[Mark01GT]

Swift is the largest company in america, but their pay is horrible. Why? You'd think a company as big as they are, they'd be able to afford to pay their drivers. Why do drivers stay there?

Pulled from their website:

"Example 1
• Dry van – Western U.S.
• Single driver
• One year of experience
• 2,100 miles driven per week
• Annual pay – approximately $41,112"

Only 41k to go over the road and never see your home? I'm with a local company here in FL, I am home everyday, and I get sunday's off and I'm making 45k a year. Why take a paycut to go over the road and be home less?

What are people doing driving for Swift? I don't get it.

[Fredog]

Originally Posted by Mark01GT

Swift is the largest company in america, but their pay is horrible. Why? You'd think a company as big as they are, they'd be able to afford to pay their drivers. Why do drivers stay there?

Pulled from their website:

"Example 1
• Dry van – Western U.S.
• Single driver
• One year of experience
• 2,100 miles driven per week
• Annual pay – approximately $41,112"

Only 41k to go over the road and never see your home? I'm with a local company here in FL, I am home everyday, and I get sunday's off and I'm making 45k a year. Why take a paycut to go over the road and be home less?

What are people doing driving for Swift? I don't get it.

because they can go from never having seen a truck to being a super trucker in only a few short weeks.

[Mark01GT]

What do you mean a super trucker?

Im running local and I went right out of school into my company, and I've now got 330,000 miles of experience in just under 3 years. Am I a super trucker too?

[Fredog]

Originally Posted by Mark01GT

What do you mean a super trucker?

Im running local and I went right out of school into my company, and I've now got 330,000 miles of experience in just under 3 years. Am I a super trucker too?

you sound more like a hard worker to me, over 100,000 miles a year running local? you must not go home much

[Mark01GT]

Yeah. I run approx 2500-300 miles a week. 12 hrs a day 6 days a week. But I'm home everyday and I have sunday off.


Definitly a hard worker - but if you went over the road you'd be gone weeks at a time, even harder of a worker! And swift doesn't even wanna pay you for it! I'm just shocked at how low their pay is!

[Phantom433a]

Originally Posted by Fredog

because they can go from never having seen a truck to being a super trucker in only a few short weeks.

I think Fredog is saying that they can get right out of school and just start making big money in a big truck :roll: and within 6 months they can be a driver trainer :shock:

Actually its simple why Swift dosen't pay diddly, even though they are a big company......thats how they got big, by NOT paying diddly. The less money going out the door means they can buy more trucks/trailers and companies.

[boneebone]

Originally Posted by Mark01GT

Swift is the largest company in america, but their pay is horrible. Why? You'd think a company as big as they are, they'd be able to afford to pay their drivers. Why do drivers stay there?

Pulled from their website:

"Example 1
• Dry van – Western U.S.
• Single driver
• One year of experience
• 2,100 miles driven per week
• Annual pay – approximately $41,112"

Only 41k to go over the road and never see your home? I'm with a local company here in FL, I am home everyday, and I get sunday's off and I'm making 45k a year. Why take a paycut to go over the road and be home less?

What are people doing driving for Swift? I don't get it.

To each their own.

What ever blows your skirt up

Different strokes for different folks

That's like asking why do people do drugs? Why do people get married?
Why do people become alcoholics? etc. etc.

The answer is because they feel like it.

[Fredog]

Originally Posted by Phantom433a

I think Fredog is saying that they can get right out of school and just start making big money in a big truck :roll: and within 6 months they can be a driver trainer :shock:

Actually its simple why Swift dosen't pay diddly, even though they are a big company......thats how they got big, by NOT paying diddly. The less money going out the door means they can buy more trucks/trailers and companies.

close, I am saying that its one place that you can get hired on with no experience. and get "free" training, some guys dont have many options.

[Jumbo]

I agree Fredog. There are some guys who have never been inside a truck and who are doing some menial job somewhere and one day while going through the paper they see an ad that promises to pay them two or three times what they are making now, and they don't need anyexperience because XYZ trucking company will train them for free. That has got to be tempting.

[Uturn2001]

Swift aside, most training companies pay pretty close to the same starting out for the same type of work. The few that do pay higher tend to have stricter hiring requirements.

As far as "why do people go OTR for XXXX amount of money", the answer is often that the job market sucks where they live. In many areas a person would need to work 2 full time jobs, at least, to make what they could driving a truck OTR at newbie pay. This of course is assuming they could find 2 full time jobs to begin with.

Regardless if you are doing OTR or working 80 hours plus a week in some local capacity your home life is going to suffer.