Dedicated Or Nahh?

can being put on a dedicated account as a new driver in the industry (Swift gives you the chance at 3 months) hurt me in the long run? As in like how most jobs say 1 year OTR experience. If I was a dedicated accounts driver for a year or say even 3 years would that not make a difference if companies only look at OTR experience? Also if I plan to not drive dedicated anymore would it be basically like starting over as a new guy & have to train OTR again? Basically what I'm asking is should I go dedicated or stay over the road? Not for money purposes so I don't care which pays more just asking as far as getting experience & moving on to a better company later in the future.

"Dedicated" simply means, in a way, that you work for a particular company, like driving for Walmart, Dollar General, Georgia Pacific, etc. Yes, you are a Swift driver, but 90% of your loads will be for one company. Swift provides to, say, GP some DMs, and trucks with drivers just for GP business.

For the last two months I've been "GP Dedicated". I'm Southeast regional , which means I do GP business from Texas+Oklahoma east to Georgia+Northern Florida. I drive for five days and take 34 +/- hours off at home. That big a chunk would be considered OTR.

Dedicated and regional are 2 different animals. I ran a dedicated GP account like Errol does at Swift for Roehl. I ran from south Ga or Al straight to Canada and back. It just depends how its setup and where your going. Regional is usually confined to a handful of neighboring states, which most companies would not view as OTR.

"Dedicated" simply means, in a way, that you work for a particular company, like driving for Walmart, Dollar General, Georgia Pacific, etc. Yes, you are a Swift driver, but 90% of your loads will be for one company. Swift provides to, say, GP some DMs, and trucks with drivers just for GP business.

For the last two months I've been "GP Dedicated". I'm Southeast regional , which means I do GP business from Texas+Oklahoma east to Georgia+Northern Florida. I drive for five days and take 34 +/- hours off at home. That big a chunk would be considered OTR.

Thanks Errol!

Theron, I drive for Swift's Dedicated Walmart (WM) grocery account. For three years I have worked on this account and enjoy most aspects of it. Although it's dedicated in a regional area, it is considered OTR experience.

The interesting part of the WM account, I have never felt like just a driver number with available hours. As PJ stated Swift is huge, but at least on the WM account I am 1of 100 drivers as opposed to 18,000. Working as a team I interact with the DMs and planners every day. As a result your efforts and productivity is noticed quickly and will benefit you with an increased level of flexibility and route selection.

Once a driver gets through the first 6 months of working on this account, and has learned the ropes (so to speak) you can expect a level of overall regularity that doesn't always occur with OTR running. It's not for everyone, you cover the same general geography every week, frequently backing in tight quarters and typically using most of the 14 hour on-duty clock each day. For me though it fits what I need in trucking and has yet to become boring. Definitely another choice for you to consider.

Let me know what else you'd like to know.

One additional point, each Swift WM dedicated account is associated with a single regional distribution center. WM has numerous DCs scattered throughout the US that Swift is affiliated with.

Theron, I drive for Swift's Dedicated Walmart (WM) grocery account. For three years I have worked on this account and enjoy most aspects of it. Although it's dedicated in a regional area, it is considered OTR experience.

The interesting part of the WM account, I have never felt like just a driver number with available hours. As PJ stated Swift is huge, but at least on the WM account I am 1of 100 drivers as opposed to 18,000. Working as a team I interact with the DMs and planners every day. As a result your efforts and productivity is noticed quickly and will benefit you with an increased level of flexibility and route selection.

Once a driver gets through the first 6 months of working on this account, and has learned the ropes (so to speak) you can expect a level of overall regularity that doesn't always occur with OTR running. It's not for everyone, you cover the same general geography every week, frequently backing in tight quarters and typically using most of the 14 hour on-duty clock each day. For me though it fits what I need in trucking and has yet to become boring. Definitely another choice for you to consider.

Let me know what else you'd like to know.

Ohhhh ok so it's dedicated regional. I didn't know that. I was thinking it was something like you drive to the walmarts in 1 particular city or state. I didn't know you still covered different states. That is not a problem to me at all just didn't know. I was thinking it was something like a Local job guess I got that mixed up & got confused. Thanks for clearing that up!

Yes, a hybrid of sorts. I cover all of NJ, DE, northeastern MD, southern NY to Binghamton, and the eastern third of pa (east of Harrisburg).

Occasionally I will run for a few days out of the Johnstown NY DC covering the eastern half of the state.

I have never counted the exact number of different stores and SAMs Clubs I have delivered to but it's well over 100.

Oh ok so once you are on a dedicated account they give you a certain Region to run? I live in Louisiana so I'm guessing that would be like south eastern

Oh ok so once you are on a dedicated account they give you a certain Region to run? I live in Louisiana so I'm guessing that would be like south eastern

Where ever the Walmart Distribution Center is located, draw a circle around it and you likely will cover about 200 miles in every direction. It's likely the mileage radius increases in population centers that are less dense.