Got my first service failure...

man i hate when the consignee has rules like that like we haul for 7up wich we haul rockstar for then and they seem not to understand we can only drive 11 hrs yet they gave me an app from Modesto Ca to SLC with 16 hrs of straight drive time said i had to be there at 10am when i got out of Modesto at 4pm and my truck is governed at 60 anyway so i maxed out my time went to sleep and got there at 2pm SLC TIME and this guy starts going off on me saying all sorts of crap i said to him your load is here safe im here safe and so is everybody on the road so i dont care what u tell me call dispatch and cry about it but dont tell me how to drive my frieken truck BEACH!

 

I know Shrek won't agree with this...drivers at Swift (and probably any company) need to understand that the system is set up to "create personal incidents and document them"...they build a case against the driver of the littlest of things and use the combined information to make a good driver appear negligent and contrary.

With any employee at any company....CYA is always the way!

 

Just another reason not to work for the "meat in the seat", 150% driver turnover type carriers. There is no common sense in this what so ever! A simple drop and hook and you are chastized because you were early. How can this make sense to anyone from the CEO down to the person that scrapes the fungus off the bathroom walls?

Find another job! Apparently you're over qualified because you can do your job!

 

They always seem to add to very close preplans...
'Please do us a favor on this one...'

I won't accept it if I think it is going to be that close. If I don't have a few hours wiggle-room, I turn them down. Things happen far too often that cost me time on the road.

My last/current load is an example.
Previous lload was late in unloading so I was going to be late for my current pick-up. Mac22.
When I got the load assignment they didn't send a fuel route, which was OK until I got to the shipper with a 0 fuel level and no truck stops withing 50 miles. It took another hour for them to send me a fuel route, which sent me 50 miles in the opposite direction to the closest Flying J and added another 100 miles to my trip. I had to shut down there because my 14 was almost up. Another Mac22 for the consignee.

Then, I am going down I-29 and see a sign that I-29 is closed south of Sioux City. Another Mac22, because I will have to divert onto back roads, setting my new ETA another hour later to 1700.
Then there is construction, reducing the road to a single lane, so that held me up another 20 minutes.
Got to my final at 1705, but the delivery had been resceduled for 1030 the next morning because they close the place at 1700.
Lucky for me, because it meant that I wasn't 5 minutes late after all.

Unlucky for me, because I had accepted a preplan that picked up that same night.

Several phone calls to several DM's, and I finally get a QC message saying I can pick up the load the next afternoon after I unload this one.
But, I have that authorization on the QC so I am good to go.

Also lucky for me, because this is the load I had requested that takes me through Denver. I am picking up my 15 year old daughter, she is going to ride along for a few weeks during her summer vacation.

 

You dont understand. Swift is service failed by Target, and fined. We probably paid Target for the honor of delivering this freight. When the dispatch order clearly states not to deliver early or you would be service failed, then this is no trick, no game to get drivers fired (the member that suggested that... if you believe that, learn logistics), HOWEVER, having said that, if Bluebonn was told he could deliver early by his DM over the phone, then service failed? That is wrong. Thats why I asked for the order number, so I could look at the notes on the order. I could find it, but it would take a long time considering the number of loads we deliver. Blue got a raw deal on this, and I am hot about it. His DM screwed up, and is trying to cover by saying he never said any of that.

In Memphis, phone calls are recorded. Consider that...

And I would idle my truck too. I cant sleep if I am sweating.

 

Certain customers charge carriers for being late. Its clear in dispatch instructions to not deliver early. And Swift is not the only carrier to do this, nor are they the only one to be fined by customers for early delivery. Its the customer doing very tight logistic management.

congrats on your new gig. I will certainly agree that Swift is not the best carrier to drive for, but I have never driven for them either. But Swift is not as horrible and evil as some people think. I would be interested in knowing how long you drove for Swift.

Any business tends to lose the personal level with employees when they grow to the size that Swift has. However, businesses grow that large for a reason.

 

Shrek....I realize you work for Swift now, and are actually part of the lower/middle management. I also realize you have not been with Swift for that long, and are not complicit to DM/driver relations and "score keeping" on the most minor of incidents, be they "Late Delivery", over-speed, HOS violations (according to Swift log department), phone in reports from other motorists, safety classes, awards from Swift, CA Pull Notice, traffic tickets, scale tickets, Inspection Violations (even when involving a trailer issue that was "pushed out by shop"). Everything in this Driver Performance Display, is worded (coded) that a "positive" or "negative" aspect can be derived from the report.

So try not to "shine on" the drivers at Swift (or any company for that matter) that their wonderful DM is there to be their "working partner" or that the DM will "go to bat" for the driver when push comes to shove. I knew very few DM's who would stand up to management regarding the driver and his/her "Performance Review"!

Every driver should be aware of everything that is placed into their PRD, and the only way to see this is to regularly have the DM bring up the screen and "review" it with the driver sitting right there with the DM. If there are erronious entries they need to be addressed on the spot and not be "we can get to it later, I am busy" BS from the DM!

These coded entries, with a combination of negative and positive entries, listed by date and time, are used as ammunition to discharge any driver by tracking all events reported or encountered by that driver and the DM/FM or any terminal office employee. The DM's aren't aware of these entries as they don't do the entries and are not required to check the status of the PRD of their drivers. Swift begins "building the case" against the drivers from day one!

I have not in the past made up stories about Swift or their way of doing business. I have reported and done my own personal analysis of the way things are done and recorded regarding the drivers. When I offer advice or any explanation regarding a Swift issue or policy, I do it from over a decade of experience, and first hand knowledge of how the "Swift Way" is often on the shady side of legal, and beyond the pale as far as ethically. I have seen it personally in a "sworn by oath" in the courtroom setting...how management, and legal counsel distort the points and use the information embellished and twisted to Swift favor. Making direct statements in a Sworn Affidavit that are false, proven false by evidence and proof, yet still returned to and repeated....information used that counsel and management knew not what the "item" (CA Pull Notice) was, and when confronted with the definition and scope of the "item" from the CA DMV, still denied that that was what the "item" was regarding this specific driver.