So, your Swift stories are true.

Hello. Reading this thread again reminded me of the sweetest dispatcher I ever had the honor and pleasure of working for, Betty B, a very busty petite blonde who finally got it across to me how dangerous winter driving could be for most anyone no matter how confident the driver. I was still a rookie back then with relatively little truck driving time in heavy winter conditions but was fully if not foolishly confident in my driving skills from what snow and ice I had driven in while hauling loads pulling mostly short trailers.

Keeping an under 30' wheel base rig on the road during the local bad weather had become almost too easy for me and that led to just enough overconfidence for Betty to finally put me in my place over my attitude. We worked at a smaller firm that was owned and run by an old league driver who knew how to pinch a penny tight enough to give Abe Lincoln a headache and bald spots and was reluctant to spend money on anything better than the swamp coolers used at the offices. That meant in warmer weather Betty and the other office gals were usually dressed in attire that included tank tops and flip flops once summer arrived.

Well it was impossible not to notice how blessed Betty was in the figure department and once I had been there awhile it became a running joke between her and I on how hard I tried not to look now and then and how she was challenged to not lose control of them while strolling down the hallways or up and down the stairs. She used this to her advantage the winter I strolled in and all but declared I was ready to haul a high prioroity load right across Nevada and straight through to Gillette, Wyoming in spite of increasingly bad weather reports for along the entire route going East.

Betty listened to me through it with an intense look on her face, smiled real sweet and then came over to the counter and spoke to me softly with a serious but yet still kind tone in her voice "Do you really think you can handle that run in those conditions with the limited amount of experience you have?" "Sure, why would you think otherwise?" I replied at the peak of my youthful confidence. "Well, you know how when I go up or down the stairs too fast and these two go out of control with one going one way and the other another way no matter how hard I try to stop or control them?" she said while gesturing at her blessed breasts.

"Yes?" I weakly replied while barely fighting off the urge to dwell deeply on the mesmerizing image of her cleavage engaged in massive mammary movement mayhem. "When that happens I refer to them as Whoopsie Doopsies and that is very likely what will happen to you if I give you the run to Gillette because with your attitude you and the tractor will go one way and the trailer another way in a heartbeat. I can't let that happen so to stay out of trouble, you get the run down to Laughlin instead, don't argue and don't get to be a ####."

 

All those swift and schnider drivers cant drive because they will hire anybody who has a cdl. In the winter all you see in the ditch is swift trucks.

 

I do not drive for swift, but I believe you are not right here.

I saw FedEX, small companies, Swift, Schneider, Werner.

There are many who misjudge what the truck will do.

 

i didn't mean "just" swift and schnider drivers, but mostly you will see them in a ditch they don't really care who they hire just as long as you have a cdl pretty much.

 

I can see that, but there were alot of the experienced that ended up there as well.

 

Weather forecasts are often wrong . You can't park just because you MIGHT get a storm . And where would you propose parking all the thousands of trucks that area in the storm area ?

 

The company I left at the end of January stated weather is not a reason to park. I was in a blizzard in Minneapolis, after 14 hours of the day, I had only driven 85 miles. The load was to be in Chicago area by noon. I got there at 1:00 pm.

Company docked me for being late. Weather was no excuse.

 

I shut down at the 14 hour rule. I advised them that the conditions were bad. Night dispatch send do the best you can. There are no truckstops around Minneapolis. Got to the Walmart in Hudson, WI and took my 10.

This was a force dispatch company and it quickly became apparent which was more important. They would call in the middle of the night on your break while you slept and ask for updated delivery times.