Swift Transportation lease operator Scandal Beware

A simple question would be why did you expect they would allow you to haul a competitor freight because you failed to hold up your end of the deal and unable to make money. Did you think to ask them about this before you signed and why now question it did you not bother to ask a single driver how much he makes? hauling for them how do we know that's all that's going on are you working your hours or is it more like some company drivers work till they done instead of work till you have hardly any minutes left legally out of fear of starving or like losing your home. The biggest question did you read the contract at all have it read to you by a lawyer or someone educated read it for you because I am certain no one put a gun to your head told you to sign unless that gun was a subway sandwich.

Lastly, why do you think a mega carrier like swift go out of business over you that lawsuit of misclassified case was a while back even if you some how got some of it wouldn't be much even then that would kill a normal company size like 10-50 trucks the number swift and knight own dwarf that. the lawsuit would be a nickel to them. I myself have a lawyer as a retainer for many jobs for me since I was a landscaper was needed when the company was bigger than myself.

People need to take responsibility for there own actions this is no different then a fresh 18 yr getting a credit card somehow and no job spends it and expects a bailout from a relative.

 

Freight still weighs your rig to 40 ton what does it matter if it's steaks or books? Freight is freight.

 

Anybody dumb enough to lease a truck with swift should be working a lemonade stand.

 

this is the way it has become the past decade or so, (maybe a bit longer) where people want to be thier own boss, and not have "da man" looking over thier shoulders and micro-managing them.
until people learn a business, ANY business even a high dollar profit one like a pizza store, one must be a worker for at least 6 months to maybe a couple of years. in that time, one learns as much as possible from the ground up, up to and including being a manager and doing the daily "books" that keeps the business running and profitable.

sadly, there are always going to be those that "think they are special" enough to by pass the learning phase, and go directly into the thick of things, and sink faster than the Titanic.

i will never feel any sympathy for those who by pass the learning phase, of ANY business.

personally, 40 tons of feathers is lighter than 40 tons of machinery........(j/k)

as long as there are "get rich quick" schemes, there will always be people dumb enough to join in and then cry they got raked over the coals.

i shed no tears for such dumbery individuals.

 

The industry does weed out those who do not manage or know how to run a business. Trucking or whatever it is.

However, Trucking for me for many years I suppose has given me what I believed to be Captain of the Ship. Provided the freight, whatever it is is where it needs to be come sunrise of some future day. I think that has taken away fairly recently and tractors themselves have become a micromanaging extension of the furries inside the Office who must be fed souls every day who are late, service failures, lazy, need hand holding etc.

Now this is not to defend the trucking company that hands out tractors to hopefuls thinking they will assume all costs of running same and relieve employer of paying taxes on so and so signing papers in a hurry during some orientation session while experiencing a false illusion of so called irish pot of gold every mile owning their own truck. Leasing is not owning until the truck is bought from company free and clear with title in their names. And you wonder why they have so much trouble. It would be a predatory practice on the part of the motor carrier.

However being a company driver on a W2? With no responsibilities other than being somewhere on a future date and time? They should be so lucky.

 

i was told a long, long time ago, when i worked as a driver, at NAVL..(North American Van Lines), (Comtrans division, the only division that was all company drivers, all other divisions were o/o's, L/O's)

that back then, North American was not in the trucking business, but the truck sales and leasing business.

to me, once a company decides to go into the truck leasing end of things, they too become just another truck sales/leasing company, and nothing else. it's all profit for them, one leaves, and 10 more want a shot at it.

it's a revolving door system, and the lure of being your own boss gets them each and every time.

the one and only true way (to me) to be an o/o and on your own, is to go out and BUY a truck, new, used, old, whatever, and YOUR OWN trailer, and haul what da hell you want with YOUR equipment.

 

I bought a tractor once in the 90's signed the note and everything. But it was not to be my tractor with a title in my hand until about the time it's paid off within 4 years. Looking back Im glad I did not get too deep in that situation then.

But I do remember the one thought I had. No more picking fleets checking dac to hire me or not. It's freight hunting time. Kind of a basic thought but very motivating. I remember one outfit in Maryland I walked into looking for a job and a drone asked me very simply "Do you own a tractor?" Hmph. much good that did me looking for a driving job that year.

My uncle was a O/O and in his day of Regulating prior to deregulating (Drink that newbies... get out the history books...) he did not worry too much about anything because the freight and money took care of itself. I never forgot that. But I did not know then in those days what it would take to have something like that.

 

Actually, Swift's lease contract allows for trip leasing.