There's no single thing about the job the average person couldn't learn to do. To do all of the things required though requires a certain mindset that many don't have.
Why do so many have issues with it and find themselves in the predicament like this tool that drove between these two houses? Apparently he cant do it.......
You can't teach work ethic either, you have it or you don't. There's so many different things to always do, a lot of people want it to be punch the clock it doesn't work like that. Common sense isn't that common anymore, that's a big hurdle now a days. The last place I delivered to, there's only one dock, and it's like a Dockzilla type of thing, and there's a Swift in there. So I'm BS'n with guy, probably in his late 40s / early 50's. He gets unloaded. He says, " How you get out of here?" I told him I make a 3 point turn and go back out on the main dragged. So he back in, wiggles around, and flips a U turn. I though " That was slick." But as he's turning the passenger side of his truck comes into view. AND ITS ALL SMASHED and new black filler pieces. I'm going " Dude what happened?" He says somebody rolled over his tractor in their own terminal in Texas and just kept right on going.
I watched a swift driver blind side into a tight spot at a truck stop the other nite.. was flawless and impressed heck out of me. So they might wreck alittle but they do have some good drivers out their
They wreck a lot more than a little. I agree though, they do have some good drivers. Them dudes pulling over 100K up in Washington are impressive. Schneider does too. There were two dudes over at that DC I worked out of that could drive circles around me.
Of course they have some good drivers. Considering the amount of rookies they have their overall safety scores are actually pretty good. However, their practice of putting anyone with a pulse in the seat is why they get so much ridicule. It's not just Swift though, it's the industry as a whole. The USA guy doing the u-turn is one of the best examples of the failure to evaluate new drivers as to whether or not they have the right aptitude to do the job.
I know when I trained only half the people that got into the truck had even travelled a little bit. Only TWO knew how to use a map SLIGHTLY, and none could fill in the names of states on a blank map of the U.S. Is navigation important? Meh. There were some that were genuinely uneasy about being in the middle of nowhere. The list is endless. I heard CRE is letting students stay with trainers as long as they want. That is the way to do it. Rather than banging them out in 3 weeks. I only ever signed off two dudes. All the rest went to safety, and they could sign or they could put them with another trainer for 3 weeks. But operations doesn't like doing that. They want them holding that steering wheel moving cargo.
