I can't wait to work for Swift...

LOL - boy are YOU getting into the wrong line of work!

I have two flashlights on my truck. A big 16 bazzillion candlepower spot light, and a 2-cell AA minimag. I use the minimag for my inspections. I use the big light as a pillow.

From one point of view, the recruiters are making you waste time. But if you look at it from the point of view of them wanting to make sure you are serious about wanting to apply, it makes a little sense.

Oh - I want to touch on something you said elsewhere - I can't find the dang thread - about size of the company and being "just a number". As a business owner, I've seen it demonstrated that a company will get better response from their employees if they ARE treated humanly. That is, not as "just another number".

Where I work, I know everybody in my home terminal. I know some of the people in other terminals. If I have a problem, I don't run up the phone tree - I can call directly, or even walk in and talk to the person face - to - face. I don't know, but I doubt you can do that at Werner, Schneider or Swift.

The reason (I'm going to pick on Swift here) the huge companies get away with treating their drivers so poorly is manifold. Two of the prime reasons are:

1) driver can't get a job anywhere else

2) There's a huge supply of new drivers. If a driver leaves, they have 5 applicants asking for his job.

These debase the value of the driver, from the point of view of the company. If you have lots of something ready to hand, you aren't going to pay well for it, or treat it as well as if there were only 2. If you drop a popcorn kernel on the floor, you aren't going to go diving after it and call "three second rule!". You'll just dip into the bowl and get another handful.

If, for some reason, suddenly all the CDL schools closed up and there were no new drivers, Swift would fall apart in a week - as would any of the other high-turnover based companies. They rely on the ability to maintain their 400% turnover rate.

THAT is why I don't recommend Swift, CR England, or any of the other large companies. Has nothing to do with direct experience with the particular company - just experience with big business in general.

 

Well, in other threads, we've already done away with using "400% turnover rate" as a legitimate and accurate figure. I can respect the REASON you are saying it by the following sentence.

However, I am looking to get my CDL in any way shape or form. Swift will help me do that, and then once i AM on the road, THEN and only then will the real training begin.

I use to work in the airline business. I can tell you one cold dark night, we had been given the heads up that one of our planes was going to need an air start and a GPU. At the time, our piece of equipment that could do BOTH jobs, half of it wasnt working. We asked ComAir (Delta) to borrow theirs, but they said it was on the other side of the airport on the UPS ramp where their planes would get un/loaded and sent out. me and 3 others take two tugs over to find it, and notice there is NOBODY on the ramp. Keep in mind it is cold, snowing, and about 8-9pm at night. We go inside and what do we find??? All the rampers inside being warmed up, AND about 14 large pan pizzas from Pizza Hut. (anybody whos anybody knows Pizza Hut isnt cheapo pizza) That was between $150-200 in pizza. Now that is a company treating their employees pretty darn well. The airline we worked for, we knew that would NEVER happen. They got paid a little less, but seeing how they could tell someone was looking out for them, they were happy..

Two points to the story, employees are happy when not thought of as 'just a number'. I can see that. But also pay just might not be 'at par' with everyone else, but as long as the employee is 'happy' or 'satisified' or 'not done wrong by the company', they really have nothing to be angry about.

 

yeah - it was 400 in the sense of hyperbole - but the point is that they DO have insanely high turnover, when compared to other companies. And the rest of the large companies have similar numbers - so I'm not really picking on Swift in particular.

I absolutely agree. I learned a bunch in school, no doubt - but I learned a lot more in the three weeks I spent with my trainer on the road. And I'm learning more out on the road by myself

absodamnlutely! Most people will work for less if they are treated better. The problem is, of course, finding a place that fits you and makes you feel treated better. As a whole, such a place is easier to find in smaller to mid-sized companies.

In order to overcome the happiness factor, you need to be paid a big whack of money more than the happy guy - and you are STILL more likely to leave than he is.

Did I send you that link to the list of companies on that other board? It might give you more targets for applications, and you might not have to go to Swift. Let me know if I didn't.

 

I did take a look at other companies. I've already given my 2-week notice last monday and leave for training a week from this sunday.

To say Swift has a high turnover rate, i am sure they do when compared to other companies. But to compare turnover rates or accident rates between two different size companies, is like comparing how many miles two different race teams run during a race. One team running 2 cars, another running 3 or 4. you're going to have more miles with the 3 car team simply because the team is bigger.

Swift will have more accidents and more turnover when compared to other companies with fewer units and fewer drivers.

 

But what everybody is not looking at is the turnover rate by time on the road.
Swift has 300% less than 1 year Werner bout same...but after 3 years drops to 35-40% for both ( these were figures supplied by both co at recruiting evevnts )
So a 300% turnover is bad but usually guys either getting seat time or could not hack it on the road.

 

Snowman ---

no, no.. in raw NUMBERS, yes, you can expect more of anything with a larger company. But when you are talking rates, you are talking about legitimately comperable values.

If Joe's Trucking as 1000 drivers and 20 accidents in a period, it's the same RATE as if Bill's transport has 10,000 and 200 accidents in that same period.

To come back to Swift, then, you can see that they have an average (reportable) accident RATE for the industry. Something IIRC, on the order of 3.75 reportable accidents per month per 1000 drivers. (note, this say nothing about non-reportable accidents, of course)

They have a higher turnover rate than any other significant company in the industry.

Using numbers supplied by MarkGel, here.. if a company has a situation where 300% of their drivers have less than a year with the company, that's 300% turnover per year. They've filled (effectively) every driving job 4 times in that year (the first time is the original driver held over from the year before)

So, since Swift has on the order of 20,000 drivers, they have to hire 60,000 drivers a year to keep their trucks moving.

That is 300% turned into raw numbers.

See the difference?

 

Not doubting your numbers, but where did you get them from? Website? or just what someone told you?? I give little credibility to numbers that someone just gives me without realy showing where they got them from.

 

No turnover rate for drivers under 1 year experiance is 300%

 

But just thinking....say swift has 20,000 drivers, and (you say) they have to hire 60,000 drivers to keep their trucks running. Not all 20,000 drivers leave and are replaced by said 60k new hires. Lets just say, for the sake of arguemnt, that out of those 20,000 on the job drivers, 10,000 leave before the end of the year. The turnover rate isnt 300%, it is 50%.

 

The number of drivers is what they publish to the government, who in turn publishes it for us. It's actually something like 19,000 drivers and 21,000 trucks (probably down a bit from that, I hear they recently cut about 1200 driver jobs - but that's hearsay)

and no - you are still figuring it wrong. Turnover is still 300%. Turnover is based on the number of people replaced, not the number of job slots they fill.