Yea he may be able to talk to someone that can fire you but it should be the other way around! Drivers should be able to get the shop personal fired. hell if this happens we would have no one to work in the shops. It seems that the drivers are the last one on the totem poles when we should be the first ones. Normally when a shop guy has an attitude with me a I just smile back then mumble to myself what a ### when I am walking away. But the other day I did not do this and oh hell if you want to fire me when I have never been late on a load and I am the to 10 in fuel mileage and do many favors when you message me and say please take this load because so and so. Help us out and thank you! Say what you will and fire me there are plenty of other trucking companies I can work for. I am going to continue to do my job as long as I am employed but the minute you start ####### me that's when I will be on the phone and making arrangements to move onto better horizons. I did not say anything out of line to that shop guy I was just amazed by the way I was treated and how long it would take for a two hour repair. I refuse to let any company treat me like a piece of #### when I do my job,Go without seeing my family and put my life on the line. I work my ### off out here everyday and I expect when my truck breaks down for the shop to work their ##### off to get me back out on the road. If you cannot do this then send me to a shop that can! My time is valuable and when the wheels are not rolling I lose and Swift loses. SWift can lose all the money they want but I am not prepared to do this...
Actually, drivers can get mechanics fired. But, it has to be for a legitimate reason. I'm glad I have the option to get things done elsewhere. Although, International shops can be slow in getting things done, too.
Last time I was in Lancaster there was 4-5 techs about to leave. All in one week! More pay, better hours. Once in Memphis there was 3 techs on vacation at the same time. I asked, "how did you let that happen?" The reply? "It was approved by Phoenix!" AFA miles paid? Crete, Schaeffer, and Conway pay pratical miles. And 1 year experience is $.38 a mile at Conway. Safety, mileage bonuses. And recruitment bonuses. I am on home time right now. I have to get routed to Memphis to get a laundry list of things fixed. I expect to sit for 4 days minimum. One thing I suspect is an EGR cooler leak 3-4hrs.
My last load had a lot of unpaid miles. Got a load out of So Pak Co in Greeneville TN with two stops first in Zanesville, the other in Xenia, OH. Went up 81 took 77 north to get to I70. Ended up driving 510 miles loaded. Load payed 420 loaded.
Who's route? What is funny is I picked up in Muskogee OK. Got a fuel route taking me I-40 to I-55 then US78 to 20 going to I 285 to I-75. Calhoun GA. Fuel stop somewhere in AL. I sent a message to my DM that I needed to fuel somewhere, anywhere in Arkansas. New fuel route was fuel in AR then I-40 to I-24 t0 I-75. The route I would have taken anyway.
BTW if there is no such thing as out of route? Was talking to another Swifty that has the new Qualcom. It tells you when your run out of route!
Well I finally got some home time. one day when it should have been three days. I was told you get four special requests a year and I used one and gave then plenty of time. Since I hit that deer or actually the deer hit me it was a nightmare. take it to Volvo and get it repaired. No problem only two hours and then I pick up my truck in the morning. No they got to try to save money and send me to a terminal where it will cost me five days of downtime and I would miss mt home time 200 miles away. So I get the bad news at the terminal and then they get me a load going home I was already a day late. Was taking a drug test for a second time and could not accept the load. Heck only ten minutes past by and the load was gone when I got to the truck. Now they say go to Anheuser-Busch Pick pre loaded trailer going to Pharr that delivers that night! Now I got to go over there and mess with them people who seem to be drinking there own beer during working hours. scaled in and the lady got pissed because I had the wrong pickup number and then she says move your truck I don;t have time for this. I said well just a second and gave her the number. She does not even tell me what I am suppose to do. She just points to the lot. Drop the trailer and then go find my loaded trailer and hook up to it and the landing gear won't come up. Worked with it for awhile and finally got it up. Go to scale out and guard says oh you are suppose to scale bobtail first. Why the heck did you not tell me this first? So he says go drop trailer and come back. I went and dropped trailer and started to pull out and three swifts trucks decided that was where they where going to put there trailers. I sat there while two of them had their students backing up and it took forever for them to get out of my way.Finally after two hours of messing around there I get out of there only to be greeted by traffic!!! By the time I got to Pharr it was 1:30am Now I am going to be two days late for a special requested home time because I have to take a ten and then drive 170 miles. As I left the terminal Dm says take this load down there then bobtail home. Next day I get 60 miles away from Pharr and she calls me and tells me to pick up empty at central in Pharr. The plan was for me to pick up empty in CC texas after coming off home time because I already had a pre plan for Monday. She triess to get me to go back I said if I do this then I won't get home until 10PM or later. So she tells me to bobtail and I do. Now I have to go back to Pharr anyways for an empty when the original plan was to pick one up in CC Texas. I lost my reservation at the hotel I was staying at and had to sleep in the truck due to everything being booked, A family reunion that I told them I had to be there on a certain date. This is why I used a so called special request. Why did they not just bobtail me from the terminal? less than 200 miles. But they bobtailed me twice for a total of 380 miles?? Does not make sense.. So I get to Central today and pick up and empty and let them know and about 100 miles up the road they message me and say your dispatched bobtail? Hmm no I was told that I had to get the empty and even got directions to Central. They say wow your not even suppose to be dispatched? Oh well I have the trailer and heading to my pickup... I am not mad anymore as it is over and done with. The shop frustrated me and the special request really got me upset.. I was so wore out by the time I got to where my kids where that all I wanted to do was sit in the hot tub.. Now I know that going by Lancaster to try and go through the quick lane to get them to just put the small part of the bumper on is probably going to be pure hell but I am under a load and I hope they do it this time. I'm not gonna sit for days waiting I'll just run around with part of my truck missing..
Bluebonn, if this s*** happens again when you make a "special reequest" and you are serious about getting home, insist on it. If your DM or the planners or anyone else tries to send you otherwise, immediately get on the horn to the Fleet Manager...then the Ops Manager....then the Terminal Manager....then call Phoenix and talk to the Ops Director. Somewhere along the line, they will grow a clue.
Yeah I thought about it some more, and I am not comfortable posting the contents of an email that I sent, but if you read over the stuff that the drivers have complained about in here, I summarized it all with whatever solutions I could think of. And I ended the letter stating that, like anyone, a driver just wants to be treated with respect, and that we could go a long way with that.
I'll tell you a secret: it'll be the same with most any company. There will be delays, waiting on parts, etc. With a smaller company, there may be less trucks, so less waiting time, right? Well, no because they will have fewer mechanics. Now, having said that, when I was driving, I never waited more than a couple of days for repair. However, if it was something small, I did it myself. The shop to change a light bulb? No.. give me the bulb, I'll do it myself. I carried tools, even had some spare parts (throttle springs anyone? #2 male connectors?). But usually if I needed service or my truck needed to go in the shop, I would put it in the shop when I went home, and when I came back it was ready. Now, that was... well 12 years ago now, the last time I drove OTR. I can hope that its better elsewhere, but honestly, I cant imagine that it is.
