Swift-forced dispatch for company drivers?

The most I've had happen to me after turning down a load is getting a message saying "We don't have any one else to run this right now, can you please do it?".

It's all about the DM. I've not been forced on a dispatch once. I've turned down several loads merely because I didn't like the location, or time frame. Several times it's worked out to my advantage because the next load the sent me was MUCH better. Roll of the dice in some ways.

I can't say I like my DM too much for several reasons.. But one thing I do like about him is he doesn't crawl all over me if I reject a load. But, that's probably because I don't do it a whole lot. I try to keep it within reason.

 

What I cant stant is when they send you a pre-plan, you accept it and it takes them 3-4 hrs. to send you the load assignment. That kills your 14hrs clock.

 

So while you are sitting and complaining...why not take some self initiative and check around for someone to show you, then do it all by yourself a few times for practice. You evidently don't even know if the chains you have on your truck are good to go, or if they are all broken up and no good.

So you got off your Mentor's truck, untrained.....hmmmm....new story!

 

Yes we would.......

 

Did you ever think to ask your trainer to show you how to chain anyway? You're going to have to do it eventually. Don't hide from it. Because yes.. The LAST place you want to be is stuck on the roadside going "What do I do?".

There are also "how to" videos on YouTube. Look up the user "SeanSuth" (Eskimo Sean). He's got a chaining tutorial that's actually pretty darn good.

Some folks have a hard time understanding that some problems come from within.

 

You know something...after 14 years as a trainer/mentor with Swift...that's right trainer...we actually were trainers before the idiots in Phoenix decided we needed a different title. Over 100 students graduated off of my trucks, and every one of them HAD to chain the truck at least 5 times, by themselves, in the 6 weeks (or less) they were on my truck. There were 20 or so of us out of Sparks/SLC/Lathrop (in the old days Stockton) that developed our own course above what Swift required...12 months a year, in 110+ degreee weather and in the cool days of winter at around -29 in Montana...those students learned what trucking was...the right way.

You run 24 hours a day...or do you somehow manage to take a 10 hour break here and there?

Make a friend with a planner in Lancaster and El Paso...do them a favor or two and show them you can be their friend first...that way you keep moving cause you are on their list of good guys!

Nothing says that there has to be snow or ice on the ground to teach a student to chain the rig...it is entirely possible that your trainer is the type who will sit and wait for the restriction to lift before driving on...possible I am only saying possible...but it is more common than you would know.

I never claimed to "know it all"...I learn something everyday out here...and I still offer advise, even to young Swifties, but the biggest thing I ever learned was not to bite the hands that could offer you advise or knowledge...but keep lashing out...and you will be hard pressed to find any helpers out here. If you were to read in the first pages of this thread...I posted some advise for you Lathrop drivers...who you can definetly not trust in the terminal.

 

If you now can chain the rig, yes it is a dead issue...but somehow I doubt it. For all you know, this guy with about the same amount of time as you, might have had a good trainer, a trainer...excuse me Mentor, a Mentor that cared that he learned most everything that the Mentor had been able to learn in his years of driving. If you get your dedicated gig..you won't be able to pick and choose anything at all...did you think of that...and they run those dedicated lanes 365 days/nights every year...and that includes chaining to be there on time...I know...was K-Mart dedicated out of Sparks for 5 years...over Donner twice, sometimes three times a day, 6 days a week!