New Swift Policy

I was at the Swift Memphis terminal about a week ago and took the Simulator class. During the class we were told that a pretrip must take at least 30 minutes. This was before the new directive about logging time came out.

 

Does SWIFT make you send in GOAL before you have to back?lol.Heard they do that because of all the backing accidents and maybe the same applies to having to do a pretrip longer then 15 min.Because of all the drivers not doing an inspection and getting violated for it.

 

They tell you to send in GOAL each time before you back. I saw a sign that said they had a 60% compliance rate for the month.

I'm guessing you are right about the log entries. Policies are typically reactive.

 

That's kinda crazy. I drove for swift for years when I first started trucking. Started with M.S. Carriers and we were bought out by swift in 2001. Things really changed then. Some for the good I must say.

 

There are shippers and receivers out there that you will turn your keys in when you hit the dock. They all know that you have a spare, but it is just to meet their requirement. I remember years ago when this started at Sams Club. It started because a driver with another company thought that he was done and started to pull away from a dock, and the forklift driver was still in the trailer, and backing up. He was caught between the dock and the back of the trailer. It is not just Swift. I have been sitting there and watch drivers from other companies come in and told, hand in your keys, and not just Sams. It is not Swift that is requiring us to hand in our keys, but some shippers and receivers.

 

now i see a future basement dweller

 

wanna get paid detention pay at a shipper or reciever? better be onduty via swifts polocies.
unless the ship/rec says you can unhook from yer trailer and leave the property, you are to remain on duty. doesnt matter if yer there 10mins or 10hrs.. its swifts rule they are inforcing big time now. trust me, ive been nailed on this several times.

send in yer goal msgs after ya doc/park.. it just takes one accident or report and for swift to say...hmmm, 6mo now you havent backed up once? and now ya hit something? yup common down to the nearest terminal and lets talk..
o/o can lose their lease as well.. for not goaling and hitting something while backing.

15min pretrip, good luck showing that to dot.. just log 20mins and go, everyone is happy.

 

when i worked at swift i was told by the safety manager or director in lathrop that pre-trip did not have to be 15 minutes shown. just shown as however long it takes you.

 

So, how long did it take you at the DMV test as you were walking around and talking and not really checking everything?
15 minutes? Or maybe longer?

Swift is just trying to maintain a safety rating. And being the largest trucking company in the nation, I don't blame them.
Being a training company, I don't blame them.

I try to log 30 minutes for a pre-trip. Try. Sometimes the load is just too tight to do that without getting a service failure for being 5 minutes late.
But I use the Mac 9 to adjust the times on the loads to give me the time I need to do it properly - when I can.

I never log less than 15, usually 20-30.
Never been called on it.

 

When they start paying me hourly At a shipper for waiting for a door That's when I'll start logging it not until that's my time to make money I haven't seen a policy stating this and I refuse to do it with no pay I've waited hours to dock they get 5min enough time to check in and dock nothing. They need start paying for babysitting this loads with more than 24hrs of sitting on them to deliver as well. Gov wants to get in our business they need to force these company's to pay better a truck driver should be making $50,000 a yr at least.

I do 20 to 25min pretrips never had a issue with DOT when logs were checked I do 10min pretrips with no trailer