The Swift Experience

I am shocked and appalled by some of the comments our members have made about this thread.

 

Does Estes have good benefits and 401k plan

 

Every motel they ever put me has been shady. Straight up escorts and drug dealers operating on the property. Filthy smelly rooms. I've never had a good experience.

I had a prescription I had to get to renew my med cert. This was non generic only, the pharmacy told me the company insurance refused to pay and they told me their plans no longer covers prescriptions. I had to pay over $300 because it's on the deductible now.

I think I have 9 hours of paid sick time last I looked, but come on you should be earning days not hours.

I know about the idle range but can you really tell me that you consider 31 degrees or 79 degrees with 100% humidity comfortable? I cant sleep when I'm not comfortable, it's a safety issue.

 

I realize after a post like this how fortunate I was. A guy who had trucks knew me and liked me. Said get your CDL and I'll hire you. He rode around a bit with me teaching me what to do and I was on the road. I never realized till I got on this forum what an amazing and fortunate break I had to get into trucking.

 

I should probably start a new thread but think I can get across some related thoughts fairly quickly.

I chose Swift in 2018 specifically because of their 200 hr BTW (behind the wheel) component of training. Though not as long as Prime's, it is much longer than many others. What the recruiter doesn't tell you is that after your first 50 hours the mentor can recommend that you run as a "team" for the remaining 150 hours of your driving and training.

After learning about that I stayed with the program anyway. After each load is completed there is a question, Is the student ready to team? In the first 50 hours this gets answered as a No. Now truck driving is for me a second career. After 42 years in IT I took a year off to care for elderly parents and then got my CDL. As a more (somewhat) "mature" individual (I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now)....my approach was this: I told my mentor that I would never team no matter how good he thought I was. I signed up for 200 hours BTW driving with an instructor in the co-pilot seat and that's the way I managed my own training. I was assertive in my approach, my business and leadership experience didn't hurt. For those of you with less experience, courage, or what have you, this training is going to make or break you. Stand up for yourself and demand the 200 hours BTW training like i did

I said to him, how can you train me in a situation where I need guidance if you are in the sleeping berth? He got it, and we answered "no" to every "read to team" question except for the the very last training load I ran. When it asked the question on the night before my upgrade tests we answered "Yes", ready to team.

I recommend to anyone training or thinking of training with Swift to ignore the team driving with the trainer and pick his or her brains as you drive. And obviously they are awake and maybe might even see something that they can help you with. Again, none of that would be possible with the mentor in the sleeper berth.

A quick story...I learned a lot of good things from my mentor, especially some advanced backing techniques.

I did leave Swift (the reasons beyond the scope of this post and am now driving a great local route with a third company)) and went with another mega that offered weekends off (which they honored). Last winter I was at a shipper and was assigned what was by their own admission their toughest dock to get into. I got in to the dock in about 5 minutes, in the dark, 4 inches of ice and snow on the ground, and about 10degrees outside. I went in to use the facilities, and on my way back to the truck the shift foreman tracked me down and commended me on my getting into the dock. He explained that many drivers have failed to get in in the summer time in dry daylight conditions. One of the techniques the Swift trainer taught me allowed me to get in without any drama.

I wrote and told this story to my mentor's manager and told him to give my mentor a raise...

So, if you have made it this far, repetition is a good thing, trainees, do not team drive in your training. Insist that the trainer be available to help you when you need it. Yes, that means many hours of boredom for the mentor while you drive from Illinois to North Dakota or Northern Wisconsin to Kansas City. Don't worry about him/her, they are being paid for their time.

One last note, sorry. Before I started working I read the Truckers Forum daily, and learned a lot. I think it was reading about Millis training where they "super single", the mentor will drive if at the end of the trainees hours they are within reach of their goal, and my mentor and I did the same thing. Not daily, only when required (weather or traffic delays, etc).

Ok, thank for listening. Be safe and have fun.

taodnt, teaching an old dog new tricks