Comments/suggestions welcome. swift

Every company is weeding out potential problems at the moment. Slow freight for some, economic worries for others. They want to keep the cream of the crop.

Based on the incidents you described, the problems were created my your own hand. And, occured over a very short period of time.

Cooking the logs, happens everyday. By the very definition of the law, you must cook the logs sometimes, or be a complete road hazard, when the LAW says you are good to go.

I cook the logs, to my favor sometimes. I use an extra hour here, an extra hour there, to force myself OUT of hours. Then take a reset. This is an old habit I learned from a previous employer, that would use a driver with less than 5 hours on their 70, to pick up loads locally for drivers who had hours to run. If you picked up less than 10 the next day...you were on the local #### again.

The accidents, along with your log violations, makes safety very nervous. And, safety will not remain nervous for long before they remove the problem.

Because the LAW says you are good to go, doesn't make it so. Just as the LAW stating you are too tired to drive, does not make it so.

I referance a recent letter in one of the trucking rags, the driver complained that his company demanded he drive after his 10 hour break. But, he could not do so unless he had 12-14 hours rest. He wanted to know what he could do about this "problem" he was having with his company. He did not see it as HIS problem.

How long do you think this driver will have his job? And he was doing everything legal.

 

You never delivered automotive parts to a final assembly plant at General Motors, eh? LOL... They'd risk it.

As far as they are concerned, there is NO excuse for shutting down that line. Money is god and you better call in dead if that load is in the ditch. They'd spend thousands of dollars to fly a helicopter out to the accident site to get the parts... LOL.

"Wipe the blood off 'em boys, we need those Chevettes."

 

i worked for swift for about 6 months. worst 6 months of my life. first off i went to their traning school in memphis what a joke! then a had to wait 2 weeks to even get a trainer. my trainer keep me out for 8 week instead of the 6 that i was told. my trainer got home twice(i never saw home in that time). my trainer was just using me for miles and complain as io might no one would listen. i did how ever get a great dm he was the best and he did get me out of my old volvo into a brand new freightliner. i think he only did it that because i was running the miles and didn't want to lose me. i ended up quiting them because i was never getting home. i would only get 2 days off after being out 6 weeks. now i am looking for another place to drive for.as for the log books i was always getting hit for ? fuel. man i hated that. my trainer also stated that i would have to learn how to work the log book(cheat). i didn't take his advice and never ended up with a DOT volaition. so i know you can make the miles without cheating.

 

Ted, who did you piss off in a previous life? Talk about bad luck. I've been to the type of customer with no dock. It's almost as if your company doesn't like you, knows of a "problem dock" and sends you there, hoping you muck up somehow so it can get rid of you. The electrical cable quit working on you in Michigan after working fine earlier? Been there. Done it.

What did you do to deserve so many bad breaks? Not only are these things happening to you, you're actually being busted and reported for 'em. I think I'd stay off the road for a few weeks to let all the negative karma pass. You may go to your next interview with a trucking outfit, slip on the ice at the front door, and knock your teeth out if you don't.

 

sounds like you would do great at a smaller co. just stay away from swift !! i believe the new owner of that co. had to do some time and was just now allowed back into the craphole co. there are plent of fleet owners out there that would love to have a guy like you. and i fudge my log book to get a load there on time or home without taking 10 off, but nothing crazy maybe an hour of extra driving to get home !! i dont let the "law" tell me when i'm tired, i sleep when i feel like sleeping .

 

One of the problems in the trucking industry is illustrated by this response. Most truck stops and CB conversations are worse then a bunch of old ladies getting together over tea or gatherings at fishing lodges. Stories get so far away from reality. I have often said that it is a good thing that truck drivers don't have time to be avid fishermen as there is no telling how large the tale would become.

Jerry Moyes is not the "new" owner of Swift. He started the company, he has always been the owner or a part owner of Swift Transportation. He had a few problems with the SEC regarding alleged inisder trading. He found that 1) he did not like the way the company was being handled by the ownership team (it was not the company he envisioned) and 2) he did not like the time or cost of maintaining all the filings required by the SEC for publicly-traded companies and so he has bought out the stock to take the company private.

US Xpress is doing the same thing. It is easier to run a good company without it being public in today's business world.

Yes, Swift was going downhill. The management team that Jerry wanted to get rid of had turned all load planning over to college graduates who could not even spell truck or hours of service, for example. They were part of a "management training program". It was a flop as they had no understanding how to plan a load with any sort of connection to the real world. It is my understanding from talking to Swift drivers I know that it is now a requirement that load planners have to be former drivers.

In regards to your log book fudging, hopefully you are as lenient on your children, if you have any, when they fudge on your rules as you expect DOT to be with you. The HOS rules may not be the best but we sign to abide by them when we sign to drive commercially. It is time that drivers grow up and learn to live by the rules, whether we like them or not, and prove ourselves to be the professional drivers we want ourselves to be considered. "I'll do it my way" is the childish attitude of preschoolers and we don't need that in this industry in this day or age. If you don't like the rules, get out or voice your opinions to FMCSA through the process being done right now to "finalize" HOS regulations.

 

This sounds like the old patronage problem. Patronage is big in Jerry's home state of Utah. And one big issue I have with Utah is the patronage system that permeates the land of the beehive. Management/owner daddies give their sons/daughters/other relatives cushy jobs, although those getting the good-job bones thrown to them may be incompetent college grads. I even saw the patronage problem at work at my Utah university. Understand lots of people get good jobs in Utah because of who they know and not what they know. All they have to be is a certain religion and their success is assured, although they may have an IQ of 80.

If SwiftCo is moving away from patronage, it means they really are trying to better themselves. Now someone needs to go tell the head honcho at C.R. England about this. Talk about a patronage outfit. England is it.

 

teden, I applaud you for telling the truth. Stating what happened, and accepting responsibility for your actions, even though you do not agree with the consequences is admirable to me, for what thats worth. I can explain what the company looks at in regards to violations, citations, logs etc.. There are many things a company has to worry about.

There are many studys that show a BIG correlation between drivers receiving citations and violations and accidents. Because of this, Swift has become tougher on how many they will accept from a driver. Not only are they a behavior indicator for accidents, but it also affects safestat scores. So when safety starts viewing an employee's overall recored, they look at preventable accidents, citations, violations, road reports, and log violations. If you have problems in each of the area's it makes you look like a risky driver. If you were involved in a fatal or extremely serious accident, the attorneys would paint you as a one man rambo who takes the law into their own hands. We would be painted as the company who allowed this behavior, and endorsed it, because we kept you. Dont lie on your log book, its never worth it. If you cant run it legally, then dont commit to the load. Your jobs to drive the loads safely and legally, your companies is to find a driver that can run the load safely and legally. So if you cant do it, they will find someone that has the hours, or teams, or mentors etc...thats what management is paid to do. For those of you that fudge even an 15 min, its not worth it. One of my friends who drives as an owner op on 85% pay for a smaller company just had a lady go down the wrong way on the interstate he was on. She barely missed a couple other trucks, and when he saw that and her, he swerved to get out of her way, and she swerved head on into him and died. Police had reports of her doing this earlier in the night. His problem, he was 1 hour over on his logs. He is in court dealing with this now. Personally, he wishes to hell he stayed at that truck stop an hour before instead of pushing on. Police say he would not have been there if he was running legal. His trucking company is not supporting him of course. Just not worth it.

You sound like a good person, I am positive you will bounce back. Not every trucking company looks at the same things we do, but every attorney does. So dont make the same mistakes again, even if the new company doesnt care.

Wes

 

Hmm ok i will say this, at swift there is no turning down a load, you will pick it up and go or get told to clean your truck out and turn it in. i know this from experience, and as for regional, runs there are no miles, 3400 in two weeks does not pay the bills. swift also tells you in orientation to log what you do as you do it, that creative or hot logs will not be tolerated. altho swift trailers ands trucks are the worst for being mechanicly safe, bad tires, wiring, tandems that dont want to slide, i hear swift has had illegal aliens driving for them that got caught, also hauling pot and other drugs in the trailers, no surprise to me on that, swift is one company to stay away from experienced or not.