I have recently quit Swift and now working for a small company where I have a name rather then a number. I have many reasons to dislike Swift, but I will leave my personal opinions to myself and will try to state only the facts.
1) Recruiter will tell you that Swift runs state of the art late model equipment.
You will get to drive either Freightliner Columbia with 600,000 miles on it or Volvo 650 With a small sleeper. The trailers are not maintained as they should I had numerous citations for the trailers that I have pulled for Swift. Luckily the DOT cited the company and not me.
2) Swift will get you home every two to three weeks.
That is not always true. While I chose to run nonstop for a year and never taken or requested a home time I heard many complains from drivers sitting at the terminal unable to get home for weeks.
3) Swift maintains their equipment in their own state of the art facilities.
They will change oil in your truck about every 30,000 miles. That is if you are lucky to have time to wait for a day or two at the terminal to get to the shop for your maintenance. If you are under load while your oil change is due you will be asked to deliver on time. Basically have to go to the customer and worry about the maintenance later. When?
I sat for 21 days in Kansas City terminal waiting on them to fix my air conditioner. The truck eventually went to Volvo dealer for repairs.
4) At Swift you pay tolls with your own money and then they reimburse you.
Swift often fails to reimburse tolls or any other business expenses. If the toll receipt you get from the toll booth is unreadable (printer low on ink, the ink faded out) you will never see the money again. What you get reimbursed is on you check BEFORE taxes. So on all the tolls you also have to pay the tax.
5) Swift allows you to choose the area you are driving in.
Yes you can choose the area you want to be driving in, but you will not be driving in that area. You will be driving where they need you. Once you get on the East coast Swift will run you up and down it for as long as they can.
6) Swift trucks are all equipped with Optimized Idle system. (ICON, OptIdle, ect)
This system starts up and shuts down the truck all the time you are trying to sleep in it. When it is working properly (a rare case when it actually does). It will wake you up every few forty minutes or so. A loud beeeeeeeep followed by truck starting up. Most of the time the system does not work at all. I had a faulty OptIdle in my Freightliner for over four month. I was freezing in Montana and baking in Miami. The dispatch (driver manager) did not do anything about it. No matter how many times I have complained that I am exhausted and deprived of sleep. Try to sleep when it is 120F inside or when it is 34F. I can not. If the temperature outside is the same as inside for a part of the night the truck will not start at all. And if you fell asleep with your windows closed (was too hot when you went to sleep) then the idler will not start at all and you will consume all the oxygen in the cab and suffocate on your own carbon monoxide. Wake up in cold sweat from the nightmares. (your brains normal reaction).
7) Swift has a state of the art supply management technology.
While I was working for Swift I have not discovered the Time Machine (tm) button in my truck. Yet I was dispatched on 750 mile loads that were supposed to be picked up day before yesterday and delivered in some three hours. That is fine, but Swift is trying to stick you with a service failure because you are late.
8) Swift has good fuel management.
They will rout you with a hazmat load over a PA turnpike where you have to go through tunnels and the fuel stop is on the other end. You can only fuel at the authorized locations. Your fuel card is only open for so many gallons and for the only specific location for the specific trip. If you run the truck out of fuel it is your fault. You will be dispatched to fill up 300G of fuel and an hour later may end up picking up a 46,000 lbs load. You will not scale legal.
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