Complaint Review: Swift Transportation

On 12/23/2011 I started noticing a painful lump forming on my inner thigh. I was in Nebraska with a load going to Plainview, Texas due to be delivered on the 28th. By midnight of the 29th I picked up my next load heading to South Carolina that had a significant amount of time to deliver. After I picked up this load, I set my trailer down in Amarillo, Texas and headed to the emergency room to have the lump looked at. I was diagnosed with an abscess and it was immediately operated on.

The doctor drained the abscess, and then ordered me to get to home so that I may allow it to heal in a sterile and safe environment. He strongly urged this as I am a type II diabetic and the chances of reinfection were extremely high and there was a possibility that the reinfection could easily turn to gangrene. Upon returning to my trailer I informed customer service of my situation and they advised me to return the trailer to the shipper and pick up an empty. I informed them that I just had surgery and that I was in no shape to be doing a lot of physical labor.

The customer service agent told me the only way to get me an empty and to position myself for a load heading back to Phoenix was to do this. I want to note that this is indeed NOT the case. Usually if there is a relay, the driver coming in to relieve the load from another driver has an empty, however there was no way to argue this, the CSR agent had made the arrangements and I was to do as he requested. After dropping my looad off at the customer (shipper) and getting back to the local truckstop, I noticed a significant amount of blood coming from the wound, and the packing that was placed in the wound began to come back out.

That morning I contacted my driver manager in Edwardsville, KS and informed him of the situation. He said that he would inform the planners and see if they could not find me a load back home to Phoenix, as soon as possible. Nothing happened. Later that night I had to return back to the hospital to have the gauze that was packed into the empty abscess wound repacked, I also took that opportunity to ensure that the doctor gave me specific orders to return home to heal for my personal records in the event that Swift would need such documentation. I returned to the truckstop.
I want to skip over all the fine details at this point, mainly because there are a lot of them. What I want to address at this point are the major events that led to me finally returning home on 01/03/2012.

Essentially I did not get a load back home over the weekend. In fact, I received a dispatch for a local run which I challenged. I spoke with who I thought, or more poignantly was told was a weekend supervisor. After telling her that my wound from post surgery was a serious one, and that because, and as a direct result of having to do physical labor immediately after returning from surgery I lost all the packing in my wound and bled a significant amount, she informed me that I was not safe to drive (which I was hence my doctor sending me an order to return to Phoenix via truck and take time off work) and placed me on a safety hold.

Please note at this point that I did not have access to safe and clean showers (I had access to the truck stop showers at $10 a shower, but as many of you drivers who have had to use facilities over the road most of the showers are "clean enough" and not as clean as would be required for post operation or for our personal comfort at least) nor did I have access to toilets that were safe and clean. I was over 10 miles from the nearest hospital, and if in the event that the packing came out of my wound again (which in fact it did) I would have no way to get to the hospital short of a taxi, or ambulance. 

She simply stood behind the safety of the general public, and the equipment and denied taking me off of a safety hold. Afterwards, I called everyone in Phoenix I could. Crs's, driver managers, safety (which were not available), planners, everyone. At one point one of the CSR's in Phoenix did in fact call the safety director and inform him of my situation (please keep in mind he was off over the New Years Holiday so she had to call him at home) which he promptly denied me any ability to move my truck.

Not only was I stuck in Amarillo with no way home, I was stuck at a truck stop with questionable showers, filthy toilets, and no access to the hospital short of taking a taxi or ambulance. The reality of the situation was not that I could not get to the hospital if needed (mind you a 3rd visit), but I was rapidly running out of money (at $10 a shower 3 times a day as the after care directions were very explicit about keeping the wound as clean as possible). I simply could not afford all these expenses.

I, in the name of "safety" was abandoned by my company who has an extensive safety program to protect the drivers, the equipment, and the public in general. No one, not the CSR that placed me on safety hold, or any of the driver managers, or planners, or even the safety director out of Phoenix so much as tried to get me to safe and clean accommodations like a hotel while they were waiting on the safety department to reopen to reevaluate my "case" on 1/03/12. I sat in pain and with a potentially dangerous situation for several days before human resources contacted me on 01/02/2012 and sent me home on a load. 

I have been reading through a lot of the reports on this website. Personally I would say about 50% of what I have read is legitimate as I have had these same experiences, fighting to get home, fighting for loads when you are sitting and going broke with bills that are way over due, fighting for detention pay that you deserve but Swift refuses to pay, fighting for working equipment that always seems to be breaking down, fighting for your very paychecks that always seem to come up WAY shorter than what you calculated should be your pay, fighting payroll over advances that come up that seem to be way more than you ever took from the company, fighting with unprofessional driver managers, fighting with safety, fighting with customer service agents who always schedule loads that you cannot possibly deliver on time in a "safe and legal" manner.

In my experience with Swift, I spent almost as much time fighting with all these different aspects as I did actually driving the truck. What I want to get across to the reader here is this. Swift is not a good company to work for. Now with that being said there are those who do have many positive experiences with this company, but these people are so much the exception, that they are regarded by most other drivers as being "propaganda" set forth by the company. Personally, I believe that it is possible to have a good Swift experience, however what it requires to do so is what is unlikely, the perfect driver manager who is willing to fight for the driver so that the driver can do what he or she is supposed to do, operate that equipment in a safe and legal manner and keep his or her appointments. This is most certainly NOT the case for the most part.

Most drivers are usually fairly unhappy with their DM's and most are unhappy with the company and approach the company with distrust, apprehension, and with fear of retribution and harassment which mark my words is exactly the tactics this company employs to those who are deemed "troubled children" within the company, i.e. those who stand up for themselves and their rights as employees. So allow me to say this as to my experience. Swift Transportation's safety department, their job is to ensure the safety of the general public, and the companies equipment, but more importantly their job is to protect the driver. You have a safe driver, then you have safe equipment, you have a safe driver, the public at large has nothing to fear from the driver, or his or her equipment. However, Swift in my case did not seem to care too much about my safety, nor my health. In fact, they made that abundantly clear to me.