Well Swift did screw me over in the end! I know that a lot of people out there want to say "I told you so!". I should have listened, but it's too late now!
Like most of the big companies Swift has a stability tracking system in the tractors, to help warn of an impending roll over. Well after driving a 2006 Volvo for about 8 months it went into the shop for transmission work and I was put into an International Pro-star. I didn't like the lack of space, but the Pro-star did have some good features.
After a few weeks of driving the Pro-star I received 2 Critical Events. A critical event can be caused by many scenarios, but both of mine came when I was entering the freeway via an on ramp with a hard turn. The first one triggered at 14mph and the second was was at 17mph. When you receive a critical event with Swift you get a QC message to pull off to a safe spot and call the safety department. Both times I called the safety rep said that it was a very slow speed and did not seem to be to fast for conditions.
I mentioned to my DM that I never had 1 critical event in the Volvo, and I suspected a problem with the stability warning system. He said it's probably just that I am not accustomed to the suspension of the Pro-star and to slow down on the curves.
2 weeks later I was routed through the Appalachian Mountains on Highway 68 in Tennessee. Not the best route for a truck with a lot of tight corners and turns. The posted speed limit averaged 45mph and I was only getting up to about 30mph with all the maneuvers. When the tracking system went off on this road, I slowed down even more. After I finally got off 68 and hit I-75 my Qualcom started going crazy! I stopped just to see what the deal was and had received 4 critical events on that road. This happened on Saturday afternoon.
Monday morning I received messages from my DM asking what happened, as well as a phone call from the corporate safety manager. He discussed the critical events with me and simply said I needed to slow down. When I told him that I thought the tracking system needed calibrated he said he would look into it. He simply said to slow down so as to not receive any more critical events.
Three days later I was south on I-26 and stopped to get fuel at a truck stop. On the off ramp I was doing 20mph, and slowed to 10mph to round the corner when the critical event triggered yet again. In the time that it took me to fuel up, I had received messages about the event as well as a message to call my DM and a message that my PTA had been set to 12-31-2010. I was still under a load that was delivering to Midway GA. So I called the DM and he said to take the load to it's final and deadhead to the terminal in Decatur GA where they would look at the trucks stability tracking system. I mentioned that I was about 50 miles closer to the Ocala FL terminal, and would rather go that way if I was going to be getting terminated. He said I was not getting fired yet, and they wanted the truck in Decatur because it is a larger shop. In hind sight I should have gone to Ocala, and turned in the keys before they terminated me!
I arrived in Decatur that night and had to put the truck in line for the shop in the morning. At 0600 the truck was taken into the shop for a B service, then sat in the yard until 1500 when I was called in to the office and presented with a termination letter. They never looked at the truck to see if the stability tracking was faulty. My termination letter did mention the group of critical events, but the reason for termination was:
"Violation of company policy. Speeding in excess of 64mph for 3 minutes and 45 seconds over a period of 5 days."
Now I was stranded in Decatur GA with the offer of a bus ticket back to Seattle WA. Instead I called a friend who drove up from Florida and took me back to stay with family for a few weeks to find another job. Needless to say none of the big carriers will touch me after being involuntarily terminated from Swift. Plus they reported it on my DAC as Terminated for Safety Violations, with no explanation!
I got terminated on May 7th, and after a week of talking to every carrier and filling out hundreds of applications, I had to take a local delivery job just to have some money. I have not given up on OTR and need to get back on the road again. Does anyone have any recommendations for me to get on with a small carrier so I can start running again? Any help would be great as I have not had much luck with the typical job boards, or Craig's List.