with people who are not payed on a piece,rate and go home to their comfy beds and get paid the same whether your weaving down the road half awake or not. They will make your DAC look like you where the worst driver around, make your house go into foreclosure, and make a nightmare out of getting home, if they come back to work after a nice night between that 300 count Egyptian cotton and find out you took a break instead of delivering that load on time.

They got many hundreds of trainees to put thru their mill that are trying to get off welfare or can't find work in their town. Go ahead and call safety and collect numbers for some supposed investigation. The only investigating they will be doing is how to punish you.

Read the stories of the multitudes of Swift drivers who had legit concerns and what was done about it. Are they all lier's? Nope,just business as usual at Swift and many other OTR carriers.

How can anyone work at that company in any office capacity and feel good about themselves? You would either have to be clueless or classless.

 

As the wife of a former S*ift employee, I can honestly say that most of what I have read here is believable and probably true. This is not a good company, trust me. There are many better companies out there. Recruiters are paid to rope you in, so you need to take what they tell you with a grain of salt. I was so relieved when my husband finally quit after many years and went to work for a reputable company!

Also, be aware that your personal info is available for anyone with access to your ssn, $7 on a credit card and a fax machine at Driver Facts. Try it. And try fixing the inaccurate info on that site that most companies use to get your driving record, employment history, and drug/alcohol test results. The company says the "driver facts" folks have to change it, and the "driver facts" folks say that the company has to change it. In the end, nobody changes anything. You can sign up on that site and post rebuttals or explain the items that are not correct, so I guess that's better than nothing.

 

But have to say that you are another office person that does not have a good grasp on reality when it concerns your drivers at Swift and other OTR company's.

I run my terminal this way, and also talk with lots of other terminals daily. I have an exceptional grasp on what my drivers are doing and asked to do daily. I just came into one this morning. Driver ran 600 miles to Houston and was suppose to deliver at 8am this morning. He told us last night about 2200 that he was out of hours, so we tcalled the load. We did not ask him to sit at final and take break and bump dock, or doctor the logs to fit delivery in. You are correct, I do not speak for other OTR companies or know how they do their business.

When you are payed based on the miles you are able to generate for yourself and the company, do you think that the average OTR driver has the luxury to turn down all the loads they get that force them to drive tired, illegal ? Not at what Swift pays, unless you like sitting and being poor.

What is Swift paying that is differnt then other standard companies? Except for new drivers, which are rapidly escalated in pay, the pay scale is pretty comparable to everyone else. You can legally run 2500-3000 miles a week without running illegal or tired. I am sure there are drivers that push themselves to hard. I do not agree with it since there is generally no need, and the repurcussions far outweigh the benefits for them, and us.

Now you have these 9-5'rs getting payed hourly or salary telling you to stay on sleeper time for 2 more hours because their customer delayed you on their dock for 8 hours and then you can drive 11hours strait and still deliver the load legally and on time. And if the poor slob at Swift co says sorry, I was not able to hit myself in the head and go right to sleep when I got here so I could drive 11 hours strait with out any breaks to deliver that load of TP. That driver at Swift co and many other OTR carriers will feel the pain of such insolence.

The DM's may question a driver on their hours, but the ultimate decision is still the drivers. Bottom line. Customer delay, then when we deliver late, we inform it was from their shipper. Again I cant speak for other companies.

Drivers, Swift has DAC and they control whether you make your house payment or see your sick child, and if you start making waves with people who are not payed on a piece,rate and go home to their comfy beds and get paid the same whether your weaving down the road half awake or not. They will make your DAC look like you where the worst driver around, make your house go into foreclosure, and make a nightmare out of getting home, if they come back to work after a nice night between that 300 count Egyptian cotton and find out you took a break instead of delivering that load on time.

The freight and the driver dictates their own income. Dac reports from us are probably 99% correct. Even if you dont agree that running over that persons lawn while turning around and leaving 6 inch ruts is an accident, it is. Most people are upset with these type of accidents that get reported to dac by our safety department. Terminations are submitted by operations. Pretty simple, one click to select the appropriate termination. Personal problems, other employment, accidents, company policy violation, unathorized deadhead etc.. That is what is reported to dac on the operations side. An automated letter is also sent to you showing the termination type.

They got many hundreds of trainees to put thru their mill that are trying to get off welfare or can't find work in their town. Go ahead and call safety and collect numbers for some supposed investigation. The only investigating they will be doing is how to punish you.

Safety does do their investigations. Sometimes we run more as an HR company then as a transportation company. So your statement tells me that you are definately not familiar with how our process works.

Read the stories of the multitudes of Swift drivers who had legit concerns and what was done about it. Are they all lier's? Nope,just business as usual at Swift and many other OTR carriers.

I generally read most of whats posted. I dont respond to all, I believe the readers are pretty good at spotting who has an ax to grind, or who is not telling the whole story, or who does not understand the industry. We have a place for those legit concerns to call.

How can anyone work at that company in any office capacity and feel good about themselves? You would either have to be clueless or classless.

I feel good about myself, I feel good about my office staff, I feel good about my drivers, and I feel good about Swift.

Wes