Diary of a current Swift flatbed driver

Schmud, You probaly averaged about 27.5ct per mile for your 1st year. Now with a year + under your belt you can jump ship and make some dough. Trucking is a sacrifice you make, the whole "taking a step back, so you can take many forward" is still true. I'm going to be back in a truck next week after many years of playing Army.
I'll give Swift a good honest year because they were the only ones who would hire me with my VA disability, but then its on to Roehl Flatbed. With one year+ now you would go to $.39 per mile to start on national flatbed and practical miles. That would move you close to $40K a year for the same miles. Or food grade or Hazmat tanker with 1yr+ they would train you and have you home most weekends at over $50K. QC runs out of Kingman,AZ, thats close to Vegas. anyway goodluck!

 

I just got word today they disbanded my dedicated account. Guess I'm going back OTR. Not terribly thrilled, but i'll see where things go for now. Best of luck schmud.

 

Good Luck....

 

I got the details on this today from my planner....we didn't "lose" an account it turns out even though it looks that way. It's all in Weyerhauser's way in sending us the load information. We're going further out so Swift doesn't want to guarantee anyone they'll stay in a specific running area. I can deal with that, I just wish they had SAID that on the Q/C. We're not as all as dumb as we look at times....

 

$26K/yr for 2100 mi/wk...I am surprised they have any drivers. Would you think it was worth while if you were making $50K and home every weekend?

 

I hate to say it, but people leaving generally comes in waves in this industry.