Prime example of why Swift Drivers have the reputation they do!

The long and short of it is this, Swift Drivers r trained by Swift Drivers. Not real truck drivers. They go to a Swift school that doesnt teach them diddly squat and then go on the rd with a "trainer"(loosely used) so, all they know is the Swift way. My wife is a prime example. She went to Milligton, TN for her training, then i stayed home for 2 weeks to retrain her. I'm getting somewhere with her and am proud to say that we r a team now (with Swift). I am a truck driver that so happens to work for Swift. 14yrs exp. and only 1 has been with Swift.

 

I have only been with SWIFT for one week now as a trainee. So my opinion is very limited. I like an awful lot of people wanting to get into truck driving for what ever and for many self reasons have to start somewhere. As did the the 15 year driver. What I would like to know is why the experienced drivers slam SWIFT and the other student mills when, they are just that, student mills. No we did not get quality training, most were not born into trucking families with generations of experience. But think about it, with probabally 23,000 trucks on the road at any one time there are going to be accidents due to the sheer number of trucks. We are forced to drive at lower milage pay, maybe this intimadates or angers the experienced drivers? Just my 2cents

 

*gasp* Experienced drivers cant work for swift!!!

We have stuff like random drug and alcohol tests, audits on log books, and oh yeah, our mentors and trainers have to wear uniforms and look and smell respectable. We get in deep waters if we're caught parking swift trucks at porn shops or if we're driving like #######es and someone calls the number on the back of our trucks.

If swift was half as bad as people thought, my trainer wouldn't have been fired for unsafe driving practices and had to go to work as an 'experienced o/o' I wouldn't get prepassed through 9/10 scale houses because of swifts safety score.

Swift, at any time, has an average of 500 trucks in every state, you found one guy blocking a few parking spaces? Nice. We REAAALLLY suck.



And yeah, i realize everyone here probably has a story about a swift truck doing something dumb... But hey... the guy in your story probably got fired and had to go buy his own truck! He's part of y'alls crowd now.

 

Now that is funny.

 

it could have been any idiot at any company, but it happened to be SWIFT
.saw THIS at the SB scale south of DC.
driver goes over the scale pads on the ramp with right side tires OFF the pad.
he gets the arrow FOR THE SCALE, but goes around the bypass anyways....
don't knoiw if they bothered to come after him or not

 

swift has the lest experienced staff thats why they are picked on.

When I started driving 17 years ago it was J b HUNT AT 55 MPH

EVERY ONE HAS TO START SOMEWARE MAYBE THE PEAPLE THAT POST ABOUT INXPENANCED DRIVER DO NOT REMEMBER BEING A NEWBE OR ARE perfect

 

I'm very happy at Swift. I had a couple of doubts last week but spoke to my DM and the issue was resolved.

I'm very happy with financial arrangements for my husband's and my schooling.

No doubt that as a new driver I've still got tons and tons to learn, but no one was experienced the day they started.

 

First of all I did my beginning as an INEXPERIENCED driver with Swift--at 57 mph...I do not expect perfection, I did not forget when and where i started..however I did strive then as now to gain experience each and every day. Including my interpersonal skills, vocabulary, communication skills with both drivers and staff. There is not a single company working today, that has nothing but inexperienced staffing, since staff in my book are the morons that think they know anything about logistics or managing a fleet of trucks. Otherwise there would little, if any, MT deadheading trucks crossing each other..in other words..mismanaging the travel of the fleet..

My PENANCE to the industry was teaching...COMPLETELY TEACHING...all 63 students that graduated to solo status from my truck and my tutelage; let me help you with that one:

tu·te·lage Pronunciation:\ˈtü-tə-lij, ˈtyü-\ Function:noun Etymology:Latin tutela protection, guardian (from tutari to protect, frequentative of tueri to look at, guard) + English -ageDate:16051 a: an act or process of serving as guardian or protector : guardianship b: hegemony over a foreign territory : trusteeship 22: the state of being under a guardian or tutor3 a: instruction especially of an individual b: a guiding influence.

To get back to the topic here, the inexperienced staff is not the reason Swift has become the butt of many if not all jokes in the trucking industry. Through their lack of consistent, complete, or concise training. Their training program goes through radical changes every time some kiss azzed, college degreed office boy, gets promoted to the training department. Then, without any knowledge of driving a truck, backing a trailer into a dock, or having any clue as to how to teach someone to do the above. So they, in their infinite wisdom, change the whole program!

The main reason Swift is so hated by 90% of the industry goes back to Jerry Moyes' beginning and his cutthroat, underbidding, theft tactics of freight. Doing his outright best to put any smaller company out of business. To add to this, his dirty, shady, just on the edge of legal, buying of stock options, then loaning the unsuspecting company money, then when the company is stuggling again, moves in to take over the company...if you doubt this..look at how he took over Dick Simon out of Salt Lake City, what he now calls Central Refridgerated...ever seen trailers with "Best West", or how about "MS Carriers"..and there are many more..same underhanded business practices.

Be careful what you say when you defend Swift, the drivers are the true image of the company they drive for...if they are so good...why do you see so many with torn up equipment..that in itself is a good sign of the quality of the company.

 

Sorry, I missed this one...500 average in every state, really? HHMMMMMM! Would 500 trucks fit in Rhode Island at one time...not the way this (the truck in the picture) one parked.

How about...Hawaii? Nope no Swift at all in Hawaii, lets try Alaska...I don't think Swift goes there either...they do take a lot of containers from Reno and Michelin tires to Tacoma Port destined for Alaska though. How about Delaware....numbers a bit to high I think...Maine, another guess with 500 being much to high....want me to continue?

In other words stop prattling the in company hype and learn the true story. Just be thankful you have a job, and earning the income to help support your family, or if no family, to support yourself!