Maybe Swift is bad because of their DRIVERS

Details http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/917370.html

 

"Maybe Swift is bad because of their drivers"?

I'd turn that statement around. If Swift has a disproportionally large number of poor drivers -- and Swift has their own training facility -- I would be much more inclined to blame Swift, not the drivers, for not properly training their drivers before putting them on the road.

 

I have seen more Swift drivers not being able to hold there lines more than any other large company. It may be because they have a lot of people out there or because there the company I seem to overtake the most. Whatever the reason I give them more room than I usually would and try to make the pass as quick as possible. Not saying all there drivers are bad. Just do not want to find out the hard way. Better safe than sorry.

 

Yeah,
live in denial if you want, and I see, as of yet no swift driver has posted to defend them

words out man.........SWIFT sucks....

 

I have worked for soooo many crappy companies in various industries that it isn't funny. What IS funny is that I never had a hard time at those places. I have found the key to success in any company is politics. You need to know how to play people. If someone is empathetic, you need to tap into that. If someone expects nothing but hard work, feed that person hard work. Everyone likes people that relate to them. If your boss likes playing the drums, talk to them about drums. Act as if you are very interested in what they have to say. Make them feel important, people love that. If you learn to make yourself likeable to a variety of people you will always have a friend in the office.

The above may sound far fetched but it has served me very well over the last 14 years working. I never had a problem getting what I wanted out of an employer. YMMV

 

The reality is that most of the reputation these companies have come from people who have never driven for them and just embellish truck stop stories. And many of the stories are someone saw a truck driver do something bad and don't remember the company so they just say it was a Swift driver. I have been out at my local Petro several hours a week for the past few years and have seen hundreds of Swift driversback in and out of stalls and never hit anything. I live and drive many hours (in and out of Albuquerque an hour away) on Interstate 40, the most heavily traveled freight lane in America and have NEVER seen a Swift truck do anything stupid; and I have seen thousands of Swift trucks on that route. I have talked with many Swift drivers at the Petro and most everyone is very satisfied with Swift and those who are not don't have major complaints.

One thing I have never seen a Swift driver do is make a U-Turn on a major interstate from the right shoulder of the westbound side across two lanes of traffic and over the median into the eastbound lanes when an offramp was a half mile ahead. That was what appeared to be an independent owner operator. I never saw a Swift truck run into two different trucks at a distribution center in the space of ten minutes. That was a 2 million mile accident free driver for May. I watched a flatbedder (non-Swift) cut the corner too sharp in the Petro parking lot and drive his load of lumber and right bumper rail through the back door and side of a dry van.

As for giving trucks wide berth, I agree with you. This is what we all want. One of the biggest complaints on the road is fourwheelers who ride right on a truck. I have been driving a belly dump and it amazes me the people who tailgate a truck hauling rock; even when our trailers say to stay back 300 feet and that we are not responsible for broken windshields.

Bottom line is EVERY company has bad drivers. If that were not true, then there would be companies with perfect SafeStat scores but there are not. And as for those scores, Swift scores much higher than many of the "cream of the crop" companies. Are there bad drivers at Swift? Of course there are. Many, as one person stated, are newbies. And rather than putting them down or giving them a hard time, why not help them out? Remember, none of us were born truck drivers. We all had to learn (and hopefully still are learning things). If you see a driver, whether it be with Swift or any other company, having a problem backing in some place, why not offer to help? I had a Central Ref. driver do that for me when I was on my third solo run and he showed me things that night that were useful ever since.

Again, we are all out here trying to do the same thing; deliver freight and make a living. Truck drivers used to help one another out. Nowadays, it is more about putting down someone else or someone else's company. Should not be that way folks and that is why I stand by the words I said earlier, and they were words I heard years ago as a young man, small people have to put others down to make themselves look better. Discussing issues is one thing, but continually bashing one company, especially when you have no personal experience, does make one small.

 

So you can post a link to the story, still is Swift the ONLY company that has ever been sued for a trucking accident?

 

Swift obviously does not have a disproportinate number of bad drivers or their safety ratings would be at the bottom and they are not. Many of the "cream of the crop" companies have worse safety ratings than Swift.

 

Here are several lawsuits that were settled against trucking companies and you will not Swift in any of them. So the claim of lawsuits is not a valid argument to make as ANY company can be sued and be hit with a major settlement. I have edited it some for sake of space but a search, if you care about balanced opinions, will lead you to the same info and there is a whole lot more as well.

The families of four Kansas City women who were killed in a 2006 trucking accident settled their cases against the truck driver's employer for $18 million after a jury determined that the employer failed to properly screen and test the driver.
The case
Four Kansas City women ... All four women in the car were killed. Their families sued the employer of the truck driver, Pro Logistics Inc., its parent company, Cen Tra Inc. ...
The verdict
The case actually went to trial where a jury awarded the victims' children and grandchildren $15 million in actual damages. While the same jury was deliberating on whether or not to award punitive damages, the parties settled the case for $18 million total damages.

October 21, 2008 - A jury in Alabama has awarded $1 million to the son of a man killed in a tractor-trailer crash, the Dothan Eagle reports. ... The suit was filed against Rowell Trucking, driver Thomas Wayne Rowell and Greatwide Dedicated Transport.

KAKIDAS MCDONALD & CHAKONAS v. DEAN FOODS
Death of Three Teens - Intersection Collision with Dean Foods Tractor Trailer - $20,200,000
COLELLA v. JMS TRUCKING
Wrongful Death - Trucking accident on a Construction site - $9,264,600 (Gross)
KELLY v. DART TRANSIT
Wrongful Death - Truck, Bus Highway Crash - $7,500,000
H.S. v. YARD HORSE TRUCKING COMPANY
Brain Damage from truck collision - $2,000,000

 

paw paw you spend a heck of alot of time defending a company you dont even work for.? or do you actually work for swift? hmmmm