Central Refrigerated Truck Stop III

good to hear. spoke to my dispatch today and he said he is watching over us locals. because we barely run 800 miles a week. which means if we leave our trucks on just a tad bit the idle % goes high. hell last week i did a total of 200 miles.

 

Yes and no. The 'pay cut' has to do with the difference between how Swift and Central handle Per Diem. At Cental you start at $0.28 per mile. $0.08 is automatically considered per diem and is not taxed. At Swift you have to elect to participate in Per Diem.

If you choose not to then you'll be paid $0.28 straight but your take home will be less than it was at Central because taxes will be higher. If you elect to have Per Diem then Swift reduces your taxable rate by $0.10 but only puts $0.085 back as Per Diem. Net effect is you're now making $0.265 per mile not $0.28.

Confused yet? It is screwy. But the bottom line is with Swift your take home will be higher if you elect to have Per Diem rather than getting paid 0.28 straight. But no matter what you do your take home pay will be less than the way Central did it.

Should also mention that this applies to company drivers only and would not effect lease ops.

 

thank you sir for the detailed post. i hope this post helps another driver here who has this question. for me it didnt help. im hourly i dont get charged per diem, its shows 0.00 for per diem per paycheck for me. but i do appreciate you replying and trying to help. you have great knowledge of the per diem program. it kinda sucks though lol. so who benefits?

 

So will i still get a raise as a grandfathered in lease op? Or am i frozen at my current rate?

 

Very interesting morning. I read that we could fuel at Walmart DC's that swift was the primary carrier for. So we have a 10 pm appointment at the Walmart DC in Arcadia, FL and showed up early. Swift has a terminal inside the Walmart grounds and not only can we get fuel but they are doing my truck service that is due and putting new steer tires on for me! Sweet! The terminal manager, Tony and service manager, Sean have been extremely helpful and very pleasant to deal with. Just thought it would be nice to have a positive post about our new owners. lol

 

That place must be HUGE!

 

Lol. Well unfortunately, I don't know jack about hourly rates with Swift or Central. So I can't help you there. Who benefits? Can't really answer that either. But I can say that for OTR company drivers, most will be worse off under the Swift method. Everyone is a little different because of different state taxes, different # of deductions, etc. I went back and did the math for all my checks thru Central before the merge. (Yeah, I'm anal like that).

Anyway, I would have taken home 4.5% less money under the Swift method. It's one of several reasons I decided it was time for a change. My paycheck needs to be going up not down.

 

We are frozen at the rate of when Swift took over...

 

Not really ... well other than a the standard size for a WalMart grocery DC ... Standard layout - 2 fuel lanes, two maintenance bays, drivers lounge, office, bathroom/shower and a truck wash bay ... as Swift/Central you have access to all the facilities, take a 10 there, fuel and there is a kiosk for scanning your trip in the lounge.

As a matter of courtesy, I always check in and confirm there will be no issues. Also, if you've unloaded and don't have another load on you yet and are looking for work, go to the window and check in. Sometimes they will have a store run available that you can do. If you're interested, it can be a path to working your way onto a WalMart dedicated.

 

do you haul walmart trailers on store runs? I notice swift can haul customers trailers. I don't believe we are allowed to though. As for central anyways. But maybe that'll change with the swift transition.