Is Swift on a hiring freeze???

[bentstrider]

I'll basically have that "six months of driving with another company" requirement met by the 18th of this month.
When I was terminated from them back in October of '07, they told me I would be able to come back after a year since the accident lapsed and that I got in 6 months of driving with another company.

Aside from the accident I had with them in my 13 months there, I have had no violations or tickets of any, conceivable type.

However, I was called by a recruiter I had spoken to earlier and she told me to check back near the end of December/After the beginning of the year to see if they've been authorized to do rehires.

Only reasons I want to get out of the current company I'm with is due to the fact that they utilize 1099's;
-the trucks don't have Qualcomm;
-if we have a breakdown on the road, we have to pay out of pocket, then receive reimbursement 2 weeks later;
-if we're not driving local and we're out of hours, I have to tell the dispatcher to shove it for the next ten, depending on who it is;
-And I'm the only non-Spanish speaker in the entire yard. Alot of people said Swift had alot of that, but when I was with them, that was hardly the truth.

So, aside from that, has anyone else heard of such a thing?

[wanderingson]

only reasons i want to get out of the current company i'm with is due to the fact that they utilize 1099's;


-the trucks don't have qualcomm;

"this can be a good thing."


-if we have a breakdown on the road, we have to pay out of pocket, then receive reimbursement 2 weeks later;

"that is unacceptable. It is their truck, they are responsible for paying the repair bill."


-if we're not driving local and we're out of hours, i have to tell the dispatcher to shove it for the next ten, depending on who it is;


"you should do this no matter who the dispatcher is. Run legal as much as possible."


-and i'm the only non-spanish speaker in the entire yard. Alot of people said swift had alot of that, but when i was with them, that was hardly the truth



So, aside from that, has anyone else heard of such a thing?

yes, swift is generally thought of as a cdl mill. You will probably encounter the same problems with swift.

[geeshock]

I'll basically have that "six months of driving with another company" requirement met by the 18th of this month.
When I was terminated from them back in October of '07, they told me I would be able to come back after a year since the accident lapsed and that I got in 6 months of driving with another company.

Aside from the accident I had with them in my 13 months there, I have had no violations or tickets of any, conceivable type.

However, I was called by a recruiter I had spoken to earlier and she told me to check back near the end of December/After the beginning of the year to see if they've been authorized to do rehires.

Only reasons I want to get out of the current company I'm with is due to the fact that they utilize 1099's;
-the trucks don't have Qualcomm;
-if we have a breakdown on the road, we have to pay out of pocket, then receive reimbursement 2 weeks later;
-if we're not driving local and we're out of hours, I have to tell the dispatcher to shove it for the next ten, depending on who it is;
-And I'm the only non-Spanish speaker in the entire yard. Alot of people said Swift had alot of that, but when I was with them, that was hardly the truth.

So, aside from that, has anyone else heard of such a thing?

I drove for swift about 2.5 years ago and there are some things that have changed but this i can tell you

They do have qualcomm but if you wanna know, keep your logs in order and I've never had a problem

They DO have onroad repair service so you eather pay comcheck or they might even have an account with the place. I will tell you, thier onroad can be a PITA to deal with, long wait and sometimes the person that you talk to is upset you burdened him/her with your call but they will pay for the service.

As long as you have a good reason for not being there ( a traffic accedent, unusualy heavy traffic(Not you normal rush hour), detours due to construction, etc) they are usualy understanding if you run out of hours.

you'll run into many out in loredo, el paso, ccali but since I see you worked for swift you probably already know this.

One other thing I found out recently is they don't hire in some areas now, suposedly they don't hire east of i-95 in NC. Seems to be a dead zone for many companies, lucky for me thats exactly where i live, yayyyy.

BOL

[bentstrider]

yes, swift is generally thought of as a cdl mill. You will probably encounter the same problems with swift.

I was with Swift for 13 months prior to the small-carrier I'm with now.

I'm saying Swift is better than the outfit I'm using to regain experience.

[bentstrider]

bump.

[Syncrosonix]

maybe, maybe not. it's nice seeing a lesser amount of students in phoenix. perhaps they've become more picky about who's taken in. for re-hiring, not too sure about that one.

[bentstrider]

Well, driving for anyone that utilizes Qualcomm and doesn't have a joke of a safety department is what I would really like right now.

I'll admit it I didn't enjoy Swift for the first six months, but afterwards, I intended on staying there for at least two years before I got into that accident.

As far as doing something completely different goes, college is something I'd rather save up money for and do a little later.

Right now, I'm remaining focused on this.

[Bug]

Why in the world if you have already worked for swift and they terminated you and have ove 1 year experince would even consider hiring on with them again.

[bentstrider]

Personal choice.

If not right now, I'll wait until some time passes and see if the economy begins to pick up speed.

Basically, any company that has Qualcomm and W-2's will work for me.

[boneebone]

Swift is downsizing it's company fleet and will continue to do so in 2009. Swift is pushing to be 35% or more Owner Operator fleet, while still reducing the company fleet.

They are not doing re-hires because they do not need more drivers, any current drivers that leave they are balancing it out with new trainees to replace them.

[bentstrider]

Well, I guess those accidents and this economy has placed me into a position of forced(shoved from behind) career-change.

I'll eventually leave this crap outfit I'm with right now, and get trained in some other, short-time education requirement, tech-field.

But, I'm still holding onto my license so that if the field I'm in is making me bored-to-death, I'll cross my fingers and try again.

[geeshock]

If swift could take me back right now I would. To be honest with you, they provide more along the lines of employee perks than many other companies I've seen out there. The placement of terminals and laundery facilities and shower facilities at most terminals, etc. Yeh, they can suck at cpm but since i didn't turn loads down but i was since they went to the graduated pay scale they made life a little nicer. I'm not goinna go into all the pro's and cons of swift but they are like any other company out there, they are for some, not for others.

[Syncrosonix]

Swift is downsizing it's company fleet and will continue to do so in 2009. Swift is pushing to be 35% or more Owner Operator fleet, while still reducing the company fleet.

They are not doing re-hires because they do not need more drivers, any current drivers that leave they are balancing it out with new trainees to replace them.

yeah, they're pushing the lease-purchase thing quite hard. they've been doing that since last spring. i don't plan on doing it. i like being a company driver and not having the feeling that i've bought my job.

[bentstrider]

They are not doing re-hires because they do not need more drivers, any current drivers that leave they are balancing it out with new trainees to replace them.

Well, I've worked on my fatigue issues and have put in six months with this container-hauler I'm currently with.
Another reason we're pretty slow is due to the fact that I'm basically the only person in the yard who has a HAZMAT, this company will not pull any!!

I'm just hoping Swift will somewhat change its mind as to just relying on sole, trainees to replace the quitters.

You'd think it would be a little cheaper to reconsider former employees who put a little time in elsewhere and still have all their endorsements on them.

I'm starting to think that maybe other, CDL-mill companies may offer a chance.

[nctrucker1]

I drove for swift for about a month. The dispatcher I had was a complete company brown noser. He did not care about the driver, only what was good for the company. I had to argue with him on a few things, such as sending me an hour out of my route to fuel at a terminal[ cheaper for swift]with no pay for the extra miles to do that. I would like to say that my experience with swift was not good. Depends on the dispatcher it seems like at most trucking companies.

[bentstrider]

Well, another thing that I may have already mentioned that Swift was good at was the maintenance of their trucks.
Waiting a few hours for the actions of OnRoad were much better than dealing with these mom'n'pop shops that the Indie-Contractor I'm with sends me too right now.

Essentially, the truck I'm driving right now is this clunkety-bucket of a '97 Freightliner that has no working fuel-gauge on top of some other, minor details.

Apparently the owner, aside from not wanting to stray from the 1099-way of doing payroll, also refuses to get the fuel-gauge fixed, citing the cost.

Same with the tires, basically wanting to run the drives until their bald.

Then there was the issue of the left, steer-axle breaking, causing me to be out-of-work for five days!!!

If any of this happened with Swift, it would either be rectified by "same-day repair", or reassigned to another tractor.

After six months of doing this, I'll still always like driving a truck for what it is, but at this point, smaller, family-oriented, poorly-equipped companies can all bite a big one!!

Until then, I'll focus on the EMS-related training, while keeping my fingers crossed/wait for the day that the larger carriers will be starving for drivers once more.

And if Swift is included in that, I'll happily go gunning for it!!!

[dle]

I've only been with Swift since june.

From what I've been told, the hiring freeze only applies to certain terminals. They are pushing the L/O, but I also am not wanting to do this. From the Q/C meessages i've seen they are having trouble finding trucks for drivers (BTW i've heard from some friends that WERNER is also having this problem).

My dispatchers (only 2) have tried their best to walk the fine line of being helpful to the driver and still do what the company wants them to do. So far I have had no complaints about my regular dispatch --- nights and weekends are a different story though -- i've wanted to kill a couple of them.

Hire or re-hire you will have to pass the fitness test.

I've only had to call on-road twice so far (trailer issues) on hold less that 15 minutes for each ( as compared to the 3 hours for werner). Most of the maintenance items i've had with the truck have been minor enough that I could wait till i got back to the home terminal to get it done (home time).

[bentstrider]

You talking about the Work-Well?

Why does everyone fear that thing?

I dropped from 300 to 180 a few months before joining Swift in 2006.

I currently cycle everyday, and spend at least 2-3 hours/day in the gym every week.

I passed that thing just fine the first time around, and seeing that I'm persistently also trying to get into a law-enforcement/fire fighting agency, I'm positive I won't have problems now.

[Windwalker]

Personal choice.

If not right now, I'll wait until some time passes and see if the economy begins to pick up speed.

Basically, any company that has Qualcomm and W-2's will work for me.

I believe you'll find that Roehl has a yard in... Ontario, or near there, and they do have qualcomm or aethernet. You also get a W-2. Give them a try.

[bentstrider]

I'll have to look into that.

Hopefully it won't lead into another door slammed in the face.