chaining,inverters,dedicated and other questions

Hi i have 10 yrs with usx and a clean mvr. i was wondering how does usxpress compare to swift in the following areas?

chaining- was voluntary but not recommended by usx. how about swift?

inverters- usx would allow 1750watt but i never needed that much as i only ran a lcd tv and xbox 360. or only my laptop. if there are no inverters how do other drivers use non 12volt items like these? i didn't need a fridge or nuke box to make my food glow.
brake adjustments-usx policy was (paraphrase) touch them and you are fired!! so all brake adj tickets were given to usx. how about swift?

trailers- generally well maintained even if rusty but tires were like "run her till she blows!!" or take it to a shop and -some times- they would send road service if you were at a customer/rail yd when you found it. how was swift?

doubles- usx didn't have any and i dont want to pull them even though i hv end. for them.

Height- usx trailers are 13'6". i heard swift ran either 14' or 14'6" i can't remember which, but are they randomly assigned to drivers, or are they only given to w. regional, dedicated?
Location- I live in sandpoint a few hrs north of Lewistion yard, can i take truck home? how are mechanics at that yard compared to others? how is the freight out of that yard...other than the obvious potlach paper mill for outbound loads?

western regional- usx is getting rid of their solo drivers so i was used to getting 1000-1,800 mi a wk. how are mi. with swift?
usx w/reg. was really southern,ca to portland,or to phoenix and maybe seattle and screw the other 8 western states. can i regularly run the other 8 western states with swift?
Also i would not be opposed to running west of i-35 states does swift occasionally send a driver out of his region to say...okc or houston? if yes is it by load destination, or by occasional driver request for scenery change? usx would be like...if its west of i-5 "we may never get you back for a long time!!!" was common reply from usx.

Idleing- usxpress( i left in March 2008) didn't care about idleing as long as it wasn't careless like being in the t/s or terminal while trk idles away. otherwise we didn't worry about it. i know Swift has the optimized idle or what ever they call it but how does it work on hot/cold days or on 34 hour restarts? can i run my xbox 360 and tv when i'm on a restart?
Does Swift penalize solo's for using optimized idle during restarts/layovers? i heard Gordon moniters their optimized idle % rates.

Home time- usx was 1 day for every 5 then 1 every 6. 24 out= 4 at home...starting the day after i got home till the day before i leave. Example, if i got home for 4 days, and i arrived on the 1st of the month at say 12:30pm then the first day of my four started on the 2nd so four days would end on the 5th. so i would have to leave on the morning of the 6th.
how does Swift compare?

Advances- although i only needed 3 in ten years usx was based on miles driven on pending trips at i think .10cpm rate. how is Swift?

Directions- at usx we had a navigationally challenged GPS that would route you to your previous stop if you didn't update it...say sacramento,ca to des moines, Ia. and you are twenty miles out. if you last updated at your fuel stop in laramie,wy at the pilot, it would route you there starting at every "next exit" that you came up on...so i got a Garmin and problem solved..how is Swift's Map2it system?

Transmissions- auto shift at usx, i have driven 8-9-10-10 top2-super 10's-13spd-and 15 spd b4. what does Swift use?
Specs- usx had jakes, a/c tilt/tele pwr steering, cassette player(newer trks had cd players but (no aux input for I-pods)) we had Incab 5th wheel release and air dumps for drive axles, sliding fifth wheels, and ez pull trailer tandem release systems. we used to have Vorads but we got rid of them. switched left and right hood mirrors for psngr side camera...didn't work half the time. we had (volvo) dual pwr/heated mirrors, frt shakers had psngr side pwr/heat mirror driver had heated mirror.

Trips- we used trip pak what does Swift use?

Fuel- we used to have books until they switched to the "optimized" fuel router. However if we had a non-compliant load( 45,000lb 1/4 tank of fuel, and t/s was 400 miles out etc. we could call and name our fuel stop no ?'s asked..until fuel started to climb then it was where we were told on the phone.

T/S- we at usx mostly used pilot/flying hook or t/a and rarely Petro. how about Swift?

Expenses- usx $25+ req. p/o number less meant chuck recipt in trip pak.
showers were not reimbursed if if you didn't use your fuel recipt for free shower at the t/s.

Late loads- at usx if delay is your fault you are screwed big time!!! HOWEVER... If your repower was late, you knew you didn't have enough time/hours AND TOLD DISPATCH, breakdowns, you as a SOLO get a team load and your cloned co-driver dies before you get to dock,then it was never a problem.
How is Swift on the circumstances of this issue?

I know these are a lot of questions i have asked but when you have been with one carrier for 10 years, you don't want to spend a few months learning the hard way at another carrier. I would appreciate these answers alot.

Sincerely,
Spudweizer
Unofficial motto's of Idaho
-Welcome to Idaho now go home!!!
- This Spud's for You!!
- You are in Idaho now, calm down, leave our guns alone and SPEAK ENGLISH!
- If it's tourist season...Why can't we SHOOT THEM?

 

i meant to say i left in March of 2008, and does swift reimburse drivers for showers? also what about truck washes, how does Swift take care of them?

 

thank you for your reply i appreciate that alot. but i am curious on your reply here...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spudweizer
inverters- usx would allow 1750watt but i never needed that much as i only ran a lcd tv and xbox 360. or only my laptop. if there are no inverters how do other drivers use non 12volt items like these? i didn't need a fridge or nuke box to make my food glow.

Driver installed inverters are not permitted. The shop will remove them. Some drivers use inverters that are connected with battery cables.

you said "driver installed" at usx drivers were not allowed to install either, instead drivers were required to furnish the inverter and its parts and the shop was the only one that could install them. Does the shop then install the inverters? my laptop and xbox 360 are in the 700 watt range.

AND last question for you as others can answer the rest. you said

"Swift compiles stats on everything that is recordable by the qualcomm unit. DCI (driver controlled idle) is one (a big one) of the stats that they will give you. They like to see it under 10%."

With optimized idle on a cold or hot day or on 34 hr restart, how does idle remain below 10% i mean is there a difference between what DCI and the optimized idle unit does?