Swift training school any one out here been there.

Nana is correct in her statement that the waiting list is not like it was in the winter. Today we talked to the school manager and he gave us current statistics. Spring and Summer are busier that winter and Fall. Today the Western Fleet was operating at 97%, meaning that 97% of the trucks that went available today would pick up a load today.

I have heard many gripes from former Swifties, and everyone has a different experience. As Nana said, trucking is not for everyone. If you go into this expecting the worst, you should be satisfied.

Swift wants new students that they can train the way they want. They do not want experienced drivers, nor do the experienced drivers want to work for Swift. There are many long time Swifties that are very happy.

Ask the questions now, and ask the drivers and recent graduates. The recruiters lie to make a quota. The instructors at this school have been very helpful and have answered everything honestly.

Many of the students in my class came in expecting $45,000 a year and unlimited miles right out of the gate. They are now learning that this is not reality.

 

Well today was a very long day of class! We spent ALL morning in a Defensive Driving Course, which was a lot of reading from a book, powerpoint, and videos.

Today was the best day so far, as we did not lose any students today.

We received the pre-trip information and all the papers we need for the driving range this afternoon. In the morning we will observe the instructors as they complete the pre-trip. Then we will break off into 5 groups and start backing into a 100' dock and offset backing.

That's it for today.

 

Ford, with all due respect, PLEASE get to different people with your questions. First, the driving academy personnel know very little about who's getting hired, what the process is and what the operating level is. Again, with all due respect.......97%?????? Please.....I don't believe you'd find a carrier out there running anywhere near that level. Here's a suggestion. Take a walk through the bobtail parking lot and talk to drivers there. Ask about loads. Ask about miles. Ask about idling and conditions. Then walk into the lounge and do the same. Read through OOIDA.com. If you can come up with anything close to 97% it's time for a news story....a very BIG news story.

You, yourself, stated it. Recruiters lie. Yes, they do and I was pleased to hear you agree. But you must ask yourself "why?". If they are lying, they are lying because things are not 97%. Perhaps not even 50%. They have taken thousands of trucks off the road. Just before I left, and frankly one of the big factors leading me to my departure, was the western fleet manager telling me they were at 35%. That was only back in May.

Again, please get to the right people....if you can. Instructors really don't care whether you get a job with Swift. All they are paid to do is to see to it that you get your CDL. The Driving Academy is simply a cash cow for Swift keeping in mind the Government handouts they receive for it.

RE the comment about going into it expecting the worst. With me it was 180 degrees from that. There wasn't anyone more enthusiastic than I and I think you'd hear that from the class and range instructors. What my big problem was was the deception involved and in my opinion is still in existance. I was a good driver for them. Never late for a pickup or delivery. Never an accident and always represented the company well.
With that, I averaged, during my time there, 1200 miles a week. You can do the math. Then came the reductions and elimination of everyday things to make it a humane job.....such as showers and a livable environment. I won't forget damaging my finger, on the job, and being out of service for the better part of a week.Anyone care about the pain and loss of pay? Nope, three times, I was remonded by my DM that I cost the company dollars and it was written up in my file.

Believe what you must, to get through, but do your due dilligence. You'll be doing yourself a favor Ford. I honestly would love to hear things are what you are stating. I would not want to see you be as disappointed as much as I.

 

Well I am a different people, and I have a gripe, not with Swift as a company on the whole but with certain key management individuals. I will not pass my differences with Swift beyond that, I don't disrespect the drivers, I still offer my help to any Swift driver..I more than some, understand what the goings on inside Swift are. Yes they have problems, so does every other company running freight, especially the training companies, remember training company isn't just for drivers it also includes office staff, shop staff, and every position within the company.

As for the Instructors, and all the personell in the academies..they do care and know who gets hired. They have a position as Instructor, how they do their job reflects on their performance as well as how their students do when testing for the CDL. They totally understand the process within Swift, since they have been through it themselves, they put time in as drivers, Mentors, and Swift employees to get to know the workings. Every day, a fleetwide report is generated from Phoenix, telling each Manager what the operating level is and it is broken down by zones and overall levels..this is then copied and given to every D/M and planner so all personell (office) know where the good freight areas are and the bad freight areas are. D/M's need this information to advise their drivers when to accept or decline a load pre-plan from the area planner. Good D/M's do anyway, the not so good and bad D/m"s well a different story there! This information also goes to the Academies, so that the Academy personell can let the students know what is going on with the company, they are also instructed NOT to paint an over-rosy picture to the students, that would be foolish when you thnk about it.

97% means that a particular zone may have 120% booking of freight, but another zone may be -30%, when all zones are averaged, it is easily attainable for 97%. Certain areas might only have 5 trucks within the area, unloading that day, but the booked freight could be 30 loads..that is over the 300% that Swift uses to establish their operating load percentage. As you do not understand, or probably had never taken the time to learn about the dynamics of what the planners, D/M's, sales, and logistics division do, or how they get their percentages, don't try to cast dispersions on what the figures really are.

What would OOIDA know of the internal workings of day to day business of this or any company, from overall stock market numbers, or business projections to investors would be the only inside information OOIDA could gleen any information. Since Swift is now a private company, there are no stock numbers to go on..they are going on complaints from drivers like you, but they don't see much positive from drivers like Texas-Nana.

Yes we all agree Recruiters lie..they have quotas to fill on applications and also on approved applications..what these percentages are is not known by anybody outside of recruiting..since I don't lie well..recruiting was never even a thought for me...but they have nothing to do with, or are concerned with the load percentages from the zone or nationwide. Each recruiting area is given a quota for their region, not the nation, for their region...regions are determined by terminal location only..not national numbers!

Western Fleet Manager...who might this be? Each terminal has, determined by their total truck and driver count, "x" number of fleeet managers. Phoenix has three, Lathrop has two, Sparks and Troutdale and Lewiston each have one each terminal is different. Since your location showing here in your info box says Arizona, I will assume you were out of the Phoenix Terminal...so western fleet manager is that zone of the Phoenix planning area...don't inflate your story with inflating somebodies position please.

Back in May, and the previous 3 months, like every other company, Swift was extremely low percentage wise. They were still trimming their total fleet size down to a level that would sustain the company, and the drivers. More to business than just the drivers, some business education would help you understand the operating issues of a mega company.

See above for the first part of this section. As for the academy being a cash cow...probably a real profit getter for Swift, but for your government handouts..Swift gets tax breaks for every student they accept and hire, this agreement is through the Department of Labor, reward for getting people off the unemployment/welfare system and working...no other comment from me regarding this...as I know the earned income right now is not good.

Swift does not deny that their miles aren't what they as a company would want, let alone what any driver wants or expects. I think you were expecting more than what was available, but your 1200 miles per week was actually about average for the Feb-May freight that Swift had available...yes teams and Mentor trucks were getting preference over solo drivers, but that is because of the freight rates certain shippers pay for the team movement, along with other factors.

The shower issue has always made me laugh...why would you need more than one shower per fill of your tank? Every truck stop offers a shower for either 50 or 75 gallons of fuel. The drivers that did not get hit with the shower loss, were the drivers on dedicated driver unload (like Dollar Tree and the likes) since they need a shower after unloading a full trailer onto a roller rack...did you try this fun thng.I did Kmart dedicated out of
Sparks for almost two years, roller rack un loads are fun, they keep you in shape...hell I could see my toes back then from fingerprinting every box in the trailer!

Damaging your finger on the job...I'm going to let this one pass!

Ford; keep your goals set high, freight is improving, Swift trucks are moving..not to the levels we were in the past, but improving all the same. Depending on what terminal you will run out of, will determine if you will have a wait for a truck when you get your CDL and get finished with your Mentor...don't be gentle on your Mentor either..if you have a question, no matter how dumb YOU may think it is...ASK..make sure your Mentor allows you to hit as many docks as he can...the hardest part of driving a big rig is the thing we do the least of...BACKING! Pay attention to his teaching, to the information he offers, no matter how redundant it may be..driving a big rig is always changing, minute by minute, a never ending series of little things that never remain static, always, always changing. Stay focused on your task, learn all you can...the day you don't learn something, or discover something new...is the day you need to hang up your keys!

Good Luck to you Ford!

 

Thank you Otherhalf.

However...........was that a typo?

 

Just to add a little bit to this. In Lewiston, the Academy instructors are now able to keep track of students that have graduated. This started being tracked in January 2009. Of all the students that have graduated from Lewiston since January there are only 7 students that have been terminated by Swift.
The instructors do care about the students and how they do once they are in the fleet!

I am sure that this is all correct! Now here is what was explained to us by the Academy manager:
Swift is a self insured carrier, the first 2 million dollars for any accident comes from Swift. Anything over that comes from one of the large Insurers.
Now for some figures, $2,000,000 for an accident. The Lewiston academy has an operating budget of 1,100,000 for 2009. The tuition collected from student for 2008 was $220,000. These numbers were presented to us to show that they do not make a profit on our tuition.
It was explained to us that Swift makes money when they train new drivers correctly, so as to have less accidents.

Thank You otherhalftw for that advice. I have already learned in life that you need to listen to those that know what they are talking about. I will be out of the Sumner WA terminal, and I am hoping for a good mentor. I have already had a few reccomendations from other Swifties, but I will take one that is available to get started.
As for now, I am just taking it all in.

 

Well we started out the day with 9 students, even though we ended day 3 with 11. One student voluntarily left, because he was having trouble with all the written tests.
The second student got sent home because of an old arrest in another state. Once again, tell them EVERYTHING, even if you think it has been long enough since it happened.

On a side note, I had a Domestic Violence charge in 2005. Without all the details here, I never went to jail, and did 12 months probation. Because I informed Swift of this on my application, and was fully vetted by Swift's Security department, I was accepted into the school, and will be hired when I graduate. Some of the students that have been dismissed had the same charges from 2001 and older. Since they were not honest on the application Swift sent them home as soon as they found out about the charges.

Day 4 started with the class splitting into groups by home state. Each group observed the State pre-trip inspection. This was very detailed and each step was demonstrated by the instructor.

Next we had 4 different stations on the driving range. We split into teams of 2 students, with on group having 3. With 8 trucks each student had a truck except for the team of 3 which had on student switch in.

The stations included a Straight back, offset back, and two different docking stations. We rotated through the stations for one hour at a time, for eight hours today. This was a great day with a lot of hours behind the wheel. Everyone learned a lot today, and we all saw great improvement on the range.

 

Ford -
I, sincerely, am glad you had a good day but with regard to your statement about being hired when you graduate, I believe you could see there are no promises. In fact, when I was speaking with someone about my student loan there, they, specifically, stated there were no guarantees with regard to job placement with Swift upon graduation. (This came up with that #87 in line and months before I got into a truck issue). I spoke with the loan people at this time and they were quite clear the loan is my responsibility job or no job with Swift.