FFE or Swift??

FFE seems to be the better of the two. I've had a few veteran truck drivers suggest FFE as starting point for new drivers. FFE may have lower pay but their standards of training and safety are higher. FFE demands more from potential employees, too, they wont just hire anyone. Also, I heard that FFE manages their drivers with more respect than most starter companies.

 

I worked for swift when I first started some years ago. Its not as bad as a company as people talk. It has many advantages. The Key to swift is the Terminal and Driver Manager. Get a good DM and your set, get a bad one... you best know how to hussle loads or find a new job. At swift you have to be proactive when it comes to making sure you get a good Driver Manager. Talk to your fleet manager and terminal manager. Make them your friends.
I have a few friends still working at swift (over 7 years now) and they are still doing well.

As for the Training. Again, you have to be proactive there too. Some trainers just use you for the extra money. If this is the case, you have to stand up for yourself and make sure your getting the training. Backing!.. BACKING BACKING BACKING. No matter where you go, make sure you get lots and lots and lots or DIFFERENT BACKING situations. Straights, angled, blind.. in the rain, in the dark, with the sun in your face. Get BACKING practice as much as you can.

I can honeslty say its not what you know or how good you are.. its who you know and what they can do. But all big companies are like that.

FFE... cant say much I dont know them. You hear rumors but you know what they say about that...

Believe 50% of what you see, 25% of what you hear and your 1/3rd of the way to the truth.

 

A higher standard of safety than Swift ?
I'd like to see that statement backed upped .

Seriously , you're talking about a co. that has its drivers send GOAL messages
every time they put the truck in reverse and are running an active campaign
to ban flip-flops.

 

I'd go with the most pay and hometime + best benefits if I had to pick

 

I just chose FFE over Swift, and I am currently in their training academy. After my research, I felt the FFE training academy would be better, and in fact, the pay is better with FFE as well. FFE starts drivers at .29cpm, as opposed to Swift's .26 cpm. Home time is going to be comparable. If you are going to either training academy, FFE is basically free of charge, with no payroll deductions at all. Just stay one year. Swift deducts the payments from your check, and also still requires a year. I believe they will begin paying you back though after that year. I agree that Swift and FFE both are just fine, and with either you will get what you make of them. I believe the runs for FFE can be longer during the first year as well.

 

Bear in mind that FFE was just bought by the same people that own KLLM, that might mean that changes will come but I honestly don't know if they will be for the better or for the worse. Delivering to grocery warehouses can be a real pain and cause delays in those longer trips.

 

Why are you limiting to just those two?

 

I just finished my year with FFE.

I started leasing after 6 months, and I'm still doing it. It's not perfect, but nothing is. My year went by very quickly and I did not have any issues. Sure, some loads were less-than-ideal, but it's to be expected. Sometimes you get in a rut repairing trailers and reefers almost every time you get a new one. All of those issues are going to be the same no matter what company you work for.

FFE charges nothing for their school. Not one dime was ever deducted from my paycheck for anything to do with training. They pay on time, every time. Yes, I occasionally had a toll or scale get missed, but it was always put on the next paycheck with no issues whatsoever. I do have a few more payroll issues now that I am leasing, but it's carelessness on the part of certain employees, not company policy.

If you give 100 percent to FFE, your year will go by quickly and relatively painlessly.

The only reason I would tell someone not to go with FFE is if they lived in an area that was hard to get to - like Florida or California.

 

If they deliver to grocery warehouses, it would not be a good thing for an already low payed driver. That's lots of sitting for free. I'd try and find an outfit that is terminal to terminal or at least has quick unloading, like dump buckets.