Must start another GOOD SWIFT thread...

If your hubby gets a decent dispatcher at his first terminal why change to a different terminal every so often he may not get another good dispatcher at any other terminals.
My advice is if he gets a good dispatcher then he should stay with that terminal.

 

OK so I'm really new to how all this dispatching and terminal stuff works. Are you allowed to pick the terminal you want to work out of? Or are you assigned a terminal based upon some criteria? And if he gets a good dispatcher, will that person be able to give him loads that will end up relatively close to whatever state I happen to be in when he's due a few days off providing he runs all 48? Since we are older, home time is not at the top of our priority list like it is with the younger men who have kids, etc. Right now, our priority is to do whatever we need to do to get rid of some credit card debt. But if he can end up somewhat near to where I'm working at that particular time, it would be nice to see each other now and then. :smt008

 

You are usually assigned to the closest terminal to your house. It does not really matter what terminal you are assigned to though. You are not assigned a dispatcher, you are assigned a driver manager and they do not determine what loads you get. The planners do that. If you know far enough enough in advance they can get you home time wherever you want it.

 

I have no use for Swift,period. But if anyone is actually working there and happy with their job,I say God bless you and I hope things continue to stay good for you.

 

BTW: Polk,

Don't let anything get you down, dude. Keep us updated! If I can help in some way, lemme know.

 

Thought I'd check in on you and I see your doing well. Sleeping is tough but soon you will have your own truck and things will change. Keep up the good work I'll be look'n for ya down the road.

6pak

 

I've known a lot of guys who take their "hometime" all over the country. One would take hometime in Florida to do some deep sea fishing, during the winter he'd take hometime in Colorado to do some sking. As it has been said as long as your husband gives plenty of notice (a week or two)and there is freight going to the area your in should be no problem for you two to hook up. There is no need to change home terminals.

 

Swift teaches their mentors to start newbies out easy the first couple of weeks you should only do about 2700-3000 miles. Then as you get time behind the wheel and your mentor feels comfortable with you you start running more miles. By weeks 4-5 you should be running as a team. Some terminals have their Mentor teams only run 14 hrs total then sleep for 10 hrs. See vickw posts he is a manager down in Houston I believe. By your last week you should be running the truck. I know for mentors having their co-drivers take over that last week is hard I know it was for me. Now I know there are mentors you just throw you to thw wolves so to speak and you start teaming from day one, but the better ones will ease you into it. GL

 

OK so now I have another question. Without going into a lot of detail, we've gotten into a bit of a financial crunch and my goal is to get us out as quickly as possible. Realistically, how much money do you think you can live off of each week while on the road? I'd like to keep 3/4 of my honey's check each week for our bills and give him 1/4 of it to live on. Will that be enough? I don't want him to starve while on the road but we also need to take care of some stuff like right away. Also, how does Swift pay their drivers? Direct deposit? Comdata card? Obviously we'll find out next week when he goes to orientation but it would be kind of nice to know in advance.

 

I not driving yet, but my current job requires me to eat out once in a while. So, budget $10 bucks per meal if he's eating out all the time. If he keeps lunch meat, cheese and some hi protein snacks aboard, his meals just might drop in value but go up in nutrition. Got to do laundry if he's out for an extended period. He might even need available capitol for towes and scales...not sure on that one. Might even need available capitol for fuel...not sure there either.