Swifterstate distributor co.

I'm sad to report that the company I've been with for years now is being transformed from an experienced driver company to a training company. Interstate is looking to train under the guise that it's a Veteran training program. It's the latest in a series of changes (mostly negative) since it's takeover by Saltchuk in 2011. They've brought in new management from Swift, Knight, and Schneider to run the executive chairs. Our CSA score has since skyrocketed to the mid 90s, so much so that CA has a 100 percent prepass pull-in rate. I attribute this to the loss of senior drivers because of all the policy changes, and the hiring of substandard drivers to replace them.

We used to get paid to bump the dock, but CEO Marc Rogers figured since other training companies don't pay it, IDC won't either. They refused to pay us detention pay but wanted drivers to note times on our BOLs so that the company could bill customers. A lot of drivers complained. I didnt note any detention times since they wouldnt pay. Well they've finally capitulated and will pay $13/hr (same as local pay) for more than 2 hours detention. Not much but better than nothing.

Our Wilsonville yard is overcrowded with scrapped trailers, making parking next to impossible, but Rogers blames it on Christmas, because we're going to be hauling trees in Nov., thus the need for more trailers in the yard. He actually had the gall to tell us if we put up with it for a while, we'd be "supporting Christmas". Talk about patronizing? And b.s.; The yard is overcrowded year round.

We were encouraged to stop in at the terminals this past summer for driver appreciation week. I stopped in that Thursday at Tacoma Headquarters. At the gate I was handed a tiny bottle of water and half a granola bar. I asked what it was for and the guy said, "It's driver appreciation week". I'm thinking ok, they've probably got a barbeque or catered lunch going on inside. Maybe some trinkets, hats, tee shirts to give out in the drivers lounge, like in years past. Nope! Nothing. A tiny bottle of water and granola bar was it. Probably invested less than a dollar per driver. Made me feel appreciated all right.

On the plus side, we've replaced many of our power units. Our trailers are rusted out heaps, but we're slowly getting new ones. Our units no longer have APUs and they've been complaining about idle time going up. No ####. Pay is stagnant. Insurance program is quite affordable. Shop does a good job servicing our equipment, except Fontana. We're contracting with a lot of crappy independent companies to haul out of Fontana. I've noticed the yard is littered with piss bottles and bags of trash from these third world drivers. A lot of trailers are being dropped damaged and not reported.

I hope the company doesn't keep on this path to being a training company or it's "Adios" for me.

 

I'm not ready to give up on them yet. They still have some merits, and old habits are hard to break. I just hope this new training company management doesn't turn us into another Swift.

 

I'm with them, but i'm counting the days to freedom.. I'm in the middle of a VA home loan approval, and switching employers now would complicate that, so i'll probably stay til the end of the year. I really wanted to use my building inspection certs by now and get out of trucking altogether but the construction industry has been slow to recover.

BTW, I never send that ridiculous GOAL message.