Swift Transportation ripoff Decatur, Georgia Arizona
During my trucking school I was pre-hired by Swift. I was excited since I had waited for quite a number of years to persue a trucking career. After graduation I set up date for my orientation, gave them all the pre-hire information and told them that I had already been assigned a trainer. During orientation things were going fine, drug testing and physical went well. Had a small amount of blood in my urine so they sent me from Georgia to Alabama so my physician counld check me out and send a report back. Okay this all done, I am now scheduled for the next orientation class.
In the meantime my trainer is waiting for me to be assigned to the truck, he has not had a student for over 2 weeks, which cuts into his pay. Finally on the truck, doing great, good compliments from the terminal and the driver manager and the trainer. Had a incident at a truck stop and spoke with the DM about courses with help on backing. His response was I'll see what I can do. Four weeks later in training still had not heard anything. Had another incident, reported it as this is company policy.
Went to safety class and was told these incidents were minor and nothing to worry about. Eight weeks later I"m out on my own and dent a trailer door, made the report, was exorniated by the Company that I made the delivery to. Next came a message across the Qualcomm to report to my home terminal in Decatur, GA and speak with the terminal manager. So being the dedicated driver that I am I went, only to be held up for 3 hours before speaking with the person that terminated me due to company policy.
All this happened the day before my birthday. I should also mention that I am a female professional truck driver. After the shock of what they had done I was told to empty the truck of all my belongings and turn the keys into service, they would get me on a bus back to Birmingham. Most truckers know that when you drive a condo you accumulate quite a bit of stuff, so there was no way I could go home on a bus, I had to call my 22 year old son to come and get me.
When I finally got home, the next day I starting calling the terminal and got no response from them so I called the main office in Phoenix and that's when I was informed that course had been scheduled for me after the first incident however they were not on the terminals schedule due to the fact that there was not enough time. Not only do I feel that I got screwed but quite a few drivers that talked to me agreed.
Swift doesn't care about anything unless it's going in their pockets. I have been denied employment because of what they did. Even my trainer who has been with them for almost 2 years said take um to court, they don't like having good drivers. It's like a revolving door at Swift.
STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. They don't care about their drivers or the equipment they give their drivers. There is much more I could say but what good would it do I'm not going to get my job back and after all the bull I wouldn't if they came knocking on my front door and begged on bended knee.Ha!Ha! Like that would ever happen. Guess this sounds more like a gripe than a Rip Off, but they ripped me off of the career that I waited a long time for. One day they will pay for how they run their business.
Ann
Warrior, Alabama
3 Updates & Rebuttals
David
Bullhead City,Arizona,
U.S.A.
3 Strikes and your OUT!!!
#4UPDATE Employee
Sat, February 08, 2003
I have seen a lot of good drivers go down the road with Swifts accident policy. You are allowed 3 accidents per 365 day period. They can be any kind of accident from a minute scratch to a fatality. If you have 4 in a years time your gone. Being and honest employee is not going to help you. If you have a little fender bender and no one saw you do it well....... best to keep your mouth shut about it especially if you already got 2 accidents and a lot of time left before the 1st accident rolls off your record.
For exampe you can have an incident on Jan 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and on jan 4th of the following year your back at zero. Using the above example if you had an incident on the above dates and got into another one on Jan 2nd of the next year you would still be safe as the Jan ist incident rolled off your count.
You got screwed because you and your trainer reported to many incidents. Swifts saftey department is a real booger on this policy and not even a terminal manager can save your from this. I have no doubt your a good driver. Just learn to keep your mouth shut. Most of your trucking companys have the same poliy.
Bill
Norfolk,Virginia,
U.S.A.
Try to see the other side
#4Consumer Comment
Thu, January 09, 2003
I am applying for a position with Swift and wish to comment. I, too, had 3 similar accidents within 4 months of starting my driving career due to poor initial training. I wasn't fired, however I was called in to the terminal for remedial training. Ann, dont give up! It takes a while to learn to drive (and especially "back that beast").It wasn't the company's fault that you were either improperly trained or failed to "prevent" those accidents. Ask yourself "What could I have done to avoid the problems?"
Bill
edward
Clarkson,Nebraska,
U.S.A.
Wait just a minute...
#4Consumer Comment
Wed, December 11, 2002
I do feel that perhaps you were put out on the truck a bit unexperienced and probably released on your own too soon. But, three incidents in a short period of time were enough for your safety director to determine that perhaps there was a problem. I have worked for Crete, FCC and Jim Palmer and i feel that if I were a trainee and had your same 3 incident situation, I would be fired and I am a man. Good luck and don't give up trying to get a driving job...on the DAC reports...all is healed by time. Ed Macdonald