This Is How We Roll!

I drive for one of the most infamous companies, Swift Ttansportation. With what you hear on the internet, it definitely sounds scary, however I have learned in a short time that it is just not true. Same goes for a lot of the other beginner companies.

I dropped out of college basically after failing too many classes that I lost financial aid and scholarships. I was working at the truckstop in my hometown and learned quick that I hated being a cashier. Barely making any money and not getting rewarded for being a good worker that I had to change it. This lead to me getting interested in trucking and eventually making the moves to do it.

In March of this year I went to the Phoenix academy for swift and by April had my cdl. Fast forward to now and I have been solo for 3 months. The simplest way I can put my experience is that it has been life changing. I have seen things I probably would have never seen, paid off a credit card that would have took 2 years at my old job, and above all I have better mental health. I have anxiety and never took medication for it. I just always dealt with it. Now with this new lifestyle I am a lot calmer and just go with the flow. I am an introvert so I do well being alone.

I have no regrets and I am glad I am doing this. Just a little words of advice from my mistakes. Talk to your DM when you have a problem. I made a mistake of thinking the office didn't want to get me home when that was far from the truth. They are here to help you and want you to succeed!

I work for that "starter" company, the big one; Swift. I trained with them and by choice have stayed with the for 4 years. I prefer to call them the jump-start company. As for my driving career, that's exactly what they did.

Like every huge, for-profit corporation they are not perfect. Then again neither are we. And less than perfect we all are during the first year, the rookie year. I made my share of mistakes, learned from them and through it all Swift hung in there with me. Attitude, humility, professionalism and effort is and in my case was rewarded.

I am quite happy with Swift, running Walmart Dedicated. It's not until completion of the first year that you soon realize they will go above and beyond to take good care of their experienced, top performing drivers.

Hi everyone, just signed up today. Thought I would give my experience so far. Obtained my CDL at a TDI school in Florida where myself and soon to be wife attended. We signed on with Werner. Evidently we are the first non-married couple that they are training together. We reported Oct 23rd. We started orientation on the 24th and completed it the 26th. Sat the 27th they let us come to practice our maneuvers. As a matter of fact the instructor even came in on his day off, with out pay even, just to help us. (the way they do there maneuvers is different than the way we were taught in school). They are in the process of putting together a truck for our training because they didn't have enough team training trucks. So we are in a holding pattern waiting to get on the road. We can not wait. Everyone has been fantastic. While we have ran into a couple of whiny folks, our experience has been great so far. I would recommend to everyone to make up your own minds about the company they want to work for and remember that every company is going to have disgruntled employees.

Well I started at McElroy Truck Lines a little over a year ago. I love it. Since day one orientation everything has gone just about as I was told it would. My trainer was a great match for me. We got along great and are friends to this day. We often call each other about different shippers or consignees and sometimes just to BS each other. Originally I had a 2013 truck but my first week it started giving me some problems so they switched me to a 15 model with only 80K as mileage and drove it my first year. I've got a 100,000 solo miles with them and now working on that 200 mark. I have switched trucks recently as I started training. Still in a 15 model as we are probably about 6 months away before we start getting any new trainer trucks. Also about 1 month into my driving solo my dads health took a bad turn. Notified my FM that it might be a short notice that I need to get home. He said just let me know when, I finally had to call him on a Wednesday and was home Thursday morning and at the hospital by noon. My dad passed over that weekend and their response "Let me know when you think you're ready to come back to work". Pretty much the same recently why my father in-law passed away. Called them one evening to prepare them what was going on. They called me the next morning (Friday) told me to roll on to the house and check on your family. I've seen our drivers pitch in and donate $10K after a fellow driver passed away only to have the McElroy family match it. I won't put my salary out there but I feel comfortable saying I think I made pretty good my first full year with them. More than what most will tell you is avg for first even second year driving for a company. And did it while avg probably 1800-2000 miles/week and home every Friday, leaving either Sunday afternoon/evening or some Mondays. I really feel your career is 90% your attitude, how you carry yourself and how much you really put into it.

I work for Stevens Transport, a company that has a business model built on being a training company.

I'll preface this by saying that I do plan on moving to a different company soon, because the pay per mile at Stevens is low for newer drivers (30 CPM). However, Stevens has an excellent training program, and strong support for new drivers. If you finish the Stevens training program and get six months under your belt with no major malfunctions, almost any major carrier will hire you.

Here was the start of my conversation with a Knight recruiter:

"I've been a Stevens driver for five months solo, 48k miles, no accidents, no incidents-" "You're hired if you keep that up another month."

I didn't even finish the sentence and was already verbally hired. I've now been solo more than six months, and I'll be talking to Stevens about my first pay increase. If it's as small as I've been advised it will be, then I'll be moving on, probably to Knight.

That said, normally, I get the miles that I work for. When I came of home time at the end of the first week of this month, I had a 2100 mile load dropped in my lap, and before I was unloaded, I had a 1300 mile preload.

But there are bad weeks too. I got routed into the Northeast, and was stuck with a three-drop load, spread over 4 days, with a total mileage of 950. The load was so terrible I was able to take a 34 between stops. I was very unhappy. When that was done, I talked to my driver manager and NE planner, and got a 700 mile load that took me into Illinois. Then I talked to the planner for Illinois, and advised that I'd had only 1650 miles in 6 days, and he put me on a 2200 mile load to California.

While I was en-route, while sitting in the Loves at Wamsutter, WY, I got a repower note on my Qualcomm...

I stared at it for a few seconds, did the math for delivery in my head again, then called my DM and got the extension of the planner that sent the message.

When I talked to them, they said they had looked at my driving history and I wouldn't be able to make the delivery.

WTF??

I then realized that he was probably looking at my most recent week. I explained what had happened and asked him to look at prior weeks, and my historical utilization score. I was also running overnights, so instead of two 600+ mile days, he was seeing a 480, 650, and 175 mile day.

We got into a discussion and he told me that most drivers only dive about 500 miles per day, and chase their 70.

I explained that even though I was getting some hours back in time to finish the load I was on, I rarely chase my 70, I beat it to death and then sleep on it. He was amused by that and after a couple minutes agreed to let me keep the load.

That night, I finished a 750 mile day, in a 62 mile per hour truck.

Most other solo drivers at Stevens would have had 900 easy miles yanked out from underneath them. The load I was going to be swapping for was comparable miles, but with a delivery date two days farther out. I will finish the 34 I'm taking now and be driving a fresh 70 before I would have finished that delivery.

The moral of the story?

From what I've heard from most of the major carrier drivers here, and in my own experience, what you do to get where you are defines what you will be offered in the future. Most people will recognize that this is true for most facets of life, but it seems especially true in trucking.

This thread got me thinking about some youtube videos I watched before I went into trucking.some had me saying "oh my god, that dispatcher is horrible." One in particular shows a driver whining to dispatch that he's tired and can't drive 120 miles cause his break was too long. Back then I thought the dispatcher was evil. Now I think the driver was a little wuss and if he pulled over and took a nap for the same amount of time he argued with dispatch he could have delivered the load.

I think I am like most drivers and not micromanaged. We choose when to eat sleep and drive for the most part. Of course we work around appointments but no one is calling me up saying "why did you take a 2 hour break just now".

So I thought it important to point out that a great relationship with your dispatcher can make life wonderful and profitable. Just do your job safely and arrive early.

One day I messaged dispatch "still at the receiver. Won't make the next shippers appointment. Will give an ETA when I get unloaded." I wasn't expecting this....

Dispatch can be your best friend. They make money if you are rolling. So keep them happy, and keep rolling. You will both profit.

Rediscovered this thread and wanted to bump it back up. I'll be back later to add mine... phone's about to black out...

Today was thanksgiving and I was out on the road eating at McDonalds. The woman there was so nice and even came around the counterr to give me a hug. I bought a bag of candy to give out to the McD employees as a thank you for.coming to.work on the holiday. It doesn't take much effort to make people smile, and I must admit I'm very thankful I changed careers and am where I am today.

I'm also thankful for this board and all of you who have provided me with knowledge and laughs along the way.

Today was thanksgiving and I was out on the road eating at McDonalds. The woman there was so nice and even came around the counterr to give me a hug. I bought a bag of candy to give out to the McD employees as a thank you for.coming to.work on the holiday. It doesn't take much effort to make people smile, and I must admit I'm very thankful I changed careers and am where I am today.

I'm also thankful for this board and all of you who have provided me with knowledge and laughs along the way.

I was on the receiving end of candy the other day. I was the last truck out before the shipper on duty left on Thanksgiving eve, at the Reese Dr Hershey plant in Hershey, PA.

There must have been a pound of Reeces mini-cups in the bag. I ate candy with every meal. Probably gained a couple pounds doing it.

Today was thanksgiving and I was out on the road eating at McDonalds. The woman there was so nice and even came around the counterr to give me a hug. I bought a bag of candy to give out to the McD employees as a thank you for.coming to.work on the holiday. It doesn't take much effort to make people smile, and I must admit I'm very thankful I changed careers and am where I am today.

I'm also thankful for this board and all of you who have provided me with knowledge and laughs along the way.

Rainy that was a very thoughtful gesture. The "cost" for offering kindness is very low, the gratification from giving it is priceless.