Harsh Reality

Well I don't know why it's this way but I am having difficulty with getting hometime. I live 3 hrs away from the terminal and they won't route me through there. I asked and I guess that is just the way it is. Any other swift guys with this problem? Or is it an issue with my home terminal?

I'm not with Swift, Devan, but I know when we ask to be routed through our hometown it's a process that involves at least two or three different departments. It may take a bit to set you up for a run through home.

For example, over a week ago we asked to be routed through northern Texas; we were in Missouri at that time and it has taken four runs (before this one) to set us up on one that we can detour from. Best advice I can think of is just keep asking...remind your DM daily.

I'm not with Swift, Devan, but I know when we ask to be routed through our hometown it's a process that involves at least two or three different departments. It may take a bit to set you up for a run through home.

For example, over a week ago we asked to be routed through northern Texas; we were in Missouri at that time and it has taken four runs (before this one) to set us up on one that we can detour from. Best advice I can think of is just keep asking...remind your DM daily.

Yeah I am on my first run. 31 days out. Didn't really want to go home but I thought I better rest to keep me from burning out. Decided to just do a 34 here at the home terminal and get back at it. I'll just keep on earning trust so I can get pull to run through there.

If you sent in the home time macro and you're late I think there's a flag on the screen whenever your info is displayed to planners and managers. As for the timing, I think that depends almost entirely on getting freight that direction. Of couse, polite, respectful reminders might help. This is how I think it works based on what I've seen from my very limited vantage point.

(@Rob: Devan lives in Basin Rouge. Think "I-10".)

Devan, Macro 8 ** HOME CALL ** should get you home time. The start date is important, though once I was 4 days late, but I home! There's plenty of business strings there, maybe you might get a delivery going to Opelousas, then a pickup in Port Allen a few days later. I know there's a trip from P.A. to South Pittsburgh, TN for ExxonMobil every few weeks.

What's your "home" terminal , Lancaster?

Albuquerque haha. Not even close to those areas you mentioned. I live in a small town on i25 near the Colorado border. I did put in home time 14 days in advance and they still have issue with me going through there. A big thing to is not a lot of freight goes through i25 compared to the others.

I did put in home time 14 days in advance and they still have issue with me going through there.

Ok so when were you supposed to be home? You said you put it in 14 days in advance but you didn't say when that was.

First of all, you're new so you're kinda at the bottom of the list of priorities right now. That's just part of being new and it's one of the reasons we encourage people to stay at a company for a while, prove yourself, and get to know the right people. If you had been there for a while and had proven yourself to be an excellent driver you wouldn't have this problem. So just kinda go with the flow and be patient.

If you put in home time 14 days in advance and say 20 or more days go by then there's a problem. You can't expect them to get you home right on time, every time. But if your dispatcher is blatantly ignoring the request, which they sometimes do to new drivers just to see what you'll let them get away with, then it's time to let dispatch know you're going to make some phone calls to get this resolved.

I don't recall having issues getting home, but I can recall several times over the years where the miles got soft when they shouldn't have. I would just tell dispatch, "Listen, I know the freight is there and I don't know why I'm having a hard time getting my fair share so I'm hoping you can get me rolling again like I should be. If it's a problem that's beyond your control then let me know so I can make some phone calls to management and see if I can get this resolved."

When you approach dispatch that way then they'll take care of you if they can. If it is indeed beyond their control, which it may be, then a phone call to their boss or the operations manager will get it resolved. So you're not trying to threaten anyone. You're just simply saying that things aren't going as they should be and you'd like to know if it's something that dispatch can fix or if it needs to be handled by someone with more authority.

Trust me, if you put in your home time properly and they're ignoring you, a quick "heads up" that you're going to make a call to management will suddenly resolve the problem. If it's beyond your dispatcher's control then you'll probably want to make a phone call or two to find out what's wrong.

Don't let it bother you. This is a huge part of the learning curve in the beginning. All new drivers go through this kind of stuff. You have to learn how to work with dispatch. At this point you don't really know what the problem is or who is to blame. Maybe you put in the wrong macro. Maybe your dispatcher is pushing your buttons. Maybe the load planners dropped the ball. Who knows? That's what you need to find out.

ErrolV is disabused:

Albuquerque

Ooooops!

It's possible things have changed too. I know when I got hired there was always plenty of freight to get me home but they lost the bid on the run that they would use to get those of us that live in that area home. So recently I've been having problems getting home on time too. I got really mad at dispatch about it and told him I was irritated and the next day I got a phone call from the planner who explained to me why they were having problems.

Devan, You went through the Swift Academy. They made a REAL BIG DEAL about your "M.I.S. I would bring it to your DL's attention. We were assured in school that Hometime was a PRIORITY at Swift Hold them to it! To those of you out of the Swift loop, M.I.S stands for MOST IMPORTANT STOP. We watched a video with Dad coming home to his Wife and Kids! Pretty corny but we were ASSURED that Hometime was a Swift PRIORITY