I recently resigned as a Driver for Swift Transportation for the following reasons:
1. During my time as a solo driver my weekly miles driven average is under 1,400 miles. This is not even equal to what I was making on unemployment.
2. I was involved in a situation where I had to make the choice of drive off the road of probably kill the driver of a car who went sideways in front of me. Swift recorded this as a preventable incident even though the Court in Missouri dropped all charges, citations and ability to prosecute. This was done when my attorney plead the case under the Missouri Statute that stipulates if one violates a traffic law in the action of protecting the life and/or safety of the public at large, one is held free from threat of prosecution. The tractor was damaged, the trailer was not and the load was not damaged. Swift has chosen to report that this incident was preventable and that the trailer and load were damaged in the incident. This is a lie.
3. During my tenure with Swift Transportation I was charged with two service failures. Now, Swift did not receive a service failure from either of the companies involved, but I was charged with a service failure. I am curious as to how that makes any sense at all. The second service failure was removed from my record when I submitted my letter of resignation under Hostile Work Environment conditions. The first one was a punitive manipulation of company rules designed to achieve retaliation for my opposition to an instruction given to me by a Driver Manager.in neither instance did Swift Transportation receive a Service Failure from a shipper or a consignee. I have all the documentation to prove my stand on this.
4. When employed by Swift I was told, along with everyone else in the orientation class that a driver earns one day of home time for each week on the road. Well, we do earn it, but are threatened in an attempt to keep us from taking time at home with our families. You are told that if you take more than 24 hours at home you have to clean out your truck and turn it over to another driver. Since it takes 1 to 3 weeks to receive a new tractor assignment once you don't have and assignment, that equates to a 1 to 3 week suspension of income for having taken you due time off. This is pure intimidation and a very family unfriendly company policy.
When one listens to the recorded brainwashing on the Swift Transportation phone line (listen for yourself, 1-800-800-2200) it states that Swift helps its drivers achieve their financial goals. Well, I did not have a financial goal of developing a close relationship with a bankruptcy attorney. But Swift provided that for me.in February I spent 24 days on the road in their truck and took home less than $1,000. I have pictures that prove Swift has no intention of providing over 1,600 miles per week of loaded mile driving for their drivers. That was their goal in March of this year, and they failed to meet their own goal.
I earned my first Class A License (they did not call it a CDL back then) in 1976 and I must say, this is at the top of the list for the worst companies I have ever had the displeasure of driving a truck for.
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