Swift Transportation Company, Inc. - Phoenix, Az.?

Thanks Tip, Sounds like good advice. That's pretty much what I'm doing but i just need some reassurance from someone with more experience.

 

Swift, Werner, and a few other companies are primarily driver training outfits. There is nothing really wrong with that, in fact, they provide a valuable service to the industry.

With a driver pool that consist of mostly the inexperienced, many goofs are sure to occur, thus their reputation is tainted. We all see the trainees trying to figure out the job while getting in the way, or taking your fenders off while maneuvering at the truck stop.

Guess what? Their managers are also fresh out of school, rookies too. It's the blind leading the blind. Something will break.

Regardless of the industry, or job, the new guys always get picked on, especially if they fumble. They're fresh meat to grill.

I'll add, there are some "seasoned" drivers who have found a home with these companies, like it, and make a good payday.

 

Do your research.. Their are companies that hire newbies, that have good home time, and they are not the meat market big players, but you need to look.

 

If you can find another way to get started I would suggest that you go that route. I started with Swift and lived to regret it. If you should start with them find a way to pay them up front for the school. That way, after 6 months you get your money back instead of it taking 20 months with their normal contract term. Then run, screaming, for a better company. Many of the good companies want at least 6 months OTR experience before they'll hire you. But that goes by faster than you may think.

 

I spent the last 7 days running to CA. I spent two days shut down in Cheyanne but before that we were chaining up on Donner pass on thursday morning and a swift driver hit a guy chaining up his truck and kept going. The driver crawled into his truck and started yelling on the cb. It was rght in the chain up area so the troopers got to swift real fast.
Then on the other side while I was unchaining my truck a swift truck BLEW past me not two feet away and there was nobody in the fast lane next to him. He went by me with enough force to blow me between and under my tandems while I was trying to undo a chain.
I'm not one to bash a company in general but after this week I say if that's the only quality of drivers they can get then something needs to be done about this company.

 

This goes to what I was saying the other day,
By definition when they hand you the CDL it may mean you are a professional driver, but what really makes you a professional is the decisions you make out on the road. I agree unfortuantely it seems many people are getting their CDL when they should not be. Sure you may not make the right decision every time but its what you learned from making that and how you apply it next time. That's what makes you a real professional.

Glad your still with us MedicineMan

 

The first person I ever drove for used to tell me:

"Act like a professional, whether you are one or not"

 

My solid recommendation is DO NOT WORK FOR SWIFT!!!!!! I was there for almost 2 yrs, did everything I was suppose to do, followed all the rules, was always safe, no accidents or log violations or write ups... They did me the dirtiest I have ever been done..If you are interested refer to my thread "Blackballed by Swift"

 

Do yourself a favor and stay away from Swift. They are currently under investigation by the Feds for CDL Fraud and their school in Memphis was raided by nine different Federal agencies on February 25, 2008 for CDL Fraud.

Swift is claiming to be innocent of all wrong doing, but that is a lie as there is just no way that they could not know as to what was going on and anyone that believes that they did not know what was going on at that school is a complete idiot.

They knew about it and you can believe that. Whether or not they actively communicated with each other and did anything to stop it is a whole other story, but based upon my experiences with the company they more than likely did not communicate with each other nor did they do anything about it and that is their problem not mine.

 

I went to an orentation for swift two months ago, I was told by the recruiter (Mr.Nugent) that they would pay for everything, I didn't get hired so now the medical center is trying to get me to pay for those thing that compaines pay for, if I haft to I will go to court.