The Swift Experience

Back when I was teaming, though...

At Swift, we get our runs through the qualcomm, sent by our drive managers or planners. However, my teammate made the mistake once of accepting a load from the shipper...



We had a run from Georgia Pacific, given to us by our planner, which included two stops. We get to the shipper (GP), and they've already given our pre-loaded trailer to someone else. "But, hey, can you take this load for us? The freight is going to the same two stops." --- that's exactly what the shipper said.


Teammate accepted the run, without further inquiry from anyone.


We made it to the first stop, and, three hours later, the receiver claims three pallets are missing from his order. "Alright, I'll let the company know," I said as I drove away.

Made it to the last stop, and was met with a rude employee. Whatever, be nice and just do what you're getting paid to do. Two hours later, the receiver explains to me that not all of his freight is there, and I've got freight that doesnt belong to his store, or the store I came from! What!?


I told the night dispatcher everything. "Okay, that sucks. Let me know how everything works out " --- night dispatchers say the darndest things.


Another two hours pass, the receiver put about 14 pallets back on my trailer, and I went to the terminal. Night dispatch is over, my drive manager is in the office now. I call him directly, he actually picked up the phone (he usually never answered phone calls), and once everything was explained twice, he tells me to call our OS&D department.


No problem, right? Wrong! OS&D has me call the shipper and tell them what I've already told four people already. I do it, though (because I was too new to know any better).


The shipper has me call both receivers to obtain item numbers and the quantity of each item they're missing from the shipment. It took me two hours to get all of this information due to people being on lunch break. By the time it was all done, the shipper gave me a confirmation number, and I gave that number to my OS&D department. No sweat, no money for my time, either.


Guess who calls me!? My terminal manager! Why? Because I contacted the shipper and two recievers doing work that wasn't mine to do!!! After explaining everything to my drive manager beforehand, he stepped up and told the terminal manager that I was told to do this by the OS&D department. Wow! The terminal manager's attitude changed instantly.


I was politely informed to never do any of that mess again, and that was the end of that fiasco.

 

Finale.

By the end of the solo week, this son of a gun must’ve called me a hundred times. He calls me, asks why I went solo, asks what they’re going to do about getting him into a truck, asks about what we’re going to do about getting him his stuff back, etc etc. These are questions for the company, not me.


He would call, ask where I was, then call the fleet manager, then call me back and gripe and complain because “you weren’t suppose to accept that load!” MF’r, I’m out here to support my family, I don’t care about your petty BS.


When I asked the dispatcher if I could go solo, I also asked about who would be getting a different truck. The answer was the guy who’s currently not in a truck. Ok, that’s the teammate. I ended up asking the dispatcher three times about who would be getting the KW, and he repeatedly told me it was mine. Ok, fine.


Wednesday of the following week, guess what happened!? “I need you to swing through the Memphis terminal on your way to Fort Smith and pick up your teammate. You’ll drive and deliver the load, he’ll drive you home. Get all of your belongings out of the truck because I’ve got to find you a new one. Your teammate will be taking that one.”


Say what now?


Yep! Picked him up, dropped me off at the house, and that was goodbye. This was all fine and good, but the problem came a few days later.


This was on a Friday, so I called dispatcher on Monday. “Have you found me a truck?” I was informed that he couldn’t just get me a truck and hold onto it for me. “When are you planning to come back,” he asked. After all, he was the one who forced me off the road, forced me to take this hometime. It wasn’t requested by me. So I told him,”see you in 2 days.”


He said if I hadn’t heard anything by Wednesday, that I should call him. So I did. He still hadn’t found me a truck. Now, just so you understand, this guy has had 7 days to find a truck for me now, and he still ain’t found one. What kind of BS is this?


Ok. So after I hung up, I applied with a different company, had the interview, etc. I was setup to be hired the following Monday.


Two or three hours later, that dispatcher calls me and has me come to Memphis that night, stay in the hotel, and I was going to ride down to Louisiana in a company van with three or four other drivers to get a truck.


I did go to the hotel. It was the ghetto, in Memphis. Never again. And when I got to the terminal the following day at 7am, as requested, he wasn’t even there yet. Not only that, but no one in the office knew what I was talking about when I asked them where us drivers were suppose to be meeting. I waited there an hour, then left.


That’s how I quit Swift. They don’t care about you or your commitment to your family. They don’t keep their word, and their promises are void.