I worked for DSW for one (1) year. That was all I could take. Just what does a DM do? NOTHING!!! All they care about is MOVING THE FREIGHT.
Now, granted; that is what it is all about. BUT, it takes THREE (3), count 'em, three people WORKING together to accomplish that job.
According to DSW, it only takes ONE (1); the DRIVER! If you have a question about a particular route, or load, and you call your DM, the first thing he/she will tell you is: CALL SWIFT. DSW does not have it's own planners. They train the drivers, put them on a truck, then LEASE the entire setup to SWIFT.
This way they get out of all the responsibilties of "Running a truck". If anybody would bother to check they would find out that DSW does not have any O/Os. DSW is nothing more than a "Labor Leasing" company.
Now, there is nothing wrong with that. Until you run into a problem on the road. You call your DM (who happens to work out of the Tucson office); you will get one of two answers: "I can't help you"?! Or; "Call Swift".
So, you call Swift. What happens? They say: "Who is your DM? You say: "Joe Blow in Tucson". Swift says: "Then you will have to talk to him". It is a "Catch-22" situation.
You try and follow the proper channels, and all you get is a runaround. These companies want YOU (the Driver) to do it all.
They want you to plan the route, get your own directions to the customer, call the customer for delivery instructions and/or delivery times, and at the same time; drive the truck in a safe and efficient manner!!!
Oh, yea, and they REQUIRE you to fuel where they tell you too. Now, lets look at the figures:
You are given a 1,000 mile run. Let's be generous: you are being paid $0.32 a mile. So, you MAKE $320.00, BUT, what have you EARNED?
The average planner gets $10.00 @hr? It takes you 18 hrs to plan the run, (Because a good driver is constantly planning); You spend $5.00 (if not more) in phone calls to the customer to get Delivery times and instructions (Because your DM is to lazy to do it for you).
If we start "billing" these companies for what WE do, that they should do, maybe we will start MAKING the money we actually EARN, or, these DMs and Planners will stop getting paid to sit around on their butts and smoke cigarets and drink coffee. Thats all I have ever seen them do in Phoenix.
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