Swift At It's Finest................

I do not have a pro-Swift agenda. I have a pro-honesty agenda. I have a pro be willing to admit that you were a part of the problem when you were with them or any other company you want to rag on. I am pro mature conversation rather than childish name calling.

We don't have tag team partners here ganging up on you. What we have are people who are growing more and more tired of hearing the same crying and name calling over and over and over. Rather than trying to help someone who has made a decision to go to a company that may not be the best but it may be their only choice with insights from your experience, all you complainers want to do is continue to complain.

Think of this, depending on where a person lives, they may not be able to go to the "best" companies as you see them to be. There has been mention of Roehl here. Well, Roehl does not hire in my area, for example. They may only have a few companies to choose from and they may be ones that most consider to be bottom of the barrel. On top of that, the companies that fall in the category of "better or best" companies don't hire people fresh to the industry (that is the reason they are considered better or best), so a person has to go somewhere to start and that may very well be a "bottom of the barrel" company. So rather than discourage them and add additional fear (because there is almost always some fear associated with a career change), take the attitude, "I had some problems there but let me tell you how to make the best of it until you can go somewhere else." That is the kind of mature conversation needed on this site that many of us try to give those seeking help. If you would take that approach, you wouldn't have people "tag-teaming to shut you up" as you feel.

 

Just a heads up for you on your plan, unless Swift has changed, you will need to run 6 months solo before becoming eligible for dedicated runs. I also had a freind on Walmart dedicated and while he said the miles were good, they would often not dispatch him until late in the day (after being awake all day) and then expect him to run someplace over night. I don't know if that is nationwide but that is how the Los Lunas DC worked. It seemed as though they were giving the Swift drivers whatever was left at the end of the day after all the Walmart trucks were dispatched because he often didn't P/U until 9 PM or later.

I assume you live near Salt Lake City. I found it to be one of the better terminals. One of the things I liked was they kept track of the trailers in the yard and actually dispatched an MT to you if that is what you were needing. Saved hunting for them. If you end up driving 48 for a wile, when you have the wonderful need of finding an MT in Phoenix, after a quick look around the yard and not finding one, ask how to get to Central Freight. It is not too far east of the terminal and I always found MT's there. It has just been so long that I don't remember exactly how to get there.

 

Some people are tired of trucking companies that prey on drivers. They look at a truck driver as somebody who is an easy victim. Why else do truck drivers quit en-masse? The sky is cloudy one day? Maybe it rains too hard or is a little windy outside? Some will, but most won't.

Crete is one of the better companies that will hire a newbie, if said newbie jumps through the right hoop first. One doesn't HAVE to settle for a rotten egg when he takes the leap to truh-kin'.

The way things are going in truckin' today, I'd not get into it to begin with. When the economy is good, many are treated like grease rags. Now the bottom is about to fall out on a lot of those drivers on top of all the abuse they get. No thanks. I'd stay away from it for now. Good company or bad.

 

If any of you have the time, while driving by the terminals of one of these companies that have people leaving "en masse" (which by dictionary definition means in a group, as a whole, altogether) see if you see a bunch of four wheelers leaving the parking lot together in higher quantity then the trucks leaving the yard. Doubt you will see that unless it is at the time the office staff is leaving for the day. Yes, the training companies have higher turnover then companies that require 1, 2, 3, or more years experience to higher on at. These training companies understand that is their role in the industry. EVERYONE has to start somewhere and these companies will take an unproven individual off the street who wants to drive a truck and give them a chance. You can see the same thing in other trades. Look at the food service industry. Most finer restaurants will not hire someone "off the street" at entry level to be their cooks. They all want experience. Where does one get that experience? At McDonald's, Burger King, Wendys, etc. Do these three have high turnover in their cooks? Of course they do. Do you still eat there? Most likely.

It's the same in trucking. Someone has to be willing to take a risk. If it weren't for the Swifts, Werners, Covenants and others who hire with no experience, in a decade we would have no truck drivers. Should they do everything they can to help those drivers? Yes and, contrary to what some think, they DO try. But look at what they have for their work force. Look at it this way, these companies are the boot camp and training commands of the trucking industry, just like we have with the military. I was in the military and still remember what a bunch of rag tags we were in boot camp. No way could we have done the skilled things we did later in our careers. But we had to start somewhere. Most of us went on to very successful military careers while others found the military wasn't for them. Were they harder on us in boot camp, making life almost unbearable at times, then anywhere else in our military careers? Sure they were and why? They were trying to weed out the wannabes or finally get them to change into soldiers, saliors, airmen or Marines. Guess what, these training companies are doing the same favor for the trucking industry. They try to treat people well enough but they also see theirs as an opportunity to weed out the wannabes (sort of make it or break it) so that when the time comes that person chooses to move on to another company (as these companies expect many will) hopefully those who are not good for the industry will be gone or not want to have anything to do with trucking in the near future or ever. Will these people complain it is unfair? Yes because they WANTED to be truck drivers but obviously weren't cut out for it.

 

Here is a story from a driver that went through a swift driving school.

Some truck driving schools should pay more attention to road safety than its profit margin. Just ask Eric L. "If you drive so many hours and are inexperienced, trucks are dangerous. I am surprised that more accidents don't happen," he says.

Read more here: http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/00089/truck_driving.html:biggrin_25519:

 

Sounds like a lawyer recruiting clients to make them "big bucks" suing schools and then keeping most of the settlement in the coffers of the law firm. The link at the bottom of the article to fill out a form to register your complaint is a dead give away. If you think trucking company recruiters are liars, talk to a lawyer. They will promise huge settlements which you will get very little of.

 

Reading your post, there is NO happy medium with you, is there?

What color are your eyes? Does it matter? Cuz if I agreed with you, you would find something negative about it.

You just like the feeling your holyier than thou comments gives you IMO, then watching the #### fly.

Back to one of your earlier post Swift WILL hire dedicated runs, from day one. They do not require 6 months.

I brought that up, because you made the comment about being honest, and all.

As far as supporting someone who makes a mistake, after being told NOT to do it. Would you please come explain this to my dead cousin, who blew the top of her own head off.

She needs support and advise from someone with a much more positive attitude than mine.

The world is NOT made of candy, get over it.

 

I won't address most of your comments here because of the attitude displayed but I will address one. You said, "Back to one of your earlier post Swift WILL hire dedicated runs, from day one. They do not require 6 months." As I stated in that post, "unless things have changed...". When I worked for Swift you had to drive 6 months before getting a dedicated. Even today, looking at their jobs website at dedicated accounts most of them say 6 months OTR. If things have changed so be it. I was just giving information to an inquiring individual in an effrort to help. If you have more current information then share that but you don't have to turn it around to try to paint someone in a bad light who is just trying to help.