SWIFT L/O

One day I Might go over to the L/O side what does SWIFT pay for? Does SWIFT take out so much CPM for a Maintenance Fund. Also is what is the Guarantee CPM as a L/O

Thanks any info will help

 

You might want to ask that on the PRIME forum. This is the SWIFT forum.

 

Sorry for that I meant SWIFT some how I was looking at the Prime forum earlier

 

Swift pays 92cpm plus FSC. Last week, it was 43cpm. Not sure what the question "What does Swift pay for?" refers to, but I'll give it a shot: nothing. You pay your own permits, tags, licensing, insurance and fuel. Additionally, you pay your lease payment. Not including fuel, my fixed payments right now, add up to $665/week. In mid July, my permits will be paid for the year and it will go to $650/week.

You choose how much money is held back for maintenance. I set back 10cpm. I can draw that money out at any time I want to just by sending a Qualcomm message to the computer. Can drain the account dry if I want to.

There is a $2,400 down payment, taken out at $100/week until paid and a $1,500 "performance bond" (security deposit) taken out at $50/week until paid. These are one time only. So, at first, if you end up with the deal I have, you will be paying $815/week. After 24 weeks, it goes to $715/week, then drops to $665. Despite this, I did better on Swift's lease during that first 5½ months than the whole last year at Prime.

The "guarantee" is what you are paid. Swift pays by mile, rather than percentage of load like Prime. Deadhead miles are paid at a lower rate. Prime does not pay deadhead. When I came back over to Swift, my deadhead miles were reduced to about ⅓ what I was putting on at Prime.

 

That's right, about $819 a week for the first 6 months. Times 4.33 (52 weeks divided by 12 months) adds up to your average monthly payment.
Take all your monthly bills and divide up by 4.33 as well. Add that to the $819 a week and you can then take the $0.92 plus fuel surcharge and figure how many miles you need to run just to get to a zero dollar paycheck and how many more miles you need to run to get the paycheck you want.

I would strongly urge anyone to get their truck from any other source other than their employer. It is very tough getting started when/if you don't have any money in the bank. Typically they will give you 3 weeks to run before they start deducting payments, and they do get their payments first before you get paid. If you bought too much fuel or took too many advances you might be faced with a negative paycheck next week. 2 or 3 weeks like that, most L/O's turn their keys in then the company charges them for detailing the truck and park it out on the line with Lease Me signs in the window and you're still being charged over $800 bucks a week til somebody else signs for it. Get your experience with Swift or whoever, save your money and go out and lease (rent) or purchase a truck from another source and then lease it on with Swift if you can-- Swift has certain criteria about miles, wheelbase, model year and such but don't let that stop you, many companies don't have those restrictions so you can get yourself a cheap first truck, lease it on one of those carriers for a while then save up again for a newer truck then come back to Swift, or not.

I leased from Swift, going against my own advice here, but I knew I had an escape-- I cashed out one of my retirement funds and paid off the truck. Weekly fixed cost are about $127. Variable costs are fuel which is your biggest expense as a truck business owner. You'll no longer be just a truck driver, you'll be a small business owner trying to turn a profit, or not. Depends on what your goals are.