Is every DM this big a jerk?

duckdiver · Aug 23, 2017

Swift DMs start at 70k and have 100 drivers on their fleet each and give 0 f's about any of them. I know this because i used to be a fleet manager at jb #### and a few other fms came from swift. None of the managers at jb #### give a crap about drivers either if that makes you feel better.

csmith1281 · Aug 23, 2017

RogerThat72 said: ↑

whats your experience and driver record like? sounds like they want you to move on. Megas just use and dump drivers that's what they do. idk how some guys last long years at them.

You're in a prime location for work.
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Oh, believe me. I'm moving on. I went solo April 25 of this year. I'm going to Crete as soon as I have their required seven months experience. I'm only still here because anywhere else I go I would have to do training, and that means losing money for who knows how many weeks.

My record is clean so far. I have one citation going to court in the next couple days, and I don't think it will end up on my record.

csmith1281 · Aug 23, 2017

duckdiver said: ↑

Swift DMs start at 70k and have 100 drivers on their fleet each and give 0 f's about any of them. I know this because i used to be a fleet manager at jb #### and a few other fms came from swift. None of the managers at jb #### give a crap about drivers either if that makes you feel better.
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If that's what I would have to do to make that kind of money and be home every day… Well, let's just say… What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul?

dca · Aug 23, 2017

Do ypu think crete will be any better?

pattyj · Aug 23, 2017

csmith1281 said: ↑

I really want to know: if I go to another company or even ask for a different DM at the same company, is it this ####ty being a truck driver everywhere?

Today I got sent to the wrong location three times, was getting sent to the fourth location when they told me to turn around and go back to the third. Here are the final, the guy at the receiving desk so I was not on the schedule and they are going to have to work me in. I have been waiting for six hours. This is the second of two drops on a 100 mile trip, and as of this writing, I have been dispatched on this load for 26 hours. When I picked up this load, I noticed the bills and the dispatch didn't match, so I spoke to the dispatch window at the terminal where I picked up the load, and they said it was the same place. I said "yes" the bills and dispatch matched. When I arrived at the address on the dispatch, they told me they don't take refrigerated freight. I call After Hours Dispatch, and they sent me to a cold storage warehouse across town. Got there, shut down, went in in the morning, and they said I was in the wrong location. There is another yard across town I need to go to. That was my third location, where I'm sitting now. my DM comes on this morning, and I ask him if I can get some pay for all the running around I've done and if I'm going to get detention for how long I'm sitting here. He wants to tell me how it's my fault things are messed up because I didn't put "no" on the loaded call. He says they are going to submit a detention review, "but you need to be patient." Which I know by now means we're gonna pretend like we're working on it for several weeks until you forget about it and stop asking about it. I told him on the phone "Swift sent me to the wrong place twice", and he takes exception to that. He cuts me off and says "Swift? I don't know why you're bringing Swift into this." I used to say things to him like "you guys sent me to the wrong place," but then he would take exception to that and say "you guys? Don't drag me into this…I didn't do any of this. I'm not a planner/fleet leader/on road/After Hours." If it's on Swift's side of the fence, nobody is ever wrong. After he cuts me off and tells me I'm not allowed to talk about what Swift did, I try to tell him "well, the people I spoke to you last night to send me messages on my QUALCOMM and told me where to go work for Swift." He cuts me off and starts in on how he's not gonna argue with me, he's not gonna try to talk over me, he wants to talk about this professionally and can I do that or does he need to go find somebody else to pull my next load, because obviously, if I can't speak to him and work this out (translation: shut up, do what you're told, and don't ever have a problem with anything or have a question even if we are telling you to do something unsafe) i'm going to be late picking up my next load. Twice this week, he has called me and told me to do an 8/2 split. Last time he micromanaged my schedule, I tried to tell him I wasn't ready to sleep when he wanted me to, and I could still do everything I needed to do on time if I followed my plan and not his. He didn't care. He's only worried about filling certain checks in certain boxes, and if I have to flip-flop my sleep schedule, only get two or three hours of sleep before driving, or waste several hours of my day to do so, he doesn't give a flying rats ###. He tried to pull the same stuff with me today, so I'm just going to ignore him. I'm trying to avoid having contact with him as much as possible.

Before anybody asks: I'm still here because I have six weeks left before I have enough experience to move to the company I want to work for. And I know the money is decent enough here that I don't want to take a risk on making less money at another fleet... at least before the baby comes. My wife is about to have a baby, and I'm trying to save up enough money so I can take a week off to help her after she gives birth. I really want to know: if I go to another company or even ask for a different DM at the same company, is it this ####ty being a truck driver everywhere?
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Welcome to trucking dispatchers can be such air heads.You can try requesting another DM but it'll probably be the same thing all over.

RogerThat72 · Aug 23, 2017

My advice is to look into everything. Get a year in, transfer dms, transer to a different type of driving just get a year and keep a clean record. Find a job that will pay you for everything. Try getting into some tanks or something. GA has tons of options.

Don't take megas ######## to heart. just use them like theyr'e using you and use them for the experience.

Good luck driver, and be safe!

Wicked Wizard · Aug 23, 2017

Every place you go you will have the good, the bad, and the ones that just don't give a hoot. The best thing to do is find a good one and stay where you are at. You go to a different job and it will be the same old basket of crap.

QuietStorm · Aug 23, 2017

I didn't read it, but pretty much anyone behind a desk is your enemy. So probably yeah.

Also, the only people worse than the people behind the desk are the people who used to drive but now sit behind a desk. With few exceptions.

Ridgeline · Aug 23, 2017

Welcome to trucking and yes it is like this everywhere.

It isn't as bad as doing a paper route on the weekend, picking up on a Friday, running all night long to get through three drops before your 11 is up and then finding out two of the three has the wrong address and you have five more to make before Sunday night when you know you will run out of 11 again. And no one to call until Monday.

MACK E-6 · Aug 23, 2017

Ridgeline said: ↑

Welcome to trucking and yes it is like this everywhere.

It isn't as bad as doing a paper route on the weekend, picking up on a Friday, running all night long to get through three drops before your 11 is up and then finding out two of the three has the wrong address and you have five more to make before Sunday night when you know you will run out of 11 again. And no one to call until Monday.
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No, it is NOT like that everywhere. Is this how you treat YOUR drivers?

I didn't think so.

Every place has at the very least the occasional turd in the punch bowl, but nothing like the OP described. I'd tell the first prick that pissed me off by trying to blame me for some other prick's stupidity where the hell he can shove it.

Nobody needs this crap, especially not from the likes of Swift.

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