No food! No water or bathroom and expected to stay in truck

I figured I would throw a little update here to let others who are interested in Swift know how it is going after 6 or 7 months.

As far as the money it took awhile for me to actually start making a half way decent check. I would say around month four after getting off a mentor's truck did I start getting checks that where over $600 take home.

Now I have been getting around $900 to $1000 gross a week but I have been running hard to get this amount. Things are still going OK but I am seeing areas in Swift that need to be improved just like any other company.

The one thing that drives me crazy the most is when you get to or near Lancaster they start to think you are a local driver and want to send you running around Dallas to pickup loads coming right back to the yard to T-call.

Their empty policy is ridiculous and they will make you wait for an empty with just enough time to get to where your pickup is. Twice they caused me to be late picking up at Sears in Dallas.

Does not matter if there are 30 empties sitting there they will make you wait with just enough time to get to where you are going. There was one time I had to pickup 200 miles up the road the next morning at 8AM and I wanted to go ahead and drive on up there the night before and they would not release an empty to me until after 2AM in the morning.

Houston terminal don't even bother going in there or you will lose your empty and then get a pre plan and then you will spend three hours looking for one or they will send you to BASF I believe to pick up one.


Over-all I would rate Swift 7 out of 10 and really they are not bad at all. You will learn what terminals to stay away from and how to avoid issues. You will learn tricks you can use to get you more miles and better runs.

Their home time as far as getting you there when you need to be there is about a 50 50 shot. You can use a special request up to four times a year and they usually get you there on time.

As far as the people that work for Swift in the office,dispatch windows and so on most seem to be really nice people except for the one guy who works in Lancaster at the window during the day. This guy seems to have an attitude no matter what.


The shops? Well I have had good times and I have had bad times. Really depends on what terminal you go to on how many trucks are in line.

One thing I do not like about SWift as they seem to always want you to change trucks anytime you go into shop status. I don't know about you but when I spend my time and money keeping it nice and get things fixed when they need to be repaired you don't want to give up your truck for a piece of crap. You have no idea if this truck will be something that will break down constantly.

I would suggest if you get a clean nice running truck hold onto that thing no matter how hard they try to take it away from you until they give you a newer one. You are taking a risk every time you step into another truck and this could eventually end up costing you money.

Leasing a truck: I would not suggest this to anyone until after you have been with Swift for at least a year. They seem to be really pushing this now by parking more lease trucks at terminals and having custom sit up fliers at the tables in drivers lounges. give yourself sometime to get to know the company before making a decision.


Would I come to Swift if I had to do it all over again? Yes I would! I came into the company with experience but was required to go out with a trainer. It;s hard to make decent money in the beginning but if you stick with it and work hard the money will come. The freight is there and they have plenty of it to keep you running down the road. You just have to be willing to work and that is all you need.

 

Must be idiot week!!! I used a coupon on the training and got it for under $100. Since I knew how to drive already they just kicked me out of school. By the way not a NOOB started driving a long long time ago when trucking was great! No cell phones,No company routing,Could fuel where ever the hell I wanted to and partied on the weekends... Had girlfriends in at least 10 states.


Those where the good times!!!!