Swift chooses 90 day exp over 7 yrs

I worked for Swifty once. About 3 months total I think. After I was off the road for a year or two they were the only ones who would hire me.

They first put me with a guy who they failed to inform I had previous experience. While leaving the yard he advised me it's company policy for the trainee to unload the trucks and the trainer recieve the unloading pay. Luckily we had only gone a few miles from Greer when he told me this.

I promptly turned the truck around and explained to him that I had been driving a truck since 1992 and he was full of &*(^^. He tried to change his story on the way back to the terminal but once a thief, always a thief.

Second so called trainer they assigned me had even less experience and was a coke head and had the nerve to snort coke in front of me going down the highway. Totally new meaning to HIGHway I guess.

Given my previous law enforcement background I quickily submitted Swifty a choice of letting me go on my own or release me as a driver and let me seek other alternatives.

I honestly tried with them and them with me, I guess with the bad taste left from the "TRAINERS" and what seemed to be nothing but northeast after northeast, I gave up after 3 months or so. Plus back then they expected you to drive "55"... yawn.

 

I cannot imagine making the choice about where to get training, how to get my CDL, and where to work...without this web site and you people.....

Thanks for all of your input. I am reading til my eyes bleed!

 

yea i know what you mean ... i been on this since 96 legally .. but been around it since 93 .... swift wanted me at first to do a trianer who ony had his cdl briefly and had maybe 3 runs under his belt solo and i said hell no .. not going to trust a guy driving in a snow storm while i sleep ... not going to happen ....

 

So, what a newbie to do but go with a JB or Swift to get some exp. You can't hardly get on with a decent company making a reasonable wage it you don't cut you teeth in somewhere. I've been looking for a company other than the Big Box Guys and it hard to find one.

 

there are alot of big comies who will take new drivers .. you can google and type in something like topp 100 trucking companies .... or go to other truck driver job sites and find ones that hire in your state ... new guys always think that jb and swift and werner are the way to go ... there are others that are just as bad, but to get experience you need to go to them ... i guess i got lucky.. when i first started out of trucking school .. i went to a o/o and didnt need a trainer .. he asked if i can drive .. i said yes and he handed me the keys and the rest was history .. but of course back then it was great .. no regional running, if you had a run to the west coast, you ran it .. away from home for 5 weeks at a time ... speed limit was 55 ... now the #### world went and got itself in a #### hurry .... more kids driving trucks and not knowing enough to stay alive, adults snorting coke to stay awake ... just not newbies or newbie adults ... its some guys who have been doing this for years as well .. what it is doing is taking away from us guys and the new guys who wants to be professionals and the govt is just going to tighten #### down even more until there is hardly anything left ....

if it was me and i ran a big company ... i would get rid of all the d.u.i, d.w.i, all the felony ones, absolutely no drug charges whatsoever ... among a few other things ... but that is me .. everybody thinks different ...

right now i am just trying to find a new job and it is hard for me to get on anywhere cuz i left my last job cuz they were running me way over on legal hours and weight ... they blacklisted my dac and well you can figure out what happens from there ....

bubba

 

Bud I honeslty don't have an answer on how to find a good company to train with.

I was with what I thought to be a great company until the middle of 07 when I collided with a bridge railing.

The only thing I remember is the steering became non-responsive and then impact puncturing the rightside fuel tank. This resulted in immediate ignition of the diesel fuel that resulted in a complete and total loss.

I was able to escape the truck before being burned as it came to a rest 916 feet fom impact. However I was terminated because "We can't find proof there was a failure or not." Although they reported nothing to DAC/USIS and no citations were given, about 30+ companies have refused to hire me thus far.

So... I find myself looking for non-driving jobs. Problem is, I don't have any other certifications. Driving is pretty much all I've done my adult life. Jack of all trades, master of none.

 

So, How do you find a owner operator that will toss me some keys and turn me loose. I can drive as well as anyone. I just need a chance to prove it.

Thanks

 

I don't know the first thing about the way an O/O's insurance is written. Is it that easy to just give the keys to someone and have the rig and all the liability covered for any driver?

 

I've been hauling Oversize loads for two years with Boat hauler but they dont have any business with the drought in the Atl.area. I was driving with them on my permit.

 

They wanted you to train him? Or him train you? I gotta call bull if you're saying he was going to train you. Swift does some ignorant stuff and they put some terrible drivers behind the steering wheel both as mentors and drivers, I'll never deny that. However, you cannot become a mentor with 3 loads under your belt and it's ridiculous to suggest such.