Profile For G M.

I was trying to be as informative as I could with that post but had to get right to the point because I was at the character limit. There are a lot of misconceptions about Swift, good and bad.

With the Kohl's account, I wanted to point out that they have a dangerous practice of waking up someone that's sleeping whenever their driving partner pulls into the distribution center. I was supposed to drive shortly after that.

Thanks for the input, Brett. I'll try to read up on the do's and don'ts.

Training is stressful. One guy tried consoling me during a particularly rough day by asking me if I knew where he went on his lunch break? No.. why I asked him? He said he was off in the woods, "crying like a little *****."

We were in Millington, Tennessee on an abandoned airport runway. You only practice backing the first 2 weeks. You'll learn straight backing, 90 degree backing, parallel parking, and offset backing for the most part. Folks from certain states will have to perform variations of these maneuvers based on their state's DOT test. You'll stay in 1st gear and reverse the whole time. You have to learn that to turn the trailer to the right means turning the wheel to the left and vice verse and you'll learn how to correct it once the trailer starts bending.

You will be packed 4 to a room in your motel with guys coming and going at all times because you're in different classes and at various stages of training. My bed was in the other room. I got lucky. Bring ear plugs. Everyone snores. There are videos on youtube of the rooms. Lookup Swift training Millington, Tennessee at the Admiral Inn.

If you pass the 1st 2 weeks, you'll probably learn road driving at Swift's terminal nearest to your home for 2 more weeks. You'll have to learn double clutching for the DOT test. One guy with 6 months of driving experience failed because he couldn't double clutch. He was great at backing.

You'll then ride with a mentor for about 5 weeks. Most of them are cool but you'll hear some crazy horror stories. Only about 10% of those students make it make it through a full year at Swift.

Swift trucks are governed at 62 mph. I read on here it's 65 but that's only for lease operators. Company drivers are governed at 62 mph.

OTR means that you'll drive about 70 hours a week and make about $700.00 a week. There is no shortage of freight. Home time is 2 days off for every 12 on. You won't get home when you plan to because they've got to have freight going to your city on that particular day. Expect about a 3 day delay.

Swift has inward and outward audio and video cameras in all their trucks.

I did OTR briefly but found a better deal with dedicated accounts and home time.

On the Kohl's account, I drove teams for 2 weeks. They required both drivers to get out and physically show id to the guards at the Kohl's Distribution Center In Macon, Ga when you went in. Most guards only asked for the current driver's id. At the end of two weeks, the supervisor woke me up after 3 hrs of sleep to have me show id. I stumbled to the guard shack and presented mine. Then they demanded I take a picture for a badge and told me I wouldn't be working there any longer if I refused. Well I just woke up and told them there was no way they were getting a picture of me after 3 hrs of sleep and I told them I didn't want to work for any company that wakes up a driver for bs anyway and was refused permission to enter the property ever again.

Next, I got on the Target dedicated account with Swift in Lake City, Fl. They gave me a truck with no a/c and gave me the run around about fixing it for a month straight. Things came to a head when I fell asleep in Alabama during the summer and had to open the vents for some cool air. I woke up 4 hours later because it had started raining and the rain came in through my side-opening vents soaking my mattress. When I climbed up on the top bunk to try to get more sleep, my team mate woke me up talking on the phone inside the truck and I never could get back to bed. That caused all kinds of problems with me and management and I was released later that day.

So I called the Walmart DC in Macclenny, Fl. Home most nights? Sign me up. Drive for Walmart? That sounds like I've hit the big time. The problem with that account was two fold. They don't have a set schedule. So you never know when you're going in and when you should get to sleep. They don't care. You'd be awake for half the day and they'd call you and tell you to come in 4 hrs later. So by the time you get there, you've been up 14 hours. Then they want you to drive for 13 hrs every time you go in. And it was almost exclusively all night driving. You get used to being awake 24 hrs straight and it was still scary as hell. And you never get a day off. Officially, you only get 6 days off per year on that account. The dispatchers will tell you that your 34 hr restarts are your days off. Pay is about the same, 70 hours a week for about $700.00 average. I worked on that account just shy of a year. I can not imagine a more dangerous situation for a driver but I had to get my year of experience in to get with a decent company.

Now I make about $1100 a week, home daily, and have every Saturday off. I would advise you to get all your endorsements asap. Study hard for the hazmat.