The start of my first year with Swift.

Sheriff,
What were your expectations of net pay per month, week, whatever, when you decided to be a truck driver? Just wonder what are expectations vs. reality?

 

The all Cali runs did you request those or just happened like that? How does the Cascadia compare to the Century Class if you drove one?

 

It seems so long ago when I was researching this career. My mentor maintained that I should be getting 2500 miles a week during the slow times and over 3k per week during the peak season. I knew my cpm would be low to start. I'm not getting nearly the miles I thought I would be getting. I hope it's just because of the time of year. I actually thought I would be making enough to make it worth my time to be away from home and pay the bills. After looking at the numbers, at least for the first quarter of this year, it wasn't worth it. I could have made that much money staying home and cleaning stalls. I'll have to see how the next quarter goes.

 

Sheriff,
Three Months so far, Did those Months seem like three years to you......

One thing every Month there was an increase, Three more Months and you should be at 2,000 gross a month. I have been reading this and other boards for years and one common thread has been Drivers left there original company and made more. Some drivers went back to there original outfit not realizing they would have to re-start at a lower CPM, then they left again. Most did it after a year, however Just in the last few years I have seen many outfits drop the year requirement to six months.

Just some of my random thoughts, seems like longer than three months to me.

 

It does seem like a long time. I have no intention of going anywhere else. If I did I would just get out of trucking and clean stalls for a living.

 

Yep you might have made more money cleaning stalls and I totally understand the sentiment. But a year from now while your pay for cleaning stalls would main relatively the same, you should be seeing a nice increase of income from trucking. I believe this is one reason why turnover is so high because too many new drivers are looking for that quick fix and get frustrated when they see themselves maybe even going backwards in their first year.

You have a good attitude. You will be ok

 

It just happened, that's what was available for me, so that's what I took. I actually HATE California and if it was up to me, I'd never drive here again!

ive had the chance to drive a few Century's but never chose to. SWIFT has a fair amount of century's floating around still. I've been in all of SWIFT's trucks besides the t660 studio, my 660 was the standard sleeper size, not sure what length but the cascadia is by far the most comfortable in my opinion. Sleeper feels the roomiest, cab layout is the best except for a few minor things, tons of storage space, and I personally think its the best looking truck SWIFT buys. The drive is also outstanding. All that is lacking is power from this castrated DD15 that SWIFT has tuned down so far that its rediculous. Just my $0.02

 

I bailed out of Swift, I was SO broke I went days without eating the first few weeks to have money to pay my bills. It's no way to live. I got a job driving a box truck for safeway, get home every night, no BS with logs, weights, e.t.c. Get in & drive.

 

How can anyone live on $1300 a month take home? My mortgage and car payment is over $1300/month alone, and thats barely just over half my total bills. So glad I don't work for SWIFT.

 

That is NOT swifts fault.

Drivers need to take matters into their own hands.

Speak up, climb the chain of command ladder until somebody does something.