SWIFT

That hill/landfill used to be the Ontario speedway back in the 70's the site of 2 california jam concerts. Just a little trivia.

 

I actually found out that a buddy of mine has been driving with swift for a little over a year now. I talked to him about the "ins" and "outs". He seems to enjoy it very much. He gets his miles. Averages 2500-2800 a week. He really doesn't have a family though, so he doesn't go home much. He did request a week off in Maine to visit another friend and they got him a load there. Dropped the load and had his week off. All in all, they keep him running pretty decent from what I was told. I guess there is a few happy drivers out there driving with Swift. They are the largest Mega Carrier in the nation. I think Schneider comes second. Anyways, there will be alot of complaints with such a large staffed company. Stay safe out there.

 

Actually he is one of the thousands who are happy with Swift. Many of the negative comments about them come from people who haven't driven for them.

 

That does seem to happen alot. I have noticed that once someone reads so much about a company that they tend to already make a solid decision based upon what they have read from other people's experience. Like I said though, my buddy seemed to be VERY pleased with Swift. He did the training also with them. He is pleased. I think of it this way though, 21000 drivers at Swift. The ones who want to complain about them come here and vent. The ones who want to praise them, also come here. Out of 21000 drivers though, 200 MAYBE, are on this forum.. that leaves over 20000 untold HAPPY and NOT HAPPY stories. Something to think about. Taker' easy

 

Well don't read about it. Go to a truckstop and watch them at work.

 

But how many different individuals are there and how many of those actually drove for Swift? What I have seen is that most of the negative comments are coming from people who have not even driven for them. In other words it is just a rehashing of truck stop chatter. Of course there are fewer positives but that can be said for most every company on here. Why? Because those who are happy are too busy working to take time to be here. There are those, like me, who have driven for a company and are researching other companies for various reasons but are willing to give, as Paul Harvey says, the rest of the story.

There is a lot of value in this site but some of that is diminished by the fact that the majority of the postings are negative. Like some have said, they came here to research companies and are being scared away from trucking altogether.

That is why some of us, myself included, try to counterbalance the amount of negativity by pointing out the good aspects. We also try to encourage people to talk more to current drivers at truck stops because they are the ones who do not have the time to come on here and post yet they are a better barometer of how that company is doing. It would be interesting to find out how many that post on here are actually driving right now. That might help people validate the information they read.

I have received a lot of good information and, what I have done, is when someone says something negative about a company I am researching, I run that by as many current drivers as possible to see what those who are acutally working for the company have to say. 98% of the time they say that the information from here is not true based on their current experience. And that far more validates or invalidates information than 5 or 10 people posting the same bad reviews over and over.

 

I am one who has been satisfied with Swift, was trying to get back with them. Was notified today that due to an accident I had last October in their truck I will not be able to return to them until next October. Policy is when a driver who had a major preventable leaves they can not return until 1 year after accident. Over all my time with Swift has been good, I am sorry I will not be returning.

 

Well, that all depends, is it 100-200 different drivers making posts or a handful of drivers making several posts apiece? I drove for them for 13 months (2002-2003) and aside from a few times I got my toll reimbursements a week late, I never had a problem with them. I was always rollin, made good $$, they got me home when I wanted to get there. Are they perfect? Hell no. Do they have the best or safest drivers? Hell hell no. Do they have the fastest trucks? ROFLMAO!!!!! Now what they did that was above and beyond for any company to do for a driver is they would let me bobtail 210 miles one way home and let me use the tractor as a personal vehicle. I did my grocery shopping, took the ex and her kids to her parents, went and paid bills, everything. I did that for a few months. And they knew all about it. Every once in a while, I would get a message over the Qualcomm asking what I was doin, and I'd tell them I was running erands, getting groceries, whatever, and they would be like "ok". I had an awsome DM and FM. I know of no other company that would do that. Local companies I drove for wouldnt even let their drivers do that if they needed to.

 

Well said, CaptJack. That is the thing that so many don't take into account on here, it is not 100's of individual drivers who are complaining. It is a few, like Tip, who hasn't worked for them for some time yet has how many hundreds of posts and almost all of them saying the same thing, "SwiftCo (SwiftQuit, Swifty) sucks and anyone who feels otherwise is a cheerleader." If I had the time to do it I think I would go through the Swift threads for example and actually count how many different people post comments. Of course that still won't reveal the other side of the equation; the number of drivers who say things with no personal experience. I do give Tip credit, at least he drove for them (or says he did). A lot of the comments on here are no different than CB/truck stop talk. Everyone will overlook the errors made by drivers for most companies but if a Swift driver makes a mistake, it is front page news.