Swift is a good company

Currently the student in my class is, he hangs around for practice on obstacle courses and backing.. He was at the TN orientation

 

Anyone attending Swift orientation Jan 27 in Atlanta? Thanks for all the good info.

Woofy

 

Hellllllloooo MACHO!!! I was startin to sweat a bit here! Was getting worried that you weren't able to connect at all! We (the youngest future driver son & I) have checked messages as often as possible daily to see if we've heard from you yet!
I did contact the moderator here and he was supposed to send you my email address. Sounds like you are busy, excited, and probably VERY tired so if you don't have time to email us, I would certainly understand buttttt, if you can we'll be waiting!
Bestest of alllllll wishes to you and I DO hope that you continue to enjoy it there and give us plenty of info on what my son has to go through in March! He is VERY excited about it. (that's an understatement!) Anyway, we can't WAIT to hear more from you! Take care and stay WARM!! It's coldddd in Fl. too!!

 

i just did a run from phoenix up 87 to payson(sp) and over to showlow az. saw a lot of swift trucks runing that way. with all the big hills and curves on the beeline hiway, are you guys taking the back way to I40? whats the deal?? thanks

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Just spoke to my recuiter (to try to get in early) and she said they are booked until March. Clearly there are no supply issue with drivers.

 

Hay guys. Just got to the hotel from school. I'm enjoying my self but let me tell you the school is pretty hard there is a lot of stuff to learn plus the driving, I'm learning to basic backing and starting to do some manubering. The school is good the hotel is ok but there is a lot of stuff to learn in a short time so is not that easy, long hours and very strict. Well I have to go do homework and get ready for a test. Sheilamae tell your son to be ready to do a lot of work when he gets here.

 

This thread proves my favorite quote. "History proves man learns nothing from history." If you have not been screwed over by swift, then you just have not worked there long enough. If you do , they will. Just hanf in there and you too will have the oppertuninty to tell the world how they got you, It will happen. But the same is true for several other such as CR England, US Express, or May to mention a few. If you think at some time you deserve more than to work over hours, while lieing in your log book, and god forbid actually want real time off like a 2 days a week, or get paid for the time you spend conducting company business, then you will make the list and you will be posting a different story.

 

MACHO!!!!!! So GOOD to hear from you! Both my son and myself sit here WATCHING for your updates! Thank you again for MAKING the time to do this. I understand that the school is going to be a little tough. I'm pretty sure that it's geared that way to get the "weak ones" to move on. How many are there in the class? My son is FULL of questions. LOL> He is jumping up and down, he's SO ready to go! In the next few days, I am going to have him create his own account so that he will be able to log in and help other future class people out just like you have been doing.
We are pulling for you in Florida! Good luck and hopefully you'll be able to catch your breath over the weekend! If you didn't get my personal email address from the moderator, please let me know and I'll ask him to send the information again.
Thanks so much for everything and we look SO forward in hearing from you again!
TAKE CARE!!! Stay warm!! Florida has been cold this past week!
Sheila Mae

 

So how do you explain the thousands of satisfied, and happy, Swift drivers or the ones who drive for the other companies you mentioned. Swift will hang you out to dry for lying in your log book. I just came off 3 days off. We have learned from history. We have learned that people like you like to do nothing but complain. They could hand you the keys to a brand new truck, give you 3000 miles per week and $0.50 a mile and you would still find something to complain about. If you expect everyone else to be perfect while you can continue to make mistakes, you will have the outlook you display by your comments. There are no perfect trucking companies and no perfect drivers. All we can do in life is make the most of our situation and help others in their walk.

 

Well this has been one of the most trying weeks of my career so far and it's not even Swift's fault (mostly anyways) however, tonight has really tested my patience.

Ok so Sunday' I get a run from IN to FL. Drop n hook, wal mart right? I get to WM to pu load and the trailer has a flat. I mean FLAT! So i went to the TA and they repaired it and I drove down to Decatur (Atlanta) and shut down at the terminal' after creating my own parking space (never seen it so packed regardless of the fact it was a Sunday).

I wake up and get on down to FL and the drop number ain't takin', so I had to wait a couple hours until the CSR got one that worked. Dropped and went to the rest'a'rea and shut er' down for the night. 900 miles in 2 days, (Sunday n Monday) I'm thinkin things are lookin' up.

Wake up, and there's no pre-plan. So I head on up to Wildwood and sit. Now I know Florida can be bad news for freight, even in the good times, so I didn't really have any expectations of getting out of here quickly. So Thursday rolls around and I finally get a load pickin up Friday morning and my dm even paid me layover for tuesday and wednesday.

So I head on up towards Lee, Fl for the pu (customer said I could sleep there and get loaded Friday morning) and on the way, I remembered I need to get my IFTA stickers and documentation, so I went by Ocala to get my stuff. While I was doing so, it was brought to my attention that the registration I had was illegal! This is the one I got from Gary terminal, so I thought it was good, but if you're reg'd in Oklahoma, you have to have the original, not a copy like i had.

Okay no biggie, called Phoenix and they overnighted it to Ocala, but in the meantime, I had to get the load taken off me because I wasn't going to get the reg until well after pu time 120 miles away to boot.

So today, I get my reg and talked to my dm apologizing for my ignorance regarding the reg (if you are registered in AZ, a copy is legal). After the conversation, I get a load picking up near Orlando. Did I mention that these loads were getting me home? Been out three weeks and ready to get there by God!

So I get moving on down to the shipper near Disney World land and drop 'n' hook. Signed the bills and ready to roll. OH wait a minute, the BOL says 41,050, guess I better scale er out right? Well, across the street from the shipper is a trucking terminal which happens to have a scale. So I go over there and find the guy and scale out. WHOA! She's 550 lbs over gross AND 5000 pounds overaxle on the trlr tandems! RUH ROH! There's a lot more than 41,050 on that load lol (only 5/8 of a tank of fuel to boot).

So I go back to the shipper and look to see if anyone's there to straighten this out. Of course, they've shut down for the day, so I called Greer and asked what they wanted me to do about this crappy situation (I seem to always catch hell getting home, is it just me???).

So I talk to the guy on the phone and he ponders a bit and then asks another guy there what to do (I could name names but I won't here). They tell me to roll it to Ocala terminal to have it t-called and see if they can take it back to the shipper monday to get it straightened out.

Okay, I know what ya'll are thinking probably and YES i had them send me a message on the QC! They did, and told me to roll to Ocala. I knew I wouldn't be crossing any scales so I got er' done. Even took it to the pilot up there and put it on the Cat which said I was even heavier! 80,700.

11,780
30,000
38,940

Now folks, there ain't no fixin' that slidin' the tandems even all the way to the ###! So I get there and go to dispatch window and tell em I'm here to t-call. Nobody told them anything about no t-call! Ok, I said look on my QC, they told me to bring it here! Doesn't matter blah blah. Then I showed him why I was t-calling. Well he was like, you should have gone back to the shipper! OK I DID! Nobody home, now what?

You shoulda called your home terminal! I DID! Why don't you look on my QC and see!! Blah Blah. I was getting pissed at this point. So I go back to my truck and ask why hasn't a planner t-called this yet? I get a reply back stating the night planner isn't going to set it up so call back to Greer in the morning lol.

#####! Sittin' all week and two loads going near the house and I can't take either lol. WHAT A WEEK!

And before ya'll start preachin', yes I know it was overgross and I shouldn't be drivin blah blah blah. No chicken coops to cross on 441 to 27N to 75 comin out at xit 354, with the terminal at x352 so no biggie!!! What else could be done? The bol was signed and in my custody and had I left load there I'd get a load abandonment. Nobody there til monday as far as I know so then I'd have to sit on it all weekend for practically nothing!!

So what would you have done? Especially when they tell you to run it to the nearest terminal (about 65 miles)?