I graduated from commercial driving school and went to work for swift. They would pay $150 a month towards my tuition for driving school. I went into the otr position and was told i would average 2500-2800 miles a week.
I was told by the recruiter that swift would find a mentor / trainer that lives near me so that i could go home whenever he / she goes home. I spent six weeks with a mentor who lives approximately 800 miles away from me and did not get home. Oh well, got to get the training over with some way.
After six weeks with mentor i was released to go solo. My first four weeks as a solo driver i did not get over 800 miles per week. And, no, i was not refusing load assignments. My fifth and sixth week i averaged 1300 miles per week. During this time i spoke with my driver manager advising her that i could not continue to work for swift with these kind of miles, that i have a family to provide for and the bills were not getting paid. Eventually i spoke with the terminal manager at greer south carolina who assured me the miles would increase. They did not.
My understanding is that this has happened to many people. They get you as a driving school grad and you move a LOT of freight and burn a LOT of miles during your six weeks training ($300 week pay) then when you go solo and its time for them to pay back your school loans, no miles,, almost begging you to quit.
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