Complaint Review: Swift Transportation

The wife and I sold everything we owned to become "OTR Truck Drivers".Early in my career I had two minor "preventables", that I was honest and reported to Swift immediately. After that I was very carefull not to let anything happen because Swift policy is to discharge drivers after a third "preventable accident".

The first "preventable" happened in Helena, Mt. where I rubbed a crosswalk button and knocked it off the pole. Damage consisted of two broken mounting screws on the pole and a 10 inch rub mark on the trailer. I was new and green and scared that I had blocked traffic for three cycles of the light all ready before I decided to climb the curb.

The second "preventable" happened at a terminal in Wisconsin when a mechanic told me to back my trailer up to a garage bay door. It was -20 degrees outside and 7:00 a.m. the mechanic neither ground guided me or opened the door. I mis-judged the clearance and tapped the door. Damage consisted of small wrinkles in the cheap aluminum door skin and nothing to the trailer of course.

Three months later the wife came onboard as my "trainee" and everything was going just fine. I was approved as a "mentor" and had been a driver with Swift for six months. We were well on our way to becoming "owner op's" or at least that was the plan. We were hoping to build a small nest egg on wich to retire since we don't have any thing but "SSI" to look forward to.

One Friday night we were eastbound on I-40 leaving OKC when fate decided to shake it's middle finger at me. It was a dark night, with no moon, on black pavement, when I first saw the 55 gallon drum laying on it's side in my lane.It was a black drum and I didn't see it untill it came into my headlight pattern.

There was a mini-van passing me on my left, a semi that had been waiting to pass me (rather close) behind me and a guardrail at an overpass coming up on my right. I hit the drum at 65 mph on the left side of my truck. We were loaded with 40,000 lbs +.

It turns out the piece of bumper that broke off hit the mini-van breaking her plastic headlight out. The drum got under my frontend and sparks were flying like fireworks. When the drum got under the truck it broke transmission cooler lines on the bottom of the radiator discharging all anti-freez.

I immediately called 911 and reported it, as the mini-van was backing down the shoulder. The lady in the mini-van got out yelling and screaming that I broken her headlight and needed to pay for it. I tried to calm the lady down as we waited for police to arrive on scene.

I decided to go look for my piece of missing bumper since the lady wouldn't quit yelling. I got my flashlight and went to the median where I found a second drum crushed and lying near the westbound lanes. Meanwhile the wife was calling "Swift Claims Dept."

OKC's finest arrived shortly and told the lady that I was not responsible for her headlight, to call her insurance company and sent her on her way. No exchange of info took place. The cops made thier report stating that they have had problems recently with people throwing stuff off the overpass (no exit) and knew exactly where we were when he got the call to mm# 174.

The cops left, when the wife told me about the pick-up truck that took off on the gravel road near the freeway fence when the cops arrived. I was bored and still shaking when I climbed the hill went through the fence and found the stack of thirty drums with rings in the grass where two drums had been removed recently.

The cop was just up the freeway making a report on the car that had hit the other drum in the hammer lane. I told him I found where the drums came from and about the pick-up with two teens in it and he was not supprised.

I called "Swift Claims Dept." back and told them it was apparently an act of vandalism. The claims agent told me not to worry about it, that I did the right thing and that it was "Non-Preventable".

We were down for repairs in OKC for 5 days when we got our next load. We ran several loads the next two weeks before we went on PTO time in Colorado Springs, Co. It was the "Fourth of July" weekend. That's when fate decided to really get a piece of me.

On the 5th of July at 10:00 p.m. I got a call from Swift saying I had been involved in and accident with my trailer and that I needed to contact Colorado State Patrol.

Turns out the empty trailer I had parked legally on a street in an industrial area, two miles from the friends house we stay at when we come "Home",
had been hit by an "86 Buick" that was fishtailing around a corner when it went out of control and hit the trailer in the landing gear from the front. Totalling the Buick but only slightly bending a brace on the landing gear.

The next Monday morning I was fired for four (4) "Preventable Accidents".

I don't deny the first two "preventables" were my fault, however by definition of an "accident", per the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Regulations (FMCSR),
they were not "accidents" because there was no bodily injury, nor was any vehicle towed.

The third "preventable" was an "accident" by definition but I was not cited and the only ones that could have "prevented" it was God and the kids parents.

The fourth "preventable" was an "accident" by definition also, but I was not cited in this case either. The driver of the Buick was cited for wreckless operation of a motor vehicle. Clearly he was "at fault", and it was a good thing the tractor was not attched to the trailer or the damage would have been extensive.

What I would like to know is what gives Swift the right to call "minor incidents" "Preventable Accidents" and to classify drivers at fault when not cited by "Law Enforcement Officials"?

My career as a truck driver is over now. My wifes career as a truck driver never even got started good. Any chance of building a nest egg to retire on is gone now, especially since I can't even get a local job driving a "straight truck". Our lives are ruined because Swift doesn't have to follow the FMCSR as to reporting an "accident". Swift makes thier own rules and they get away with it because they have millions of dollars.

We need a class action law suit against all the big trucking outfits to make them pay for not only lives ruined but also to make them pay for a "Federal Mediator" for cases like this. Then this would not be the "norm" of operation and other trucking outfits would not be able to "Blackball" good drivers with clean MVR's (Which I have).

This problem in the system would not even be here if more than 8% of truck drivers would get out and vote. We, ooops, they have no voice because they don't vote. If every truck driver would get out and vote one year, the lobbyists would be falling all over themselves trying to find out what they want by the next election.

Due to the "Patriot Act" organizing a trucker strike would be considered an act of "Terrorism and the parties involved can be imprisioned. Besides who can afford to lose a job because they refuse to drive?

Signed:
Screwed, Blackballed, Tattooed

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

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