Hair Follicle Testing

Yes they do require a drug test all trucking companies do.. or they wouldnt have insurance , they use the DOT and do their own. but that company isnt the one im 100% going with they're just at the top of my list . still researching and finding more companies each day. i want to be happy where i go . maybe not happy for you or other people but happy for me .. because out there i have to deal with it no you.

Does the school you are going to attend require a drug test?

So my only Concern about when i first get into the industry. i have been an avid weed smoker for most of my life i do not believe in taking pills because they just create a more problems . i do not Drink , weed was my only thing , now 2 weeks about i decided to get into the trucking industry and Quite smoking . i have 0 problem doing that because Money and jobs are more important than smoking . i start trucking school in a month from today , by time i get out of school and get a job for a company i will be about 2.5 months with Nothing in my system so a urine test will be no problem. but i do not want to apply to a company and get a hair follicle test and be denied a job for something i did before i was in the industry. Do companies denied you the job because they seen Marijuana in your system 2 months before you started working for them or in the industry? i get why they do the testing because they're hard to bypass unlike Urine and Mouth Swabs . how does it work . are they looking to see how recent it was before you last used or they looking to say hey you used in general so we dont want you? i cant really find any clarification on it . would suck for me to spend 7k on school get a job than be denied and have it go on my DOT that i failed a drug screening. for something i did before i was in the industry! i know ill probably get those people on here who will give the " should make better life choices" but i know for a fact there are plenty of Truckers who drink in there down time , wake up and get on the road when im sure the booze are still lingering in there system. that is there business not mine.

Thanks for any information in advance!

Toby

I wrote this guy off with the first post.

Only came back to read what Brett said.

I understand saying no to companies for some reason or another. I said no to PAM because they required me to team with another rookie for 6 months. I said no to CRST because teaming isn't for me. The wall you're hitting here with swift is that the only reason you say it's not for you is because of what other people said.

I have a question. If you know so many people that moved on from swift and have been happy at their current companies for years, why don't you try one of those companies?

people i know who started with swift hated it and are now with a different company who they have been with for 6 years and love it and have 0 problems?

ok so they were a new driver and were unhappy and left. They moved companies and figured out how this industry worked and are now enjoying it. What makes you think that wouldn't have been the case had they stayed? Honestly answer this. What does Swift have to gain by starving drivers of miles or making their drivers unhappy? If they're doing their job safely and being productive that's how they're (AND YOU, THE DRIVER) make money.

In reference to bus tickets you said

i get why they do it , but that isnt for me .....

that's the way nearly every company handles onboarding drivers. There's a reason the turnover rate is so high and news flash it often times has very little to do with the company itself. If you're willing to write off almost every company that's willing to give you a chance because you think you're too good to sit on a bus for a few hours you're doing yourself a huge disservice. I hope you're correct about how long to pass a urine test. If you test positive you will likely never be given a chance. I honestly think you're going about this the wrong way. If you would just hold off on getting started until you can pass a hair test you will have so many more options that fit you better. I do not have first hand knowledge of Windy Hill so I'm not going to talk poorly about them. However, according the to DOT Snapshot which can be found on the FMCSA gov site it says they only have 144 power units. Most of us here would agree that you're better going to a larger company. I see their trucks quite a bit and atleast the ones I've seen aren't in as nice of shape as the larger carriers run.

i have spent HOURS on this page read and reading and reading ! Hours on Youtube , hours on GlassDoor and indeed as well as other Forums ..

and yet you're buying into the BS about certain companies being terrible places to work. Todays culture is just bad mouth everything, particularly our employers, when things don't go our way. All those review sites show is how many people FAIL at trucking. YouTube and glassdoor and full of people claiming to have only made $400 dollar check for 70 hours. Why is it that they're only making $400 but they have drivers also making $80k or more a year? Are there legitimate flaws at some companies? Sure, nothing is perfect and we all place emphasis on different aspects. Company A may offer more pay and hometime, but they run older equipment and it is impossible to reach road assist or your DM. Company B may pay less, have you out 4 weeks before hometime but your calls are answered immediately and they give you a brand new truck every 2 years. YouTube for the most part is a terrible place to get advice. I watched a couple videos before getting started and they were all basically the same. "I just started with ********* and I love it here. I'm making so much more money than at ******* where I was making less than minimum wage. If you're looking for a great company come to ******* and use my referral link in the comments." Negativity is what most of our culture buys in to. Why do you think that's what the news shows all the time? Occasionally things happen out of our control but nearly 100% of your success in trucking directly correlates to your productivity.

people who Transferred there said was bad , they had a high turn over rate , people who production was at 110% with max incentives each paycheck were leaving because of the BS.

guess what. That's warehouse work for you. Every DC is going to do things differently and if someone has been at the company for a while and got accustomed to one way of course they're going to think the new DC sucks. I worked the warehouse for Sysco for about 2 years before I transferred. They did things very different at the new one and I hated it and ended up quitting 2 months later. There were people at the DC I hated that had been there over 15 years and loved it so which of us is wrong?

there were multiple other employees who said the same thing , people who would come late leave early , leave for break early come back late do half the work and treated like kings, people like me who kept there head down and worked our asses off.

why are you so worried about what others are doing? Trucking is no different than the incentive pay you guys got. The more YOU get done faster the more YOU make. Sysco was the same way and I couldn't give 2 ****s what others were doing. If they wanna go hide somewhere and play on their phone, take longer breaks or brown nose with management let em. It means there's more work for me to do which directly impacts my paycheck. Give me a couple extra batches to pick making $15 more than they are and I'm happy. As a driver are you going to be ****ed off that somebody is getting paid $50 in detention pay because they had to wait 10 hours on a load while your load required you to drive through the night? Walmart may not have been the job for YOU but I can guarantee there are plenty of guys or gals in the warehouse that absolutely love it.

Toby, as you can see a majority of our experienced members have given up or chosen not to jump in with advice because you are coming across as already knowing it all. If you get into trucking with this attitude I can assure you that you're just going to be another statistic and flooding forums and review sites about how abc trucking is a terrible place to work. We welcome EVERYBODY regardless of past mistakes, drug/alcohol use etc to jump in these discussions. Even if we disagree with past choices we still offer the same help. All of us donate our time to help newcomers get started in this industry. For anybody lurking please don't be discouraged and think we're being harsh. We've seen this before where people ask a question and use that as a platform to push some agenda or tell us we don't know what we're talking about. Our community here is full of drivers from all walks of life with different experiences and pulling different freight. What brings us all together is our willingness and enjoyment to help others get a successful start to this career. I'm off today so I have some extra time, but a majority of us are only off for 10 hours a day. Why waste our time on somebody that isnt going to appreciate it when there's countless others that would.

There’s no freight coming out of fla. that’s the main reason. Also why u will see a lot of carriers hire north of I-4, and not south.

Generally I think a lot of the vets of this board are too harsh on newbies, but not you. You have a bad attitude and a know it all to boot.

Your opinion on swift is laughable. They are a great company. They have more tractors than any other company. I guess they got that large treating drivers like crap and providing crappy training. I bet they don’t even care about safety. I mean after all how do you explain all those YouTube accident videos? Have 25,000 tractors I’m doesn’t have a thing to do with it.

I went to private school, and there were students there training with swift. They were treated great. Lodging was provided in a nice clean hotel, but swift was no nonsense. One student failed her permit test then failed it again. That was it swift was down they cut their losses. Driving test was the same. You have two shots. I don’t work for swift but I’ve seen enough firsthand to know they are a great company, and when I pass their trucks on the road they are new clean and well maintained

The DC i was at was like that , people who Transferred there said was bad , they had a high turn over rate , people who production was at 110% with max incentives each paycheck were leaving because of the BS. The Pay and Benefits were great . the Work was each IMO , but the way the shift leaders treated people was horrible .

Yeah PRIME was the one i really liked which was a shock they dont hire out of FL seeing as i see there trucks every day.. But yea i know there is a bunch that dont hire out of here . Fl slots fill up fast as its one of the easiest states to get a CDL in .

I worked at a Walmart DC before going to FedEx Freight and I think Walmart is a great company. I wasn't part of any clique and I didn't get any special treatment, I just went in met production goals and went home.

Prime isn't hiring out of Florida and they're not the only ones. Few companies hire out of Florida, that's why paid training would've been your best bet. You pay all this money and put in all this effort to find out that you have no options because of your location. It happens all the time.

As for being a number, I prefer it. Give me my assignments and make sure my check is right. We'll get along golden.

So, with no name or picture, did he quit the site or did a moderator?

I looked up side effects of Lortab (hydrocodone and acetaminophen) and was going to talk with him about that. Oh well.

Laura

So, with no name or picture, did he quit the site or did a moderator?

I looked up side effects of Lortab (hydrocodone and acetaminophen) and was going to talk with him about that. Oh well.

Laura

That's a different hair follicle thread. They've been very popular lately. I believe that one was stated by Sean.

IDK what happened to ginger here though.

i just dont get how me asking about HF turned into a Thread about swift.. i actually Can get a job with one of the guys who use to work with Swift. but they require i have 6 months Exp.. which is normal. Another guy isnt in the industry any more as his wife came down with stage 4 Breast cancer . but he said if he ever got back into it he wouldnt go with swift again.. i just look at it as if a 95% of the people i talk to ( who dont know each other at all ) have the same things to say i take that into consideration . i personally have nothing against the company. i just dont think it would be a fit for me . But i would come in contact with 10x drivers a day for a year i asked them all the same questions . how long have you been driving , where did you do school, how do you like it , what company did you start with. would you go back to the company you started with. thats what im saying they're not the company for me yet people keep trying to sell me on it or argue with what i said about it ,, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. that is mine.. No i dont want to work for a company that puts me on a bus , no i dont want to work for a company that has 40+ people in orientation. 1500 accidents in 2 years doesnt seem appealing to me , granted its not the companies fault and im sure some if people who dont listen but also im gonna go out and say partly due to training. it may be for some people to work there but not for me . Thanks for the reply.

I understand saying no to companies for some reason or another. I said no to PAM because they required me to team with another rookie for 6 months. I said no to CRST because teaming isn't for me. The wall you're hitting here with swift is that the only reason you say it's not for you is because of what other people said.

I have a question. If you know so many people that moved on from swift and have been happy at their current companies for years, why don't you try one of those companies?

What were they teaching me? other than talking about SWIFT? i asked a question and it was answered in the first 2 comments. people left Snide comments so i replied.. just the kinda person i am .. i also emailed you to ask you to delete the the thread. never once did i say i knew everything as nothing on this thread at all is about driving or safety and everything is about 1 company.. this whole thing got so far off topic. but it is what it is ...

Folks, our friend here "Mr Ginger" has 5 posts pending approval. I can sum up each one of them like this:

"I'm new to trucking, but I have it all figured out. Here are the reasons I'm the smartest guy in the room and you guys know nothing."

He says things like, "People who would come late and leave early, leave for break early and come back late, and do half the work get treated like kings. People like me who kept their heads down and worked our asses off [get treated like crap]."

If you want me to approve his posts so you can argue until the end of time with someone who believes that makes sense and has no interest in listening, I'm happy to do it. Many others will learn from your advice, even though he won't. But I'm warning you, this guy is a professional know-it-all and makes up whatever he wants to believe, so be careful what you wish for!