Comments By Jarod(Red)

$9.50/hour $450-$500 per week hardly seems like a good paycheck to be driving 10 hours a day six days a week. That's about what I made driving a School Bus. The lady on the phone said I would be making 37 cents per mile and about $750 a week, and would get a raise after the first year.

That's what you'll be making once you go solo. You'll first have to go on the road with a mentor first for a while which doesn't pay that much.

Brett nailed it, $9.50/hr is only while your with your mentor. Swift will pay you .36 cents per mile once you upgrade and go solo.

Do u get time to study? I would think that being on the road for all the time would not get you the time to study before the test? How is the test formatted? Is it all written questions or is there some multiple choice questions with it?

You'll have plenty of time to study, it's stuff you learned in Orientation and on road. Its 60 questions that are multiple choice. Your allowed 2 hours of On Duty Not Driving time in passenger seat when your mentor is driving, you can go over your training manual then, also when your loading and unloading, its easy test.

How hard was the Written test? What % do you need to get to pass the written test?

Written test is easy, its based on stuff you learned in Orientation and material that is in your training book. You'll need to get 80 percent on it to pass.

I have been accepted into Swift and will be starting training soon in Illinois. Has anyone been with this company, I just want an idea of what to expect? Thanks!

Are you training at Swift school or independent school. I been with Swift few months now. I went to school at Swift/Central training program in West Valley City, Utah

The training is at Lake in the Hills, Il. Eagle Truck Training School.

Oh ok, well after you graduate and get your CDL you'll go to a terminal and do 3 days of Orientation. You'll watch videos and sign some paperwork, do your drug screen. On 3rd day you'll get your employee handbook and your training packet, you'll also get your Comdata card and your driver code on day 3. You'll get a training packet that needs to be filled out by your mentor while your out on road, it consist of how your driving, what your strong points are, what you need to work on, and you'll need to complete 42 backing maneuvers total to be able to upgrade to solo driver. Your first 50 hours behind the wheel your mentor will be in front with you, after that you'll do 150 hours driving team with your mentor, so 200 hours total you have to do before you can upgrade to solo status. You'll get $950/hour for your driving time, and you'll get minimum wage for your time you log On Duty Not Driving. Doesn't seem like much, but it comes to about $450-$500 a week. You have to remember that your first 50 hours you'll be mainly the only one driving the truck, so if your driving 10 hours a day for 6 days that's not bad paycheck. When you complete your 200 hours you'll go back to the terminal and you'll have a written test you need to pass and also another driving test that you will take to prove you can operate the truck safely, if you pass you will be assigned your own truck.

I have been accepted into Swift and will be starting training soon in Illinois. Has anyone been with this company, I just want an idea of what to expect? Thanks!

Are you training at Swift school or independent school. I been with Swift few months now. I went to school at Swift/Central training program in West Valley City, Utah

So if swift does not have APU's in the trucks and you can not have the truck idle because of idle laws does that mean you just have to survive the summer heat?

Not really, you can get around Idle Cut off and idle the truck like normal. My buddy has built an AC out of his power cooler and set up some hoses and a fan that blows out cool air that cooler produces, pretty nifty stuff.

Yeah it shuts off truck after 5 minutes, if Im behind wheel doing paperwork I can cancel it by tapping accelerator, but I have heard of guys using sticks and poles to push down the accelerator to keep it from shutting off. Only reason I wanted APU is for AC in summer, winter isn't bad because the bunk heaters work really well, close off curtains and seal in sleeper and that bunk heater will warm up sleeper.

I just said I was considering running Lease/Op. But I have been considering that for couple months now, not just because of idle control, but because I'd like to run my own business and have my own truck at some point in future. And I know first hand its not easy, both my father and uncle are Owner Ops, both have told me not do it yet, and I didn't plan on doing in in next month or anything, I was considering doing it in a year. And I just cancel out Idle Control by setting my cruise control, its not a big deal.

I have noticed a large amount of Somalians that are training with Swift, when I was in training in West Valley, Utah out of 100 guys on training pad 75 percent were Somalian, I was shocked. I had found out that the government is paying Swift to bring these guys in and "try" to train them to drive a truck, and also the Somalian students were given money each week for food and etc while they were in training. It kind of bothered me because there were some of us eating mayo sandwiches and drinking water and struggling to make it through 3 1/2 weeks of training while others were getting a weekly allowance to live on. And their ability to drive, well most of them, is horrible. Most of them couldn't understand English or speak it, and when an instructor would give an instruction like "accelerate" or put down your splitter, they would stare and not do anything. When instructor would look at their license they would see that they had only had a US operators license for a year. There were Somalians jack knifing trucks all over the yard, and that's was on straight line back. I had Somalian student in my truck on road trip that bumped into a construction worker in an industrial park, then hit an instructor out on training pad and Swift still didn't want to send him home, the final straw was when he was doing a straight line back and was in high reverse and almost ran over 10 students and a guard rail and lamp post and jack knifed truck again. I have no issues with immigrants coming here to work, but it was not a safe situation and unless they are going to get a Somalian instructor they shouldn't be taking some of these guys because they cant speak and read basic English. Now there were a couple that were pretty good, the difference with them though is they were in country longer and could speak and read English and was able to understand instruction. I feel like Swift needs to rethink bringing in some of these guys. Since I have been on the road I have noticed a lot of the Somalian drivers and they aren't able to go into a truck stop that they cant pull forward in, most can't do any backing maneuvers, I had to help a CR England driver back into a dock at Tractor Supply in Washington because he didn't understand the basics of backing. I can understand why Swift has bad rep out on the road, but I also know we as a company have a lot of good veteran drivers out there also.

Whats everyone's opinion on the per diem option? I thought about it but not sure