Swift Sucks

Telling the truth from your perspective. Is it the real truth for all or even most? No. It was reality for your situation that you did not like Swift. But there are thousands who like Swift and their opinion of Swift is just as valid as yours. But folks like you, rather than state your opinion as your opinion, put down anyone whose experience was different and call them names, like cheerleaders. A forum is a place for people to post differing views and both views have equal rights here. But you would rather it be one way; your way. That is why many including me ignore most of your comments because it is the same old truck stop chorus. Have a nice day.

I agree with you. It is a matter of simple math. If 5% of drivers on the road are poor drivers, 5% of 18K drivers is more drivers out there than 5% of 3K for example. That means on a given day, we have a greater opportunity to see poor driving from a Swift driver than from say a Prime driver. All one has to do is sit at a large distribution center or even a truck stop, without a slanted view to one particular company and the quality of drivers they have and see all kinds of stupid moves. I recently watched an independent o/o pull into the Petro fuel island going the wrong direction and park just so he could go in and get something to eat before hitting the road.

The other thing to keep in mind is that many of those Swift drivers having difficulty may very well be on their first or second solo run and are nervous as heck about what they are doing. Those who have driven for years seem to forget that we all started off somewhere and we didn't handle an 18 wheeler as good in those first days as we do now. I am very grateful for a Central Refrigerated driver who helped me on my second trip when he saw I was having difficulty backing into a tight spot at a truck stop. Rather than getting on the CB and ragging about the stupid Swift driver who couldn't back, he got out of his truck and came over and asked if he could give me some pointers on what I was doing (and I was not backing in next to his truck). The things he taught me that night helped me many other times when I had tight backing situations.

Trucking used to be a brotherhood where everyone looked out for the other guy and would offer to help if it looked as though help were needed. Now we have too many selfish, "me-first" drivers out there who would rather put a driver down because of the company they drive for than to offer to help. And then we wonder why people have the attitude towards truck drivers that they have. They see drivers barreling down the highway, no matter the road or traffic conditions, running up on people's bumpers and acting rude. They may stop in at a travel center and hear all the crude talk and insults that go on about different companies. I hear a lot of people say we should be treated as professionals. Well, if the trucking industry wants to be treated like professionals than we need to act like professionals. Sure people want to limit the speed of trucks. They are tired of trucks blowing them off the road. Sure people want jake brake restrictions even in areas like Albuquerque where coming down from the east end it is a matter of safety to use them some. However, truckers have let the racket become so loud because "it makes me sound cool" that the restrictions are put up. Let's all take a look at how we can improve the image of trucking in America. Our message of "Without trucks America stops" is often drowned out by rude, obnoxious truckers. And within the industry, why not heed the words of a famous Los Angeles resident, "Can't we all just get along?" Next time rather than getting on your CB and ragging on a Swift driver or any other driver who appears to be having a problem, why not get out and offer to help? This industry would be a much better place to work, especially in these tough time, if we did.

 

Paw,

I agree with you 110% and it's kinda sad.. OK.. it's pathetically sad. Not sad that I agree with you, but because this is what has become of our industry.

And I'm going to leave it at that for now because I've tried too many times in the past 10 minutes to type what I wanted to type and found so many ways to get banned from here.

 

As promised I called Safety and the lady I spoke with had no idea who would say that Swift had more accidents then trucks because it is not true.

 

eren;t they going out of buisness

 

That's what people want you to believe. They are downsizing as are many other companies today.

 

and I imagine downsizing will make their current drivers happy, since I'm quite sure they're not downsizing their accounts.

Fewer trucks, same number of accounts = far less 'sit on your thumbs' time.

 

Around the first of the year most of the big companies agreed to take 10% of their fleet off of the road. In short it was a way to try and avoid a fright war where they would be under biding each other just to keep the trucks moving. For Swift this meant 1700 trucks being taken down.

 

pawpaw the problem with you is you make to much sense. Being more visual more Swift drivers will be caught doing lame brain moves. As a Swift cheerleader as some one likes to call us I admit there are some bad drivers. Just as there are bad drivers with Rohel, CFI, Shaffer, Crete. I have also seen some independant o/o make bone head moves. My belief is a lot of it has to do with jealousy on the part of some drivers as Swift does get the big accounts, as a company gets good miles. For such a bad company they sure get a lot of carrier of the year awards.

 

You can't speak for all of them.

 

The Swift drivers have been getting lots of carrier of the year awards!

Wes