The start of my first year with Swift.

From what I've read, my understanding is that this is a "pay your dues" kind of business. Especially with these mega carrier companies. The first year or two seems to be a struggle for a lot of new drivers, but if what I'm reading is correct, once you get over that hump things start to pick up, whether that means raises and preferable runs or experience enough for a better position at a better company.

I am not a driver yet, so I'm only going off what I've read on these forums. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that those the most disappointed were getting into the business with the most unrealistic expectations.

 

I took home just over $42,000 in my rookie year driving for CFI six years ago. The numbers Sherrif posts are pretty close to as horrible as they sound. I have no idea how he or others in his predicament do it.

 

It is really hard at first. I forgot that you've only been doing this for around three months now. The last few months were brutal, but it seems like freight is starting to turn around. I am personally getting really good miles for the last few weeks. Burned out my clock and had to do a reset once, and I've been fighting to keep rolling on used hours recently. To me, this seems to be good news. I've been driving for this same company over 10 months....although by Swift's measure, I've only been driving 9 months solo.

 

Ahhahaha...the post about beer kegs!!! Seriously though, some of the roads we travel, it's amazing any freight is intact when we deliver.

 

i would have taken a picture of the load before closing the doors just in case someone made a stink about it. But gee Sheriff back to work and an entire trailer of empty kegs....hmmmm

 

As a former Swifty I'll warn you to keep your eyes open. I worked heavy haul out od Sumner, Costco dedicated, they lied every chance they could. If you get promised breakdown or layover pay fight for it, I never saw a dime. In heavy haul we has the worst of the fleet and half the time I was broke down. They love to slip seat when you are down for hours reset. A trick I learned was to save up all maintenance and repairs for when I did my reset, that way they couldn't give my truck to someone while off for the weekend. Also we had to wait a while for loads, I became the nuisance to the planners so when I came into the office they saw me and got me loads ahead of other drivers otherwise we had to wait till they were good and ready for getting around to it. I also had an incident where I had exhaust pumping into the cab and called. They told me to finish the run from Portland t the yard, even with the windows down I had all sighs of CO poisoning and red tagged the truck and almost passed out while walking to the office. Dispatch never even noted the issue, I should have parked and gone to the hospital. Cover your ### because they won't give a rip about you...Just sayin.