Complaint Review: Swift Transportation - Phoenix Arizona

You  forgot about the writeoffs there fella. I always did have refund available, I did not always take the refund. No probs with the IRS ever.

I agree with almost everything you wrote Richard. There is one thing however, that I find disturbing. You stated that you averaged between $1200 and $1500 a week pre tax income. Let's take $1200 as our figure for the sake of argument...

@ $1200/wk your annual gross was $62,400. And let's say you sent Uncle Sam $1500 per quarter.

You stated that you had "no bills". So I gather you claimed no mortgage interest. No dependents... So if you took standard deduction approx $4000 lets say. Your taxable income would have been right around $58k... And you paid $6000 in self employment and federal income taxes... AND... Received refunds... Incredible. Literally.

I hope, for your sake, that the IRS doesn't monitor this forum.

What I can say about Swift's lease purchase is that it's expensive, to say the least. You have to run your butt off to make good money. Swift profits hugely from it. But they are breaking no laws in doing so, and everything is spelled out in the contract. It is NOT for the casual driver however. You'd better not be a timid soul. You have to be willing to stand toe to toe with your DM and terminal manager and fight for yourself, or it can get pretty unbearable.

Th problem was spelled out in a previous post... The transportation industry doesn't fall under the same laws as "everyone else". Trucking companies have gotten away with this crap for nearly a hundred years and have been challenged numerous times in court. Politicians hesitate to change anything because they're afraid they'll be blamed for the price increase on an ear of corn at Piggly Wiggly. Now with the Mexican truckers coming across the border, running for peanuts, there's no relief in sight. Soon, we'll all be looking for employment elsewhere.

I was a lease operator for Swift, I knew the program and understood it before signing on. I had no major problems, but then again I am a truck driver and not some wanna be that doesn't understand the trucking industry. There are fixed and variable costs, and they are presented upfront. You have to be a grownup out here or stay at home. My miles were always good, but then again I never turned down a load and had a great working relationship with my DM. You can't take 7 or 8 days off and not expect there to be financial repurcussions. I usually ran 6 to 8 wks at a time and took just 3 days off at home. But, then again I am a single man with no bills. I believe in cash and carry outside my business with Swift. I usually brought home between $1200/1500 a week. and sent $1400 every quarter to the IRS for taxes. That along with write offs from expenses I never owed any taxes and always got a refund. After my lease was up, Swift allowed me to purchase the truck through duductions from my settlements just like on the regular lease but was much less. Again driving a truck or buying a truck thru this program takes dedication to yourself and the company. You cannot just do this and get the big head and say " Oh i'm an owner operator and I can do what I want its my truck". Well no you can't and it;s not your truck till your name if on the dotted line. So man up drive your rig, don't turn down loads and keep your hometime to a minimum.  One more thing Quityerbichen or go flip burgers. I had no problem with Swift, but then again I am a man.

Check it out.

There is absolutely no program within the confines of America, where it is advantageous to any driver to lease or purchase a truck through a motor carrier. To do so through Swift Transportation Co. is pure madness. I did a thorough analysis of Swift's Leasing program about a year and a half ago, and a quick check of their site tells me that nothing has changed. Although a year has passed since I did this, the figures will not be totally accurate and somewhat outdated, but they will be close enough to illustrate the fact that when you get down to the bottom line, Swift makes out like a bandit and profits exponentially off the backs of drivers, and leaves them far less to live on. The following figures were representative of actual revenue and costs that the focus driver incurred while in Swift's leasing program. This man was a very hard worker, he was divorced with two children to support, essentially homeless, so home time was not at the top of his list of priorities. He took virtually no time off during his time in the lease/purchase program. He also completed the lease portion of the contracted term (3 years & 11 months), but did not exercise the purchase option at the end of the lease, the reason that he did not purchase the truck will be quite evident by the time you finish reading the report. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Used Truck Lease Program Lease Price: $104,750.00 Lease Term: 199 weeks Lease Payments @ $525.00 per week Residual: $38,350.00 Down Payment: $5,000.00 Mileage Charge: Loaded, empty and unauthorized deadhead miles in excess of 11,000 a month will be calculated @ $0.09 cpm, and assessed to the owner operator's settlement monthly. Pay per mile: $0.92 per loaded mile $0.81 per empty mile Mileage pay was based on Rand McNally's MileMaker program set to calculate the shortest route between dispatched points. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Now before we go on, take notice of a couple of things. The mileage charges of 9 cents-per-mile for all miles over 11,000 per month noted above, was calculated by the mileage accrued via odometer readings. The mileage calculations for compensation purposes were computer generated and Swift is surprisingly up-front about this. The average mileage difference utilizing the Rand McNally MileMaker program is around 10%-11% in the company's favor, for paid mileage versus actual driven mileage. This is my own personal and time-tested percentage figure. I've checked it many times. The excess mileage charge for accruing more than 11,000 ACTUAL miles per month is highly unusual and it is totally ridiculous. To avoid this charge, a driver would be limited to averaging 2,538 driven miles per week, or more to the point, limiting themselves to only 2,259 paid miles per week. The focus driver exceeded the mileage limits each month, and wisely figured that it would be stupid to limit his revenue making capabilities to avoid giving up 9 cents a mile. That doesn't mean however that it isn't a rip-off, because that's exactly what it it is. There is no justification for collecting such a charge. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Other calculations of note condensed in this report: A.) Empty miles for this particular contractor averaged 10% of the paid mile figures. B.) Accessorial pay (detention, unloading, stop pay, etc.) averaged about $68.00 a month. C.) Average monthly miles for this driver was 11,916 miles per month. D.) Fuel Surcharges paid to this driver averaged 16 cents per mile. At one point over a three week period, the rate paid was HALF the published rate that should be paid to him. He averaged being paid only two thirds of the published fuel surcharge rates. E.) The truck he leased averaged 5.8 mpg. So let's calculate the average monthly GROSS revenue: $9,866.08 (loaded paid miles) + $965.52 (empty paid miles) + $1,906.56 (average fuel surcharge payments) + $68.00 (accessorial pay) = $12,806.16 (monthly gross revenue) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ That's some real cash, isn't it? This represents a six figure income, and the often quoted figures like the above when used in advertisements make it sound like a driver can make fantastic money by becoming an independent contractor. The above is representative of nothing other than what the truck generates before operating expenses are deducted, and the driver's portion thereof. Let's calculate the monthly expenses. There are two categories when it comes to expenses. You will have fixed expenses, and variable expenses. Fixed expenses consist of the lease payments, insurance, equipment rental charges, etc.. Variable expenses consist of fuel, maintenance and repairs, fuel taxes, income taxes, supplies, etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monthly Fixed Expenses: $2,162.33 (weekly lease payments spread out over 52 weeks, then divided by 12) + $258.92 (Monthly comprehensive insurance premium averaged) + $41.81 (Monthly non-trucking liability insurance premium averaged) + $228.71 (Monthly occupational/accident insurance premium averaged) + $20.80 (Single State Registration averaged) + $124.97 (bond averaged) + $83.41 (Qual-com rental averaged) + $82.44 (Excess mileage charges averaged) + $64.78 (Pre-Pass and other misc. fees averaged) = $3,068.17 (Total monthly fixed expenses) Monthly Variable Expenses: $5,954.54 (Monthly fuel cost) + $115.87 (incidental maintenance items averaged) + $42.78 (Money transfer fees and/or fuel card use charges averaged) + $56.41 (Fuel Taxes Averaged) = $6,169.60 (total average variable expenses) Okay...recap time: $12,806.16 (gross revenue) - $3,068.17 (fixed expenses per week) - $6,169.60 (variable expenses per week) = $3,568.39 (Pre-tax and pre-personal expense net income) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Still think that's great? We're not done yet. The driver averaged spending $150.00 a week for meals and personal incidental expenses, and took cash advances to pay for these costs. Now we're down to $2,918.39 a month. He paid an average of $653.67, for income and self-employment taxes. Now we're down to $2,264.72 a month. So what does this translate into, in terms of what he had in actual spending income? $522.63 a week. Some may look at that figure and think to themselves...."Okay...it's not great, but I can live with that", because I will eventually own the truck and I will then make some serious money...right? Unless that truck is your only residence, and you have no other bills to pay, and your intention IS to purchase it at the end of the lease, how in the world are you going to have anything near the $42,000+ (taxes and fees are added to the residual amount to be paid) in order to exercise the option to purchase the truck? You're going to need to stuff back no less than $210.00 a week EVERY WEEK from day one in order to be able to begin to pay the residual amount to complete the purchase of the truck. This driver didn't have it to spare because he had child support payments that had to be made, so his dream of owning the truck vanished with each week he wasn't able to put anything into savings. Keep something else in mind. That net figure depends on you working each and every week. Take more than a day off a week, and that $522.63 weekly average is not going to be sustained. Take a vacation and you just cut your next settlement to zero, and the one after that by two thirds. Heaven forbid you get sick and lose a few days a couple or three times per year. Are you beginning to see just how fragile things are? If that's not enough to convince you that this is a bad deal, look back up to where all of this began and do a little math to see who's making out like a bandit in this thing. The $104,750 "purchase price" equal to the truck that was leased to him, was for a truck that had more than 212,000 on the odometer on signature day. The total lease payments he made to Swift came to $98,303. He put an additional 540,000 miles on the truck during his lease term. On the day his lease was up, the truck had a little over 752,000 miles on it. In order for him to BUY that truck, they wanted him to write them a check for more than $42,000 which included sales taxes and other fees. So for him to have taken title on that day, he would have paid them $140,306.00 for a four year old truck that had three quarters of a million miles on it by the time he has the title in hand. Oops...let's not forget that he paid $5,000 down on the truck when he signed papers. He would have spent, out of his portion of all revenue generated by the truck, more than $145,000 for that truck. Instead, he gave back to the company and walked away from it. At fleet purchase prices, the actual residual value of that truck was closer to $30,000. The trade-in value on that truck was less than what they want him to pay to take actual ownership of it. They lose nothing at all....nothing, if they actually find someone to complete the purchase. They have actually made taken in the value and half the price of another truck during the time the driver is in it, that is if they keep someone in the truck for the entire time it is in Swift's possession. In addition to that, for every mile he was paid at less than a buck a mile, Swift pocketed no less than 40 cents per mile as well in load pay revenue, all adjusted and averaged. Add it all up. Swift profited at least $30,000 on the truck. They made no less than $194,400 over the nearly four years in load revenue taken off the top. Remember that pesky 9 cent per mile charge for exceeding 11,000 miles per month? He averaged 175 miles per week over the limit. Deducted from his settlements were $3,134.25 for excess mileage charges over the life of the contract. Swift's Net Profit: $194,400 (estimated load pay revenue) + $30,000 (estimated trade value of the truck) + $3,134.25 (excess mileage charges extorted from the driver) + $5,000.00 (down payment collected at lease inception) + $760.00 (participation fees collected from driver) = $233,294.25 (gross, pre-tax profit) Driver's Net Spendable Income for the 199 week period: $104,003.37 If that does not disturb you, consider the fact that during the time that a driver is in that truck, he is taking all the risks in terms of whether or not he profits any given week. The driver pays all the upkeep costs of operating that truck. Swift consistently made more than double what he did, and for what? Oh yeah...they furnished the means in which to be able to lease the truck, and they found the driver his loads. Under traditional leasing of trucks to companies, the split would be closer to 80%/20% in the DRIVER'S favor. That dream of "owning a truck" and "being your own boss" and "independent" is great, but a company driving position will result in a boost to your spendable income of at the very least, a third MORE than you will EVER see entering into Swift's leasing program. It will likely be twice the amount, if you make a much wiser choice and work for a decent trucking company that is not in the business of exploiting people for profit. This isn't even the worst lease program out there, but it's definitely still a bottom of the barrel way to drive a truck for a living. This man stuck it out and finished the lease. He walked away from the truck, found a good company job, and hasn't looked back once. He did more than I would have done, given the fact that he practically had to live in the truck and work for most of nearly four years with so little time off, because he KNEW that to take any more time off would mean slipping into negative figures, and going a week or two with nothing coming in. He knew that one lost week would result in it taking a month to recover. Your exchange of working for a company doesn't have to include doubling their profit margins. I fully support and endorse capitalism. I've been in business myself, and I've enjoyed both the joys and pitfalls of owning a business. I can hold my head up high and offer condemnations of this crap, because I know full and well that I have never made a dime by exploiting people to do it. My hope and prayer is that if you have decided to read this post up to this paragraph, that perhaps have at least a little understanding of the fact that leasing a truck through Swift, or any other motor carrier for that matter, is a very, very bad idea. Swift Transportation Co. is a spider web. Don't become a fly that lands on that web and is used to feed it's greed.

My husband is currently an owner/operator who is leasing his truck with Swift. He had the same pay issues your husband is having, he started driving teams with someone he met in the driving school in San Antonio TX. and as you know the pay per mile is divided between the 2 drivers and of course we saw many small deposits if any at all. My husband was blessed and got on a dedicated account with an awesome DM. He gets a lot of miles and a New( no previous driver) Truck which he is now purchasing. We had to purchase the truck and he had to leave his team mate and become a mentor just to bring in decent money. You can receive a lot of miles due to the fact Swift is using the driver that is leasing the truck to pay their note, but if you have a good truck( if the truck sucks don't take possession of it no matter what they say) a decent DM ( if not stay on them or get another one) and watch your settlement on the owner operator web-site (they like to pull accounting tricks to tie up your money) and you could possibly get payroll deposits up to $2000.00 a week. All the money you need to maintain your truck will be taken out o you settlement but if you a serious about owing your own truck without a credit check and with a down payment of $500 to $1000 this program will work for you. Once his truck is paid for he will have the freedom to leave when he gets ready, we only want the truck. (anybody have any horror stories about Swift not releasing title to trucks please respond) Good Luck you can make money it just takes strategy.

I think this disrespect and disregard of American workers and treating them like interchangeable,, disposable garbage has become a way of doing business... In fact, when people speak up against it, these companies just close down operations here and outsource American jobs overseas where they can get the CHEAP SLAVE LABOR WORKFORCES THAT THEY CAN'T GET HERE --YET! THEY LIKE IGNORANT,DOCILE WORKFORCES WHERE WORKERS HAVE NO RIGHTS AND ARE OPPRESSED AND KEPT DOWN BY n**i-LIKE TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENTS! That is a Yuppie's IDEAL WORKER -- A SLAVE LABORER IN A PRISON CAMP WORKING 14-18 hours a day for a bowl of rice and water and when one dies, another takes their place. The conditions at SWIFT as described here also are the same in the private Security industry where private security guard contracting companies take advantage of the cop wannabes, rogue cops who can't get a job, misfits who would pay to wear a uniform and carry a pistol. They are FAMOUS for pulling the same kind of "schtuff" that Anthony describes: "Unauthorized payroll deductions for items that are extraordinary and unjustified;" DONE TO ME REPEATEDLY BY AMD SECURITY, ALLIED SECURITY ( NOW ALLIED/BARTON), BURNS, WELLS FARGO and STATEWIDE SECURITY! The bigger international security companies appear to be the worst but the cheap-a*s mom and pops will screw you over too. They take out for NEW uniforms but you are issued threadbare rags that barely hold together while the manager pockets the difference... "Coercion by supervisors to violate rules and regulations that drivers must follow;" I can't begin to name the times I have been asked to lie on a report to cover the incompetency of supervisors and the security officers who are their "friends" but always refused or wrote the report so it would kick back on the people who were actually responsible and these fools who were the 'supervisors' were so functionally illiterate, they had no idea what I was doing... "Sub-standard compensation and/or intentional acts of depressing the workload of a driver, thus preventing him or her from make a decent living;" WHEN THE SECURITY COMPANY WANTS TO GET RID OF YOU OR HARRASS YOU, THEY WILL CUT YOUR HOURS. HOURLY WAGES ARE SO LOW, THEY ONLY WAY YOU CAN GET BY IS ON A HELLISH AMOUNT OF OVERTIME. IS IT SAFE FOR SOMEONE WHO IS CARRYING A LOADED FIREARM TO BE SO TIRED THAT THEY ARE HALLUCINATING? DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS. I WORKED SO MANY HOURS, I FELL AN CRACKED MY KNEE BUT WAS BACK AT WORK THE NEXT DAY IN A CAST... NO BENEFITS AND NO SICK TIME! "Sub-standard working conditions and/or disregarding the health and well being of employees by intentionally placing them into unsafe situations;" THIS IS SO COMMON WITH SECURITY OFFICERS THAT YOU JUST TAKE IT FOR GRANTED THAT YOU WILL BE DISRESPECTED. PEOPLE WHO HATE COPS BUT KNOW THAT COPS ARE PROTECTED BY LAW TAKE OUT ALL THEIR HOSTILITY AND AGGRESSION ON PRIVATE SECURITY OFFICERS AND EVEN SOME ROGUE COPS --ESPECIALLY THE COPS IN AUSTIN,TEXAS, TAKE OUT THEIR HOSTILITY ON SECURITY OFFICERS TOO AND NOTHING WILL BE DONE. IF YOU REPORT THEM TO INTERNAL AFFAIRS.THEY WILL PUT YOUR NAME AND ALL SORTS OF LIES ABOUT YOU IN THEIR CAR TO CAR COMPUTERIZED DATABASE SO YOUR CIVIL RIGHTS ARE VIOLATED AND ANY CALLS FOR BACKUP ASSISTANCE YOU MAKE WILL BE IGNORED AND YOU WILL BE UNLAWFULLY HARRASSED. "Holding employees monetarily responsible for circumstances where the company is required to have insurance in effect to address such circumstances;" MY COUSIN WAS INJURED WHILE WORKING AT STATEWIDE PATROL AND AT ALLIANCE SECURITY FORCE AND THEY DID NOT PAY ANY OF HER MEDICAL BILLS! THESE WERE LEGITIMATE ON THE JOB INJURIES. A SUPERVISOR ON DUTY AT STATEWIDE WAS CALLED AND SAW FOR HIMSELF THE INJURY TO HER EYE AND HE TRANSPORTED HER TO THE ER BUT STATEWIDE DID NOT PAY EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE OBLIGATED TO DO SO SINCE SHE WAS ON-DUTY AT THE TIME OF THE INJURY WHICH WAS CAUSED BY A WASP FLYING INTO HER EYE AND STINGING HER NOT BY ANY NEGLIGENCE ON HER OWN PART. THE SECOND INJURY SHE SUSTAINED WAS WHEN SHE WAS DEFENDING A PREGNANT WOMAN WITH TWO TODDLERS AGAINST A GUY ON DOPE WITH A MACHETE. SHE WAS MAKING SURE THE MAN HAD LEFT THE PROPERTY WHEN SHE SLIPPED AND FELL ON A QUART BEER BOTTLE LEFT UNDER SOME NEWSPAPERS AND SHE FELL TWO FEET STRAIGHT DOWN ONTO THE PARKING LOT TARMAC AND DAMAGED BOTH KNEES AND HER LOWER BACK TO THE EXTENT THAT SHE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO WORK PRIVATE SECURITY OR POLICE WORK AGAIN! IN THIS CASE, THERE WAS NO SUPERVISOR TO CALL IN VIOLATION OF OSHA RULES AND REGULATIONS -- JUST A CHEAP ANSWERING MACHINE WHICH,OF COURSE, WAS ERASED --AND THERE WAS NO SUPERVISOR THERE TO ANSWER IT ANYWAY. SHE WAS TOO AFRAID TO GO TO THE ER, WAS UNABLE TO DRIVE AND BARELY CRAWLED TO HER CAR TO COME TO OUR HOUSE. WE DID NOT TAKE HER BECAUSE SHE DID NOT WANT TO GO. SHE STILL TRIED TO WORK. ALLIANCE SECURITY FORCE REWARDED HER "LOYALTY" BY GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SO SHE WAS UNABLE TO SUE. THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO LIABILITY INSURANCE ON THE PATROL VEHICLES AT EXECUTIVE SECURITY IN 1992! IF I HAD BEEN STOPPED, I WOULD HAVE BEEN CITED FOR DRIVING WITHOUT LIABILITY INSURANCE EVEN THOUGH IT WAS NOT MY TRUCK! I ALSO WAS CITED FOR A BURNED OUT HEADLIGHT EVEN THOUGH IT WAS NOT MY JOB TO REPLACE THE HEADLIGHTS OR KEEP THE VEHICLES INSPECTED! AMERICAN COMPANIES REALLY TAKE CARE OF THEIR WORKERS! "Acts of retribution, including falsification of a former employee's permanent work record, performed to prevent that person from seeking gainful employment elsewhere." IT IS UNDERSTOOD WHEN THE NIGGAHS LEAVE MASTER'S COTTON FIELDS --AND THAT IS HOW PRIVATE SECURITY EMPLOYEES IN TEXAS ARE TREATED --LIKE SUBHUMANS THAT THEIR PREVIOUS EMPLOYERS WILL LIE ABOUT THEM AND DAY ANYTHING ABOUT THEM SO THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET ANY KIND OF JOB OR APARTMENT OR ANYTHING! THEY WANT YOU ENTIRELY DESTROYED! AND THEY WILL DO ANYTHING THEY CAN SHORT OF SENDING A HITMAN BY THEIR HOUSE, AND THE OWNER OF THE NOW DEFUNCT PRO-BOD SECURITY COMPANY IN AUSTIN,TEXAS ACTUALLY DID SHOOT HIS FORMER OPERATIONS MANAGER! THE WORSE OF THESE COMPANIES WHO LIE ARE: ALLIED BARTON STATEWIDE PATROL ( THEY HAVE OFFICES IN VARIOUS TEXAS CITIES) SECURITAS INITIAL SECURITY ( Which may be bought by Securitas) THE WACKENHUT CORPORATION EXECUTIVE SECURITY SYSTEMS in AUSTIN,TEXAS! The woman who is the present patrol services manager is the SAME who was a co-owner of ALLIANCE SECURITY FORCES! She is from Mississippi which is no great state advocate of rights for employees and their employer-employee policy is like it was in slavery days for the most part. AND NOW WE ARE HAVING FINANCIAL PROBLEMS WITH THE ECONOMY BECAUSE OF ALL OF THIS EMPLOYEE MISTREATMENT. As Malcolm X said once: " THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST!"

I think this disrespect and disregard of American workers and treating them like interchangeable,, disposable garbage has become a way of doing business... In fact, when people speak up against it, these companies just close down operations here and outsource American jobs overseas where they can get the CHEAP SLAVE LABOR WORKFORCES THAT THEY CAN'T GET HERE --YET! THEY LIKE IGNORANT,DOCILE WORKFORCES WHERE WORKERS HAVE NO RIGHTS AND ARE OPPRESSED AND KEPT DOWN BY n**i-LIKE TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENTS! That is a Yuppie's IDEAL WORKER -- A SLAVE LABORER IN A PRISON CAMP WORKING 14-18 hours a day for a bowl of rice and water and when one dies, another takes their place. The conditions at SWIFT as described here also are the same in the private Security industry where private security guard contracting companies take advantage of the cop wannabes, rogue cops who can't get a job, misfits who would pay to wear a uniform and carry a pistol. They are FAMOUS for pulling the same kind of "schtuff" that Anthony describes: "Unauthorized payroll deductions for items that are extraordinary and unjustified;" DONE TO ME REPEATEDLY BY AMD SECURITY, ALLIED SECURITY ( NOW ALLIED/BARTON), BURNS, WELLS FARGO and STATEWIDE SECURITY! The bigger international security companies appear to be the worst but the cheap-a*s mom and pops will screw you over too. They take out for NEW uniforms but you are issued threadbare rags that barely hold together while the manager pockets the difference... "Coercion by supervisors to violate rules and regulations that drivers must follow;" I can't begin to name the times I have been asked to lie on a report to cover the incompetency of supervisors and the security officers who are their "friends" but always refused or wrote the report so it would kick back on the people who were actually responsible and these fools who were the 'supervisors' were so functionally illiterate, they had no idea what I was doing... "Sub-standard compensation and/or intentional acts of depressing the workload of a driver, thus preventing him or her from make a decent living;" WHEN THE SECURITY COMPANY WANTS TO GET RID OF YOU OR HARRASS YOU, THEY WILL CUT YOUR HOURS. HOURLY WAGES ARE SO LOW, THEY ONLY WAY YOU CAN GET BY IS ON A HELLISH AMOUNT OF OVERTIME. IS IT SAFE FOR SOMEONE WHO IS CARRYING A LOADED FIREARM TO BE SO TIRED THAT THEY ARE HALLUCINATING? DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS. I WORKED SO MANY HOURS, I FELL AN CRACKED MY KNEE BUT WAS BACK AT WORK THE NEXT DAY IN A CAST... NO BENEFITS AND NO SICK TIME! "Sub-standard working conditions and/or disregarding the health and well being of employees by intentionally placing them into unsafe situations;" THIS IS SO COMMON WITH SECURITY OFFICERS THAT YOU JUST TAKE IT FOR GRANTED THAT YOU WILL BE DISRESPECTED. PEOPLE WHO HATE COPS BUT KNOW THAT COPS ARE PROTECTED BY LAW TAKE OUT ALL THEIR HOSTILITY AND AGGRESSION ON PRIVATE SECURITY OFFICERS AND EVEN SOME ROGUE COPS --ESPECIALLY THE COPS IN AUSTIN,TEXAS, TAKE OUT THEIR HOSTILITY ON SECURITY OFFICERS TOO AND NOTHING WILL BE DONE. IF YOU REPORT THEM TO INTERNAL AFFAIRS.THEY WILL PUT YOUR NAME AND ALL SORTS OF LIES ABOUT YOU IN THEIR CAR TO CAR COMPUTERIZED DATABASE SO YOUR CIVIL RIGHTS ARE VIOLATED AND ANY CALLS FOR BACKUP ASSISTANCE YOU MAKE WILL BE IGNORED AND YOU WILL BE UNLAWFULLY HARRASSED. "Holding employees monetarily responsible for circumstances where the company is required to have insurance in effect to address such circumstances;" MY COUSIN WAS INJURED WHILE WORKING AT STATEWIDE PATROL AND AT ALLIANCE SECURITY FORCE AND THEY DID NOT PAY ANY OF HER MEDICAL BILLS! THESE WERE LEGITIMATE ON THE JOB INJURIES. A SUPERVISOR ON DUTY AT STATEWIDE WAS CALLED AND SAW FOR HIMSELF THE INJURY TO HER EYE AND HE TRANSPORTED HER TO THE ER BUT STATEWIDE DID NOT PAY EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE OBLIGATED TO DO SO SINCE SHE WAS ON-DUTY AT THE TIME OF THE INJURY WHICH WAS CAUSED BY A WASP FLYING INTO HER EYE AND STINGING HER NOT BY ANY NEGLIGENCE ON HER OWN PART. THE SECOND INJURY SHE SUSTAINED WAS WHEN SHE WAS DEFENDING A PREGNANT WOMAN WITH TWO TODDLERS AGAINST A GUY ON DOPE WITH A MACHETE. SHE WAS MAKING SURE THE MAN HAD LEFT THE PROPERTY WHEN SHE SLIPPED AND FELL ON A QUART BEER BOTTLE LEFT UNDER SOME NEWSPAPERS AND SHE FELL TWO FEET STRAIGHT DOWN ONTO THE PARKING LOT TARMAC AND DAMAGED BOTH KNEES AND HER LOWER BACK TO THE EXTENT THAT SHE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO WORK PRIVATE SECURITY OR POLICE WORK AGAIN! IN THIS CASE, THERE WAS NO SUPERVISOR TO CALL IN VIOLATION OF OSHA RULES AND REGULATIONS -- JUST A CHEAP ANSWERING MACHINE WHICH,OF COURSE, WAS ERASED --AND THERE WAS NO SUPERVISOR THERE TO ANSWER IT ANYWAY. SHE WAS TOO AFRAID TO GO TO THE ER, WAS UNABLE TO DRIVE AND BARELY CRAWLED TO HER CAR TO COME TO OUR HOUSE. WE DID NOT TAKE HER BECAUSE SHE DID NOT WANT TO GO. SHE STILL TRIED TO WORK. ALLIANCE SECURITY FORCE REWARDED HER "LOYALTY" BY GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SO SHE WAS UNABLE TO SUE. THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO LIABILITY INSURANCE ON THE PATROL VEHICLES AT EXECUTIVE SECURITY IN 1992! IF I HAD BEEN STOPPED, I WOULD HAVE BEEN CITED FOR DRIVING WITHOUT LIABILITY INSURANCE EVEN THOUGH IT WAS NOT MY TRUCK! I ALSO WAS CITED FOR A BURNED OUT HEADLIGHT EVEN THOUGH IT WAS NOT MY JOB TO REPLACE THE HEADLIGHTS OR KEEP THE VEHICLES INSPECTED! AMERICAN COMPANIES REALLY TAKE CARE OF THEIR WORKERS! "Acts of retribution, including falsification of a former employee's permanent work record, performed to prevent that person from seeking gainful employment elsewhere." IT IS UNDERSTOOD WHEN THE NIGGAHS LEAVE MASTER'S COTTON FIELDS --AND THAT IS HOW PRIVATE SECURITY EMPLOYEES IN TEXAS ARE TREATED --LIKE SUBHUMANS THAT THEIR PREVIOUS EMPLOYERS WILL LIE ABOUT THEM AND DAY ANYTHING ABOUT THEM SO THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET ANY KIND OF JOB OR APARTMENT OR ANYTHING! THEY WANT YOU ENTIRELY DESTROYED! AND THEY WILL DO ANYTHING THEY CAN SHORT OF SENDING A HITMAN BY THEIR HOUSE, AND THE OWNER OF THE NOW DEFUNCT PRO-BOD SECURITY COMPANY IN AUSTIN,TEXAS ACTUALLY DID SHOOT HIS FORMER OPERATIONS MANAGER! THE WORSE OF THESE COMPANIES WHO LIE ARE: ALLIED BARTON STATEWIDE PATROL ( THEY HAVE OFFICES IN VARIOUS TEXAS CITIES) SECURITAS INITIAL SECURITY ( Which may be bought by Securitas) THE WACKENHUT CORPORATION EXECUTIVE SECURITY SYSTEMS in AUSTIN,TEXAS! The woman who is the present patrol services manager is the SAME who was a co-owner of ALLIANCE SECURITY FORCES! She is from Mississippi which is no great state advocate of rights for employees and their employer-employee policy is like it was in slavery days for the most part. AND NOW WE ARE HAVING FINANCIAL PROBLEMS WITH THE ECONOMY BECAUSE OF ALL OF THIS EMPLOYEE MISTREATMENT. As Malcolm X said once: " THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST!"

...and that reason is that employees of companies engaged in interstate commerce are not afforded protections under standards that most all other industries must abide. Throughout our nation, most employees are protected by the standards set forth in the Federal Labor Standard Act (FLSA), enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor. Workers who are employed by trucking companies, that in the course of doing business cross state lines, are exempted from those standards with one exception. Employees must only be paid minimum wage for every hour they work, however there is no provision in that exemption for overtime pay. What this translates into, is an environment where trucking companies are allowed to dictate all the terms and conditions under which an employee must work, and there is no recourse in most cases if an employee finds them objectionable after the fact. A company must only by law, operate within the guidelines of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). And the problem there is that the FMCSA sets forth no guidelines or standards for how drivers are to be compensated for their work. The bottom line is that anyone who agrees to go to work for a trucking company is doing so at all times at their own risk, and all terms and conditions are essentially equivalent to that of entering into an implied contractual agreement, if no written contract is signed, or an actual contractual agreement, if there is a written contract signed to cover the compensation, terms, and conditions of employment. This also means that if one does find at some later point and time that things are not as they were supposed to have been, that it then becomes a civil matter that would have to be addressed in court-of-law or through arbitration, if one wanted to seek justice. Unfortunately for most of the people employed within this industry, and this point is not lost on practically every trucking company out there, the chances of a former employee actually having the means to front the cost in which to seek justice in court over compensation or other issues, is very remote, so there are companies that play the odds and get away with doing just about whatever they feel like. Now, the only protection we have as employees, is to take the care necessary to avoid those companies that abuse employees on the job, or after they leave. And by "abuse", I am referring to issues like; Unauthorized payroll deductions for items that are extraordinary and unjustified; Coercion by supervisors to violate rules and regulations that drivers must follow; Sub-standard compensation and/or intentional acts of depressing the workload of a driver, thus preventing him or her from make a decent living; Sub-standard working conditions and/or disregarding the health and well being of employees by intentionally placing them into unsafe situations; Holding employees monetarily responsible for circumstances where the company is required to have insurance in effect to address such circumstances; Acts of retribution, including falsification of a former employee's permanent work record, performed to prevent that person from seeking gainful employment elsewhere. There is more that could be added to the above list, but suffice it to say that the above are the more egregious acts that Swift Transportation receives in the form of complaints that can be read out there. There are a couple of companies that I consider to be worse that Swift, but make no mistake, Swift is a bottom-of-the-barrel company, in terms of reputation. Here's a motto I live by: You can ignore a few complaints. It's hard to ignore hundreds or thousands of them. There are many good and decent companies out there, and they are a bit harder to find. Why is it that they are hard to find? Because you won't be referred to on sites like this, and you won't see them advertise in every publication that serves the trucking industry on a consistent basis. They are operating their companies under the radar, keeping a consistent, well paid, and happy workforce, and guarding their reputation by treating people the way they should be treated on the job.

I definitely feel for Newhereaz, and her husband. And I completely understand what she is trying to relate. However, I think Anthony makes some valid points. I have been researching Swift for sometime now, and they definitely get more than their share of bad press from disgruntled former employees. I realize that there are two sides to every story, and many of these former drivers may have been at fault for their bad experiences at Swift, however you can't say all of them are to blame. I have read more negative comments about Swift than any other company out there. There's a reason why they make it so easy to drive for them. As Anthony related, they like to keep a surplus of drivers so that when they need a warm body they have plenty of them around to fill their needs. Unfortunately for the drivers, this means they sit around a lot and don't always get the miles they need to make even a passable living. As for team drivers, it sounds like they have it even worse in some instances, having to wait awhile before they can make enough to support their families. I don't want to say Swift is evil. I'm sure some people are happy with their experience at Swift. However, the vast majority seem to struggle. I agree with Anthony that there are just so many better choices out there. Why take such a huge risk? From everything I've read about Swift, the bottom line is all they are concerned about is their bottom line. That's not to say there aren't some great people working for them. I'm sure there are some excellent driver managers and trainers, but there are also some real jerks. And they work for a company that just doesn't care about the driver, the very backbone of their operation. My feeling is that the largest transportation company in the world got there by being ruthless in the way they treat their drivers. It's all about greed. We've seen what's been happening on Wall Street lately to financial institutions and investment companies that got too greedy. Many of them are going bankrupt. I think this kind of greediness catches up with a company eventually. Which brings me to my next point. If Swift is really ripping-off it's drivers then why hasn't the law caught up with them yet? Well, we are now seeing the beginnings of perhaps some degree of retaliation by drivers who got ripped off by Swift. There is a class-action suit being filed against them recently for short-changing drivers on their miles. All drivers working for Swift after 1998 are eligible to sign up.

First of all, I don't want this to sound as if I am criticizing you personally for your not wanting to "bad mouth" Swift. Everyone has differing levels of what they consider to be either good or bad. However, let's face the reality of the situation, and at least define the terms under which you and your husband have been subjected to, in order to find a job within the trucking industry. Your husband may not have worked six months to date for Swift, but your adventure began back in April of this year, did it not? He waited to get into a class for training. He waited for a trainer. He waited for a truck once he was trained. You presented that during this ordeal, you have been existing for many months without a decent paycheck. And my point is simple. Why would you find this on any level, expected, normal, or even fair? In an industry where drivers are in high demand, where companies are literally screaming for drivers to hit the road NOW, who would allow themselves to be used like this, being placed on standby for the better part of several months with little or no compensation? There are and were better alternatives. The simple fact is that Swift is well known for overbooking training classes for one simple reason. They want people to be ready to slip into one of their trucks the minute someone else gets fed up with them and quits. And excuse me, but their attitude is simple, in that they could care less about the lives and situations of those they use in this manner, by keeping them hanging on endlessly to staff those empty trucks. Don't you see what they are doing? They KNOW that people are likely in dire straits when they hook them, and in fact seek just those kind of people to hire, and they also know that these same people have limited options open to them once they are on the hook, and their hope is that they will hang in there, just as you have done, BECAUSE they have so few options open to them. What you also are not understanding is that this company, so well known on the streets by those of us who have been in this industry for so long, will not go near them for this very reason. They exploit practically every driver they have, in one way or another, and that is the only thing keeping them in business. Swift does nothing at all to retain a driving staff. They are disposable items. In due time, you will bad mouth them, and readily. I wonder if when that time comes, and it likely will come within six months, will you find this thread and acknowledge the fact that I was correct, and confirm that the company is not worth the time and trouble that you have invested in it. I'm a trucker. I like what I do. I am also an advocate in attempting to steer people along a better path to places of employment within this industry. I have a brother who owns a growing business within the computer industry. His company maintains the computers for several large companies here in the southeast. He has hired roughly 20 people a year for the past five, as his business continues to grow. When he hires someone with minimal qualifications, he sends them to a school for further training out in Arizona, so that every micro-chip in a computer is known to those he has on staff. He pays for their transportation, their food, their shelter while out there, and he pays them a decent salary while in training. He invests roughly six months in each of these people before they begin generating a dime for him. Now compare that to what you have been through, and consider that much of the time your husband was out there on the road, and being paid virtually nothing, he was actually generating a very decent profit for Swift during that time. Swift is nothing but a company that has profited immensely off the backs of those who are seeking nothing more than a fair and decent paycheck in order to house and feed their families. They rope you into a lucrative tuition contract. They receive assistance for hiring displaced workers from the Government, and in fact are known to scrounge up warm bodies through state employment agencies - people who are truly desperate for a job. They charge non-refundable fees up-front before you sit down in a chair on their property. And you have subsisted for several months without a paycheck that could ever be considered, "decent" under any definition. Multiply this by the literal thousands of people that they do the same thing to, each and every year. They move load after load of freight across the country while paying the drivers in many of those trucks...peanuts. I truly wish the best for you and your husband, and I pray that you at the very least are able to get back on track with your finances in due time, before the other shoe drops and your husband needs to seek a better job. But I only caution people reading all of this to consider what it is worth to them to obtain a job, and how much they are willing to give up to get it. And don't get me wrong. I've made my share of decisions that were in error too. I too had to learn to inform myself how to seek employment in this industry in order to avoid the pitfalls. But I knew many years ago that Swift was a company to avoid at all costs, and story after story has only reaffirmed that they are still a company to avoid at all costs.

First of all, I don't want this to sound as if I am criticizing you personally for your not wanting to "bad mouth" Swift. Everyone has differing levels of what they consider to be either good or bad. However, let's face the reality of the situation, and at least define the terms under which you and your husband have been subjected to, in order to find a job within the trucking industry. Your husband may not have worked six months to date for Swift, but your adventure began back in April of this year, did it not? He waited to get into a class for training. He waited for a trainer. He waited for a truck once he was trained. You presented that during this ordeal, you have been existing for many months without a decent paycheck. And my point is simple. Why would you find this on any level, expected, normal, or even fair? In an industry where drivers are in high demand, where companies are literally screaming for drivers to hit the road NOW, who would allow themselves to be used like this, being placed on standby for the better part of several months with little or no compensation? There are and were better alternatives. The simple fact is that Swift is well known for overbooking training classes for one simple reason. They want people to be ready to slip into one of their trucks the minute someone else gets fed up with them and quits. And excuse me, but their attitude is simple, in that they could care less about the lives and situations of those they use in this manner, by keeping them hanging on endlessly to staff those empty trucks. Don't you see what they are doing? They KNOW that people are likely in dire straits when they hook them, and in fact seek just those kind of people to hire, and they also know that these same people have limited options open to them once they are on the hook, and their hope is that they will hang in there, just as you have done, BECAUSE they have so few options open to them. What you also are not understanding is that this company, so well known on the streets by those of us who have been in this industry for so long, will not go near them for this very reason. They exploit practically every driver they have, in one way or another, and that is the only thing keeping them in business. Swift does nothing at all to retain a driving staff. They are disposable items. In due time, you will bad mouth them, and readily. I wonder if when that time comes, and it likely will come within six months, will you find this thread and acknowledge the fact that I was correct, and confirm that the company is not worth the time and trouble that you have invested in it. I'm a trucker. I like what I do. I am also an advocate in attempting to steer people along a better path to places of employment within this industry. I have a brother who owns a growing business within the computer industry. His company maintains the computers for several large companies here in the southeast. He has hired roughly 20 people a year for the past five, as his business continues to grow. When he hires someone with minimal qualifications, he sends them to a school for further training out in Arizona, so that every micro-chip in a computer is known to those he has on staff. He pays for their transportation, their food, their shelter while out there, and he pays them a decent salary while in training. He invests roughly six months in each of these people before they begin generating a dime for him. Now compare that to what you have been through, and consider that much of the time your husband was out there on the road, and being paid virtually nothing, he was actually generating a very decent profit for Swift during that time. Swift is nothing but a company that has profited immensely off the backs of those who are seeking nothing more than a fair and decent paycheck in order to house and feed their families. They rope you into a lucrative tuition contract. They receive assistance for hiring displaced workers from the Government, and in fact are known to scrounge up warm bodies through state employment agencies - people who are truly desperate for a job. They charge non-refundable fees up-front before you sit down in a chair on their property. And you have subsisted for several months without a paycheck that could ever be considered, "decent" under any definition. Multiply this by the literal thousands of people that they do the same thing to, each and every year. They move load after load of freight across the country while paying the drivers in many of those trucks...peanuts. I truly wish the best for you and your husband, and I pray that you at the very least are able to get back on track with your finances in due time, before the other shoe drops and your husband needs to seek a better job. But I only caution people reading all of this to consider what it is worth to them to obtain a job, and how much they are willing to give up to get it. And don't get me wrong. I've made my share of decisions that were in error too. I too had to learn to inform myself how to seek employment in this industry in order to avoid the pitfalls. But I knew many years ago that Swift was a company to avoid at all costs, and story after story has only reaffirmed that they are still a company to avoid at all costs.

First of all, I don't want this to sound as if I am criticizing you personally for your not wanting to "bad mouth" Swift. Everyone has differing levels of what they consider to be either good or bad. However, let's face the reality of the situation, and at least define the terms under which you and your husband have been subjected to, in order to find a job within the trucking industry. Your husband may not have worked six months to date for Swift, but your adventure began back in April of this year, did it not? He waited to get into a class for training. He waited for a trainer. He waited for a truck once he was trained. You presented that during this ordeal, you have been existing for many months without a decent paycheck. And my point is simple. Why would you find this on any level, expected, normal, or even fair? In an industry where drivers are in high demand, where companies are literally screaming for drivers to hit the road NOW, who would allow themselves to be used like this, being placed on standby for the better part of several months with little or no compensation? There are and were better alternatives. The simple fact is that Swift is well known for overbooking training classes for one simple reason. They want people to be ready to slip into one of their trucks the minute someone else gets fed up with them and quits. And excuse me, but their attitude is simple, in that they could care less about the lives and situations of those they use in this manner, by keeping them hanging on endlessly to staff those empty trucks. Don't you see what they are doing? They KNOW that people are likely in dire straits when they hook them, and in fact seek just those kind of people to hire, and they also know that these same people have limited options open to them once they are on the hook, and their hope is that they will hang in there, just as you have done, BECAUSE they have so few options open to them. What you also are not understanding is that this company, so well known on the streets by those of us who have been in this industry for so long, will not go near them for this very reason. They exploit practically every driver they have, in one way or another, and that is the only thing keeping them in business. Swift does nothing at all to retain a driving staff. They are disposable items. In due time, you will bad mouth them, and readily. I wonder if when that time comes, and it likely will come within six months, will you find this thread and acknowledge the fact that I was correct, and confirm that the company is not worth the time and trouble that you have invested in it. I'm a trucker. I like what I do. I am also an advocate in attempting to steer people along a better path to places of employment within this industry. I have a brother who owns a growing business within the computer industry. His company maintains the computers for several large companies here in the southeast. He has hired roughly 20 people a year for the past five, as his business continues to grow. When he hires someone with minimal qualifications, he sends them to a school for further training out in Arizona, so that every micro-chip in a computer is known to those he has on staff. He pays for their transportation, their food, their shelter while out there, and he pays them a decent salary while in training. He invests roughly six months in each of these people before they begin generating a dime for him. Now compare that to what you have been through, and consider that much of the time your husband was out there on the road, and being paid virtually nothing, he was actually generating a very decent profit for Swift during that time. Swift is nothing but a company that has profited immensely off the backs of those who are seeking nothing more than a fair and decent paycheck in order to house and feed their families. They rope you into a lucrative tuition contract. They receive assistance for hiring displaced workers from the Government, and in fact are known to scrounge up warm bodies through state employment agencies - people who are truly desperate for a job. They charge non-refundable fees up-front before you sit down in a chair on their property. And you have subsisted for several months without a paycheck that could ever be considered, "decent" under any definition. Multiply this by the literal thousands of people that they do the same thing to, each and every year. They move load after load of freight across the country while paying the drivers in many of those trucks...peanuts. I truly wish the best for you and your husband, and I pray that you at the very least are able to get back on track with your finances in due time, before the other shoe drops and your husband needs to seek a better job. But I only caution people reading all of this to consider what it is worth to them to obtain a job, and how much they are willing to give up to get it. And don't get me wrong. I've made my share of decisions that were in error too. I too had to learn to inform myself how to seek employment in this industry in order to avoid the pitfalls. But I knew many years ago that Swift was a company to avoid at all costs, and story after story has only reaffirmed that they are still a company to avoid at all costs.

First of all, I don't want this to sound as if I am criticizing you personally for your not wanting to "bad mouth" Swift. Everyone has differing levels of what they consider to be either good or bad. However, let's face the reality of the situation, and at least define the terms under which you and your husband have been subjected to, in order to find a job within the trucking industry. Your husband may not have worked six months to date for Swift, but your adventure began back in April of this year, did it not? He waited to get into a class for training. He waited for a trainer. He waited for a truck once he was trained. You presented that during this ordeal, you have been existing for many months without a decent paycheck. And my point is simple. Why would you find this on any level, expected, normal, or even fair? In an industry where drivers are in high demand, where companies are literally screaming for drivers to hit the road NOW, who would allow themselves to be used like this, being placed on standby for the better part of several months with little or no compensation? There are and were better alternatives. The simple fact is that Swift is well known for overbooking training classes for one simple reason. They want people to be ready to slip into one of their trucks the minute someone else gets fed up with them and quits. And excuse me, but their attitude is simple, in that they could care less about the lives and situations of those they use in this manner, by keeping them hanging on endlessly to staff those empty trucks. Don't you see what they are doing? They KNOW that people are likely in dire straits when they hook them, and in fact seek just those kind of people to hire, and they also know that these same people have limited options open to them once they are on the hook, and their hope is that they will hang in there, just as you have done, BECAUSE they have so few options open to them. What you also are not understanding is that this company, so well known on the streets by those of us who have been in this industry for so long, will not go near them for this very reason. They exploit practically every driver they have, in one way or another, and that is the only thing keeping them in business. Swift does nothing at all to retain a driving staff. They are disposable items. In due time, you will bad mouth them, and readily. I wonder if when that time comes, and it likely will come within six months, will you find this thread and acknowledge the fact that I was correct, and confirm that the company is not worth the time and trouble that you have invested in it. I'm a trucker. I like what I do. I am also an advocate in attempting to steer people along a better path to places of employment within this industry. I have a brother who owns a growing business within the computer industry. His company maintains the computers for several large companies here in the southeast. He has hired roughly 20 people a year for the past five, as his business continues to grow. When he hires someone with minimal qualifications, he sends them to a school for further training out in Arizona, so that every micro-chip in a computer is known to those he has on staff. He pays for their transportation, their food, their shelter while out there, and he pays them a decent salary while in training. He invests roughly six months in each of these people before they begin generating a dime for him. Now compare that to what you have been through, and consider that much of the time your husband was out there on the road, and being paid virtually nothing, he was actually generating a very decent profit for Swift during that time. Swift is nothing but a company that has profited immensely off the backs of those who are seeking nothing more than a fair and decent paycheck in order to house and feed their families. They rope you into a lucrative tuition contract. They receive assistance for hiring displaced workers from the Government, and in fact are known to scrounge up warm bodies through state employment agencies - people who are truly desperate for a job. They charge non-refundable fees up-front before you sit down in a chair on their property. And you have subsisted for several months without a paycheck that could ever be considered, "decent" under any definition. Multiply this by the literal thousands of people that they do the same thing to, each and every year. They move load after load of freight across the country while paying the drivers in many of those trucks...peanuts. I truly wish the best for you and your husband, and I pray that you at the very least are able to get back on track with your finances in due time, before the other shoe drops and your husband needs to seek a better job. But I only caution people reading all of this to consider what it is worth to them to obtain a job, and how much they are willing to give up to get it. And don't get me wrong. I've made my share of decisions that were in error too. I too had to learn to inform myself how to seek employment in this industry in order to avoid the pitfalls. But I knew many years ago that Swift was a company to avoid at all costs, and story after story has only reaffirmed that they are still a company to avoid at all costs.

I am not going to bad mouth them, compared to other complaints I have seen on here my husband hasnt had any of those problems. I just want people to know that it is more then just 23 days of unpaid training. Oh and by the way Anthony we are one of those people that cant make it one week, I said we had a little saving, my paychecks, plus his pay while out with his mentor to cover the time we thought it would be maybe 3 months, (23 days of training, 6 weeks with mentor and lets just say couple more weeks for good measure = 10-12 weeks then out on his own) and I never said my husband has "worked" for 6 months for them, they have paid him every dime they owe him for the times during this that he was to be paid. I said it has been a 5 month process, from talking to the recruiter, waiting for an open class, 6 weeks with mentor then waiting for his truck, (which while waiting for a truck he did look for a job only to be told he didnt have enough experience), and then adjusting to the pay cycles. Yes after all this, my husband I love very much out on the road, numerous eviction notices, repoed vehicle, overdrawn bank account when i seen a !3.00 paycheck I was frustrated and wanted to warn anyone else about the timeframe it may take. But since he has been out swift has been great, very little downtime and that is usually just waiting to pick up, they gave him a company advance to cover the toll charges on the run he is on now and his miles are increasing with each trip yes they started low but as he is making his times his trips are increasing, we just hadnt planned nor expected it to be such a long road to get to this point.

I'm sorry that your husbands take home pay is terrible. I didn't got through the swift academy, but I can definitely agree that you better have financial support or not having any bills when starting with this company. I too have done some research (probably not as good as yours) and I'm telling you I'm having hell with the expenses of being over the road and on top of paying bills at home. As far as your husband getting 400-500 miles trips as team is ridiculous! i get more than 1000 a week solo. If he continues to get those miles i would suggest he should go solo. he would bring home more money. I don't know how long he has been with Swift but with my one month solo experience. my take home check range has been between $224-$521. I hope that helps some.

Does anyone see anything wrong here? I sure do. Who in their right mind would sign on to work anywhere for up to six months without a paycheck? Who in their right mind would decide that working ONE week without compensation, that this is normal, expected, or acceptable? It is not my desire to cyber-beat anyone up, but Swift Transportation makes a fine bottom line by exploiting people for profit gain. It's not as if there is no information out there that should make people take pause before picking up the phone to call them. The web is littered with testimony after testimony, informing people that this company is about as bad as it can get. While your husband was working his way through their training program, and running up and down those roads, Swift was banking many dollars from his efforts. Swift also banked a check, most likely issued by the Federal Government to them for tuition amounts that your husband agreed to repay if he leaves them before a commitment period is honored. Lets put this into dollars, so that you can understand what the real deal is. For those six weeks that your husband was on the road with a mentor, barely making enough to cover his travel expenses, the gross revenue run by those two people in that truck probably ran into the $7,000 - $9,000 range for each week. Swift probably netted no less than $2,500 each week off the miles that truck ran. Swift has a fine reputation of over-hiring people to keep on standby, as you have discovered, to fill those trucks the minute someone discovers that the job is a dead end proposition and quits in utter frustration and desperation, after they have been exploited for several months with little or no net income. And why wouldn't Swift keep operating this way? People stupidly walk right into their spiderweb, even after reading all the warnings that can be found all over the net, informing them of the rouse that has made Jerry Moyes a wealthy man. It makes no difference what your circumstance in life is, there are ALWAYS better options than falling into this trap. The best option would be to explore your local community colleges that offer truck driver training courses, where tuition rates are a fraction of what is charged by Swift and others operating similarly, where training is superior, and placement options are far better, unless Swift and some others have managed to get their feet in the door and persuaded those colleges that they offer decent jobs. I'm absolutely amazed to read that someone wants to refrain from "bad-mouthing" a company who has taken six months of earning potential away from them, causing them to slowly deplete the savings that they have amassed, and worse, thinking that this is something that should be expected on any level. It's fortunate that you have had some savings to fall back on. Not many people are prepared to go one month without any income. Some who have fallen on hard times cannot go one week. Not many people are willing to work for weeks on end, knowing that they have put cash into the employers bank accounts through their working efforts, and lived on next to nothing at the same time. To do so for six months is ludicrous, and I'm sure they have been very pleased with your husband's dedication to hang in there with them for this long. I wonder what you will post when you do get ready to "bad-mouth" them, and decide that it's pointless to continue being denied a decent income.

Does anyone see anything wrong here? I sure do. Who in their right mind would sign on to work anywhere for up to six months without a paycheck? Who in their right mind would decide that working ONE week without compensation, that this is normal, expected, or acceptable? It is not my desire to cyber-beat anyone up, but Swift Transportation makes a fine bottom line by exploiting people for profit gain. It's not as if there is no information out there that should make people take pause before picking up the phone to call them. The web is littered with testimony after testimony, informing people that this company is about as bad as it can get. While your husband was working his way through their training program, and running up and down those roads, Swift was banking many dollars from his efforts. Swift also banked a check, most likely issued by the Federal Government to them for tuition amounts that your husband agreed to repay if he leaves them before a commitment period is honored. Lets put this into dollars, so that you can understand what the real deal is. For those six weeks that your husband was on the road with a mentor, barely making enough to cover his travel expenses, the gross revenue run by those two people in that truck probably ran into the $7,000 - $9,000 range for each week. Swift probably netted no less than $2,500 each week off the miles that truck ran. Swift has a fine reputation of over-hiring people to keep on standby, as you have discovered, to fill those trucks the minute someone discovers that the job is a dead end proposition and quits in utter frustration and desperation, after they have been exploited for several months with little or no net income. And why wouldn't Swift keep operating this way? People stupidly walk right into their spiderweb, even after reading all the warnings that can be found all over the net, informing them of the rouse that has made Jerry Moyes a wealthy man. It makes no difference what your circumstance in life is, there are ALWAYS better options than falling into this trap. The best option would be to explore your local community colleges that offer truck driver training courses, where tuition rates are a fraction of what is charged by Swift and others operating similarly, where training is superior, and placement options are far better, unless Swift and some others have managed to get their feet in the door and persuaded those colleges that they offer decent jobs. I'm absolutely amazed to read that someone wants to refrain from "bad-mouthing" a company who has taken six months of earning potential away from them, causing them to slowly deplete the savings that they have amassed, and worse, thinking that this is something that should be expected on any level. It's fortunate that you have had some savings to fall back on. Not many people are prepared to go one month without any income. Some who have fallen on hard times cannot go one week. Not many people are willing to work for weeks on end, knowing that they have put cash into the employers bank accounts through their working efforts, and lived on next to nothing at the same time. To do so for six months is ludicrous, and I'm sure they have been very pleased with your husband's dedication to hang in there with them for this long. I wonder what you will post when you do get ready to "bad-mouth" them, and decide that it's pointless to continue being denied a decent income.

Does anyone see anything wrong here? I sure do. Who in their right mind would sign on to work anywhere for up to six months without a paycheck? Who in their right mind would decide that working ONE week without compensation, that this is normal, expected, or acceptable? It is not my desire to cyber-beat anyone up, but Swift Transportation makes a fine bottom line by exploiting people for profit gain. It's not as if there is no information out there that should make people take pause before picking up the phone to call them. The web is littered with testimony after testimony, informing people that this company is about as bad as it can get. While your husband was working his way through their training program, and running up and down those roads, Swift was banking many dollars from his efforts. Swift also banked a check, most likely issued by the Federal Government to them for tuition amounts that your husband agreed to repay if he leaves them before a commitment period is honored. Lets put this into dollars, so that you can understand what the real deal is. For those six weeks that your husband was on the road with a mentor, barely making enough to cover his travel expenses, the gross revenue run by those two people in that truck probably ran into the $7,000 - $9,000 range for each week. Swift probably netted no less than $2,500 each week off the miles that truck ran. Swift has a fine reputation of over-hiring people to keep on standby, as you have discovered, to fill those trucks the minute someone discovers that the job is a dead end proposition and quits in utter frustration and desperation, after they have been exploited for several months with little or no net income. And why wouldn't Swift keep operating this way? People stupidly walk right into their spiderweb, even after reading all the warnings that can be found all over the net, informing them of the rouse that has made Jerry Moyes a wealthy man. It makes no difference what your circumstance in life is, there are ALWAYS better options than falling into this trap. The best option would be to explore your local community colleges that offer truck driver training courses, where tuition rates are a fraction of what is charged by Swift and others operating similarly, where training is superior, and placement options are far better, unless Swift and some others have managed to get their feet in the door and persuaded those colleges that they offer decent jobs. I'm absolutely amazed to read that someone wants to refrain from "bad-mouthing" a company who has taken six months of earning potential away from them, causing them to slowly deplete the savings that they have amassed, and worse, thinking that this is something that should be expected on any level. It's fortunate that you have had some savings to fall back on. Not many people are prepared to go one month without any income. Some who have fallen on hard times cannot go one week. Not many people are willing to work for weeks on end, knowing that they have put cash into the employers bank accounts through their working efforts, and lived on next to nothing at the same time. To do so for six months is ludicrous, and I'm sure they have been very pleased with your husband's dedication to hang in there with them for this long. I wonder what you will post when you do get ready to "bad-mouth" them, and decide that it's pointless to continue being denied a decent income.

Does anyone see anything wrong here? I sure do. Who in their right mind would sign on to work anywhere for up to six months without a paycheck? Who in their right mind would decide that working ONE week without compensation, that this is normal, expected, or acceptable? It is not my desire to cyber-beat anyone up, but Swift Transportation makes a fine bottom line by exploiting people for profit gain. It's not as if there is no information out there that should make people take pause before picking up the phone to call them. The web is littered with testimony after testimony, informing people that this company is about as bad as it can get. While your husband was working his way through their training program, and running up and down those roads, Swift was banking many dollars from his efforts. Swift also banked a check, most likely issued by the Federal Government to them for tuition amounts that your husband agreed to repay if he leaves them before a commitment period is honored. Lets put this into dollars, so that you can understand what the real deal is. For those six weeks that your husband was on the road with a mentor, barely making enough to cover his travel expenses, the gross revenue run by those two people in that truck probably ran into the $7,000 - $9,000 range for each week. Swift probably netted no less than $2,500 each week off the miles that truck ran. Swift has a fine reputation of over-hiring people to keep on standby, as you have discovered, to fill those trucks the minute someone discovers that the job is a dead end proposition and quits in utter frustration and desperation, after they have been exploited for several months with little or no net income. And why wouldn't Swift keep operating this way? People stupidly walk right into their spiderweb, even after reading all the warnings that can be found all over the net, informing them of the rouse that has made Jerry Moyes a wealthy man. It makes no difference what your circumstance in life is, there are ALWAYS better options than falling into this trap. The best option would be to explore your local community colleges that offer truck driver training courses, where tuition rates are a fraction of what is charged by Swift and others operating similarly, where training is superior, and placement options are far better, unless Swift and some others have managed to get their feet in the door and persuaded those colleges that they offer decent jobs. I'm absolutely amazed to read that someone wants to refrain from "bad-mouthing" a company who has taken six months of earning potential away from them, causing them to slowly deplete the savings that they have amassed, and worse, thinking that this is something that should be expected on any level. It's fortunate that you have had some savings to fall back on. Not many people are prepared to go one month without any income. Some who have fallen on hard times cannot go one week. Not many people are willing to work for weeks on end, knowing that they have put cash into the employers bank accounts through their working efforts, and lived on next to nothing at the same time. To do so for six months is ludicrous, and I'm sure they have been very pleased with your husband's dedication to hang in there with them for this long. I wonder what you will post when you do get ready to "bad-mouth" them, and decide that it's pointless to continue being denied a decent income.