I have decided to give Swift a try

roy.bennitt

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I will be attending their class on 01/10/11. I do not see me having many problems with passing, and all the negative responses has went in one ear and out the other until I experience them myself. I will keep everyone updated. I have a wordpress, that I will be updating to, but I am unsure if I can post external links here. BTW. I chose them because of my location. Nobody else is recruiting, and they, of course, are willing to train.

Roy
 
I used to be in your exact situation. I went to Swift's " School" in Memphis,TN.

Their little 3 week crash course. I stayed for 2.5 days, and realized that they were total clowns, and got the hell out of Dodge.

I've since went to real driving school, got my CDL, and got lucky finding a small company who'd hire me. I'd suggest you try your damnedest to do the same. I feel pretty confident when I say that I truly think you will regret going with them. But hey, it's your decision. Whatever you do, good luck.
 
i am with them know, all i will say is every day is a challange to say the very least. the frist month i soloed out i about started to death and my wife works at kfc and her pay checks were 20-40% more than mine. i am just now starting to avg about $550 week i have yet to make $600 though.
 
I'll be going to Swift orientation on the 18th a second time since the eye chart crap, once I'm there I'll go through it without a problem and stay with the company for a year just to get that frakin' experience before moving to another company. Of course your smaller companies are going to pay a lot better because they're going to demand a more top notch driver to take care of the little equipment they have.
 
Welcome aboard. The team can always use another good member. Now for the reality check. Swift will train you to get a CDL, that's all they're required to do. Talk to your instructors and any drivers you can while at the school. Gather as much information as possible from experienced drivers.

After you graduate from the school and have a CDL in you wallet you will be assigned a mentor. This is the 6 week period in which you will learn how to be a truck driver. A good mentor will make your career and a bad one will break it. You are not stuck with your mentor! If you don't get along or the mentor is bad (making obvious mistakes) then you need to contact your driver manager and get on with another mentor. Learn as much as possible with your mentor, this is the best chance to get "free" training. His job will be to make you the best driver he possibly can, your job will be to not disappoint. Once you're on your own with your own truck your first 6 months driving record will also be reflected on your mentors. If he wants to "cut corners" you need to remind him that you're learning from his example and it's how you will drive in the future. Get as much practice backing as you can, actually do the required pre-trip inspections and perform the minor driver maintenance as needed. Don't just talk about it, actually pull out the dipstick and look at the oil level, use the tire guage and mallet. Check the lights and learn how easy it is to replace a burned out light.

Once you're out on your own be ready to work and work hard. After all they're paying you to move the goods. The notion that you'll get drive all around the country and basically be on a long vacation and get paid for it is bunk. Military recruiters say the same thing, "Join and see the world". In reality you're on the job at work. You will get to see a lot of stuff but your primary responsibility is for the truck and the cargo you're hauling. SWIFT will keep you busy as long as you're willing to work and you'll be paid for your labor.

You'll get out only what you're willing to put into it. Communication is the key here, keep your driver manager up to date, get along with him or her and be nice to the customers. A good DM will make your life very pleasant. If you don't mesh with your DM then get another one. Every terminal has several Driver Managers to choose from. If you don't get along any of them then perhaps a look in the mirror is in order.

Swift is fine company to work for if you really want to work. If you're not really into working all that hard then Swift will allow for that too, your freight will suck, be infrequent and you wont make a whole lot of money. It's all up to you.
 
Welcome aboard. The team can always use another good member. Now for the reality check. Swift will train you to get a CDL, that's all they're required to do. Talk to your instructors and any drivers you can while at the school. Gather as much information as possible from experienced drivers.

After you graduate from the school and have a CDL in you wallet you will be assigned a mentor. This is the 6 week period in which you will learn how to be a truck driver. A good mentor will make your career and a bad one will break it. You are not stuck with your mentor! If you don't get along or the mentor is bad (making obvious mistakes) then you need to contact your driver manager and get on with another mentor. Learn as much as possible with your mentor, this is the best chance to get "free" training. His job will be to make you the best driver he possibly can, your job will be to not disappoint. Once you're on your own with your own truck your first 6 months driving record will also be reflected on your mentors. If he wants to "cut corners" you need to remind him that you're learning from his example and it's how you will drive in the future. Get as much practice backing as you can, actually do the required pre-trip inspections and perform the minor driver maintenance as needed. Don't just talk about it, actually pull out the dipstick and look at the oil level, use the tire guage and mallet. Check the lights and learn how easy it is to replace a burned out light.

Once you're out on your own be ready to work and work hard. After all they're paying you to move the goods. The notion that you'll get drive all around the country and basically be on a long vacation and get paid for it is bunk. Military recruiters say the same thing, "Join and see the world". In reality you're on the job at work. You will get to see a lot of stuff but your primary responsibility is for the truck and the cargo you're hauling. SWIFT will keep you busy as long as you're willing to work and you'll be paid for your labor.

You'll get out only what you're willing to put into it. Communication is the key here, keep your driver manager up to date, get along with him or her and be nice to the customers. A good DM will make your life very pleasant. If you don't mesh with your DM then get another one. Every terminal has several Driver Managers to choose from. If you don't get along any of them then perhaps a look in the mirror is in order.

Swift is fine company to work for if you really want to work. If you're not really into working all that hard then Swift will allow for that too, your freight will suck, be infrequent and you wont make a whole lot of money. It's all up to you.

who are you kidding? we suck. i know it you know it the public knows it. it is a place to learn, nothing more. there is no incentive to stay here beyong 3-4 years at the most. due to my past criminal record i will have to stay here at least 3 years if not the full 4, unless the economy turns around.
 
There's no reason to stay with Swift for more than a year if you have a good clean record, both personal and driving..and even 6 months would get you a job paying more than the kid at Burger King who took your order this morning. But to each his own, whatever ya'll do, good luck brothers and sisters.
 
There's no reason to stay with Swift for more than a year if you have a good clean record, both personal and driving..and even 6 months would get you a job paying more than the kid at Burger King who took your order this morning. But to each his own, whatever ya'll do, good luck brothers and sisters.

i left the scene of an acident when i lived in florida back in 2006. messed up thing is i left to call the cops (no one had cell service) even though i was back by the time the cops showwed up. i need the stable job history also since i have had 4 jobs since 2007 due to moving and layoffs. so i kinda shot my self in the foot but it will get better i hope.
 
Yeah, S*** happens. But, for the average guy with clean records, a year at Swift is more than enough to get in with a good company
 
If ur just starting out then thats the best way to go. There a good starting company make sure u trainer is training u right. Because if he or she doesnt it could mean ur job down the line from know. I wouldn't go with an owner ope trainer when i was there alot of them would take students just because they would get payed double miles, they wouldnt teach them a thing let them drive for hours and also do there log books for them. So just make sure ur being trained right and if not let ur fleet manager know whats going on. Good luck be safe and learn as much as u can.
 
There's no reason to stay with Swift for more than a year if you have a good clean record, both personal and driving..and even 6 months would get you a job paying more than the kid at Burger King who took your order this morning. But to each his own, whatever ya'll do, good luck brothers and sisters.

Pork chop that is very true about the making more at burger king, lol. when i say my first check with swift i thought to myself i could have stayed home and made this kinda money working at mc donalds. Then 7 months later I got another job with j b hunt, got in to an accident. then got a local job that i hated. Long story short which is 6 yrs later I'm leasing with ats.
 
My nephew said hes going to get training at Swift but they are going to require him to sign a 2 yeay contract to stay with them, and if he doesnt he has to pay them back in full for the training. Im guessing the traing is a few thousand dollars. Seems to me a bad decision because 2 years is a long time if things go bad. He is a grown man though so he has to decide. I personally would try to get a to get a state sholarship of some kind and go to a tech school for training and not owe a trucking company.
 
Welcome aboard. The team can always use another good member. Now for the reality check. Swift will train you to get a CDL, that's all they're required to do. Talk to your instructors and any drivers you can while at the school. Gather as much information as possible from experienced drivers.

After you graduate from the school and have a CDL in you wallet you will be assigned a mentor. This is the 6 week period in which you will learn how to be a truck driver. A good mentor will make your career and a bad one will break it. You are not stuck with your mentor! If you don't get along or the mentor is bad (making obvious mistakes) then you need to contact your driver manager and get on with another mentor. Learn as much as possible with your mentor, this is the best chance to get "free" training. His job will be to make you the best driver he possibly can, your job will be to not disappoint. Once you're on your own with your own truck your first 6 months driving record will also be reflected on your mentors. If he wants to "cut corners" you need to remind him that you're learning from his example and it's how you will drive in the future. Get as much practice backing as you can, actually do the required pre-trip inspections and perform the minor driver maintenance as needed. Don't just talk about it, actually pull out the dipstick and look at the oil level, use the tire guage and mallet. Check the lights and learn how easy it is to replace a burned out light.

Once you're out on your own be ready to work and work hard. After all they're paying you to move the goods. The notion that you'll get drive all around the country and basically be on a long vacation and get paid for it is bunk. Military recruiters say the same thing, "Join and see the world". In reality you're on the job at work. You will get to see a lot of stuff but your primary responsibility is for the truck and the cargo you're hauling. SWIFT will keep you busy as long as you're willing to work and you'll be paid for your labor.

You'll get out only what you're willing to put into it. Communication is the key here, keep your driver manager up to date, get along with him or her and be nice to the customers. A good DM will make your life very pleasant. If you don't mesh with your DM then get another one. Every terminal has several Driver Managers to choose from. If you don't get along any of them then perhaps a look in the mirror is in order.

Swift is fine company to work for if you really want to work. If you're not really into working all that hard then Swift will allow for that too, your freight will suck, be infrequent and you wont make a whole lot of money. It's all up to you.
You most certainly were never a driver with Swift. If you were you only drove for a few short weeks until you provided certain services to you're DM or term mgr who in turn provided you with the position of propaganda master. Just be honest and admit you are not a driver. Everyone here including you're life partner knows you are not a driver.
 
Been driving for Swift since 2007, wife has been driving since Apr of last year. We just made the last payment on our truck. It's all ours now, and we're no longer stuck with Swift. We may go UOA or with one of the "other guys". It's all a big game and we need to do a lot of research to avoid getting screwed or at least know in advance whether it's gonna be sandpaper or vasaline. The one thing now is that I just dont get home very much. Most drivers no longer have a DM, instead they have a pod of 4 to 6 DMs. I still have a dedicated DM who's been working his ass off to keep us loaded and running hard. I did mention that a good DM is worth his weight in gold? Swift has really cut back on the office staff, that's good and bad. Good thing is a lot of wedgeheads are gone, the bad thing is the remaining staff are streached so thin that it takes forever to get ahold of a live body when you call any of the terminals.

See you out there on the highways if you're still driving.
 
Congrats on the last payment, wish you nothing but the best in the future with whatever carrier you go with. I still do not understand why you would respond in past post's the way you did. If Swift is so great why are you now yahooing/whooping up the fact you can now go somewhere else in you're latest post? You're statement saying you are no longer STUCK with Swift??? This forum needs to stress the fact that Swift is nothing but a use you and abuse you carrier. They feed off newbie drivers at .25 to .34cpm. Schneider shut their schools down to better serve the experienced drivers employed with them during the unfortunate economic situation. I am not saying Schneider is leaps and bounds better than Swift, but at least they do not look at inexperienced drivers as the only way to make money. Swift is a company run by a scumbag which has done nothing but loose money in the past five years. His business motto has been to scrape the bottom of the barrell for drivers recently in hopes that these people are willing to spend 24/7 in a truck for $250 to $500 per week gross. Anyone thinking about this company needs to realize this. Working hard and willing to run hard mean nothing to this company. Every day is a battle for miles, They care nothing about the driver. They only want a trained monkey behind the wheel who will go when they say go (no matter how little the otr driver makes on the load), and sit when they say sit. Coming out making it look like Swift is a great company to work for as long as you want to run hard is a complete fabrication.There are tens of thousands of drivers both experienced as well as inexperienced who have found this out. Swift has destroyed the lives of thousands of drivers who entered the ranks with nothing but a good attitude and the willingness to work hard. Take a look at Swifts earning statements for the last 4 or 5 years and you will see they have done nothing but loose money, millions per year. Hence the reason for the scumbag having to take the company back public by selling stock again. When the average DM makes $38,000to$46,000 per year for a 40hr week with the occasional weekend duty, plus paid holidays, and a driver with his ducks in a row has to fight for $30 to $35k is crazy. Oh that's right I forgot, to make $35,000 or more with Swift as a driver you must lease/fleece or become a mentor, and even then it is extremely hard.
 
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"Swift has really cut back on the office staff, that's good and bad. Good thing is a lot of wedgeheads are gone, the bad thing is the remaining staff are streached so thin that it takes forever to get ahold of a live body when you call any of the terminals."
They haven't cut back in the claims section in Phoenix, I have it on good info they're running 2 shifts 5 1/2 days a week processing property damage claims....new drivers gottta love em'
 
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