Cristie
Cortez,#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, June 03, 2004
I'll agree with every person who's been bit hard by Swift transportation, Inc. that is, they do have a nasty habit of screwing over there drivers in more ways than one. My bad experience with Swift started back in February of 2003. I attended thier "truck driving school" USTDS which is located a few blocks from Swift's main head quarters on 75th Avenue. At the time, I was so excited and honored at the fact that Swift hired me. In fact, I made it a point to show them my appreciation by doing well in there truck driving school. I made good grades and even went the extra mile by helping other students out that seemed to be having a hard time learning the criteria, ect. During my first four weeks of training I busted my a*s off even when working situations were moreless... bull s**t! Yeah, my driver trainer was also a jack a*s just like some of you have had in the past, however, by the grace of God I found strength to bite my tongue most often... even at times when I really should of chewed his a*s out! After surviving those 34 horrible days on the road, my trainer gave me great reviews, I passed my road test along with every other test they usually give there student drivers. Now in the 3 day oriantation, a guy by the name of "Gunny" had told a few of us that no one waits longer than 15 days for a student driver on the second four weeks of trianing. Well, I found myself waiting for a student driver for a total of 31 days. During that waiting proccess, I made several phone calls to my driver manager making it very clear to him that I needed a driver A.S.A.P. due to the fact that my family member would be heading back to Colorado and I would be homeless, I also made it a point to remind him several times infact that with what little money I had made and saved while working for them, it would not be enough to spend on a hotel room waiting for Swift to find me a driver. Mr.Engstrem assured me that he was doing his best to find me a driver but I found it a bit odd that even after the 25th day of searching for one... he still proved to be unsuccessful. So, after waiting as long as I possibly could before becoming homeless, Mr. Engstrem called me to say, "I'm sorry, I have not found a driver for you yet. Can you wait a little longer?" I had no choice at this point, I had to quit Swift and head back to Colorado. I can tell you that after a lot of hard work and effort that I invested into Swift, I walked away feeling let down severely to the nineth degree. But the screwing me over doesn't stop here, oh no.... For one year I was out of a job, had no luck finding one in my area and was constantly hounded by Swift's student loan department demanding the entire lump sum of $3,576.53. I told them about my unfortunate financial situation and was only able to pay a small amount per month. Obviousely this was not a good enough answer to them and they made it a point to turn this case over to the collection agency. Even though I have enough integrity to pay what I can on my debt, the thought of them sicking a colection agency on me which charges 24 percent clearly shows just how unreasonable and unprofessional Swift can be. If I seriously wanted to get jerked around and screwed over, I would of pored every last dime I had into Enron... at least I would of had the luxury of knowing that the CEO would be smimming in hot water for doing shady deals.