Swift or Big M Transportation/Diesel Express?

I've only got 8 months exp. from working at Schneider National. Long story, but right now my choice has come down to Swift or Big M for my next company. Both will pay me $.32 per mile to start, for OTR. Some of the Pros & Cons of Big M to me are...

Pros: Newer trucks 2012 & up, all with APU's (a big deal to me), 2,500-3,000 miles wk, easier to move up the pay scale
Cons: They do all 48 states but I hear mostly runs going in & out of Northeast (my least favorite are to drive)

With Swift the recruiter said she'd look into my request about possibly driving the whole southern half of the country. Although I kinda dought she'll come back with good news on that. I'm a little concerned about what kind of truck I'll be assigned at Swift. At Schneider it was mostly all luck about what truck you get, whatever's available the day you need one. New students could get a brand new truck, and an experienced driver coming on might get a 2010 on another day. I think Swift will be about the same, based on luck. She also told me 3,000 miles per wk, which after reading some posts here, it sounds like that is an over-exaggeration. I like to drive hard for 3-5 wks then home for 3-5 days, and a 3,000 mile week is what I always tried for, but often couldn't quite reach at Schneider, because of all the down time waiting in between deliveries, and other out-of-my-control delays, over the course of each week. I'm going to continue to read through more posts in here to learn more about Swift. But Big M doesn't even have a category in the Trucking Companies Forum. And thanks to everyone who posts all this wealth of information here about Swift. Great Forums on this website!

 

Thanks for the advice. Although, I already predict my recruiter is not going to be able to "put in writing" that I will drive only the bottom half of the country. I will ask though.

 

I agree. Big M has nice trucks, and an APU is a big deal to me, mainly because at Schneider, idling & fuel usage was 1 of the factors which determined our annual yearly raise. If you had an APU, you'd get a better fuel rating & you wouldn't need to idle to keep the a/c or heat on, therefore you'd get paid better. So from that standpoint, APU = Better Pay

Also, Florida Rock & Tank is oil tankers right? I'm not into that, I just wanna do dry van for now. OTR is cool to be able to see more country, and visit more places, it's just that the Northeast left a pretty bad impression on me from all the times I went up there (during my whole 8-month-truck-driving-career lol)

 

Do you mean drive Swift for 4 months, then I'll have a total of 1 yr exp. and can go many more places at that point? Because I can not wait for 4 months to get back on the road. I'll be doing Orientation not this week, but the next week, at 1 of the few companies I'm looking into.

 

No, but mainly because 70-80% of their loads come from/ go to the Northeast, which is my least favorite zone. I sure like their trucks tho (judging by looks, how new they are, and they have APUs)