My experience with Swift.

Brand new to the forum, been a while since I've posted in any forum at all. But I'm bored waiting to start my new job with CFI, so I figure why not share my own experiences with Swift.



I got my CDL through them in December of 2017, and started on January 8th, 2018 with a trainer for 30 days. His name was Dan, and he was a pretty laid back guy. Too laid back at times. He hardly ever taught me anything, I seriously learned more from complete strangers on chat rooms online. I don't know if this is because he felt I was doing well enough on my own, or if he was just in it to get that extra pay. By week three, when he started letting me drive on me own, he started to scare me. He wouldn't go to sleep while I was driving my shift, he'd get around 3-4 hours of sleep, and just sit in the passenger seat the rest of the time. So every time I crawled into the bunk, I was paranoid about him falling asleep and getting us killed.



Oh, I should mention.... The mattress in his truck was infested with bed bugs. Yeah. Fortunately, I managed to kill them off.



Anyways, fast forward to going Solo. Well, actually lets take a step back. When I was in school for 3 weeks, I never touched an Automatic. I was 24 at the time and took pride in learning how to drive a standard, to be one of the "Kids" to break the stereotypes that we're all useless, and was even one of the top students in the shifting class (I was the only one in my own truck on the first day, actually.) When I went in to Swift to get assigned to a trainer, I was asked Automatic or standard? I asked for a Standard. I got an Automatic. Okay, whatever, I know Autos are taking over everywhere now, and I rolled with it. Fast forward back to when I finished my training, I had to take a road test. And go figure, all of the road test trucks at my terminal where automatics. Again, Okay whatever. Passed my test with no issues, the tester was even impressed enough with my lane control to compliment me on it. Great! Time to get my truck!



And here's where they started ####ing with me. They had two trucks available. I won't name what city I was in, as I want to stay off their radar for a little bit, but it was a fairly small terminal. Both trucks available, where standards, Which I was fine with, I wanted a Standard. But no, they refused to let me drive one. Flat refused. Instead, I was told to go home for the weekend, and come back Monday (90 minute drive from my house to the Terminal), to see if any Automatics showed up. I said no, I will just take one of the standards. They still said no. Mind you, I have been out of work for almost two months now trying to get started at this career. I'd already borrowed way more money than I felt comfortable with from my parents and best friend, so getting to work was critical for me. Monday comes around, and I get my truck.



Now, onto the trucks and their issues...



My first truck that I finally got when I returned was a 2016 Cascadia with the DD15/DT12 setup, and it was a wreck. Body panels missing and damaged, interior was torn up and the last driver smoked in it. #### it, I'm a new driver, I'll just go with it. It actually made me feel a little better about it when I did eventually run into myself by jack-knifing in backing and turning maneuvers. And that thing was a DOG. They have all of their trucks tuned down so bad, that they can't climb hills worth a ####. The transmissions are locked into Eco mode as well, which just compounds the issue. Then going on to their "Truck Assignment" department, ugh. They're ####ing useless. I had a good run with that Cascadia, I treated it like it was my own. But like 4 months in, it decided to part ways with it's own ECM. My options where to sit there for three days, sharing a hotel room with some random stranger while they wait for parts, or I can get into another truck. I chose to goto another truck. I ended up picking, on my own, a 2014 International ProStar. Why? It was the only truck (Which had a full sleeper) that was a standard and didn't have a ####ing "safety Suite" installed on it.



And I loved that truck. ISX15 with an Eaton 10-speed, basic cruise control, no radar or lane assist ########. And it had a nice sleeper setup, and even HAD WINDOWS ON THE LOWER BUNK!! (That's RARE in Swift, and I loved it). And I got to enjoy it for a whole.... 5 days. Then I got a message on my FANTASTIC Qualcomm, saying I'm being routed to Phoenix to have my truck replaced, because it was due to be traded in on a new one. So I go to Phoenix, and I sit there for FIVE ####ING DAYS. 5 Whole god #### days, because they didn't have a truck ready for me. 5 days of sitting in my International, idling it non-stop because it's Pheonix, bored off my ###, bleeding money. And they FINALLY get me a truck. I can't complain about this too much, since it was a brand new Kenworth T680, but, I'm going to. It sucked. Firstly, it didn't have the lower windows. Which annoyed the piss out of me. Then, the issued with the transmission. Automatic, and it was a #### one, too. I've always heard people complain about the Eaton autos, and now I know why. But the worst part, was how severely they de-tuned that Cummins engine. I figured hey, brand spankin' new ISX15, this thing should scream up the hills! No. My '14 International would have outrun it without even trying. Empty trailer, up a 6% grade, I was lucky to hold 50.



Downtime and layover....


Here is one of the actual reason why I parted ways with Swift. I sat. A lot. I'm talking 2-3 days on average, if I wasn't preplanned onto another load right away. I almost never had to shut down for a 34 reset, because I usually ended up stranded in some #### location with no freight to get me out, and calling them to get something never helped. "Oh, sorry, we don't have any freight." Then ####ing deadhead me to something, you useless ####s... Infact, on my last two loads with them, I did 600 miles over 4 days. I was furious. Banging my head on the steering wheel, because I spent an entire day hooked to a load, that I couldn't move because I was 10 minutes from my final, but the set appointment was for the next day, and Swift couldn't get me in early. Then go figure for my final load, I say for 3 days waiting for them to get me routed from Boise to Denver, and I told them I don't care if you stack me, just get me there. I never made a decent check, because I could never get any #### miles in. Said issues with the trucks being gutless didn't help, either.

This got a little long, so I'll be posting part 2 as a comment shortly...

 

Part 2 , the actual nail in the foot that made me say "#### this, I'm done."


They have a mega raging boner for "Safety". I think they noticed they have somewhat of a #### reputation. But what that means for us drivers is, we get nagged about stupid #### constantly. Videos that we're required to watch for training every month, that just repeat the same tedious #### that the previous videos said. And those ####ing DriveCams.... Oh. My. God. I was about to hit mine with a hammer. Hit the slightest bump, and it goes off. Then to get a call the next day from some desk jockey complaining that you need to be more careful. They slam you with points on your CSA for the dumbest of #### without even asking you what happened first, and any attempts to appeal these events are met with blank stares. Not to mention, EVERY God #### event I set off in my truck, they made me goto a #### terminal for a "Face to Face coaching session." Wasting yet more of my time, just so some pin head can tell me I need to drive more "Safely." Now this would all be fine if I had a crap safety record. But I don't. I have Zero accidents. Zero damage claims. Zero service failures. I have two non-violation inspections on my record, which must have been some sort of record for them because I was congratulated on such. And my CSA score or W/E they referenced when I was doing my exit interview was at negative 8, and that was after losing 6 points to the stupid ### incident that made me quit. So the way I saw it was, why am I being harassed this much when I have a perfect safety record, while there's idiots in the lot at that very moment backing into things. I'm clearly not a part of the problem, so feck off and leave me alone for once.



And now, the final incident.


I was driving through Idaho Springs, ID down E street, and was going to turn right onto Yellowstone. Both of my Truck GPS's told me it was a good route to take, and my Atlas even had E street marked in it. So, I figured okay, it's good! I end up having to drive over a center median curb to clear the traffic light post on the corner. Didn't hit anything, didn't hold traffic up for any more than 2-3 minutes as I waited for cars in my way to clear out so I could go wide. Jump the curb, a little harder than I should of I'll admit (I was empty, so wasn't really caring), got clear, and took off. Set the camera off twice, but didn't think anything of it. Well, I get a call from a Safety "Manager" the next day, asking why I didn't report the accident. I gave her the phone equivalent of a blank stare, and just said "What accident?" Well, they assumed they when I first bumped the curb, that I hit the car in front of me. No idea why they thought that. I cleared it up, and that was that. But then it occured to me, they hit me with points for that. So I get online, and surrreeee ####, they did. 6 points. SIX. The one time I ####ed up and ran a stop sign in the middle of the night, I got 5 points. I jump a god #### curb to make a turn and I get SIX ####ING POINTS. I nearly threw my laptop through the wall of the sleeper. And, I also immediately called my dispatcher and said I need to get routed home.



In the end, they tried so hard to get me to say. But I told them the only way they'll get me to stay is to wipe that incident from my record entirely (They refused), and to take the ####### camera out of my truck. Again, they refused like I knew they would. So I shrugged and said, "Well, if you can't meet my requests, I guess I'll be going elsewhere." And I did. Accepted a job offer with CFI, and here I am now, bored at home waiting to start. I left Swift on Very good terms, and I've had a few people tell me that I'm welcome to come right back if CFI doesn't work out. Now while I don't plan on taking them up on that offer at all, I'm gonna leave that bridge intact for now. Anyways, that's the story of my short time spent with Swift.

 

Yes, this is the other reason I left Swift. The constant teasing haha. The sad thing is, I always cringed whenever another Swift truck was backing next to me.

 

Yep, that's exactly how it went for me. I averaged 400-500 miles a load. My dispatcher was usualy on top of things though, if I needed something I just had to call her. But if she wasn't in, my god I'd be on the phone for ages waiting for someone to pick up. And I was never picky about loads either, until the end of my time there. Only time I ever refused loads was ones going to California, becuase they seriously do not pay enough to deal with that ####.

 

Heh, if they can seriously narrow it down to one driver based on the info I gave here, they're being ####ty enough about it that I wouldn't want to go back anyways. I'm just not gonna make it easy by straight out saying it was Denver, and my truck number was 162301.

Whoops.
In all seriousness though, the guys at Denver where really cool. My issues where all on a Corporate level with Phoenix.