Swift Sucks

One of the few, hookem? Explain the thousands that have worked for them for years and are happy with their jobs? You are only 27 years old and have worked for them less than a year. In fact if your pay is $0.26/mile as you state, you have been there for less than three months plus 6 weeks of training. You sure have a lot of "knowledge" about a company that you have been with for such a short time. And as with most trucker stories the embellishment grows with every time it is told. Just look at all the new "facts" you have loaded this post with.

Second, that must have been a dream run for a rookie like you. It would be interesting to have the p/u and drop points told to us since the two longest points across this country according to Rand McNally are 3317 and 3485 and the way dispatching programs work it would be about 5% less paid miles than that.

You need to go to SafeStat for your reported statistics. I gave you that information but you are so bitter in your arguments that you want to hang on to a false fact you state even when someone (in fact two of us) have pointed out the error of your argument.

Many companies will try to get a driver to drive outside the FMCSR's to get the job done and make a customer happy. Unfortunately, there are enough drivers out there who will violate the rules and even brag about it. Here is a revelation for you -- YOU ARE THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR SHIP AND NO ONE CAN FORCE YOU TO VIOLATE ANY RULE. A quick Q/C message to safety with the code of the individual who is "directing" you to violate the rules and that problem is straightened out. How do I know, because all I had to do was "threaten" to send that message and the story changed.

High turnover is high at all companies who will take people right out of school (which I am assuming is the case with you). Many find out that trucking is not the glamorous travel life they thought it was. Many don't like being away from home and go find something local to do instead. Others go there for the sole purpose of getting the one or two years experience to go to the company they really want to drive for. Sure that company's turnover is lower than a training company because they have let the training company do the hard work of weeding out the wannabes and sending them home before they have to spend the money or time on them. But again Swift does not have the highest turnover in the industry; that is just a part of your embellished attack on them because you are not mature enough to deal with your problem in an adult-like manner. It is easier to come here and spout anger rather than deal with the issue properly.

Again, Swift does not have the worst accident rating in the industry. Yes they have many complaints but the larger the company and the more you employ, the more chance you have for complaints. DOT is always looking into things with companies. It is there job to investigate any time someone makes a complaint. Many of those complaints (like yours in particular) usually are proven to hold absolutely little or no water and the complaints are considered closed. Again, SafeStat allows you to see details about compliance reviews. All those things add up to an ISS score that makes a recommendation to state DOT's on how to handle trucks from each company when they come to the scale. You will see that Swift's rating is so "bad" with the USDOT that their recommendation is "Optional" which means the DOT officer can call them in for a check or let them go. In most cases they are let go. That is why a majority of the time you (and I when I drove for them) got a green light on the prepass unit. There are hundreds of companies, including some of those on here that people say are much better than Swift, whose rating is "Inspect" which means USDOT strongly encourages the state DOT to pull that company's trucks in EVERY chance it gets.

Taking care of the equipment is the first responsibility of you, the driver. If you are doing proper pretrips/posttrips and find a problem it is your responsibility to take it to the shop, or if one is not close by, to contact your DM with a repair macro and you are sent the location of the nearest authorized repair dealer. This is the point at which you receive breakdown pay, if that truck will be down in excess of 24 hours. Again, no one can force you to drive the truck if it is unsafe. If they try, again the report to safety is all that is needed to put an end to that.

Again, your "facts" are skewed by your attitude. Only two Swift schools (and actually they are contract schools) in the Memphis area have been shut down for an investigation that also includes employees of the State of Tennessee. We had a similar problem with the Motor Vehicle Division in my town and a few others here in New Mexico. Two out of the large number of schools they have is not, as you say, several AND the cause of the investigation has not even been listed. You are assuming it is for fraud.

YOU are the one that needs to look at sources before spouting your claims on here. For example, you have been given SafeStat information that shows that there are over 18K trucks in Swift's fleet as of 04/08 and yet in the previous 30 months they have had less than 3K accidents. Now I am not a rocket scientist but I do know that 3,000 accidents is less than 18,000 trucks and yet you state that they have more accidents than they have trucks. It would sure be hard to move freight if more of your trucks were wrecked than what you have in your fleet.

You also need to read the post, I believe it is from Cybergal, that states you are legally liable for what you post on here. Company personnel can come on here and read what is said. It wouldn't be hard for them to figure out who you are by what you have stated (especially your "dream" trip and the fact you have listed your home terminal) and you have made some statements here that could be considered libelous and slanderous (like more accidents than trucks since the facts prove that to be untrue) since the facts do not support your statements and you could find yourself in serious legal problems. And Swift has some pretty deep pockets.

It is one thing to come on here and say, "I would not recommend working for Swift and here is why. I have a trip (and make it a realistic trip) that has not been paid for weeks. I have talked with my DM, I have worked with payroll and even my terminal manager (or the temporary that is filling in until we get a new one). They just don't seem to care about my situation and I have heard of other drivers who have had similar experiences." But to come on here and spout things that cannot be supported with documented evidence is just a waste of time. People who come here to research companies can see right through posts like yours, especially when it comes across as a rant.

As I have said before, you need to take a deep breath and calm down. I am sorry your experience with Swift has been a bad one and is spoiling your dreams about driving. BUT there are no perfect companies out there. You can go to another company and you will find there are problems there, too. I cannot control what others do to me, and neither can you control what they do to you; but I can control how I respond. My response will affect the way I am treated in the end. I learned this the hard way when I drove for Swift. I had a problem with my second trainer (yet he and I were good friends whiile we remained in contact after my training). He was a good trainer there was just a chemistry thing that was difficult when we were together in the truck. I let my attitude be soured by him and took it out on Swift. I began to get crappy loads and found myself sitting waiting for loads when others were leaving. I came to the realization that I was not an ideal driver who would do what I could to serve my employer and the customer. It was all about me. When I realized this, I changed the way I responded on the Q/C. I also changed the way I talked to people on the phone or when I was in the terminal. Within a few weeks I began getting good loads and wasn't sitting as much. Now, I am sure you will say I was sucking up to Swift. I see it as being a good, mature employee who began to realize that, just like me, Swift has faults but I could make my situation better by doing my job in a mature, professional manner.


Would I go back to Swift? Maybe and maybe not. Would Swift let me come back to them? Yes (other than at this particular time they are not taking rehires in my area). Why will they? Because I left in a mature manner and didn't burn any bridges when I left, even though there were still things about Swift that I disagreed with. Best of luck to you and take my advice, control the only thing you can control in this situation; your attitude. Otherwise you will find you will be having similar feelings and problems with whoever you work for. And you have a lot of work years ahead of you.

 

and another thing to point out - there is no 397.6 in the FMCSR

 

Maybe it is in his version and it covers firing pregnate (pregnant) women and sexual harassment and not paying people for 4,200 mile trips. LOL

 

I like his last few lines,..Hookem says "It is what it is...Swift has no intention of making things honorable nor do they have any intention of doing business the correct way....


Again....Please check other forums and web sites that will co-inside with my postion....

thank you "

Its amazing that they have no intention of doing business the correct way,..could this guy be Tip's cousin? I agree PawPaw,..he sure ran across a lot of information in such a short period of time, I may take his advice and check other forums and web sites to see if they do indeed "co-inside". I like it when stuff "co-insides"

 

I only like it when she's cute...

 

How can you even think about OTO or even LT if you or you/partner is pregnant?

 

Some become pregnant while driving and his premise is that they are fired. We were just responding back to that stupid statement. I am not sure that I would want my wife working as a driver if she were pregnant. I would want her to take time under the family leave act.

 

Why do drivers stay with a company if they are so bad? If its because of loans and such they should have known going in that they would be at their mercy. I wise man once said "the borrower is slave to the lender"! Figure it out people, don't get locked into these deals. Make better choices and decisions and we would have a better industry by default!

 

He could be. Bend it some more and maybe you'll have people believing he is actually Tip himself.

 

Ok I looked up the "Correct" regulation

Section 396.7 Unsafe operations forbidden.
(a) General ' A motor vehicle shall not be operated in such a condition as to likely cause an accident or a breakdown of the vehicle.
(b) Exemption ' Any motor vehicle discovered to be in an unsafe condition while being operated on the highway may be continued in operation only to the nearest place where repairs can safely be effected. Such operation shall be conducted only if it is less hazardous to the public than to permit the vehicle to remain on the highway.(FMCSA)

As pawpaw points out you are the Captain of your own ship, dispatch can try to force you to drive an unsafe vehicle but it is you that makes the final choice weather you drive or not. If your truck is unsafe to drive you send in the proper Macro to On-road, if you fail to do that its on you. I have done that myself and had a dispatcher try to get me to go but when I told him the truck was not safe and I would not drive until fixed he backed off. He threaten me with a service failure but I also sent in the Macro for running late. Got truck fixed was late for deliver and received "NO" service failure.