Phoenix Swift School

Well, it's been a while. Done with all the training and finished with the mentor. Been on the road for over a month and a half and man do I have things to tell you Swift nubees.

First, get out why you can. This is a no win job if you need to make money right away. You will make more money with your mentor then you will when you get done. Oh, they will tell you the best thing to do is to team up with someone, but that's the wrong thing to do. New teams will get the loads, but they will give you solo driver time to get there. ( 1900 miles in 4 days ).

You will be in a developmental fleet to start out with. Meaning that you are going to be with three DM's. None of which will tell you anything straight. They will not have your back, and everything is your fault. SO, always use macro 22. It will be the only thing that will save your butt.

You will wait up to and beyond 3 hours for a pre-plan. Planners are hands off! You will not meet them, talk to them, or see them. You must do everything through your DM. Good luck with that!

If you run into bad weather, I mean real bad weather, make sure you do not drop down below 2/8s of a tank of fuel. If you do, and pull into a truck stop, you might be routed down the road to another one to get fuel. Then when you get there, you find out that the pumps are all froze up. So you go across the road to another truck stop to get fuel. You call Swift to let them know and you're told you can only have 50 gallons, because you're off your fuel route. See the picture. It's your fault, and where is your DM? At home, all nice and warm and with his family, while you're in -40 deg. weather freezing your butt off, while you have to deal with the afterhours working who pretend that they know what they're doing. Make sure if you can, to have your DM plan you through the weekend or night, if you are delivering a load at that time. It makes life so much better.

Home Time, well, what can I say, please see above to "Your DM's DO NOT HAVE YOUR BACK". When you get your first load, you would be a fool if you didn't put in your home time at that time. They will try to keep you out there running for as long as they can. Deny anything that is not heading to your home. Do not go past your home time spot to be promised to be loaded back the next day. They will pull you're the load and have you hanging out there.

*****NEWS FLASH******

PHOENIX TERMINAL DRIVERS

IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON HOME TIME LONGER THEN 24 HOURS, PLEASE CLEAN OUT AND RETURN YOUR TRUCKS TO TRUCK ASSIGNMENT!

If you think I'm joking, call and ask for yourself.

Swift does not care about their drivers anymore, it's all about the freight. The rest is all a front.

If you must use Swift for training, you can't ask for any more then the guys on the range, but as for getting any straight answers from Swift, forget it.


I could go on forever, but I hope this helps to let you know what you're getting yourself into.

 

yep, still waiting for a truck after 2 1/2 weeks in limbo. great company.

 

funny how the bills don't wait for the truck!