3rd swift review. My opinions

So why stay? You have more than two years if this is your third review, assuming annual reviews of course. You have enough experience to shop the market for a better quality company with either better frieght or more miles... Or both.

I didn't start in the Megas and so glad I didn't... 3,000+ miles a week and quality frieght too.

You have options... Just saying.

Stay Safe,
MD

 

Actually he's a rookie and doing good in the learning curve .

 

I got my ranking bumped up in my first few months as well . My DM said it was due to a pattern of doing a good job with the expectation I would continue to get better .

You're doing good and , like the rest of us , you're encountering the things that make no sense and learning to work through them . Keep asking questions ; it gets easier as time goes on .

Good job !

 

Ah... See what happens when one assumes???

Thanks for the clarification.
And good luck on that learning curve.

 

That is what I have been doing since starting here.
I add in the time I need, or want, and if the load falls through it's no big deal. Another will be along shortly.
And it really doesn't seem like it's a big deal to Swift or the planners either. No one has called me out about it, I just run as I like.

My current load was to pick up too early and deliver too late.
It gave me time for a very strict 10 hour break, but then nearly a day too long before the delivery.

I hate a strict 10 hour break. It doesn't give me any time to relax. 12 is usually my minimum.

I called my DM, who called the planner who told him that I could deliver earlier for the live unload. FCFS, and it could get there any time.

So I said to accept the load for me and dispatch me. I would just make due with the pick up time and getting up at 0230 because I could make a shorter day of it if I wanted.
Just as that happened the load delivery was rescheduled to the day before at 0900.
I had already been told that it would be 0900-1700 any day I got there by the 8th.
Mac 22, and I set my delivery for 1400 on the 7th so I could readjust my schedule to run the hours I like.
And, no problem.

The pick up time was in stone - no window. And I was actually glad of it when I got there.
They open at 0500 and I was the first truck in the dock. I was out at 0605, while the place was filling up with other trucks.

The thing is, Plus-1 tries to push you, but there is no reason to push if you don't want to.
And there is no fallout if you do adjust things to better suit you.
I could not adjust the pick up this time without losing the load, but I can run the rest of the load as I want to.

 

During the final months I was there at Swift they told me I turned down 84% of my loads. Not really a true reflection, all I was doing was saying No on mac 9 and adding a couple hours to see if there was a window or not since my dm got tired of telling me the window for every load. Another trick would be to accept the load (which I already determined was doable) but would add a couple hours to the delivery time in the Loaded Call, again to see if there was a window or not. Then if there wasn't, would receive messages asking why I was going to be late. Reply, not going to be late, just seeing if there is a window. Then she would reply back to me, why don't you just ask me what the delivery window is? lol. Maybe because you don't answer or say you don't know or you don't have time to look it up, far be it from me to bother you and my way works. \

All and all I just couldn't deal with the nonsense any more. Push push push go go go and still couldn't break over 1800-2400 miles a week. Too many times they couldn't get me home on time and had to deadhead halfway across the country. Problems getting empty trailers and too many times picking up a trailer with maintenance issues that cost me time and distance getting fixed.

By comparison where I'm at now, I have the same trailer all the time, routinely take 11+ hour breaks between driving shifts and still get to where I'm going on time. Made a mistake on one load where I was a whole day late because I misread the delivery time as a holiday, anyway no service failure or threats against my contract, just deliver when you can.

 

What's the lowest of the 5 driver rankings.... Lead or bronze how PC .

 

Bronze, if you get to Lead I guess you have been fired.
But how is it PC?

 

It's interesting that all these rookie companies have the same problems and yet people bad mouth one more than the other. For example. Western Express is worse than Swift. really? because they seem to share the same problems.