Swift Trainer

Trainees are not allowed to use their phone in any way while driving, even with a handsfree headset. Once you become solo you can use one.

If you are running OTR then I don't see any reason for not being able to get that 2500 miles per week if you know how to run. My typical schedule was 4-6 weeks out and take 2-4 days home time when OTR solo.

I'm hoping your trainer will be at platinum level, something that can easily be achieved within a few months of running solo. That opens up Mac-30, which lets you pick from up to three different load offers. There are also bonuses for each level, with platinum getting a quarterly bonus of $0.04 per mile. When you are in terminal see if you can see the current "bubble map", a video display of the USA that shows either green or red bubbles. Green means more loads than available trucks, and red means more trucks than available loads. The bigger the bubble the greater the disparity. If you are platinum you can sometimes pick loads that route you to "green" zones to keep the wheels turning.

 

If you really were the CEO of Swift - you would understand that, as a publicly traded company you are not actually "the owner".

 

Since Swift purchased Central Refrigerated, do the Swift drivers haul both dry van and reefers? If not, could they do so to get extra miles during the times that freight slows down?

God bless you and your family! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Good question. There will a push in orientation to have new drivers and trainees sign up for refrigerated. The great majority opt out. There is no financial incentive to pull reefer, although if that has changed within the last four months someone can chime in. I ran dry van, but on a handful of occasions pulled reefer and even preloaded and secured flatbed.

 

The Swift of today is a completely different company than the Swift of the past. Trust me, I remember the old Swift. The stuck at 55mph and pray they got your paycheck right at least ONCE this month Swift. The old "We ain't gonna fix it til it needs towed" Swift.

Today's Swift is a complete 180 from how they were back in the day. They do get more than their fair share of idiot trainees it seems, but after talking to a few Swift trainers I'm willing to put most Swift rookie screw ups squarely on the shoulders of the rookie who decided to "do it his way" rather than do it the way they were taught.

In all honesty, if I were interested in going back to.dry box, I'd give Swift a serious look. It wouldn't be hard for an experienced driver like myself to get to and stay at "Platinum" level, the equipment is much nicer and far, far better maintained, and Swift does seem to have the miles for a.good company driver who knows how to work within the HOS. Bit I'll be buggered with a steel toilet brush before I flatbed for them.