1 year at Swift.

Coast Guard, 1973-1982, USCGC Hamilton, Boston until Class A school,

 

Well seems I am definately the young one here. you guys were in the military the same year I was born. Lol. So anyways I have a couple questions about Swift if you don't mind. I was curious about the physical first off. I was told once that you cant let them know if you snore, its seems odd to me but it was explained to me that it is a sign of sleep apnea and that they automatically disqualify you. Is any of that true? Also I was wondering once i leave for swift school..how long is it before i see my first pay check? More or less im trying to figure out how much money I should have available before I go to Swift school to support myself and my wife and kids. I know the training pay sucks and then its takes awhile to get the ball rolling once im solo also, and I have read horror stories of being stuck in motels for weeks waiting for trainers and trucks and every other thing. Im pretty confident that I will be able to adjust to driving big trucks quickly, I have been a tow truck driver for about 9 years now and i throw the flat beds around with a car on the bed and one on the stinger in the back like its a toy. Hopefully it will come naturally for me. Unfortanatly im waiting until the end of the year for a point to fall off my license. Anyways im sure I will think of other questions, but for now I appreciate you all taking the time to read my wall of horribly punctuated text here!!

 

Had a rough road in the course of getting my cdl, but got the call from a swift recruiter today. Thanks for this post, been extremely helpful for me on researching the company.

 

Still on the Military thing AK3 (TAR) 1985-1988 I was on several dets with my VP P3 Squadron and a VR squadron.

 

I have a question. is it realistic to think I could purchase a truck through Swift for 40-50k and pay it off within two-three years? Does Swift even offer older trucks for sale? I do not want to be trapped paying for a 150k truck. (I have a 6 month old at home and I'm not willing to be away from her forever, I am willing to run hard for 3-4 years while she is young) Id like to pay off a truck, hire a driver to drive it and then repeat. Is this a realistic plan from what you have seen in Swift?

 

62k, 3 years for me. Some are more some are less .... I would suggest you have about 15K in the bank ... Swift will cover you for 30 days for any repairs, after that you're on your own - I've dropped about 8K over six months to get mine running the way it needs to be.

 

oh so the first 30 days after you purchase if the truck broke they would repair it? like a warranty or something? how long did it take to build your repair fund up, did you ever stop paying into after it gets to a certain amount? So I should keep 15k in the bank at all times for repairs or do you mean have that money before I even buy a truck? Thanks

 

He means have that money before. You can deduct so many cents per mile to go into your maintenance fund directly off your settlement. The guys that L/O or O/O can advise you on how much.

 

You don't pay into a maintenance fund ... that's not how you run a business ... the business has all the money, the business pays you.

I have 2 accounts - maintenance reserves, which I keep with Swift as a maintenance account and operating funds, which I keep on my Comdata card.

.10 a mile goes into the maintenance fund, forever, no matter what. All other revenue goes into the operating fund. The operating fund pays me a weekly operating allowance on the road, a bi weekly salary, a home time bonus, a year end bonus, as well covering extraneous expenses for the truck.

If you are going to start a business, you should have enough cash on hand to pay your salary for at least a month, 2 preferred, more is better, operating expenses for a month, 2 preferred and maintenance expenditures for 60 days ...

For a used high mileage, out of warranty truck these numbers are higher. Just assume you will be down for the first 30 days getting your truck up to snuff on Swifts dime - this means your business needs to have enough cash on hand to cover your salary during that time. Then within 90 days assume something worth 4-6K is going to bite you in the butt. Again the business needs the cash on hand to pay your salary, as well as the repairs.

 

Awesome thanks for the info. How hard was it to set up all the accounts? Does Swift help you manage those type of things?