Part2: BigCatTrucker Talks About Swift Transportation

This show is when BigCat was in Dallas, TX for a truck show and had a great opportunity to talk with two experience drivers by the name of Dan Leach and Michael Wallace who also drive for Swift Transportation. This is a two part video and a must see for all new drivers coming into the trucking industry.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Swift
• Transportation
• BigCatTrucker
• trucking
• Dallas
• Texas
• truck
• show
• dSb
• productions
• SwiftDrivers

[shaithis80]

@SomeRandomFeller you are not alone. I lasted over two years and walked when they started missing major expenses on every other trip. I got that money back but this issue went back about 3 mos. Save your receipts and monitor your expenses and if Swift is still missing your expenses, then they are not worth doing business with.

[SomeRandomFeller]

if you like to work for free and be shorted on your miles, then trucking is for you. If you are the kind of guy that takes a bite and smiles when they hand you a shit sandwich, trucking is for you. the best advice I can give for new drivers is JUST DON'T DO IT! these guys are getting hooked up for selling a bad company and bringing in all the suckers who think they will make good money trucking. I worked for swift for 6 months, never had a late load, never turned down a load made 9k not worth it

[shaithis80]

@IRON2HIDE one thing to point out is that state DMV's should allow drivers to maintain a PO Box only as they are travelling in a job where the pay is not that good. The downside of that is not having an apt/home to return to and living in that truck can where you down. This gets back to a general pay issue and is Swift paying enough to start or is it more of a con game. Train cheap newbies and f' over the experienced drivers. Oh well I'm just rambling on now. Have a great week.

[shaithis80]

@IRON2HIDE for the time I was with Swift starting out, I was grossing in the low $20,000 range gross per year so for the time put in, it was not worth it. Also beware of general frieght companies that say make up to $52,0000/yr. That ad was placed in the paper once by Swift and the ad was very misleading. For working a 60-70 hr work week the pay with Swift and possibly other general freight companies just sucks. You are just a number and they could care less about a driver's finances.

[shaithis80]

@IRON2HIDE trucking with Swift was a job I felt I was never fully compensated for doing the work performed and you'd feel the incentive would be to pay drivers wells however the lack of pay when starting out can really affect someone psychologically and that is not right. Any company that governs their trucks needs to be shut down because that hurts driver pay when you can't max out your miles and the trucking insurance industry needs to be cracked down on as it is part of the problem

[shaithis80]

@IRON2HIDE yeah companies are just not held accountable however eventually the corrupted general freight companies out there are due their day in court and someone will document whats going on and get it together and file a class action as the case with Swift. I understood the Swift system all to well an dictated at one point in time a direction I wanted to run because I refused to run I-80 in the winter time in WY and wanted a load going south out of the cold temps so I've be gutsy before.

[shaithis80]

@IRON2HIDE if my information is correct there was a lawsuit that was just certified regarding shortages of driver miles and a practice Swift engaged in by using a such a mileage pay system which only paid zip code to zip code shorting drivers a percentage of miles on trips. Should be interesting to see what comes of that because a lot of drivers that worked from 1998 on are owed back pay. Swift needs to get audited big time.

[IRON2HIDE]

@Shaithis80, but I'll let him know all you've have told me, good looking out, all these companies are a trip nowadays, even the one I work for now, just got a 500K job for 7 days to clean 24 floors Air Ducts vents and they are budgeting our hourly rate of $15 an hr, cheating us out our start time pay and arrived @ job pay, its a trip, take the punches and roll with them, but thanks again, to all out there, I FEEL YOUR PAIN, we going to be AWE-IGHT though, hang in there drivers, later.

[IRON2HIDE]

@Shaithis80, WOW bro, thanks for the info, I hear you on alot of things your talking about, especially know, my brothers days with Swift have been getting tougher, as far as his truck repairs as well as the loads he's been gettin, they been tryin to send him places empty but not pay him empty mile pay and the places that they send him to are far away, he's been turning a lot of loads down because of this, he startin to learn slowly but surely, its a tough ouffit, he's hangin in there, he's young

[shaithis80]

@IRON2HIDE I'll probably return to the industry as a second career and maintain my CDL until then. I might be able to apply my CDL towards a DOT/road work roll and they won't be as judgmental as a general freight carrier. Going forward I'd expect a lot of changes to the industry due to future economic factors and a decade or two from now it could get a whole lot worse. Main objective: Take your CDL and go where the money is and don't contribute or be party to a training mill like Swift.