Swift Driver Here

Hello Everyone, well I just hit my 6 month date with Swift and I am still alive, no accidents, no citations. Still got a long way to go though. I have a really good DM and I am getting good miles and not many complaints. I have to wonder about the planners sometimes. I have gotten alot better at my backing over the months which was my weakest point to begin with but watching other drivers helps alot. Swift is not perfect but what company is. At this point I am free to move on but I am going to give them aleast a year and with the winter coming up I still have alot to learn. I enjoy the driving and spend most of my time in the midwest, southwest and south. I use Idle-Air about once a week on my own dime for some quite time. I like the A/C without the truck running and I get a good nights sleep when I use it. I got a TV, DVD and a fridge for the truck. The TV has a digital tuner which makes for some good reception around the big cities.

My truck is a 2003 Freightliner Columbia and I have been very lucky with this truck. No breakdowns or problems at all and I have put over 50,000 miles on it in 4 1/2 months. I am hoping to get one of the new Columbia's one day.

I am on my hometime till Friday morning. Hope all is well with everyone here. I you if have any questions about Swift feel free to ask.

Take care!

Marty

 

Houdini,

Swift was a choice for me because they fit my situation at the time. They sponsered a school in my home town which meant I could go to training without having to leave home and on top of that I only had a 6 month commitment to work for them. I found that alot of the information regarding Swift were old post and also that when negative information was posted about them alot of people would jump in to agree but when I read something positive not much was said about that. Swift is a very large company and some people don't work well in large companies. This is not a company where you will get a answer immediately to your problem. When things break expect delays and when they work good its smooth sailing. If you have no patience then Swift is not the place for you. But I have found that if you do what they say and follow the rules then things flow pretty good. Keep your PTA or macro 10 updated then you wont sit waiting for a load. If you do the trips they give you and you have the proper hours to do so then you wont have any problems. I know drivers that complain about having to go here or there and start turning down pre-plans because they don't want to drive over mountains or drive to a particular city and wonder why they sit waiting on loads and all the time I keep moving. I am a company driver and I go where the company sends me if its gonna make me some money.

You need to have thick skin working for Swift because you hear alot of trash on the CB. But I get a kick out of it most of the time cause I found that most drivers will help you out if you need it and I will always give someone a hand with backing or if I see someone needing help sliding their tandems. Now having said all that there are some bad Swift drivers out there cause I have seen it with my own eyes but are they as bad as everyone says...not really. I have seen some other drivers do crazy things too so its not all Swift.

When your on the road you will see more Swift trucks than any other company no matter what part of the country you are in so that alone tells you Swift is a large company.

Whatever company you decide to go with do so with a positive attitude from the start and and success will follow you.

Good Luck!

Marty

 

Thanks to everyone for the kinds words and I will stay in touch. Can't wait till I get a laptop.

Marty