Swift Transportation Company, Inc. - Phoenix, Az.

I have driven for Swift for over 4 years now.

I do have to say there are good points about Swift

There are bad points as well

Unfortunately the bad outweigh the good.

I wont go posting what other drivers went through with Swift ... just my own experiences.

1 ... lack of communication in regards to d/m to planner. D/m's are here to ake sure the drivers needs are covered yet the planners do not read the notes and thus dont knw / care about hometime.

2 ... Each terminal is its own fiefdom. What is good business at one terminal is taboo at other terminals. Some terminal care more bout hoetime than others. Same can be said on terminals caring bout their drivers at all.

3 ... No 1 full set of corporate rules followed in the company. Each terminal can do bascally what they want as long as no one gets upset about it.

4 ... Hometime is not what it used to be. When one gets hired by Swift they are told for every 6 days out they earn 1 day off. Yet we are pressured to take less hometime than earned. Also unless you ahve a Doctor's note you will end up missing medical appointments because some driver managers will not put the info on your screen for the planners to see and take note about. Thus when you are 1 day from your hometime and unable to get home the driver managers say it is the fault of the planners, or someone else.

5 ... Mileage is not up to par and you are warned with termination. This is a fun situation most of the drivers can face. During the slow time of the year they will be informed they have 1 month to get their numbers up to par or they will be terminated. Now how the hell are you going to get your miles up when you barely get 1800 per week due to NO freight.

I could go on and on with my 4 years experience with Swift, but would be a waste of time. At the time of this posting I am doing something about my situation. I am looking to leave Swift for a better company. Right bout now any company is a better place than Swift.

 

Agreed. Number 5 alone would keep me away from SwiftQuit. Or in this case, SwiftFire. It really sounds like they're desperately trying to shed their vets. It shows you how much they appreciate the drivers they already have. And to think those guys have busy-bee recruiters trying to suck in new fools. That's an outfit everyone should aspire to drive for, right? Never go with SwiftCo. 'Nuff said.

 

His story is good. Typical ending, but good nonetheless.

I think the biggest problem with SwiftCo is this: the outfit was started by, and is still controlled by, a guy who treats his employees like his own church treats its followers. I know his attitude toward money is exactly the same.

 

1 ... lack of communication in regards to d/m to planner. D/m's are here to ake sure the drivers needs are covered yet the planners do not read the notes and thus dont knw / care about hometime.

DM's jobs are to manage the drivers and the policies, and also act as a liason between the planner and driver for anything out of the norm. Planners see when a driver is due home, the system we use, micro map, also plans according to a drivers hometime, with what freight is available. I do see a few missed hometimes now and then, not a lot. On some of the ones I see its because there were poor decisions that went into it. Example: Driver has to be back in TX for a Dr appointment in a week. Planner plans the driver to MA from TX. Driver accepts it thinking more miles, they will be looking for a load back for me, DM doesnt catch it and get a Tcall on it in Memphis, and Planner just plain should have set it up for tcall in the first place to keep driver in a closer area. So driver arrives in MA, and come to find out they have no direct loads back to TX. They plan him on a load to GA, or KY and the driver is declining because they only want TX. After the declines, the DM is talking with the driver telling them to take it, its getting you closer to this area. Its not a rampant problem, but I do think we can do a better job on the Swift side of making sure we get 99.9% of our drivers home ontime. Here is an example of a driver I had yesterday. He called me up, chewed my ##### that he had a special request for a Dr. appoint in Houston in 3 days. He is sitting in Columbus OH right now. I apologized, said I will get involved on this immediately. I called the DM and the FM into my office, raised hell about not getting this guy home, why did we let him get all the way up there then I sent them out to call the planners bosses to get this guy home. About 10 minutes later my FM came back into my office and asked me to look at the drivers qualcom messages from 2 days ago. I pulled up a message from the driver saying he has a Dr. appointment in 3 days we have to get him for. He sent that while he was in MD. I had already authorized him to deadheaded 500 miles to pick up a load he can tcall in Houston. I also had to apologize to my staff for not getting all the information. So I spent over $500 to get this driver home for a Dr. appt that he gave us essentially no notice on. So from the drivers perspective, we were not doing what he wanted. From my perspective, I lost money because I thought we had messed up and didnt get him home ontime.

2 ... Each terminal is its own fiefdom. What is good business at one terminal is taboo at other terminals. Some terminal care more bout hoetime than others. Same can be said on terminals caring bout their drivers at all.

and

3 ... No 1 full set of corporate rules followed in the company. Each terminal can do bascally what they want as long as no one gets upset about it.

True each terminal is run under the same principles, but may have some different local rules. Everyone has to follow the company policies. The same one is given out to each employee from drivers to Exec VP. Each terminal is a business unit in a sense. So what works at one does not mean it will work at another. I have a policy that not all terminals do. Its in regards to dedicated drivers. First, I rarely hire from the outside for a dedicated driver. I strongly believe that the drivers that are with me have earned the right to dedicated positions. I generally also require atleast 6 months exp for most of my dedicated (some are 3 months). In addition, the driver must have no service failures in last 90 days, safe driver, low idle, good fuel stop compliance, and minimum miles. I do know some terminals will put a driver into dedicated because they threaten to quit. I dont agree with that, but that terminal will usually have to live with the problems of not putting the right person in an account. If you have some specific examples I would be interested in looking at them and possibly commenting on them.

4 ... Hometime is not what it used to be. When one gets hired by Swift they are told for every 6 days out they earn 1 day off. Yet we are pressured to take less hometime than earned. Also unless you ahve a Doctor's note you will end up missing medical appointments because some driver managers will not put the info on your screen for the planners to see and take note about. Thus when you are 1 day from your hometime and unable to get home the driver managers say it is the fault of the planners, or someone else.

Easiest way I explain hometime, which that is correct, 6 on to earn 1 off, or for every week you earn a day. That day is 24 hours off (48 after two weeks). You just need to make sure you tell your dm how much time your taking off and say they can look at your history to see when you left the house last. Make sure its in 24 hrs increments also for when you come out. If the DM doesnt agree, talk to your FM or TM. That is policy, and I am sure there are DM's that push the hometime limits. As for the special requests, I can not argue that DM's may forget to put special requests in. Generally tell the DM the first time, and a week before the appointment, call and verify. If it was never put in, then the DM did not do their job and get ahold of the Fleet Manager, or call quality assurance to start the paper trail.

5 ... Mileage is not up to par and you are warned with termination. This is a fun situation most of the drivers can face. During the slow time of the year they will be informed they have 1 month to get their numbers up to par or they will be terminated. Now how the hell are you going to get your miles up when you barely get 1800 per week due to NO freight.


That is definately true. 6500 miles a month is a part time driver, and loses benefits. I require 8000 miles a month, 2000 a week from my drivers as a minimum. Or to break that down even further, 285 miles a day. This is not a hard number to reach (I dont hold them accountable for this if they had a breakdown, vacation etc... Each area is different for how much money their drivers need. Here, I see lots of drivers that do not need as much money to live, so they tend to take their time on loads. Those are the drivers that this is designed for. I give them 3 chances (3 months) before I term. During that time we counsel the driver on how to meet the expectations. If they plan you on a 350 mile load that delivers in a day, every day of the week, you just hit 2450 miles, so dont decline them. If you can take your hometime on weekends when freight is the lightest, that is working smart. Drop deliveries are where you make up miles, get them to final as fast and safe as you can. Dont take a 34 hr restart unless its needed. If your at your 70 today, but for the next 3 nights at midnight your picking up 10-12 hours, then you could have kept running and optimizing your hours. Only take a 34 hr when your picking up zero's or under 8 hrs. Just out of curiosity, I just pulled up the average weekly LOADED miles we were showing at for this month. As a company we show at 1886 loaded miles. This does not count the empty miles. This also includes all trucks. Local and dedicated, which definately pulls the loaded average down. (Swift has lots of dedicated) (I have 60 dedicated trucks that average only about 600-800 miles per week).

Very long winded sorry about that. By all means, I do not say we are perfect. Lots of times there are reasons for things that not everyone will understand. I do wish we could sit a driver down in planning and show them how planning is done, why decisions are made etc.. I think it would help show the overall picture of how everything relates. I enjoy hiring drivers into DM positions. The first week shock is priceless to me. The better understanding on how everything works, and the why's are right there.

Wes

 

I have met several drivers at different trucking company's that used to work for Swift, and not one of them said this company sucks and I am thinking about going back to Swift.

No matter how bad they may think their current company is, they still see it as better then were they came from, Swift.

It all starts from the top on down. If the company sees you as little more then someone who can move their equipment from point A to B then you will get company's like Swift. Actions speak louder then words, and despite the rhetoric coming from Swift management, it is clear that they have little concern for fairness and good working conditions if it might have a effect on the bottom line.

Company's are not easy to run and I totally understand the many economic pressures facing a large company like Swift but if your business is moving freight. The people you should be most concerned about in your company are the ones who move that freight.

 

I agree there are drivers that will never come back, and there are drivers that do. I get more reapplys then ever right now for drivers wanting to come back. Big companies are not for everyone. There are advantages with smaller companies, more one on one time, more personal involvement. More often through the house. Big companies offer better job security, better freight choices, better overall lasting benefits.

 

I would like to see them fall on their faces as well. I guess that I made a mistake by working for the #######es.

TFIWS = Two Faggets In a White Semi.
SWIFT = Sure Wish I had a Faster Truck.


Oh yeah. Did I forget to mention that they have very poor communication skills. They can't talk to either themselves or to their drivers for any reason.

Looking for another company is a good idea. I sure wisht that I had done that as I could have saved myself a lot of grief with Swift.

 

I have left Swift twice, 1st time got out of trucking all together, came back a year later. 2nd time went with a small local company missed being otr came back to swift have no interest of leaving.

 

not sure how to respond to this post. i want to hear your story, please share it with us. ive just finished up my training with swift. happy so far. but im a determined person. i can make it work and make money because thats what i choose to do. i wont ##### about swift, ill work harder and smarter and ill climb, just like i have done with every other job ive had. i wont sit around and call a trainer and a student in a swift truck a ###. that would just make me look like a baboon and a failure.