My Swiftie Life...

So is leasing your truck through Schneider. Ha.

 

That is without a doubt, the BEST description of Swift I have Ever read.

I am a 1 year driver with Swift and this article makes me sick to work with them.

Thanks a lot for writing this. I hope this gets stickied so that everyone on the internet can see what we deal with.

 

I averaged over $2 all miles this week

ha.

 

no.
$1.20 is a rip off period.

 

The lease operator/mentor has $0.05 cents per mile reduced from his contract rate for all miles a student is on the truck. For every mile over 11,000 in the calendar month they are charged an additional $0.09 cents per mile.

Using HHG miles they are approximately running 7% more miles than they are being paid for. So a 6000 miles paid week will really be 6420 miles driven- the 420 extra miles non compensated for fuel or time. 6000 x $1.15= $6900 but when we apply the true miles to the formula we come up with a radically lesser rate-- $6900 revenue divided by the true miles 6420 works out to $1.07 per mile. Don't forget the fuel the guy had to buy to run the extra miles- 420 divided by 7.5=56 gallons x $2.80 = $156.8 out of pocket. So now you take the $6900 and subtract $156.80 = $6743.20 divided by 6420 miles = $1.05 true rate.

Later in the month that rate will be further reduced $0.09 cents per mile to $0.96 per mile to the lease operator. Figure fuel about $0.35 per mile running and truck over head $0.40 and the lease op setting aside $0.10 per mile leaves just $0.11 - $0.20 to pay bills and eat back home.

So to answer your question, no it is definitely NOT good money.

 

LEASE DRIVER/SOLO
3000 miles X $1.26 cpm = +$3,780
1 Week Truck Payment = -$680
1 Week Fuel (7.5 MPG Average / $2.60 per gallon Average) = 400 Gallons = -$1,040
1 Week Gross = +$2,060
1 Week Taxes (-8%) = -$165
1 Week Maintenance Reserve ($.07 per mile) = -$210
1 Week Net (Roughly) = +$1,685

There ... fixed it for ya. ... Pay off the truck and that $680 drops to $90. Puts another $590 a week in your pocket.

The trick is you have to know what you're doing. Most the drivers who fall back on mentoring do it because they don't know how or don't have the discipline to manage their business. Which means right out of the gate you're getting an idiot as a mentor.

Has nothing to do with whether a lease is viable or not. If you know what you're doing, it is. If you don't, it's not going to be and never will, whether you mentor or not.

Swift has over 4000 drivers as O/Os ... some on leases, some own their trucks, some brought their truck from the outside. Over 800 of them are solo OTR and more than that as solo dedicated.

Don't presume you have it all figured out. You've dealt with a couple of morons, that's all ... good luck, you still have a lot to learn.

 

where's the insurance.. tags and etc in those numbers?
Nobody can expect to pull off 3000 miles a week week after week especially during winter time.
When you time time off you have all the fixed costs still and then have to dig yourself out at $1.20.

 

The 'free' trailers, tags, permits etc come out of the $1.20 rate and 7% short mile variance in actual miles over paid miles and the fuel discounts Swift negotiates with the bigs that they don't share with the LO. Swift saves more money paying the students minimum wage only for their on duty time +$1 an hour drive time. Mo money from the $0.05 cents per mile taken while the student is on the truck and $0.09 cents per mile taken now (but potentially given back later at lease end) for all miles over 11,000 in a month. Even more money here and there for the occasional detention Swift charges customers but but fails to pay the driver using multiple excuses. Sometimes a driver needs a washout like a nasty load of potatoes, they will issue an advance to the driver and next week deny the reimbursment stating the policy of No Washouts which happened to me so I am speaking from experience.

Considering the extra time and fuel to run the 7% extra miles not paid every week and the occasionaly junk trailer the driver has to spend time getting fixed instead of running down the road getting paid, it is a wonder how anyone can make money over there.