My Time With Swift

RubberDucky, let me see if i can answer your question about Swifts bad reputation a little better. Truckerdragon was partially right about the size of the company leading to all the bad rap. It is true that Swift is one of the largest, if not actually the largest, trucking companies in America. As a result, it has a higher probability of one of it's drivers being involved in an accident of some sort. But that is just part of the problem. If you read some of the posts bashing Swift, you will see that not all of them are about the inability of some drivers, but also include issues of company policies and driver treatment, i.e. forcing drivers to run illegal, or screwing us on our checks or other issues like that. The fact that there are some drivers who have driven for Swift in the past and have experienced those issues first hand (as opposed to the gossips who pick up on trash and just run with it without ever getting the facts or learning the truth or actually experiencing the situation first hand) is hard to ignore and that leads to a bad reputation.

However, based on my own experience and from what I've seen myself, I believe that Swift has worked hard to clean up its act and change it's reputation. They do not force you to run illegal at all. If you say you can't make a run within your hours, then that is final, end of story. I have run into planners who can't seem to count and keep sending me loads that run after my hours, but I just decline those loads with a comment about my hours and soon they come up with something I can do. As far as payroll, mistakes do happen. This is your payroll, your income, your livelyhood. I don't care who you work for, Swift or McDonalds, watch your payroll like a hawk. Mistakes will happen. You just have to catch it and bring it to their attention and it will be corrected immediately. I've never had a problem that wasn't resolved quickly.

The problem is that once you get that bad rap, it's hard to clean it up because so many jump on that bashing band wagon and it just never stops. Swift is a good company, and stable. There is no threat, that I know of, of them closing their doors any time soon. Although everything hasn't always been just peachy, they have treated me well and I'm happy to be a part of their team.

To answer some of the other questions, yes Swift will hire you if you attend an outside school. I did. They will not make you go thru their school if you attend somewhere else. However, if you have been out of school for about 3 to 6 months without driving for anyone, they may ask you to take a refresher course, which you can go back to your school to take.

As far as how much you'll make, I guess that all depends on how motivated you are, but don't expect to get rich the first year...or the second...or the third...or. It just isn't gonna happen in this industry. I have heard of drivers earning $70,000 or $80,000, BUT, they've been doing this all their lives and they don't work for companies like Swift. They are drivers who own their own trucks and basically run their own company, taking any load they want and getting more than a dollar per mile.

 

I have a question that maybe some of you can help with. I got a cb radio a few months back. Nothing fancy. Just a cheap Midland 40 channel. One of the small, little $30 radios that Pilot and some others sell. Don't razz me for it, it's all I could afford at the time. It seems to work ok, but sometimes I'm not sure. I was sitting at a shipper once, They have a staging area where you sit and monitor your radio. When they have a door for you, they will call you on the radio. I'm sitting there patiently waiting when the guard knocks on my door and tells me they have a door ready for me and they have been trying to call me on the radio. I didn't hear a thing. I did hear them later when they said my trailer was empty. I'm also constantly listening to one sided conversations. I can hear one driver talking, but not the one he is talking to.

My questions are, is this normal? Or do I just have a piece of junk radio? If I broke down and bought a $100 Cobra classic radio, would I still have the same problems? Help?

 

Good luck to you Sandy. I really have no idea of how the team training or anything works, so, sorry I can't help you much with that. I was at the Troutdale terminal once, just long enough to pick up a t-called trailer so I don't know much about the place either. Once you get started,you'll have to start a thread to let us know how the team stuff is going.

 

Sitting here is Lancaster getting a 34 in before I start the next week. I was hoping I might get the truck in the shop maybe to get the bunk heater fixed. I know here in Dallas it's not really needed, but in other parts of the country it's starting to get pretty cool at night.

Had a nice run down to Miami, FL last weekend. Picked up a load of paint in Front Royal, Va and ran it down. Hazmat makes me nervous, not that there is the potential for an incident or something, but it could be a magnet for DOT. Fortunetly, this was my second hazmat load and I haven't had any problem yet. Trust me, I'm not gonna get ####y about it. I may not be so lucky next time. This particular run actually had enough time built into it for a 34 reset, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I wasn't able to do that. So for this past week, I've been running off the hours as they fall off, always looking at that one day with the big zero as it climbs up the chart. That day would be tomorrow, so I told my dm I needed a 34.

I had stopped at a TA just south of Jacksonville, FL last week to spend that one day off and while I was there, I looked up my destination on Google Earth because the company doesn't have directions for this customer. Glad I did that! Turns out I was delivering to a paint store in a neighborhood with some body shops and narrow streets. And I was gonna have to park on the street while they unloaded me. Turned out not to be too bad after all and got unlaoded pretty quickly. Then I asked my DM if there were any loads going out of Miami as I hadn't received a pre-plan yet. She told me no, that everyone gets down there then don't wanna leave. Smarta$$. I finally got a load picking up in Jacksonville and running up to Alabama. This run had more empty miles than it did loaded! Whatever, it all pays the same. Then from Alabama, I picked up a load of dog food in Georgia with 3 stops in Houston, Tx, then a load of tires from Houston to Dallas. And here I sit now. No idea yet where I'm going from here. But hopefully they get me home on time next week.

A while back I talked about problems I had been having with my GPS. Well, I did get the updates done on it and so far it has been working better. Still had some issues with it, but for the most part it was doing ok. Well, when I got back on the truck after my last hometime, it wouldn't turn on. Piece of junk. I have been using my wife's automotive gps for the last 2 weeks. Luckily, I haven't had any problems yet, and this unit has actually worked better than the other one. But hopefully I will be getting another one soon. With any luck it won't be a PC Miler.