And The Hits Just Keep on Coming!

Thanks Again Swift, great thanksgiving planned. I took a vacation day to be with my husband. Family coming over Thursday for Thanksgiving. Husband was not feeling well last week. Had a Doctor appointment Friday.
He's been out on the road over 3 weeks now. Requested the time off 1 1/2 - 2 weeks ago.

Looks like he won't be home til Sunday or Monday. Just in time for me to go back to work, miss the Dr appointment, spending time of family. But I'm sure all you highly intelligent "Non Driver" employees who make the decisions and work so hard to keep those drivers happy, I'm sure you'll get to spend the holidays with your families, get some much needed rest because you had to stick it out on the road when you were sick.

I can't wait and look forward to the day when my husband gets to tell you where you can put this job (as soon as his tuition is paid back). Wishful thinking on my part, my husband has more class than that. So I will just find some comfort in the fact that you, as a company, will be loosing out. Because you will be loosing a hard working, honest, dependable driver who you and your management are clueless about. Management who only know him as a number and stats not his name or who he is. Pretty sad way to run a company and treat your employees. You know the employees that without them, there would be no Swift.
:thefinger:
 
Tell him park the truck in a secure and approved location, then fly home. Tell Swift he'll be back in the truck Monday.

It may not end well but he may have an opportunity to find a better company.
 
To be fair, you need to consider that your hubby is not the only driver requesting time off for Thanksgiving.... and many of the others have a whole bunch of seniority over him.

Now the trucking company and the customers are not going to shut down operations so all the drivers can "be home". Freight moves 24/7, 365 days of the year. That's the business we're in. Live with it or leave it.

I put up with too many years of "Joe wants to spend the holiday (or whatever reason) with his wife and kids. You don't have any so you'll have to take up his slack." God alone knows how many Christmas days I've spent alone in that truck because the loads deliver the day before or the day after Christmas. Sure I got paid a few dollars extra but it's still a lonely feeling that I count less.

So tell me NWT.... who do you pick to be denied time off to cover for your hubby? Who's less "important" than you?
 
To be fair, you need to consider that your hubby is not the only driver requesting time off for Thanksgiving.... and many of the others have a whole bunch of seniority over him.

Now the trucking company and the customers are not going to shut down operations so all the drivers can "be home". Freight moves 24/7, 365 days of the year. That's the business we're in. Live with it or leave it.

I put up with too many years of "Joe wants to spend the holiday (or whatever reason) with his wife and kids. You don't have any so you'll have to take up his slack." God alone knows how many Christmas days I've spent alone in that truck because the loads deliver the day before or the day after Christmas. Sure I got paid a few dollars extra but it's still a lonely feeling that I count less.

So tell me NWT.... who do you pick to be denied time off to cover for your hubby? Who's less "important" than you?

I guarantee you this Swifty is not!
 
I disagree @Southern Fried . And I have left more than one company because they had that mentality.

Somewhere in that vast system of freight is the load that brings the driver by the house. And there are plenty of drivers like you describe that do not care where they are on Thanksgiving to cover the rest.

My son was going to be left out. I told him the advice I gave, and I would rent him a car to be home. Miraculously know he is on a load getting him home. It is all in how bad a company wants to look for it.



It goes back to this fallacy called "home time request". I have never requested home time. I notified them when I would be home or they would be fired. I hired them not the other way around. Their job is to give me the tools and support I need to move their customers frieght. Not decide if I actually deserve to go home.
 
In 25+ years I've never worked a holiday unless I chose to.

Schanno was suppose to be one of the best back when I leased to them.
I had a couple of friends with decent history who couldn't get on there.
Probably the worst experience of my career.
They called me on Dec 22nd right after I got home needing a 'gotta go' load delivered to friggin NH from KC on Christmas Eve.
You know the drill...
our best customer, can't miss, pay you extra, DH you home...
blah blah blah...
[still need the that jerkoff smiley back]

Figured the best I could do running total outlaw and shooting my way out of every scale would be dragging ass home in the wee hours of Christmas morning...
then sleeping through it.
I told them I'd do a meet n turn half way with one of their East coast guys.
They said nobody would do it and I turned them down.

They called me again the next morning with another emergency.

That's when I quit.
 
Schanno,wow,blast from the past..

Back in the day,I used to run with one of their drivers to the far east every week.
Prob '81 or '82.
Her handle was 7 & 7 and she had a awesome chromed out White Road Commander 2.
 
Schanno,wow,blast from the past..

Back in the day,I used to run with one of their drivers to the far east every week.
Prob '81 or '82.
Her handle was 7 & 7 and she had a awesome chromed out White Road Commander 2.

Before my time.
They had some high steppers when I was there.
7&7 sounds familiar though.

The good old days (not)...
running 40 hours straight then camping out for 3 days waiting on the next load...
allegedly.

Did I ever tell you about the time I had to swap trailers with another driver after running straight through to the East coast because I was the only one who could get a load of cable to Florida in time to keep an AT&T facility from...
why are you laughing?
:confused-96:

Anyway, the plant manager came out to meet me personally...
wanted to know, "WTF YOU BEEN??!!"
:mad:

;)
 
In 25+ years I've never worked a holiday unless I chose to.

Schanno was suppose to be one of the best back when I leased to them.
I had a couple of friends with decent history who couldn't get on there.
Probably the worst experience of my career.
They called me on Dec 22nd right after I got home needing a 'gotta go' load delivered to friggin NH from KC on Christmas Eve.
You know the drill...
our best customer, can't miss, pay you extra, DH you home...
blah blah blah...
[still need the that jerkoff smiley back]

Figured the best I could do running total outlaw and shooting my way out of every scale would be dragging ass home in the wee hours of Christmas morning...
then sleeping through it.
I told them I'd do a meet n turn half way with one of their East coast guys.
They said nobody would do it and I turned them down.

They called me again the next morning with another emergency.

That's when I quit.
Sounds like Van Wyk before they went to elogs.
 
Barr-Nunn was famous for that crap when they were running all that DHL and Fed Ex freight. Closest I have ever come to a dispatcher telling me F the HOS you have to go get this load there.

Part of the reason so many of those end up in the ditch is stupid crap like that.
 
I know some guys who gets good loads fast (they usually don't idle much at any place) and get home all the time do things like butter up the DL or the planner. Call it a relationship management or whatever but they are good at it.

If your husband is anything like me, he probably won't want to suck up to them either.
 
There is a difference between sucking up and being proficient at your job. I know Swift has some sort of tier system where production gets you perks.
 
There is a difference between sucking up and being proficient at your job. I know Swift has some sort of tier system where production gets you perks.
They do both. The only tier system I'm aware of is the ranking where there is 3 metrics: on time delivery, utilization, CSR, or something like that. And it's also based on the miles you drove and length of service. Typically 90 days or more and 100K miles can put you in silver, gold, or platinum. For diamond you need a million or more miles. Wow!
 

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