I knew of all the terminals in their system, that Phoenix would be the only one to carry parts. Heck, they dont even carry wiper blades for the 660. THAT BEING SAID..... I was in Phoenix few days ago, and someone pointed out that my exhaust pipe tip was facing forward, not to the rear. Vibrations over the 3 mo. i've had the truck must have done that. Anyway, I have a load going to MSP, and i ended up in Denver last night. This morning, i wake up, 3rd in line for the shop. I get in, and the guy spends 15 minutes, and has the pipe turned around. (and in the time it took me to drive from denver to des moines, the pipe rotated 90 degrees already....so the rivet job the 'tech' did, really didn't do anything) I see him putting in a couple rivets, and then notice he took the heat shield off. THEN come to find out that the bolts were so rusted that the heads snapped off. So now, it needs 2 new brackets to hold the shield on the exhaust stack. Okay...no problem. Since they dont have any KW parts in their inventory, they call over to the KW dealership 3 blocks away. They dont have any. Nearest place? Colorado Springs. The guys dont bother telling me about how they ordered parts from C.S. till i go in for an update. They tell me the parts will be there in 4 hrs (meaning more like 6) and it'll take another hour to install them. The load i'm under MUST be in MSP by noon on the 20th...and there is a storm in nebraska, kansas and missouri, i was trying to miss. Make a long story even longer......I told them that i wasnt waiting 6+ hrs to get it put back together, and that i was leaving with this load. So i ended up strapping the heat shield to the catwalk, and running to des moines. I stop at the KW here and buy two brackets......$90 a pop !!! but they couldn't get me in till late morning, so i'm headed to live unload in the morning, then going to Inver Grove with parts in hand. Guess what annoys me most......keep the driver in the loop. if you had to order parts, let them know before you order them, and it would save time on both sides of the counter. Guess for company drivers, it really dont matter......but there arent many company KWs. side note...i did see a company pete in phoenix. 310654 (or 543 or 432)
My limited experience has been that it is almost impossible to get anyhting done in a Swift shop promptly. I am a company driver ...and hope to learn a bit from you DickJones as you post up over the next few months as I would like to step up and try a lease deal....but I need to hear some truth from someone doing it. Which as we all know is hard to come by in trucking....lots of opinions out there and folks who can't tie there shoes talking smack...lol But I will say that having been in Phoenix recently that their body shop is the best. Some guy took out the front of my Volvo pulling out of his parking spot next to me in a T/S.....busted up my mirrors on the door and got the fender mirror also ripped up the lower valence and broke the fog light. It was still dark when it happened and looked like a mess with mirror glass and all laying spewn apun the ground and pieces of my precious laying about...anyway after calling it in and taking care of details with Swift and dude it was light out and i realized the truck was drivable after bending things back in place and cleaning up the glass and pieces on the groiund. I was under a load which was delevering 50 miles away. Called my DM and asked if I should try to get it into the Phoenix terminal...lol...he asks if I can make the delivery first...lol OK I am a team player....To make the story short ..as it turns out my delivery was within 2 miles of the terminal...no problem in hind site. My point to all this is that I got to the body shop at the terminal at 11:30 AM I had a completely new hood and mirrors and grill and lower valence and parts fixed and was ready to roll before the body shop closed that day at 3:00. I love the Phoenix body shop...and there parts peeps were really nice also ...got some spare wiper blades and was told they didn't stock load bars but if I looked over by the body shop I might find some laying about. ( I did 2 NEW ONES)....anyway it seems that sometimes you can get something done in a timely manner at a Swift terminal. Good luck getting you pipe fixed and keep posting about lease experience.
One thing you MUST be, if you choose to lease, is you've gotta stand up for yourself. If you're truck is in the shop (as a L/O) and they 'work on it' for an hr, then have to order parts, then you notice your truck being pulled OUT, parked on the side and another truck going in, I'd be over there asking what was going on. They tell me "we need parts and they were ordered"....ok...fine. You tell me they'll be here in an hour or two, then as soon as they arrive, that truck needs to go back into the shop. Dont forget, you're now PAYING for their ......um......"SERVICE". You think i'm going to wait in line or "take a number" if they think they have to finish work on a company truck? (i mean if they got like 15 minutes to button everything up and get that truck back out on the road, then sure, i'm not that big of a "dick") But since i'm paying for it, its going to be done RIGHT, its going to be done in a timely fashion, and if a job that should take an hour is going to be drawn into 5-6 hrs., then you, the L/O need to be kept in the loop. If not, you're letting them make business decisions for you......not a good idea.. Will you make $1,000 a week every week? maybe. But odds are you wont. You'll have some great weeks, and you'll have some bad weeks. You think Victoria Secret makes a million dollars a week in sales (just a guess for argument sake)? Sure......there are also weeks they probably only make $200,000.....or not at all. Its not a steady income anymore, like if you were a company driver. BOL
Phoenix did a bunch of recall stuff on mine. One of the recalls was for the right wiper arm linkage. When I got it back, my washer fluid didn't work. WTH, yo? Called the Phoenix shop, guy says, " I don't know what to tell ya'." Umm....'scuse me? How about ya' tell me what to look for so's I can see if'n I can FIX it, yeah? Tells me look at the wire connection to the bottom of the pump and check the fuse. Well, THANK you! That's all I wanted! Turns out nothing was wrong with the connection or the fuse. When the mechanic swapped out the wiper actuator, he disconnected the tube behind the firewall that hooks up to the sprayers. After dumping a quart of washer fluid on the ground through the disonnected tube while looking for it, it's reconnected and works just fine. Imagine that.
So i stopped in Des Moines the other day for a bracket on my exhaust stack. I mistakenly bought the wrong one. OOOPS. So i headed thru Cedar Rapids to visit my ol pallys at the KW dealership there, and to buy the proper brackets. I take in the one i bought, only to be told that the parts manager wont do exchanges/refunds on tickets paid with cash. So i asked the guy, "so if i paid with credit/debit card, you would? That don't make sense." Then proceed to tell him I almost regret getting a KW because its so hard to get any service.....and swift shops dont carry ANY inventory for KWs. Make a long story short......he ended up being a nice guy, and exchanged the one clamp for the 2 i need....the PROPER ones this time. Looks easy enough to replace, so i'm going to do it myself, and save the 4 days in the edwardsville shop to have them put on.
Good for you to do your own work. Personnally i have been eyeing a couple of the lease turn in W900s in the phoenix terminal. They have the buy out deal lease it for 24 months and it yours. One of the flatbed guys picked one up with a brand new cummins put in it less than 4 months ago, virgin tires no recaps, and had a transmission overhaul done on it too. truck had 600 some thousand miles on it. Only problem is i haven't seen a truck spec'd the way i want it(w900) If i decide to lease down the road i might try to buy outside and bring one in. Still pondering it. I will more than likely wait at least another year before i lease. Sorry your having bad luck with your service on your KW
ask yourself this question, about the W900. "Why do you want a W900?" and answer it honestly. you can get the same engine/tranny package in a T660 and T2k (if you wanna stick with a KW)...heck, even a PornStar if you so choose. But everything except the hood on the W9 and T660 are basicly the same. So why do you want a W9? Just because it looks 'more rugged'? because it looks cool? Not trying to answer it for you, but your fuel mileage will go in the tank with a W9 over a T660. I'm averaging 7.5 over the last 13 weeks....and that is with about 4-5 weeks of doing nothing but driving 68 mph as long as i can. getting 1mpg difference on average over the course of a year will save you about $8,000 in fuel savings. thats money in your pocket. I have a "trip econ" readout, so i can tell what my trip MPGs are running, and it keeps track of if what i'm currently running is 'average' or 'poor' or high. I do whatever speed i need to do, to keep it above average. Sometimes, though, i cant help it, and i HAVE to stand on it, just to keep it going 60 mph going up a hill. But i can tell ya, the W900 will be like driving a box going down the road, and you'll be lucky to get 7.5 - 8mpg when actually trying.
Doing a search on the forums, I found a subject that fits. OK for those who have been following lol, I recently leased a Kenworth T660 from Swift. The first 30 days of the lease, find anything wrong, take to a Swift shop and they will fix it on Swift's dime. 30 days goes by really fast. A new lease driver is torn between putting the truck in the shop and getting $0 or making some miles to pay that first payment and risking being responsible for the repairs down the road. My very first load was from Lathrop CA to Seattle area. Right away into the trip the check engine light and DPF light go on. So when I shut down I tried the manual regen but massive amounts of exhaust smoke billowed out of the pipe behind the turbo. Called onroad, they sent a guy to fix it. All he could really do was take the clamp off and add 2 washers and re tighten. I fired the truck up but could still feel the faint blow of exhaust escaping the seal with my hand (because I use Sweet Pea hand lotion from Bed Bath and Beyond, but I digress...) he couldn't feel it with his sandpaper/alligator hands. So I made him take it off and redo it, he's mad now and takes the clamp to his truck and starts beating on it with his little ball peen hammer and adds another washer and retightens like a maddog with the air ratchet. At this point I say 'where do I sign?' $230 bucks for this exponent of the mechanical arts. So I figure to limp the truck into the Troutdale shop to Tcall the load and put in for repairs. Arrive on Sunday, shop closed so bobtail up to my folks place about an hour away. Next morning put it in for the above mentioned problems plus a nagging roof leak and windshield washer is not squirting juice. 4 days later they call and say job complete. Perusing the $500 plus dollar bill for services (guy says full amount has not updated yet, and remember, Swift pays this) I see they did a great job-- on paper. Fixed regen and check engine lights due to exhaust leak-- looked, yep new clamp, cool. Pressurized cabin, found leaks, sealed. Ordered new windshield washer pump and installed. However, no evidence of new pump and juice still does not spray. Tore dash apart to fix a wiring short and put back together. Beep qualcomm says pick up in Portland OR and take to Albuquerque NM, cool. Get going and all previous problems re-arise. Very frustrating. Bear in mind I sat for 11 days before I signed for this truck-- no income, sat again for 5 days total for fixes in Troutdale. 30 day clock is ticking ticking. Bills are piling up piling up. Guy I teamed with still owes me my last paycheck is hemming and hawing about when he will drop it in the mail. Stress level is off the charts. I will be angling to get the truck back to Lathrop after this load to put back in shop so I have a place to stay, can't afford a hotel if they take several days to even get to my truck.
Welcome to the school of hard knocks. That sorry bum you worked for is going to be tough to get your money from.IMO I would tell them to take that POS and keep it. Go back to company. Or find another company.
OK got my first settlement. $43 bucks. I can't believe it, you guys were right. In other news, the windshield wiper fluid does spray-- one just has to push the right button lol. Still getting check engine light and DPF light but doesn't seem to be affecting the performance of the truck at all. Will be putting in to the shop before the 30 days expires for sure though. Just trying to build up some miles before the first payment is due. Portland OR to Albuquerque NM deadhead Albu- Amarillo to Dallas Dallas to Wyoming tomorrow. I've been nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs! Part of it is because I was off for so long and kinda got rusty with the lifestyle after being home with wife and son for 10 days. Backing, forgot how to do that, lol not for long but I see why they want drivers to take refreshers if they've been away from it too long. The biggest nervy thing is being in business and trying to stay afloat. I feel blind doing this because I cannot even log onto the kiosk or website with my code/password because there is a glitch-- still can log in with my company code etc but it would be nice to see my trips and pay stuff like that. I also have to finish a course for the O/O/L/O's within the first 60 days-- time is ticking ticking ticking...
