Swift Transportation Company, Inc. - Phoenix, Az.

Your road expenses during that time should be less because you really don't have alot of time in the truckstops after the first couple of weeks. If you are doing good at driving and handling the truck, you go into a modified team set up and that saves money. Food will be your only real expense. You pay for showers out of pocket but include the receipt with your logs and Swift reimburses you.

 

How many hours a day do you drive/sleep. Do you have any R&R time or is it all drive/sleep/eat? I'm sure alot this is covered in the other posts but there is 107 pages!

 

When you start it is to be a solo operation. You are supposed to drive and the mentor rides shotgun. As you develop your skills you will drive more. I think by week 4 you are supposed to be close to team operation. Alot depends on how well you do. I was trained by Costco dedicated drivers and I was doing well enough by the end of week one that we went to team then. I would drive the days and the mentor would drive the nights. About week four my mentor had me drive a night shift.

As for your second question again it depends on your ability. We had a little time for R & R but not much. Being dedicated we would run from Phx to Denver and then usually had a backhaul within an hour or two so we didn't stop much. We did take time for showers and laundry. That usually came in Phx after the backhaul as we would deliver midday to late afternoon and would not have our Costco run until the next morning because they were always ready to p/u between 11 am and 1 pm.

And what, you don't want to read through 1060+ replies on this thread alone?

 

HA, with my kids screaming and beating each other up I don't think I can concentrate that long. After training is what I was wondering about the drive/sleep schedule. How many hours?

 

You are allowed to drive up to 11 hours in a 14 hour shift and then a 10 hour break must be taken. What you drive in a day varies with the load assignment and how long you have to get the load there and the type of delivery. With a drop and hook you are often allowed to drop any time on the "appointment" day. Live load/unload you will have a set appointment. I did the math once and found that if you only work (lines 3 and 4 on the log) 8.75 hours per day average, you never have to do a 34 hour restart except when on hometime. You need to know that, while you may only want to drive during the daylight (solar-powered trucking), there will be loads that require night driving.

One of the things your mentor should teach you is how to trip plan. This is vital. It is something I had to learn after training because on Costco dedicated there wasn't much need for it. We would leave Phx around noon with me driving. I would drive to Alb. and turn it over to my mentor for the night shift. He would drive to Denver with us arriving for an appointment time anywhere between 4:30 and 6:30 am. He would wake me up so I could back in to the dock. We would go in and watch them unload (I usually tried to catch a nap.) We were not required to watch the unload but Costco did not want you in the truck during it. We would head to the Denver terminal, catch a shower and get our load back to Phx. Sometimes we took a load to Alb. and got another load to Phx. Either way, I would drive out of Denver to Alb. My mentor would again take over for the night shift and get us to Phx so we could co it all over.

 

We are starting our training soon with Swift and we would like to know if any one out there are team drivers husband and wife and how is your experience. We are planning to drive OTR. How much miles are you getting per week and if they pay more per miles because you operate as a team? We know we will probably get all that info on our orientation but we are curious. Thanks.

 

I am not a team driver for swift i am a solo driver, but from talking to folks teams etc. you should fare pretty well as a team. swift should love you as a team its more efficient for the company to have teams therefore you should do good. just from what ive heard from other drivers. but keep in mind the general rumor i have heard from many swift folks is that a heavy reduction in the fleet is coming, meaning people out of work. i hope wes can shed some light on this. if its true then solo drivers would be the first to get the axe. teams should take priority. just my 1 cent. good luck.

 

I couldn't help but give you a quick answer to this. I worked for Swift about a year. I was an experienced driver and went into a special division. While I was there I saw some paperwork that made me nosy. Swift makes more money on short term drivers at minimum pay then long term drivers at higher pay. They get a government subsidy for hiring an inexperienced driver. They charge a ridicules rate for their driving school. They buy new trucks at wholesale price or even wrecked trucks, take them to Phoenix to re-build them with minimum wage mechanics and sell them to the Owner/Ops at a retail price and charge interest to boot. Jerry has made the statement that he will haul a load even at $5.00 profit. With over 25,000 trucks on the road you figure at this rate even if he will still profit over $100,000 a day. Swift has a policy that pays for layover if you're over 24hrs. They don't tell you they will move you at 23 hrs even for 50 miles. This is cheaper for the company. Even at a 200% turnover rate, they make more money on new/ignorant drivers then the experienced ones that know the tricks to make money. I was offered a trainer option and took it for two whole weeks. I had one student the first week that couldn't tie his shoes without help. I had the next one for a week and I was worried enough for my health. I quit that and Swift to. I did make ok money but with 6 years experience I should have done better. I learned a few other things but this has gotten long enough. Bottom line is, if the company wasn't making money, they would change for better work ethics.

 

Would be interesting to know. I'm considering applying to Swift for the academy soon.