SWIFT (The New JerryCo)

Ahhhhh, Wal-Mart dedicated. I'm on there out of an Atlanta based DC. Been on this for 1 month and love being at home every night. I even get paid more now than the time I was OTR.

 

IdleAir is out here.. costs a company about an $1/hr. so quite a bit of cost savings there... I run high idle's and no one has complained yet. I asked them why they do not provide IdleAir. never got an answer. I run 3-4 weeks at a time. I carry my own food and laptop. I pay my bills online, cook in the truck, and do try to shower once a day. I would love to have any recruiter, Dm or terminal manager live in their car daily for 3-4 weeks and use the public rest area's for their needs. The ones not willing to give up their lives of luxury are the one's telling us drivers whom make huge sacrifices how to live out here. Come join us you Terminal managers, DM's or Recruiters...run one day in the day,, the next two at night, then day again... see how well your sleep habits are taken care of...I just like a little bit of comfort when i shut down.. air/heat are high on my list...

 

Yeah when I first heard about wha tthey wanted to have the Idle time at my statement was that Jerry had his panties in a wad again. My DM said he didn't know because he never worked for Jerry before and he heard Cunningham was the worst of the two. I told him nope Jerry is, Cunningham seemed to care about us Drivers where Jerry has forgotten what its like out here and only cares about money. Then again looking into it Jerry did pay 2.6 billion for a company that was 332 million in debt(I could think of other things to blow 2.6 billion on myself). I make do and I am ok, then again its not getting that cold out here yet but when it does... Well my idle time will go up and they can deal with it. I mean they don't provide an alternative method to heat the truck, then well I gues the opti idle will work just fine. It has in the past...

 

'Cept they may start putting you with a co-driver. Mandatory teaming would keep the cab plenty warm at night. The bed will be bouncing, but the truck won't be idling away 8-10 hours a night at a gallon an hour. It's this or freeze when Hillary wins next year. And even then teams may have problems--the railroads will rise like a Phoenix in the near future and will be hauling more of the freight to and fro. How much more? Maybe a lot more. Hey--it could happen. I think it WILL happen. Can you sleep on a bouncing bed?

 

They won't put me with a co-driver... they know I would quit.. thats why I don't train now..

Its actually kind of funny. I have friends that work in corrections(I used to work in corrections as well) they were talking about how the inmate where whining because it wasn't 72 degrees in the unit and it was a violation of thier civil rights... but its ok for us to freeze out here... go figure...

 

First the problem is that they don't care if you quit so if they want to they will give you a co driver. This is the problem with such high turnover.

Second point is a very good one and I think that one of these big companies who push for low or no idle need to be taken to court over it. I am sure this is a near sure win. due to the very case law you stated

 

I was up at their Menasha, Wisconsin Terminal last week. There were two drivers there both of which ran their Great Lakes Regional zone. One said he got 2500-3000 miles a week and the other said he only got 1400 a week. My guess is one wants to run and the other doesn't. It's the same region. The freight has to move. There are some who won't take shorter loads and some that like to sit on their ##### in the Terminals and truck stops. Well Swift will pay you more for the shorter loads. Any load less than 300 miles will pay more cpm. As much as .49 cpm for a first year driver. You also get productivity bonuses. Anywhere from 50.00 per month to 250.00 per month depending on the miles you run.

I don't know when Jerry Moyes bought back all that stock but the people he bought it from were running the company into the ground. If your a go getter, you'll make more money than the average driver.

If you have 4 days to get a load 1000 miles, some drivers will take all that time and dilly dally their way there. They don't realize that the sooner they get rid of one load the sooner they will get the next one. On a load with that kind of time to deliver, it may be a drop and hook, so get on up there and hook the next one. Dispatchers start to realize which of their drivers are ready to run and those that don't manage their time well. After just one week on the truck with the trainer, I can see that this job is all about Time Management. Dispatchers have a job to do also and will start to depend on the go getters for the more time critical loads and the lolly gaggers will be waiting.

Let me put it this way. I was up in Menasha for my three day orientation. Of the 8 people in my group, I would say that 6 of them were not what you would consider the brightest bulbs. The kind of people whose lips move when they sign their names. I'm guessing that ratio would pretty much hold true for the majority of the company drivers. In other words, the competition isn't that strong in order to make yourself look good and stand out as a decent runner.

 

Acutally they do care(Swift might not but my terminal does).. I have told them I was going to quit more then once. Heck I even told a DM I was going to quit. The next morning I get a call from our Fleet manager asking if I had said that and was I serious. I told him Yes to both. His next remark was ok we don't want to see that happen is there anything we can do. So My guess is they aren't going to team me up...
As I Do the Walmart dedicated I have seen plenty leave. They like me here because I don't care about many things. I get plenty of miles and have allot more freedom. I never have to worry about loads, and I don't complain about short runs, because I am still making money and I will be ready for another run faster. Heck there have been plenty of times where I have taken 3 short runs in a day because other drivers complain about the short runs. Load em up. I get my miles, my stop pay ohh and local pay for short runs. I make more money....
Or they plan me on a load and then call me a little bit later to see if they can switch me because someone else needs or wants that load.. My reply is the same I don't care.. I am still getting paid.
See the whole thing is I bust my butt, I don't complain(unless there is a reason to and for me its got to be a big reason), I am more then happy to help them out if they need it and I have the time. And if there is someplace I want to go I call the planner myself about it.

Quite frankely I have told more then one person theonly reason I am still with Swift is the Walmart thing. If I was OTR I probably would have quit along time ago. But I enjoy where I am at, so when the contract ends I'll probably leave, but only time will tell

 

Jerry finished the purchase back in Janruary, and Cunningham gave ALLOT of people raises, so that didn't help. He is also the one who came out with the payscale you refferd to with the variable pay.

 

was flipping channels while sitting at the Volvo shop.. corrections guards are complaining they are working 12 hours shifts and this is leading them to be fatigued when they go to work...guess that would be a vacation for us...gee a 12 hour day... dream on .....