Complaint Review: Swift Transportation - Phoenix Arizona

....seek the truth. Google the name of the company and you can spend the next two years reading all the negative entries all over the web on Swift. It's very simple. When you read a couple of bad comments, those can be written off as sour grapes. When you read thousands and thousands of negative comments, especially when the charges are repetitive, it's a little harder to overlook them. In fact, I find it hard to understand why this company gets a phone call a day. The facts surrounding this company are very simple, and don't take my word on it. What I am about to relate can be verified on this very site and all over the web. 1.) Swift offers sub-standard jobs with sub-standard pay. There are simply far better companies to work for and better options for inexperienced drivers. 2.) Swift relies for the most part on inexperienced and ignorant people to fill the seats of their trucks. By ignorant, I refer to people who are unaware of the history and reputation of this company. Experienced drivers, as a general rule, avoid this company like the plague. They still manage to hook some every now and again. 3.) Swift abuses the inexperienced drivers they hire by constantly threatening them with their jobs when they resist pressure to violate rules and regulations that they are to follow under Federal mandates. 4.) People who get fed up when they have had a belly full of the abusive tactics used to prod them like cattle, who attempt to move on with their lives, are subjected to blackballing tactics to prevent such people from moving on with their lives. Swift violates Fair Credit Reporting statutes by reporting deliberately false information on ex-employees to USIS, and they use illegal practices to attempt to collect on those $4,000 tuition contracts shoved under the noses of people that they lure into their sticky spiderweb. 5.) Swift requires potential employees who attend their academies to PAY THEM a $150.00 NON-REFUNDABLE fee for simply trying to get hired by Swift. The average class starts out at 100 people. Look around at the 99 others. Chances are that 25 of them will be cut the first week, and they will be on their own to get back home. Of the 75 remaining, another 25 will be gone over the next two weeks. Of the 50 then left, another 25 will wash out before they are actually placed in a truck for training, after having passed the test for a CDL learner's permit. 12 will have quit by their 6th week. Of the 13 people left, 6 will quit within three months. That leaves 7 people. 4 will quit by their sixth month. By the time the one year anniversary rolls around, there may, and I do mean MAY be one person left from your class still working for the company. 1 person in 200 makes it beyond that one year mark. Swift experiences a very high turnover rate, and at times it has exceeded the 500% mark, despite the rhetoric spewed in SEC financial reports when they were a public company. They run six training academies. Those classes start WEEKLY at each academy on Monday. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, let's say that they only half fill the rooms with 50 people each Monday. Do the math. 50X6X52 = 15,600. That is just about 100% of their driver staff run through their academies each year. This does not include those who are experienced drivers and are run through their orientation classes. Their turnover rates are very likely still higher than 200%. But that is a very guarded company secret. Only those at the top know for sure just how bad it really is. Do some more math. The first thing they do is to shove that contract under your nose, locking you into a commitment to pay them $3,900 for training, whether you make the cut or not. They will hound you to your grave for that money, and ruin your credit for seven years even if they force you out on the street with no promise of a job or ANY training. And don't forget the $150.00 "sitting fee" that you must pay for the chance to be considered for the job. They collect it up front and they doggone sure keep it, no matter what. The tally? $2,340,000 minimum each year collected by everyone who is "invited" to attend classes. It's probably closer to $3.5 million. $60,840,000 in contracts each year for training...minimum. Estimates are much higher. They see very little of this money, but they sure get a nice tax deduction each year on the uncollected amounts that they do not rake in. After all, it's all on paper and signed for...right? If the IRS only knew. Who needs to care if they ever hire drivers? Who needs to worry about how drivers are treated? Let 'em quit. We'll find some more suckers to exploit. That's the Swift motto and modus operandi. Yes Siree...Swift's a GREAT place to get on board with. After all, how many thousands of people who were merely seeking a decent job have been run through those revolving doors since the early eighties? Too many for me to ever pick up the phone and call them...I assure you.

There are many faults with this company, like any other. Swift has a particularly bad reputation simply because they hire new drivers; these drivers (like all new drivers) can make mistakes. It's a fact... everyone makes mistakes. But, just as the saying goes "you can't judge a book by its cover". I've been employed by Swift as a driver for 2 years now, during which time I've driven well over 200k miles safely and accident free. Sure, just like anyone else I've made mistakes and learned from them. You need to keep in mind that there are at last count 16000+ drivers in this company with various experience levels and various attitudes towards their job and the company that employs them. I'm sure all of them (myself included) have had a reason to occasionaly gripe or complain about the company. No company's perfect. But getting back to my point just because you run into a couple of drivers who like to complain doesn't mean a company is bad. I noticed you never stated that you were at any time an employee of the company, which means all you know is what you've heard. To put it another way, DON'T TALK ABOUT SOMETHING YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT. This company invested a large amount of money in me at a time when I needed it, and trained me to become a good driver. They gave me my start in the industry, and I love my job and (usually) the company I work for. If you don't like what you've heard about Swift, do what most whiny drivers do and save it for the CB.