Idling hate mail from the top??

MM3Deg, please, let me out this to rest once and for all. I'm sure all the other long time Swifties here, like moosetek, blsqueak, inkeeper, and the others will agree with me when I say....don't sweat the small stuff. Look, you aren't gonna get a Brownie Button if you have the lowest idle percentage on your dms board. Likewise, you won't get fired if you have the highest either. You might get a stern talking to, but you won't get fired. Just be sensible. Turn the truck off when you aren't in it. Your example above about all the times you turned off the truck is a perfect example. And think about this in relation to those examples, as a company driver, your truck is gonna shut down within a few minutes anyway unless you sit there and wait for the shut down warning and cancel the shut down. If you do that at a shipper or customer, for one, you are wasting on-duty time waiting for the warning, and two, if you do that at someplace like Walmart, not only are you going to anger the guard, but also the four trucks stacked up behind you waiting for you to check in. Just turn the truck off, take care of business, and restart the truck. It's not like a starter has a limited number of starts assigned to it and each time you needlessly turn it off that means you are wasting a start. Turn the #### truck off!

What Swift is mostly concerned about is needless idling. Idling for extended periods of time when there is no need to. Like idling overnight when it's 50 degrees. Or idling on a hot day while you are inside the truck stop eating or watching tv. A former employee told me once he walked with a driver out to the drivers truck and the truck was idling. Um...duh!

Don't worry about those messages. Idle in the summer to stay cool, use the bunk heater when it's cold or idle when it gets really cold. Just be sensible about it.

 

Shrug. Maybe you're right, dodgeram.

My brother only worked at Mc Donalds for 11 years. He was a manager.

I guess CNBC lied in their documentary on Mc Donalds in china.

At this point it's not what I say, it's the fact that I'm the one saying it. Too many have become offended.

Fine. I have reported my own posts and asked the mods to take them down.

Today I put flowers on the grave of a good family man who raised 3 kids. In his 45 years of professional driving, he had 1 accident, caused by a student, her first week with the company.

He rests in the same cemetery with his son, who “didn't live half his days out.”

He went to trucking school. He didn't think his life, or the lives of the others on the road with him were worth a dime.

In the same cemetery are the ashes of a guy who did something stupid and had to wait a couple years to “get back in the truck.”

And he still refused to change. He just kept getting away with it, until one morning he didn't.

I didn't leave flowers for my brother today. They were using the mausoleum for a funeral, so I decided not to intrude and to just go on my way.

Which I'll do now.

Some of you guys just don't get it. Safety's not complicated.

 

If they want you to live in a truck they should plan on you being as comfortable as possible

 

i agree but companies dont see it that way。tbey rather charge the driver for idling。wonder what they do charge。what im seeing is the carriers with low pay are the worst about idling。they wanna bleed drivers dry sothey have poor checks。i dont even wanna know what there profits are。

 

If Swift charged drivers for idle time, I would be broke all the time.

Last week I got a message that said I was one of the highest at 69%.
Well, that week my truck was in 2 shops for a total of 5 days with some pretty warm weather. Of course the idle is going to be very high. Oh well.

But that's all it is... a message letting me know that it was very high.
No threats, no charges, nothing other than a simple message.
No biggie.

 

Yes.
You could lower the percentage a great deal if you want to turn on the truck, let it idle for 4-4.5 minutes, then turn it off. Then repeat the cycle over and over.

Doing so would be pretty hard on the engine and starter motor, I would imagine.

 

Wow. These last few messages, except of course for mooseteks, are...wow...

MM3Deg, man, I though I was OCD about stupid stuff, but congratulations, you win. So, just how much time did you waste to figure out what you figured out? (Not to mention wasting all the starts in your starter. ) Did you figure out that it really amounts to nothing? It's not that hard. Shut the truck off when you aren't in it. Idle when you need to for comfort. And blow off stupid messages on the Qualcomm. Omg! If you're this hung up over this message, what are you gonna do when Richard Stocking sends you a message thanking you for 100% on time service? Make a copy and tape it to your dash? I'm sorry if this is coming off harsh, but dang man, get over it already. I know when my idle is low and I know when my idle is high. Not because I'm watching the Qualcomm, but because I know when I'm idling.

I don't know where the idea that Swift charges the drivers for excessive idle came from, but that is so not true. We may get a lecture from our DM, but we certainly don't get charged for it. If they did that, Swift wouldn't have any drivers at all.

Lone Bear, my condolences on your loss. It's never easy losing a friend or a loved one. But, keep this in mind...the leading cause of death is life. The mortality rate is still at 100% and the doctors and scientists still haven't found a way to stop that.

Cemeteries are full of stories. He died too young, she lived a long full life, this one was a good man, that one was the scum of the earth. Not trying to make light of your friends or your brother, just saying we know how you feel.

And I wouldn't necessarily say that we want you gone (ok, maybe some do), or that it's about you that is saying what you're saying, it's about what you're saying and how you are saying it.

First, remember this is a forum section dedicated to Swift. And believe it or not, some of us Swift drivers are actually pretty happy driving for Swift. Here's one that will blow your mind...did you know that Swift has drivers that have been here for 15 or 20 years? And not just one or two of them, but several of them. I'm coming up on 6 years myself and really don't have any reason to go any where else. So when you, or any one else for that matter, comes on this board and starts bashing Swift drivers or Swift in general, often times never having driven for the company and not really knowing anything about it, some of us may get a little testy.

You made several posts spouting off a bunch of supposedly researched information to support a bunch of misinformation with more misinformation. You started off trying to demonstrate how Swift is getting rich off of the drivers. Congratulations, you've found the secret to capitalism. I have never worked a job in my life where someone else wasn't getting rich off of my blood sweat and tears. Welcome to America. Then you're talking about how Swift has this many trucks but only so many drivers, so they have a bunch of trucks that are just sitting not making any money. First of all, I've never known Swift to have that many trucks, but I could be wrong (truth is, I don't care), and secondly, if they have so many trucks just sitting, why then is it that some new drivers have to wait for a truck to come available? And you use all this useless information to bash on Swift, claiming they don't care about their drivers because someone dared to ask how they calculate the idle percentage because he got a message that his idle was in the higher percentile.

The truth is that Swift does care about the drivers and understand that we need to be comfortable to get the needed rest, but they ask us to be reasonable and sensible and don't idle when it's not necessary. Some drivers would run their truck 24/7 if they could and there is just no need for that.

And as for your last comment, about how some of us don't get it and safety is not that complicated...more of us get it than you think. Every week we have a conference call with our DMs (I don't know how many of you other Swifties do this, but we do it at the Gary terminal. And I know even there that not everyone participates. I don't even call in every time, but when I can, I do.) to discuss what we can do to be safe and they discuss the driver violations for the week, like any accidents, speeding violations, unsafe lane changes, passing weigh stations and so on. The one thing I hear most is that more than 80% of us are keeping it safe. Sure, there is plenty of room for improvement in that number, but the way all you bashers talk, you would think that 80% of us are out there killing people. Sorry to burst your bubble, not happening. Some of our drivers may have come from the company you drive for. Or, heaven forbid! Some former Swift drivers may actually be driving for your company now! Did they automatically get better as soon as they switched companies? Right.

Ok, rant over. It time for bed. Lone Bear, I wish you peace in this time of loss. MM3Deg, it's time to focus on the important stuff. Good night all.

 

Um, well, actually, to be accurate...
It isn't quite 100%.

There was one guy in our history that actually beat death.
He was the guy that turned water into wine, walked on water...

To be fair, His physical body did die at one point.
But He, and it, didn't stay that way for very long.
3 days.

I would have to say that death is not the result of Life at all.
It may be the next step in some cases, but by no means necessary.

Energy into matter, matter into energy.
Nothing 'dies' in the grand scheme.

And that is why there is an everlasting hell, and an everlasting heaven.

Everything exists forever, in whatever form.
And the whole purpose of the Creation is simply to put those forms in their proper place and time.