Complaint Review: Swift Transportation

Hi!
The wife and I sold everything we owned to become OTR drivers. Kind of a last ditch effort to put away some money for our retirement.

Early in my career I had a couple of minor "preventables". I rubbed a crosswalk button in Helena, Mt. Backed into a garage door at a terminal in Wisconsin. Minor damage on both occasions. I was honest though and reported both.

Everything was going fine, wife completed training, we were being extra carefull because I didn't want to be terminated for a third "preventable".
We wanted to become "owner ops" eventually.

Then fate shook it's middle finger at me.

One night eastbound out of OKC on I-40, Somebody decided it would be funny to set two 55 gallon drums, one in each lane, and watch the fireworks.
Black drums on black pavement with no moon. I hit one and a car hit another.

After calling 911, Swift Claims Dept. and roadside assistance, Talking with OKC's finest, I climbed the fence and found where the drums had come from.
I called the cops back and told them there was a stack of thirty drums with rings in the grass where two had been removed a short time before.

I called Swift Claims Dept. back and told them. They told me not to worry about it, since there was a car on my left passing me, a semi on my tail, a guardrail coming up on the right that I did the right thing and it was a "Non-Preventable Accident".

We were layed over in OKC for a week while they put a new bumper and radiator on my truck. We drove for two more weeks, several more loads, when fate decided to really get a piece of me.

Fourth of July weekend we were on PTO time at a friends house (we have no home really) in Colorado Springs, Co. I had parked my trailer in an industrial area legally on a street where lots of other trucks park including other Swift trucks and dropped trailers. I got a call that night that my trailer had been involved in an accident and I needed to go see the State Patrol.

It turns out that a car had been seen fishtailing around the corner, lost control and hit the front of the landing legs on the trailer. It barely bent a brace on the landing gear but totaled the car. (86 Buick).

Now what bothers me most is that I was fired the next Monday for four "Preventable Accidents".

I guess Swift Transportation doesn't have anybody smart enough to read the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Regulations (FMCSR) which states that an accident is defined as having bodily injury or a vehicle needs to be towed.

My first two "preventables", which I don't deny were my fault, had neither bodily injury or anything needing towed.

The third "Preventable", which changed classification in mid stream, I was not cited for and proved it was an act of vandalism. Though it was an "accident" the only way i could have prevented it would have been to beat those kids bloody and lock them in thier rooms. At 65 mph, that's kinda hard to do.

The fourth "Preventable Accident" the driver of the car was cited for reckless operation of a motor vehicle. I was not cited again. Had my tractor been attached to the trailer the damage to Swift property would have been extensive.

This whole thing really isn't about accidents, it's about a company driver bob-tailing anywhere and using Swift equipment for personal reasons. The house I drove to is less than two miles away, But Swift can't tell people not to bob-tail anywhere, everyone would quit. The trailer would have been safer in a truck stop? Give me a break. More damage happens to trucks and trailers there than anywhere else.(with drivers asleep in them). We lived on the truck for three to four weeks at a time. We had to Bob-tail to get supplies in some citiesand clean the truck when home.

We need a class action lawsuit because the big trucking outfits need to abide by federal law as the drivers do. I have a clean MVR, no accidents, where does Swift get off thinking they can just lie about my driving record and ruin our lives and not be accountable for it?

Swift is the "Exon Valdez" of the trucking industry. Thier millions of dollars means they can do whatever they want to do because they can just pay thier way through anything that happens.

Part of the problem though is that less than 8% of truck drivers vote. If two years running every driver would vote they could name thier demands, because the lobbyists would be falling all over themselves trying to find out what we, oops, they want.

My career and my wifes career is ruined as truck drivers, I can't even get a local job driving straight truck. She has less that two years experience. We have no place to live and financially I'm Mt St. Helens. (just waiting for it all to erupt)

The big trucking outfits need to pay for a "federal mediator" to handle these cases and this would cease to be the "norm".

thnx...
Screwed, Blackballed, Tattooed


P.S.
Anybody need a 50 year old pair of husband and wife team truck drivers?

Scott & Evette
Colorado Springs, Colorado
U.S.A.

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