Decisions Decisions (Prime V Swift)

No you certainly don't have to. It's just more convenient for most people. As long as the company approved it you can drop it at any terminal ,truck stop or drop yard near home

WalMarts work well too. When I am home time I park my tractor/trailer in the back of employee parking near the grocery docks of the WalMart near my house. It may help that my wife and I both used to work there. I figure with 8 cameras covering that side of the building it should be good. 6 up on top of the building and 2 covering the docks. If something were to happen I would just go talk to the loss prevention manager about looking at the footage. Then again I know all the assistant store managers, shift managers, and the store manager of that store.

I can't really give you many pros and cons for Prime, but I just finished my first year at Swift so I can give you some info about them from my personal experience.

My top two options when first starting were also Prime and Swift. Prime looked very appealing to me because of the higher starting pay, but I ultimately decided to go with Swift because I wanted to be home more often and have more options. At the time, Swift said I had to stay out 2-4 weeks at a time, where Prime said 4-6. At this point I realize that probably doesn't really matter since hometime is accumulated the same way at both companies (1 day for every week out). I was home on average every 3 weeks and probably could have done that at Prime too. As someone already mentioned, Prime does have a more lengthy training process, which I think is a great thing--I just didn't want to be away from home for so long.

As far as my comment about more options, I don't know about Prime, but I know that Swift has a gazillion Dedicated accounts you can drive on. What that means is that you pull freight for only that customer (for the most part anyways, excluding backhauls). This is nice because it can give you more of a routine, keep you in a particular region, even get you home every day in some cases. It all depends on the particular dedicated account. The nice thing about driving for a company that has so many, is that if you don't like one you can try a different one (within reason-- eventually you've got to settle on one, at least for a while). You get the perks of doing a different route and switching things up without having to change companies. To me, that's a huge perk. I know Prime has some dedicated accounts, just not sure if they have as many options as Swift.

As far as drop and hook vs. live loads, that shouldn't affect your decision. When I started with Swift pulling reefer , the majority of my loads were live load/unload--that is typical for reefer at either company. When I did Swift's MillerCoors dedicated account for four months, my loads were mostly drop and hook. Now that I'm doing Swift's Target dedicated account, it's 100% drop and hook and I'm typically home every night.

Prime definitely has better starting pay. Interestingly though, the first several months I was making roughly the same amount as Rainy, one of our members on here who works at Prime, because she had to pay for load locks and chains. Prime trucks have APUs and they allow pets. Swift doesn't allow pets on company trucks and they don't have APUs, although I've never lacked for comfort. If you want to do flatbed, both companies have flatbed divisions but I don't think Swift's is as developed as Prime's is. Prime also has a tanker division, something I would've loved to try but Swift doesn't have one.

Being near a Terminal is not a requirement at all. However, it can give you a lot more options. I live an hour away from our Denver terminal and I have a lot more options than if I lived 3 or 4 hours away.

It all comes down to what you want. I wanted options, so I picked Swift and I don't regret my decision. This is a recap of my first year. I have so many options here--I got exactly what I wanted. Others have chosen Prime and are very happy with their decision.

Good luck with your decision and getting started in this career.

Terminal:

A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.

Reefer:

A refrigerated trailer.

Drop And Hook:

Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.

In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APUs:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

G-town said:

Swift is also a forced dispatch operation. I think you may be under the impression this "forces" you to drive. If you have available hours, are well rested and not physically ill then yes you must take the load you are dispatched with.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying G. We are not forced dispatch, except on certain dedicated accounts like Walmart. Yes, Swift won't keep you around for long if you reject loads all the time but we do have that option to some extent.

Thanks for the feedback Paul, one thing that really appeals to me about swift is that they are HUGE! Quite literally triple the size of Prime, though I highly doubt Prime has any shortage of loads its something I also have to consider as well. At this point im still leaning towards Prime more mostly because of the training process I think its a great set up once I get used to the fact ill be driving after 4 days (enough time to do paperwork and get permit). My brother is actually with swift right now on the Kraft account but we don't talk much so his feedback is pretty much non-existent lol. I don't mind having a few things pulled from my check at first to help cover up front cost because with my current "9-5" desk job I can barely make bills meet so having more then 2-300 put away when I go into training will be hard enough.

On a side note, I've started to look into Flatbed, even though I work a desk job now and live a quite inactive lifestyle because of it, I am considering it because it will help keep me in shape atleast a little more then running reefer or van.

On a side note, I've started to look into Flatbed, even though I work a desk job now and live a quite inactive lifestyle because of it, I am considering it because it will help keep me in shape atleast a little more then running reefer or van.

Not to throw anymore decisions your way but have you considered Roehl? I just started with them in November and have been driving solo for about 11 days now. I know, watch out everyone!! I have found the experience here very positive but I cannot provide feedback about Swift or Prime at this time. Here are the points that I like/dislike about Roehl.

- Recruiter I worked with was very upfront and straightforward. Very professional. - Paid training program. 4 weeks in length and you are paid $500 (gross) per week. - Training program (Phoenix terminal) was excellent. Instructors were all very good and on the same page. Equipment which were Freightliner tractors were in good condition and no issues with them. - On the road with the trainer: I found this a very good experience and was lucky as my trainer was retired Army so we both had that going for us. I spent 13 days on the road with him. I would have to say I would have liked a few more days with him but I was ready when he signed off on me. - Fleet Managers have been very positive and supportive. They are busy so I may not always be able to speak to my fleet manager. However, 90% of the others I have spoken to have helped with any concerns/issues that I have had. - Maintenance department. They have been very helpful. On one day, I had a tire go flat (bad valve stem) and a serpentine belt gave out. Mind you this is about 6 days into driving my newly assigned truck. The tire was brand new and the valve stem was just installed incorrectly. The serpentine belt on the Freightliners are a bit notorious for going out when it gets cold. Like 0 degrees cold. The maintenance department handled both issues quickly even though it took a small act of Congress to get the serpentine belt replaced due to the location I was laid up in. - My assigned truck is in good condition beyond the two strange issues that cropped up. Just about 158K on the odometer so still a young truck and the kinks seem to have been worked out. Been very happy with it and it has kept me warm. Even the evening when it was 10 below zero. - The loads are force dispatched but I believe most company drivers for the position you are looking for are usually that way. I certainly could be wrong. However, from what I have garnered most drivers here average around 2700 miles a week and that is usually pretty consistent. This week I won't get close to that due to the damn holiday but what can you do. Go drop the load at a place that is not open? - Been paid weekly with no issues and paid what I earned. No issues there and happy with my first real paycheck which I got this week.

I am a flatbed driver and I like it so far. I figured I would go reefer since that seems to be easier with the loading/unloading. However, no major complaints with the flatbed process so far. I will admit when you have to tarp/untarp a load by yourself utilizing two 100 pound tarps, it can get frustrating. If you are smart, and it is not -10 degrees, I don't find it that difficult. We do get paid for tarping/untarping even though it is not a great rate, it does add up.

I honestly don't have many dislikes at this point. I have made it a point to try and find the cracks in the system here at Roehl but nothing major yet. The pay is ok and with flatbed, you start at .39 CPM. So, with the tarping/untarping, the first real paycheck was pretty good.

If you have any questions about Roehl, feel free to hit me up. Good luck and I am sure any company you go with will be good.

I did look at them and they seemed amazing, but, they want permit and sot physical before they will hire you based ln the info ive seen so that would delay my process and cost more upfront for me which is very hard at the moment. And i also think im about 100 miles out of their recruiting range

Hello Eric, and welcome aboard!

That was such an excellent first post that I'm giving you two thumbs up!

We hope you'll hang around and contribute as you can. I'm going to assume you've been lurking in the shadows, and if that's the case we're glad you introduced yourself.