Pros
There's nothing truly exceptional about Swift. The company provides us with a paycheck and decent health insurance.
Cons
Their business model is to make use of cheap labor by hiring between 20 and 50 drivers each week at the majority (but not all) of their 39 terminals. Their policies and methods actually promote driver turnover. In the offices, they've set a goal of reducing their 100% turnover rate down to 95%. 1. Their pay for drivers is the lowest in the industry. 2. If you're a driver, you really have to be 110% on top of your pay to make sure you're getting reimbursed for company-related expenses and that you're getting paid for extra services. These extra paid items, such as layovers, breakdown, search for empty trailers, detention, load cancellation, trailer moves (jockying), etc., really need to be automatic and automated. 3. There isn't any training provided to let drivers know these pay categories exist beyond, "Here's a CD version of the driver's manual. Hope you have a laptop and know how to use it..." Believe it or not, not every driver has one or would know how to use it, especially older driver. 4. Company-specific driver training for prior-experienced new-hires is severely lacking. After just 3 days of orientation, they are released into their own truck and expected to know how to handle our Qualcomm devices, document cargo/bills, how to get paid, and everything else that changes from one company to the next. This leads to unnecessary, and commonly angry, drivers calling their driver leader to sort out issues that would never have been issues with the proper training. 5. 240 hours is by no means enough time to teach a new CDL holder how to drive safely. Swift has a very bad reputation regarding this among drivers, and our accident rate reflects this deficiency like a mirror aimed at the sun. 6. After 50 hours behind the wheel, the company expects new hires to start teaming with their trainers (mentors), and expects mentors to be willing and able to sleep while someone who's only driven a truck for a week is at the wheel, in inclement weather, including ice and snow. 7. Their entire pay incentive and schedule for mentors needs thrown out and completely replaced. As it currently stands, it greatly increases the risk of accidents, injuries, and deaths. Mentors should not have to team to be paid appropriately. Better training would result from a mentor who was always alert and appropriately compensated for their extra effort. 8. Better communication capabilities between drivers, planners, and customer service reps needs to be implemented. The current method of relying on task saturated driver leaders to be the go-between causes unnecessary delays and is extremely frustrating for both drivers and driver leaders. 9. Start reimbursing drivers for things you used to reimburse for. Showers, truck washing, especially. 10. Expand the number of employees on the ECT and provide them with better training. They are having to do the work of 20 or 30 with only 6 or 7. Obviously, this is extremely inefficient and time consuming, and frustrating. Hold times can be up to 20 minutes on the weekends and at night. 11. The majority of companies out there allow for inverters and even have auxiliary power units. How is it that Swift is behind on this one? Aren't we an industry leader? Best in Class?
