Is swift a good company?

Maybe it's because holding, looking at and using a phone takes more attention away from the road than pressing a large button on the QC.

 

Sometimes the Little Voice in the QC goes on Strike..

If that happens just wait a few minutes and try again..

 

Not is you are like me. GPS on, volume is way down, so have to push first home, then turn up volume then the message button on the screen then the middle button after the little talking head and then if there are more then 1 message, you have to push the little key to move up on the messages

 

All of which can be done with barely taking your eyes off the road.

But to look at, and adjust focus to, a cell phone - with the tiny buttons - takes a lot more.

 

My husband has been with them a couple months and he likes it so far. His home terminal is Memphis and his DM is awesome. He really liked his mentor and I got to meet him when I went out for 2 weeks with him recently. We got stuck in Laredo for 4 days though and that sucked! Seems everybody gets stuck down there though. There was a little issue of them not adding layover pay but he talked to his DM and it was added the following check. While I was with him he never had to wait long for a new load. I think they are a good company. Like ANY company you will hear negative things and hear about bad drivers but it's a lot better than where he learned to drive; CR England.

 

lol anywhere is better than CRE

Swift has its pros and cons, depending who you are and what you have dealt with decides how you feel. Some have dealt with more than others.

 

So I have a question for you guys. I have been looking into going to CDL school for a long time now. I am a tow truck driver now. I am about 2 months from deciding which company to go with and while researching companies I came across someone saying that if you work out of Swifts Fontana terminal and you go home for 2 or 3 days after 4 or 5 weeks out you basically have to move out of your truck them get a new one. That sounds like a hell of a pain in the ###. Is it true and is it as bad as it sounds?

 

After you finish training you are assigned a truck and go solo (or team if that is what you want to do). For the first three months or so you will be assigned a "training DM" and as a new driver if you are going to take home time of more than 2-3 days you will be asked to get the things out of your truck and get reassigned a new truck. After you "graduate" from newbie status you are assigned a full time DM and achieve "Gold" status with a pay raise. Then you can take 3-4 days off and leave your stuff in the truck.

I'm based out of Fontana, but normally park the tractor in Mira Loma, but sometimes in Fontana. During my newbie status I took home time twice. The first time started on a Saturday afternoon and my available time for dispatch was for the next Tuesday morning. They never said a thing about clearing out my truck, they were very cool about it.

I think that how they treat you will largely depend on whether you are perceived as a valued asset to the company, ie. are you running miles in the truck. I average just under 2500 miles a week from the get go, so I think they do treat me rather well when it comes to home time, etc. If you slack off and get less than 2000 miles a week (I've talked to Swift drivers that are below 1500 a week average) they may look for an opportunity to get that truck in the hands of someone that wants to drive.

Good luck with your CDL!

 

Changing trucks is not too bad. Every Swift terminal has a special yellow rack you can drive up to to load/unload your truck. It is the perfect height so you can step into and out of your truck to get your stuff in and out in a hurry. If you didn't feel like doing it yourself, Swift personnel can do it for you; I have seen a crew with a forklift holding a box up to the truck's door while another guy was inside grabbing the driver's things and loading them into the box for the driver while he was on hometime.

 

Ah ok that makes a lot more sense. Thank you.