My Time With Swift

Well, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a safe new year. I hope this new year is a darn sight better than the old one for many of us.

Been having a couple issues on my truck for the past month and with all the holidays, the shops have been understaffed and backed up so I haven't put it in the shop until this week. Don't look like I will be down for too long. Shop said they think they already fixed one problem in the pre-qual line, then it's just a couple other problems to take care of. Said they should get it in friday and should only take a few hours. Works ok for me because I was needing to get a Simm class done and a 34 reset, so the timing is about perfect. Only problem is that I will have to try to make up some miles over the weekend.

Miles has been something of a sore subject for me lately. Or I should say the lack there of. Seems I have to fight to even get 2000 miles out of them. And If I go home, it's even worse. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I wish someone would tell me. I don't refuse loads, even when they suck. I have been lucky enough to turn a couple of bad situations into something good by asking to t call, but that has to be all luck because there is no telling what will come up next.

Right now, I'm trying something a little different. Normally, I've stayed out for 2 weeks then go home. But as I said before, it seems like when I go home, it's a fight to pick up enough miles to make a decent check. So I decided I would try to stay out for 3 weeks to see what happens. It seems that the weeks I'm out aren't too bad, it's going home that hurts the most. Well, this period is going to be a bad example because I'm losing 3 days in the shop.

I do everything they ask, don't turn down loads, and I'm always on time. It shouldn't be this hard. Story of my life I guess. Nothing has ever been easy.

 

Put my truck in the shop at noon on wednesday, got it back at noon on friday. I think that may be some kind of record. All I can say is so far so good. They supposedly fixed my regen problem in pre-qual line, then fixed my air leak on friday. Not sure what they did, but so far so good. Also got a new set of shoes on the back. Tires look so much better than what was on there. Bet I'll have so me traction for the snow now too.

That will be good, because my next load is going to northern Mississippi, and from what I've seen on the weather reports this morning, they are expecting from 3-5 inches between MS and KY. Been snowing a light snow here in Columbus for the last two days. Got a good covering, but it's not real heavy. Don't worry, I will take it slow and easy, and if it looks too bad, I'll stop. I've got 3 days to make a 1 day drive, so I should be ok.

Be safe everyone!

 

Wow, 4 weeks since my last update on this thread. I suppose a quick recap is in order. In the last post, I mentioned I put the truck in the shop for my regen problem. Well, it still isn't fixed. Although I really haven't had a problem with the actual check engine lights and regen lights coming on like it has, I can tell there is still a problem. I think I have discovered what the actual problem is though. I was talking with another driver and told him I had a '09 Freightliner and he told me what my symptoms were, and even a few things I hadn't picked up on yet.

Essentially what he said, for those of you also running 'Shakers with Detroit S60 engines, is that one or more of the fuel injectors is weak and is not supplying a full amount of fuel. What this does is it keeps the engine from actually reaching its proper operating tempterature to perform an automatic regen. The driver said that the mechanic he had been to that discovered the actual problem said the engine was only reaching within about 20 degrees of the temperature needed for the regen. After replacing the fuel injectors, he didn't have the regen problem anymore and also had more power and better fuel economy. The reason no one else could figure this out is because the fuel injectors aren't really part of the regen system. They need to think outside the box.

I haven't put the truck back in the shop yet because I can't really afford to go another 3 days with the truck sitting out back of the shop until they decide to bring it in, so I'm waiting until I get tax money back so I won't be hurting so much. And as I said before, I really haven't had the regen problem in the last couple weeks, but I can really tell it's down on power.

I'm also concerned about getting the shop to listen to me and actually fix the problem. If they would simply test the injectors, they would see the problem. But, I'm just a driver, what do I know. Swift shops aren't well known for listening to their drivers.

Other than that, I guess things have been going fairly well. They have been just running my old butt into the ground. I've had a 3000 week and the next week was over 2500. This week I'm sitting at about 1700 so far and still have a few more days to go for the week. So my miles have picked up some, but you know there are no guarrantees it will continue.

So here is a bit of cool news. It was one year ago this past tuesday that I first stepped on my mentors truck. So I guess that makes it official, I've been here for a year. Although it's not until March 17 for my 1 year solo anniversary, Feb 1st is my official start date, the first day I actually got paid for.

So what's my thoughts on Swift after one year? Mixed. For the most part, I'm still fairly happy with Swift. I don't have too many problems with them and when a problem does arise, it is dealt with usually quickly. Not everything has been dealt with satisfactorily, but you can't win them all.

If I have any real complaints about Swift, I would have to say that they just aren't consistant in how they pay. If I can make three trips of similar miles and get short haul pay for them, then I should get short haul pay if I make another trip with similar miles. And this whole bs about getting two cents less for picking up or delivering a load west of the Mississippi. The miles are not any longer or shorter west of the big river. A mile is still 5280 ft. Also you don't work any less picking up or delivering loads. There is absolutely no reason for getting less pay for going west. Other companies don't do that. It's just stealing from us drivers. I'm considering looking at other possibilities. I know the grass isn't always greener, but sometimes you just gotta move on. I still haven't committed to anything yet.

On a side note, it seems that interest in this thread has died down somewhat, so I'm just gonna let it go. I certainly hope it has helped some new drivers in making their decisions, and I hope it continues to help others. If anybody has any questions, please feel free to ask. I'm not leaving this forum. Let's just say I'm moving on.

Be safe out there....