going to Swift

Are all your suggestions this constructive? He wants to be a trucker, not a telemarketer. It's nice you are capable of pointing out the horror of Swift, but maybe your next option would be to give alternatives that are more postive for him.

/thread

 

That was more than likely me i find me a swifty or a flatbedder that does good i got to say something. But on the other i dont say nothing when i get one thats not so good i know he's probly a student and still figuring it out. Like we all are.

 

I did two days of their orientation, did the road test and was told I was road-ready. The next day (the last day of orientation), I went in as usual and waited in the training room for the day to start. When the recruiter came in, he started passing papers around to everyone but me. I asked "Do I get any papers?" or somesuch words to that effect. I was told to "call Phoenix." So I did. I got voicemail. I called again about ten minutes later. I got a live person that time. I was simply told that a decision had been taken to not hire me "at this time." No other information was provided. I wrote a letter later that day to the terminal manager in Phoenix asking why I was denied; I never got a response.

I have been driving for more than fifteen years (easily over a million miles) and have a spotless driving record. I have no idea why they flushed me before I ever turned a wheel for them...

My advice: Avoid Swift...

 

He starts learning how to drive a truck this month and already he calls himself "supatrucka"???????

 

You answered your own question. You have the experience so they know you should be paid more. And it will be harder to can you once you're down the road. They want easy drivers where they can fire them and start over with more school money coming in. There should be some law you'd think.

 

Still, it did not feel so good to be told one thing on one day, then told to take a hike the next-- with no explanation as to why...

 

Just heard from a Swift L/O that all co drivers have to take a .01 cpm pay cut due to soft freight. That on top of no miles.... I turned my truck in two weeks ago, I was starving to death. May be going back, but under an o/o, no more co driving..

 

kinda like there should be a law banning payday loan places.

With the economy in the tank, and people looking to screw other people just to make a buck, one think i'd HOPE obama would do, is to ban those 'car title' and 'payday' loan people who charge you 300% interest, then when the 2-week loan comes due, you have to take out another one just to pay that one off. Once you start down that road, it is hard to find the exit.

And if obama wants to help turn this economy around, that is one thing that NEEDS to be done away with.

 

I got off the bigroad for 7 years. When I tried to get back on, everyone wanted me to go to a trucking school, except Swift. Swift was the only company that would allow me to get back to flatbedding. I was based out of Greer, SC. Their flatbed training program was actually pretty good.

HOWEVER. Swift had the bad habit of firing driver and dumping them out in the middle of nowhere. I stayed out from September to December, wanted to go home the week of Christmas to go hunting for a week. They promised me my requested hometime. They got me home December 24th and had to deliver a load on December 26th. I was pissed. My driver manager's response was "Well, at least you got home for Christmas." WHAT?!?! The load had to deliver 600 miles away on the 26th!

I had 6 months recent experience in by then and so I started to look for another company that very day. I delivered the load on the 26th and had a 4wheeler roll go under my trailer. SmokeyBear wrote the guy a ticket and Swift charged me with the accident. They wanted me to take more of their driving classes because I had an avoidable accident. I told them that I would not and that I wanted to go home as I still had some hometime (my plan was to clean out my truck).
Got a load going 30 miles from my house. Went to the shipper and the shipper tells me to call my dispatch. Another Swift truck comes in while I am there and the shipper tells me that Swift just gave my load to that truck and to call and find out whats going on. I called. The only thing I was told was to go to the Gary Indiana terminal. I didnt go. I stayed at the TA. They finally sent me a load, an oversized load picking up in Iowa and going to Florida. I picked it up and got a call from another company inviting me to their orientation. On the way down to Florida, I rode by the house and cleaned my truck out.
after unloading, they routed me back in through the Greer terminal. I walked in to my dispatcher, and handed her the keys and the permit book. She actually looked surprised. "You just cant quit! What are you going to do/where are you going?"

My last words were, "Cant talk now, my cab is outside...gotta bus to catch and orientation to go to."

 

That is too funny. Buddy of mine who went to a swift school, he was making $200-250 a week, and said that he needed to run miles because he was in danger of losing his house in upper new york. They didnt care, and he sat at home long enough he cleaned out the truck. He got on with Werner (ended up having 4-5 log violations in 2 weeks) and ended up finding a local job. But what he did with the swift truck....cleaned it out....drove it to the terminal, parked it in the corner of their driveway outside the main gate, unplugged the qualcomm, and left.

THe next day he gets a call from his DM and says, "dude, there has been a load waiting for you on your qualcomm....you pick up in 2 hours, and it delivers in Memphis"...all he said was, "good luck with that load, the truck is sitting in the driveway of Syracuse terminal".

Lucky who i work for, even if they do term ya, they wont give you a load 700 mi away from home just to term ya. Thats like getting kicked in the butt by everybody in the office on your way out the door when you've been fired.