Swift - New Pay Scale complete details

If someone is consistently getting less than 2k mikes a week they aren't willing to work.

 

Or in my case, having to call on road 90% of the time when picking up a trailer due to flat tires or tires too low on tread or completely bald tires, or lights don't work, or a combination.

I've only been with Swift for a month now, and all of my loads with the exception of 2, I've had to either take the trailer somewhere or wait for maintenance to come out and fix it. 1.5 day trips turn into 2 days, 2 day trips turn into 3 days...having to do this every time is really frustrating. I'm tired of having to send in a macro 55 and 22 before my trip even gets started.

Has this happened to anyone else or am I just having a crappy time? I've been driving for 8 months and have never seen trailers in such crappy shape. I don't blame Swift, I blame the drivers that are too friggin lazy to do post trip inspections and just let it fall back on the next driver. I refuse to pull something that is either unsafe or will fail an inspection.

 

I have to give Swift props because they're really good about getting it fixed, so I can't blame the company, they have no idea what needs to be fixed if it doesn't get reported by drivers. I love my DM, and I believe I could make great money here if I could stay running instead of spending my time getting things fixed...but, I don't see that changing any time soon...

 

Drop and hook is not what all it is cracked up to be when you have starter/trainees mishandling the equipment.

Tow up trailers is probably the #1 reason for load delays behind running around wild goose chasing empty trailers in a 50 mile radius then on down the line would be the shippers overload weighting the trailers then the Swift driver must return for a re-work and get back in line behind all the appointment drivers.

I had a planner beg me to go pick up a preloaded trailer at a customer once, she said she would stack me where ever I wanted to go (this was a phone call). I never agreed to do the load, I just said, 'send it as a preplan and I will look at the details', well she dispatched it and never stacked me up, in fact when I called her back they said she went home. Trailer was missing the upper front left light, no not burned out but completely missing. So had a choice to refuse to move it like the previous drivers did or take it out of route to the terminal and sit in line for 3 hours waiting for them to yell at me while they fixed it. What a waste of my 14 hour clock....

Another one was a lag bolt in the tire, I was sitting in the Petro, Onroad says take it to the terminal 26 miles away. Well that's 52 miles round trip added to my load plus time and DM only paid me 10 miles all in. Again what a waste.

Had another one, no license plate. No response from the qualcomm. Needed these 700 miles to get paid. let's just say the trailer had a plate on it for the trip. \\

Another one they send me to this customer for a specific trailer, I found out why, it had a bent crank up handle. Trailer is covered in spider webs. Swift had 7 other mt's there I'm sure they'd had it reported in need of repairs and every time they sent a Swift driver after it, they probably called it in and got themselves a different trailer. I just swapped handles with another trailer, I'm sure it is still sitting there collecting spider webs.

Pick up a hazmat tcall, pretrip and discover the brakes are paper thin. So now this 225 mile runs is extended 24 hours on me because there are no other HM drivers. Again kills the chance to make efficient revenue.

Another one, only 2 of the 4 slider pins would engage, had to go goose chase another trailer and bring it to customer to transload and rand out of time so again 10 more hours added to a load unnecessarily.

It got to the point my anxiety would shoot up if I had to do a drop and hook. They asked me to go find a good empty trailer and go pick up a HM load, I just said no way. Come to find out Planner already booked the load, my QC and phone were blowing up 'please please please cover this load, you're the only guy in 500 miles with HM'. Sorry charlie . Planner gets a service failure. That's what you get when you put your SF's on me that I don't deserve.

 

Yeh, I'm not sure I can keep doing it. It's taking away from my miles and I'm not making the money I thought I was. Neither am I off every weekend with the dollar tree account like the recruiter told me I would be, but that's a different story...

But yeh, the trailer issue os ridiculous. I picked up a load the other day with one bald tire and a flat. Tuesday's load was 2 tires that wouldn't pass inspection. The other times were lights out, 1 tire here and there that was less than minimum tread, things that should have been spotted on a post trip. Other than that I have no qualms with Swift, but it's a big issue. If I can't turn the miles, not much else matters. I could deal with being out and missing hometime, or a messed up paycheck here and there, or not liking my DM...but if I can't pay the bills...

 

I agree that there are too many trailers in the Swift system that are not reported for repair. Whenever possible take care of issues yourself. Change bulbs on the trailer, air the tires with your own air line, drive to the nearest TA, etc. in order to minimize your down time waiting for On Road.

When you drop the trailer and find any issues report it with the appropriate Mac (I forget the Mac #). If you see a trailer(s) in a customer yard that require maintenance, report it.

 

The still have the road ready class and tool kit? Also can usually go to a shop and get glad hand seals lights and other repair items just give them your truck number or trailer your repairing...or do they not do that anymore? I agree too much wasted time getting things fixed u need repair yourself if u can....

 

That's a good thing about Swift, you can always restock your supply of glad hand seals, light bulbs, fuses, fluids, and wiper blades. I also made a point of stocking straps and edge protectors to secure freight better when load locks weren't adequate or when you needed to strap to pull in the sides of the trailer to make sure the load locks stayed in place. Nothing worse than having load locks fall to the deck because they simply expand the walls of the lightweight trailers.

If you can convince your DM and terminal manager you might also be able to stock a spare fuel filter as a company driver if you show competence to replace a fuel filter. That would likely have saved Swift thousands of dollars in towing fees, hotel, and rental car last January if they had let me have a fuel filter.

 

I spoke with my old teammate, who is now running the dedicated TJ Maxx account again. He's doing well, averaging about $1500 a week. For a short time he became a mentor, then upgraded a trainee that is now running with him. It's good to hear that he's doing well. TJM is a coast to coast run from LA to the east coast, so they get fairly consistent miles each week.

He noted that with the new raises his own paycheck is only about $100 more than his new teammate, even though he has five years in with Swift. While the new pay scale is an incentive for new drivers to stay on with Swift, I think they need to start ramping up the higher end of the scale for experienced drivers.

 

As far as fixing ones own company truck or trailer, there is a breed of drivers out here that just have this attitude, I am paid to drive it and haul it, not fix it. Does not belong to me so let them fix it. Can not count the number of times that I have had to go to the shop to keep replacing bulbs from my kit for trailers.