Complaint Review: Swift Transportation

Swift took me in, trained me to get my CDL for $4,000. So far so good, right? Well when you go to trucking school you are put in a room with 3 other guys in literally section 8 housing. Suppose you are in the 50% that pass their permit test, don't use drugs and are in decent physical shape. You get there and start trucking and they will work you like a dog. I asked if I could take a day off "NO, get going. You don't need a day off, you need to get going". Literally what they said to me. I had been going for weeks straight.

They don't care about their drivers. If the place you are getting loaded at takes 4 hours, you aren't getting paid. The regulations are insane (although admittedly not Swifts fault). We had originally agreed that I would work for them for a year and I wouldn't have to pay back the loan. Well I got fired after 6 months for mostly reasons beyond my control:

A guy at a truck stop threatened me, I responded in a recpricating manner. He called the company and said I threatened him. Low and behold company took his side WITHOUT investigating.

A bar from a security shack came down on my truck while leaving a DC. The guy laughed and said it seems to happen every other week. Swift instantly said it was my fault even though my mentor and the employee had witnessed it as not being my fault.

When you go around turns too fast it sets off a sensor being a "critical event". This happened twice to me. Once I was trying to get to a truck stop before my mandatory day had to end, got stuck behind a slow moving semi. Another was a steep decline followed by a steep incline.

I was never in an accident. Never got a ticket. Worked my tail off nearly 6 months straight (didn't take more than 2 days off the entire time). Never late picking up or dropping off a load. Always turned in everything (all the dumb classes and paper work) on time. Dotted my i's and crossed my t's, FIRED.

You are a number for Swift. Simple as that. The "driver manager" should be renamed "number manager". Because that is what they do, crunch numbers. When they think you are a risk to their safety record, no matter if it makes sense or not, they will fire you. Now I have a collection agency calling and asking why I won't pay. Because THEY broke the contract, not I. I was willing and able to work for them and they fired me for erroneous reasons. And they wonder why they have so much trouble retaining drivers. 9 out of 10 driver turnover every year.

A few things to consider before entering trucking profession in general:

It's lonely as hell.

There are tons of regulations.

You will most likely become overweight from the sedentary lifestyle.