My Personal experience with Swift Transportation

First off let me say that i am not here to try to sway anyones opinion of Swift as a company one way or the other. I'm only here to give you my very own personal experience as a Swift Transportation driver. I'm sure some of you will question my post while others will jump at the chance to jump on the Swift bashing bandwagon. Nonetheless, here it is. And please excuse my spelling.

At that time as a recent CDL school grad with no experience i did check these forums to narrow my list down of trucking companies that i would like to drive for. Most of the post i read on here about Swift were not positive, but i decided since they were the company that stayed in constant contact with me most, i would choose them in the end. (I liken this to recruiting a kid in college sports)
I'll start with my first trainer. My first trainer/mentor didn't have alot of patience at all and he seemed to be annoyed most of the time while out on the road even when talking on the phone to whoever it was he was talking to. It seemed like everything i did was reason for him to get upset. Almost everytime we stopped at a truck stop to switch drivers and grab a bite to eat i had to eat my meal while i drive because he was always in such a rush. After just 5 days out with my trainer we started driving as a team where he would sleep while i drive. I thought this was a good thing at first because it meant he trusted me to drive while he slept. The whole time i was in his truck he never said one positive thing about my driving, only negative things which wasn't that big of a deal because as a new driver i know i have alot to learn.
He had just became an owner operator that was with the company for i think 2-3 years. Why i mention that you ask? Because one day we were taking a load to a northern state and he had been riding me all day/night for apparently no reason at all. Finally after being his student for less than two weeks and constantly listening to his rants i let him have a piece of my mind. AFter that he he threaten to kick me out of his truck in the middle of nowhere in a different state with all of my belongings even though we were already dispatch on another load that would take me through my home city. And after speaking with the dispatcher at my home terminal i was told that my trainer/mentor had a right to kick me out of his truck because he was an owner operator(lease purchase through Swift). The Dispatcher finally calls me back and tells me he talked him into dropping me off back at my home terminal where he picked me up at.


I was assigned a new trainer/mentor a few days later. And to my surprise the new trainer was excellent. He was almost exactly like me and it made things easier and i learned a heck of alot to say the least during my 6 weeks of training.
After i finished my training it took about just over a week to get assigned my very own truck. I was immediately sent to the northeast(which my second trainer told me to expect). What i didn't expect is to average less than 1000 miles a week when during orientation they give you papers expelaining that the average new driver will get between 2250-2500 miles a week.
I asked my DM(driver manager) if their was anyway i could get more miles and that person said that they have no control over the mileage one gets, because they were not the planner. And not only did i get very low mileage, i was also only given live load and live unload runs which means i spent most of my time waiting to be loaded or unloaded. And the $105 a week company advances that i received were used to eat/drink while out on the road at truck stops and they were taking out of my paycheck the very next week leaving me with a net profit of $0 every week. My net paycheck was so low that my child support and vehicle insurance wasn't paid during some weeks. I was pretty much working, sleeping, eating in a truck for NOTHING. I also had to pay for scale tickets out of my very own pocket and had to wait a week to be reimbursed which i never received because it went towards paying for my benefits. I asked my DM one time for a advance to pay for my scale tickets which already accumulated to over $30 for that week and i was told that they could only give me $25. Why so many scale tickets you ask? Because the only loads i got were 40,000 plus loads. Now as a rookie driven after reading these boards for many months i expected to get the crap loads until i gain the neccessary experience. But how long should i allow my wife and kids to not eat and have their bills payed before i say enough is enough?


Finally i reach my home terminal for my hometime and i tell one of the fleet managers that i am not making a profit, in fact i'm losing money driving for this company and my bill at home need to be taken care of before i return to work. This person mentions to me that we are in a slow period and things will pick up. I tell this person that i need some time off to get things in order at home. They tell me that we cannot have 1 of our trucks sit for more than 3 days so i'll just have to re-assign you another truck when your ready to go back out. I said fine and he gave me 3 days to collect my belongings and return the keys. Well 2 days later i goto retrieve my belongings and my truck is not in the same spot that i left it. I then was told that my truck was cleaned out by company employess and my belongings were in a storage room in boxes. Well i retrieve my belongings and when i get home a go through the boxes i noticed some items missing which were pretty expensive items and some missing paperwork. I called that same particular fleet manager and he now changes his story and says he doesn't remember giving me 3 days to get my belongings out. I tell him their are several missing items, and he tells me to refer to the company hand book and it explains that stolen or missing items from your truck are not the companies responsiblity.
One of the missing items were a box with my copies of all bills of ladings, scale recipts, log sheets and transflo receipt copies. I started using transflo to scan my BOLs, sclae tickets and logs just to be sure that i get paid for my loads because apparently when you drop them in the silver drop boxes at the terminals they get lost every week if you work for Swift which delays your pay sometimes up to 2 weeks if not 3. Well my last trip was scanned using Transflo but my receipt was in the box that was misteriously missing from my truck. Needless to say that i haven't been paid for my last trip and i have yet to receive my belongings that were missing from my truck.


As my first trucking job and hopefully not my last. It's these kinds of experiences that turn new drivers into former drivers. If i didn't visit this site and read the forums i would probably think that ALL trucking companies are this way. Again i am not trying to pass judgement on Swift as a company because i'm sure others could/have shared far different stories with a positive ending. But my personal experience was not a good one. All i'm trying to say is do your homework BEFORE you choose a company especially as a new driver.

 

I don't want to incourage nor discourage anyone from joining Swift Transportation. I just wanted to tell my story for those who are interested in reading. I suggest you do your research and decide whats best for you and your family. As far as the Flatbed division for Swift. I rarely seen them out on the road. I also didn't see many of them at my home terminal either so i cannot comment. Best of luck to you though.

 

Thank you and good luck to you as well.

 

Agreed. Hope you've had better luck since that job and good luck out there nonetheless.

 

Thanks

Yes, i figure with the way the economy os right now their are probably many drivers at many different companys barely getting by if their getting by at all. Good to hear your story, seems like a great job. Good luck to you as well man.