Thanks Swift

Don't forget about the "SWIFT System" = Swing Wide It's a Friggin' Trailer!

 

Don't bet on it. I HATE Pilots, and stay away from 'em if at all possible. Anyway, I was in Paducah, KY last summer...I had stopped at the BP on the north side of 24 to fuel up and weigh my load. While inside, I flipped through the '09 motor carrier atlas and noticed that a few of the roads I wanted to take were highlighted as truck routes whereas they were not in my '06. The BP didn't have the nice laminated road atlases, though, so I headed across the highway to the Pilot.

When I walked back out to my truck, I had to wait to pull out. Traffic was backing up because they were waiting for a swift truck to back in a few spots down from where I was. The driver in the skateboard to swift's blindside got on the CB and told him he "may want to get out and look...that he was getting awful close to his trailer." "Swift?!?" "SWIFT!!!"

He laid on the air horn.

Swift mashed the throttle.

When I saw the skateboard rock, I picked up the CB and said "I think he found it."

Anyway, around walks the swift driver ('bout #### time he got out to look) with this "oh crap...what have I done" look on his face. Skateboard driver didn't look too happy...and when he got back into his truck, said swift told him "when I heard the air horn, I thought people were honking at me telling me to hurry up and get out of the way"

An owner operator has a LOT of money tied up into his truck. If that truck goes down for repairs, that owner operator is out the money he would have earned had the truck NOT been damaged. The truck payments don't stop just because someone backed into him. His customers aren't going to be thrilled with their load being late because he's getting crash damage fixed after someone backed into him. That last one is the big one, because a lot of the time, the personalized service and on-time reputation as a reliable and safe carrier that an owner operator has with his customers is his ace in the hole when competing against the mega-cut-rate carriers. Sure, it may cost a little more for him to haul their freight, but it'll get where it needs to go damage free. If the owner operator loses that reputation, it becomes harder for him to earn a living.

A company driver, on the other hand, gets his load repowered and the company will have another truck for him to get him rolling again within a day or two if his truck is going to be a while in the shop.

 

It must be nice to have been born an experienced, over the road trucker.
It must be nice to have never made a mistake in a truck.
It must be nice to have enough time on your hands to post some of the PURE CRAP I see posted here about new drivers and Swift Transportation.

Then again, it must SUCK to have the kind of life that makes you want to talk about another trucker that way cause you think its funny, or because "everyone is doing it".
It must SUCK to be running so few miles you complain about #### that aint your business and aint ever gonna be.
It must SUCK to be you.

 

Hit my truck and scratch it and see what happens!

THIS ATTITUDE has no place in trucking sir. PURE AND SIMPLE.

 

I understand an owner getting upset about getting hit. heck I see why a company driver would be upset, but accidents happen. I'll admit I backed into a werner skate once and I even got out and looked got back and let it roll a bit too much. only damage was a tire got cut and my pride was smashed, but we discussed it did the paperwork called a tire guy and everybody walked away alive and well. if you lose your temper these days you never know what could happen and may get a bad surprise!

 

I've had a few close calls....but i think my worst thing was my own fault, I was bobtail and was backin in at the yard next to my pick up truck and i caught my mudflap close and scratched the side of my own truck...now talk about a ticked off driver...lol...its bad when your cussing yourself out....