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The "I Hate Swift" thread

Injun

Rabid Squaw
Premium
Let's face it. Few companies cause such a visceral reaction for many people as Swift does. I'm not going to defend every small thing Swift or its representatives do. That's not my station in life. Besides, it would take up far too much of my time. So here we go, some of the most common complaints:

Swift lowers freight rates for everybody.

Swift puts people behind the wheel of a truck who shouldn't be allowed to drive a nail.

Rookies train rookies. It's a recipe for disaster.

Swift took my hood off. I got it fixed and lost my new hood to another Swift.

Swift does not know drivers by name. You're only a number.

Swift fired me for no reason. I took out a trailer door, dragged a boulder out of a truck stop parking lot, ran my mirror into the mechanism in the Memphis truck wash, was late on four JIT loads I said I could do and they let me stay on. Last week, I got into an argument with some old fart who turned out to be Jerry Moyes and they fired me. It wasn't fair.

Sure Wish I'd Finished Training
Swing Wide, It's a Flippin Trailer
Sir, What'd I Foul up Today?
(..backwards)
Two F**s In a White Semi

Okay, these are some of the most common old standbys. We've heard these. I love originality and wouldn't mind getting a giggle or two out of something new.

Anyway, this is an awesome place to put your complaints about Swift. They may not be addressed individually, but you will feel a lot better when you get it off your chest.

Cheers!
 
I don't hate Swift but I did see two parked side by each. It got me wondering if it was going to be a race out the gate in the morning to see who would take off who's hood first.
it's funny how some drivers either park in the front or the back of the truck stops so they won't get there hoods taken off:D
 
I am a newer swift driver who has been driving for about 4 months solo now and I have to say I have had no problems with this company as of yet....I've seen others screwed by swift but one of you said it's really a case by case thing with the driver and company

I had an easy time getting into thru and out of training and into my mentors truck all of the staff was very helpful answering questions and assisting me with whatever I needed until I got to my mentor

Btw swift has reduced the requirement of being a mentor from 9 months to 6 months which even I think is crazy. The largely unfortunate result was my mentor....A man only doing it for the money. He abandoned me in a parking lot on and off for 2 weeks so he could go home swift "requires" him to pay for a hotel room but it's not a very forced rule

After I left my mentor I was given my own truck and set out on my own. I found I learned much more on my own than I ever did with my mentor the feel I got was that a mentor only familiarized me with my new life and I was to figure the technicals out on my own or thru dispatch

Lucky dispatch has been glad to help in that respect and all in all my experience with swift has been great. A great starter company at least and if they keep doing me right I have no immediate plans to leave them. Hope it's okay I weigh in like this as long as it's less than 80,000 words gross right? Lol

Which reminds me what this post is for....Some old lady in limon Co nailed me in front of many truckers on this one....she said "oh swift? I hear they stopped printing anything on the right side of your trailer"
"What do you mean" I asked
She replied "well your trucks never pass anyone anyway so I heard swift stopped printing anything on that side" of course the many truckers around me had a good laugh.....who am I kidding so did I lmao
 
*trainer.

;)

Swift is the only company that calls trainers a mentor.

@Injun defends their use of the term, but it reminds me of the time I got kicked out of a Walmart in Indiana for repeatedly telling one of their "associates" that he was an employee. :rolleyes:

You'd have thought I'd walked into a Coca-Cola warehouse drinking a Pepsi. :eek:

In Wal-Mart's defense, I was also drunk. :D
 
You'd have thought I'd walked into a Coca-Cola warehouse drinking a Pepsi. :eek:

I took a load of Monster Energy to Coke in Mobile. After an hour of waiting for them to start I donned my Jeff Gordon #24 Pepsi Racing jacket and set off through the warehouse looking for a toilet. By the time I walked back to the truck I was unloaded. Guy said some bigwig saw me and told them to either give me a different coat or get me the hell out of there. He said I was just wearing it to aggrivate them. Well it was about 95 deg F. ;)
 
I took a load of Monster Energy to Coke in Mobile. After an hour of waiting for them to start I donned my Jeff Gordon #24 Pepsi Racing jacket and set off through the warehouse looking for a toilet. By the time I walked back to the truck I was unloaded. Guy said some bigwig saw me and told them to either give me a different coat or get me the hell out of there. He said I was just wearing it to aggrivate them. Well it was about 95 deg F. ;)
I hauled a load of Coca-Cola to Moorhead last winter. I was standing in there by the dock & I saw a sign saying no Pepsi products are allowed in there. I asked the forklift guy if that's for real or a joke & he said it's for real, and explained that they'll fire an employee over it, and even ban truck drivers from the property if they walk in with a Pepsi.

I think it's stupid.

You don't see FedEx and UPS drivers getting in fist fights. I've even seen FedEx drivers delivering packages to UPS.

I have seen Fords in the employee parking lot at the Lordstown, OH GM plant.

Now that I think of it, I have had two uncles who worked at the GM (Saturn) plant in Spring Hill, TN. One had a Ranger & the other has a Windstar.

So why the big fuss over Pepsi products or advertising graphics at a Coca-Cola warehouse? :coocoo:

Too bad the nature of the products would forbid "innocently" walking around a Miller plant carrying a Budweiser product or I'd try it.
 
I know Dollar General had a big fuss over parking their trailer at a Walmart ;)
Well that's a big obvious public thing.

I was in the boss's office one day & one of the dispatchers came in & asked something about some driver's next load & he pulled up his Qualcomm on his computer. This was before e-logs, so he just looked at how long it had been stationary to determine if he was likely to be awake so they could call him. He recognized the name of the town so he said "watch this" & copied & pasted his geo coordinates into Google Maps, then went to "street view" and it showed the adult "book" store.

He said "I know where they're all at & I know which drivers like to hang out at them. It's really none of my business but it kinda pisses me off because of our name on the truck."
 
You sign an acknowledgement form when you start here prohibiting having the truck or uniform in any place of ill repute. It is a termination offense for a Walmart driver to park in one of those places. Or to wear the uniform into a strip bar, casino, massage parlor.......

However OC's just get a phone call asking them not to. Part of the reason corporate wants to take over. Washington Court House has Punkin drivers parking our trailers at the one in Jeffersonville all the time. Part of the reason the reefers had the logos stripped off was crap like that
 
I hauled a load of Coca-Cola to Moorhead last winter. I was standing in there by the dock & I saw a sign saying no Pepsi products are allowed in there. I asked the forklift guy if that's for real or a joke & he said it's for real, and explained that they'll fire an employee over it, and even ban truck drivers from the property if they walk in with a Pepsi.

I think it's stupid.

You don't see FedEx and UPS drivers getting in fist fights. I've even seen FedEx drivers delivering packages to UPS.

I have seen Fords in the employee parking lot at the Lordstown, OH GM plant.

Now that I think of it, I have had two uncles who worked at the GM (Saturn) plant in Spring Hill, TN. One had a Ranger & the other has a Windstar.

So why the big fuss over Pepsi products or advertising graphics at a Coca-Cola warehouse? :coocoo:

Too bad the nature of the products would forbid "innocently" walking around a Miller plant carrying a Budweiser product or I'd try it.
I agree it's stupid but that's how all soda businesses are.Same with driving for them,you better drink their products or risk getting fired.Don't let them see tbier competitors product in their truck.
 
I hauled a load of Coca-Cola to Moorhead last winter. I was standing in there by the dock & I saw a sign saying no Pepsi products are allowed in there. I asked the forklift guy if that's for real or a joke & he said it's for real, and explained that they'll fire an employee over it, and even ban truck drivers from the property if they walk in with a Pepsi.

I think it's stupid.

You don't see FedEx and UPS drivers getting in fist fights. I've even seen FedEx drivers delivering packages to UPS.

I have seen Fords in the employee parking lot at the Lordstown, OH GM plant.

Now that I think of it, I have had two uncles who worked at the GM (Saturn) plant in Spring Hill, TN. One had a Ranger & the other has a Windstar.

So why the big fuss over Pepsi products or advertising graphics at a Coca-Cola warehouse? :coocoo:

Too bad the nature of the products would forbid "innocently" walking around a Miller plant carrying a Budweiser product or I'd try it.
when i had my gas station, we had one soda machine.

coke, and pepsi were in it as well as royal crown cola.

the pepsi guy made a delivery, it was a hot muggy summer day. i offered him a soda, free of charge, but it was NOT his brand. he said if he drank anything but his brand while working, he'd be written up, then fired.

i thought that was lunacy.

so i offered him a cold water bottle instead.
 
when i had my gas station, we had one soda machine.

coke, and pepsi were in it as well as royal crown cola.

the pepsi guy made a delivery, it was a hot muggy summer day. i offered him a soda, free of charge, but it was NOT his brand. he said if he drank anything but his brand while working, he'd be written up, then fired.

i thought that was lunacy.

so i offered him a cold water bottle instead.
I applied at Dr pepper for a driving job I got their before they opened,this guy that unlocked the door gave me a look when he seen me taking a drink of diet coke while in my car.needless to say the interview was less then satisfactory.
 
Well, if only Swift went by some kind of algorithm to keep things at grasp in stead of letting things get out of hand. It might seemed far fetched or might even be persay grasping at straws but, at least their would be some kind of order in how we get a loads.
 

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