swift "driver support"

Back in my time with swift, 2011-12 there was a black lady in the Lancaster terminal dispatch window that had a bad habit of talking to you thru the back of her head while she was facing the computer. She was not to polite and always did this to everybody. For some reason I was always going thru that darn place so I made it a point to start heckling her and making ch-icky comments about how she would talk to people and force her to turn around and face me when she spoke with me. The more pissed she got the more of a smile I got.

You know its all about the small things in the truckers life that will put a smile on your face. The kids wanting you to honk your air horn at them. The random lady's that would show you some extra leg or even flash you from time to time to get you to blow your air horn, pissing but holes off at the office dispatch windows for sport. You must learn how to make light of many things you experience as a professional truck driver or you will never make it long term in this type of career.

Follow Mr Fl_Scoob's advise get you'r year of diving in and then move on to bigger and better. Keep your head down and under the radar and keep them wheels turning and the time will pass very quickly for you.

 

That sounds like pretty solid advice aflak. There are many things I truly love about trucking. One of those definitely being seeing a kids face light up over the air horn. I do not intend to let office jackazzes ruin my career by any means. I do what I want to do, I just wish they would get on board and not be a bunch of sorry app holes and do what they get paid to do. I don't ask for much from them, they don't have to fool with me for me to do my job, I feel like I shouldn't have to poke and prod them to make something happen

 

I would also like to point out, the money has been suprising. I'm making more now than I did flatbedding on percentage pay. I'm not going to brag on the equipment. I have already been broke down more than my share and constantly having new problems. My dm doesn't listen, so I don't talk to him unless I have to. And if I do I usually just message him on the qc. I haven't had a mechanic yet say, good day driver, how can we help you. The last time I put her in the shop I told the mechanic, tell me straight up man, are ya'll gonna try to fix it or not. If your not fine I'll go to a ta and send in a 55. Oh the look that got me..... Swift could be a wonderful place to work, all it would take is for everyone to pull their own weight....

 

Maybe it's you ... nobody likes you.

 

Maybe so mystic. That's a really great pic btw. When I go somewhere and see those signs it makes me laugh.

 

The first problem is that anyone who drives for Swift that is not a newbie.....needs to seek professional help....the Dr Phil kind of help.

 

Aren't there any drivers at Swift who have been there for a number of years?

 

Hubby and I were there for five years. Have since moved on.

I do know what the OP is talking about. Here's what we did: we found a terminal that had a DM we actually liked and respected. Then one day when we were completely fed up, we called and asked if we could come work for him. We were living in FL at the time and he was in OH. Made the switch and had very few problems after he started running interference for us.

As for the shops and windows... yeah. I feel your pain. Try to get your eta to your DM and have him work with the planners. Biggest problem we had was planners calling for favors on a load that was on fire only to have the 3000 mi "reward" load yanked out from under us while we were pulling a 43k of bottled water up Donner to Reno. That crap happened 3 times before we learned a hard lesson about frikkin "favors".

 

Yes there are. I have talked to drivers who have been with swift 5+ yrs. Swift just gets a really bad name cause a handful of drivers that fouled up or don't have any courtesy or common sense. When the truth is ALL trucking companies have the same caliber of drivers, swift is just an easy target cause they ate so big. A lot of the drivers that trash swift so bad have never worked for swift. In reality they only know what they have heard or seen once or twice. I have only been driving about 8 months and there have been more than just a couple times I have had to move so someone else can get backed in. Or have had to wait for them to back in, or have just sat in my seat and laughed a little thinking, lord I hope his day gets better.

There are lots of drivers who have plenty of experience and still drive for swift. Swift had more freight and more opportunities that any other company pretty much. It's just like everything else in life, it only takes one or two to ruin it for us all.

 

Yeah I learned with my first company not to do any favors. I run for me. And I don't mind running, but if something don't look or seem or feel right, I'll get it cleared up before I accept the load. Which I'm not one to turn down a load either. In two months I have turned down 2, both because of hos, and both times within the hour had another preplan. But oh boy if I have to talk to night or weekend planners, I'd just about rather take a sure enough ### chewin knowin I was in the wrong then have to fool with sorry azzes in the office