So, your Swift stories are true.

Being the newbie here, I have to say, if it were not for companies like swift, that will hire anyone, you would not have truckers with experience, because they would never have been able to start driving in the first place.

I live in Florida, and graduated my school the 15th of last month. Graduated pretty close to the top of my class. Have been looking ever since. And the ONLY company that has looked my way, is Swift. So I am going to take advantage of the company who will hire anyone, so down the road a time I can be one of the experienced guys.

 

The point I was trying to make was that even with relevant experience one can easily get hurt or worse and not accepting that you do not have enough of the right kind of experience will easily take you straight into trouble. That dispatcher put it out there for me in a way that I actually got as a relatively inexperienced driver but I doubt that happpens much anymore.

From my own experiences and the experiences of others as told to me fewer and fewer dispatchers seem to have more than a minimal regard for the safety or needs of drivers. From having worked so much as a temp driver for several years now I have dealt with what is probably more than the average number of dispatchers and overall they have become more or less company stooges and not much more to me.

From the one at a produce company who decided it was somehow my fault that he cussed out a manager and lost a restauarant contract when I just happened to be the next one to call in to the evil wench from a well known regional hauler who refused to believe that the trailer I had been sent to recover was nowhere to be found until I had the local cops contact her when it turned out to have been stolen it has not been good out there. Driver after driver I talk to say the same things, more or less, that they feel they are treated as if they are kept around and only as being suitable for using and abusing in the eyes of dispatchers and company mangement.

Unsupportive folks like that only add to the woes of both the experienced and inexperienced driver alike so I can understand very well why so few drivers see a positive future for the industry. I myself woud leave in a heartbeat for something better but at my age and in these times I face as many challenges as the average driver in just staying fully employed. It can be said that with my driving record and the variety of experience I have it should be easier for me to keep working as much as I want to but the reality is that no matter how much of whatever a driver has we are all at the mercy of the dispatchers, management and economy and likely will be for years to come.

 

That's total horses@#t. how does a company like that stay in business???

 

We can get weather radar maps in our trucks now?

Stockman's Truck Stop in South St. Paul... You drove right past it to go to Hudson. I'm guessing you went to the TA... I would have went to Stockman's.

 

Yeah...I check the weather on my laptop all the time...

 

But what if the driver ain't got a laptop? Just stops to get fuel & goes again? Most TV I've seen lately in truck stops are tuned in on CNN or Lifetime!

I have a laptop... But I waste my time here & downloading porn! Yeah, I've got my priorities.

 

pr0n, as long as it's the legal kind and/or not the freakishly gross stuff, is good for the soul.

most of the truck stop lounges i've been through have had either cnn or fox news, or ncis, or law and order tuned in. it's always one or the other.

 

First I do not have a axe to grind with Swift, I drive in and out of the Vegas area frequently. We have a high saturation of Swift trucks on I15 between St.George and the west because of Wal-Mart. Most of there drivers are courteous and competent. As far as places to learn, there is always the old go to work on the dock, get someone to mentor you. That was the old way, thats the way I learned. Large companies tain you because it make financial sense for them to do it, The make money on your training period.

 

When I was a trainee with Swift, my trainer and I were driving down 95 in Nevada around 2:30 am. Of-course the road was loaded with truckers and the radio was squealing. Seems to me we were the only females around that night so I got on the radio and started jawing. Well someone don't know who decided that " Hey 2 female drivers driving need to show some ( We will not mention what should be shown), should show us. So of course we decided to agree, and say " We will show you something you ain't never seen before!"
Wouldn't you know about 20 truckers pulled over into the right lane and let us Female Swift drivers pass in the hammer lane thinking they were gonna get a view??? hahahaha

After passing all 20 of them trucks the radio was squealing, truckers all mad asking where were are ( unmentionables) and all I could say was, " I told you we would show you something you ain't seen before. Bet you never saw a Swift truck pass you in the hammer lane!"