Question:
I AM ABOUT TO GO TO WORK FOR SWIFT, AND I HEARD SOMEWHERE THAT THEY WANT YOU TO REFUEL ONLY AT THE TERMINALS, UNLESS YOU HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE.i WONDER IF ANYONE COULD COMMENT ON WHETHER OR NOT THIS IS TRUE. ARE A LOT OF COMPANIES THAT WAY? THE REASON THAT I ASK IS BECAUSE I KNOW THE TRUCK STOPS GIVE YOU A SHOWER WITH A 50 GALLON FILL UP. I WAS PLANNING ON GETTING FUEL DAILY SO I COULD SHOWER FOR FREE. I KNOW IT WILL ADD UP IF I HAVE TO PAY FOR SHOWERS ALL THE TIME. ANYONE WHO COULD PROVIDE SOME INPUT HERE WOULD BE APPRECIATED. THANKS FOR YOUR RESPONSES.

Answer:
My husband used to drive for Swift and yes, they will try to fuel you at the terminals whenever possible. Sometimes you will fuel at truckstops depending on the route for your load. Often, they will give you just enough fuel at a truckstop to get to the nearest terminal enroute.
Hubby was there until this past April. Sometimes they would give him a fuel route with a truckstop or terminal that would add several miles to his trip. What did he do? Simply drive on down the road and ignore that stop until he needed fuel, pull into the closest truckstop that accepts Comdata and call your driver manager and ask for emergency fuel
If you are lucky enough to get a good DM, you may be able to call him/her up and ask them to reset the fuel route for something that makes sense or add some miles to your load to make up for the extra miles you will incur. They CAN do this and will occasionally (probably by recalculating miles by practical route instead of shortest) but only if you ask about it. Hubby had some DM's who refused to do this so it doesn't always work but anytime the miles you run on a trip are a lot more than what they are paying you for, ask.
Oh, Swift terminals do have showers and towels you can use although the cleanliness of showers sometimes leave something to be desired (just like many truckstops). They used to be pretty decent but about the time of MS Carriers merger they started cutting back on cleaning people at the terminals Carry a spray bottle of disinfectant if you want and some flip-flops for shower.
Another option is pay your $5-7 at a truckstop for shower, submit your receipt along with pay sheet for your trip and Swift will reimburse you for it Pay careful attention to what they tell you about this in orientation and read the stuff they will give you and it explains the procedure. Just be sure and make copies of all receipts to CYA for just in case, especially expensive things like tolls, truck washes, etc. The company will give you an advance to cover the big things BUT if they never get their receipts from you, or if you dont put the info on them they need to identify WHO turned them in? The advance money will be deducted from your paycheck. If you turn in trip paks on time with receipts you will see the advance deducted from your pay but reimbursed on the same pay check (accounting purposes I guess).
Sorry this was so long, but there are many things you will learn that Swift won't tell you. It's a big company and it's kind of sink or swim, if you swim it will be up to you and your research efforts from places like this site and talking to other drivers at the Swift terminals when you are stuck there for some reason.
Good luck and be safe.
Answer:
Good luck on fueling in Martinsburg,WV. Everytime I pass by the Swift terminal there, there is a line of trucks trying to get through the fuel lanes. I would dare guess that a good 2 to 3 hours are wasted right there. But on the other hand, I am sure Swift is paying their drivers to sit out there in line. Right?

Answer:
I'm sure they log that time as well as get paid for it
Wyle E. Coyote
Supergenius!

Answer:
We only went to Martinsburg once, to get truck worked on and fueled then without delay. They used to route Hubby down there all the time but THAT was one of the stops we bypassed rather than go out of route down there.
The worst ones we ever experienced was the old Atlanta terminal and Columbus terminal. About a 90 minute wait there a couple of times. The new Atlanta terminal wasn't bad however. They've got about 6 or 8? pumps but may still not be using them all. Harrisburg, PA terminal was in the process of adding fuel pumps when Hubby quit because they were often out of fuel there.
I don't know if they are still fueling trucks at the old MS Carriers terminal in Columbus or not. If so, it is best to go there to avoid the lines. Hubby's DM used to send him there for that reason but we ran into other drivers whose DM's made them fuel at the Swift yard
No, you are not paid for the time you sit waiting to fuel so that is why you try to avoid those if possible or only go in there if you have time to kill. Hubby has pulled out of line and left when he had a tight delivery schedule and stopped down the road for emergency fuel at a truckstop. His DM never said anything, however the night/weekend people used to get a little argumentative at times and ask why you didn't use your preset fuel stop.
I'm not condoning any of the boneheaded things that Swift puts their drivers thru in the name of saving a few bucks for the company at the driver's expense (just like I'm sure other big companies do in one area or another). However, IF you are going to work there you might as well learn to make the most of it and maximize your earnings by learning what policies can be disregarded
I've read here many times that what fits in a company for one may not fit for everyone else. That is true but I think that most drivers who stay at a big company like Swift and are even halfway successful are ones who have learned to use the system to their advantage. They have learned which of the petty company policies the company truly enforces and which ones they are pretty lax about. A good DM will recognize that anything you do that is all about keeping the wheels turning without excessive delay (such as refusing to sit in a fuel line) is actually a good thing. Some DM's are lax in enforcement of company policies like overspeeds and some dedicated divisions seem to get special treatment too.
Once again, I say read the company policies but then talk to the drivers to see what really happens there for a better perspective. If you can find them look for drivers who have been there a little time and see what they have done to make it work for them. It also helps to be laid back and be able to take the occasional slap on the hand for overspeeds, etc. very gracefully and tell the DM you will try and be good and won't do it again, lol. All the while you are sitting there grinning on the inside knowing the DM is just doing his job and you will go right back to your usual habits just as soon as the company gets over it's "enforcement kick of the week". Hint: Take a cue from your teenagers if you have any.
When my husband quit there after 2 yrs. he basically quit on a whim. After 2 yrs there, he had his first problem with someone trying to jack him around about hometime. His DM was out of the office last 2 days of week and nobody else seemed to know anything about his scheduled hometime that weekend. So he called and talked to some guy who used a little profanity and got mad and hung up on him He ended up having to talk to fleet manager who said for him to go ahead and go home but talk to his DM about mixup when he came back in on Monday.
He called on Monday and talked to DM about problem and he told him they had needed him to go pick up load Monday night but he would go ahead and give him until Tuesday since he had 3 days off coming. Basically, due to demand of freight they were saying they needed him to only stay out 2 weeks at a time and take only 2 days off. And it was changing from 2 full days to 48 hrs too
That same day my brother told us about the flatbed job in newspaper. Hubby called, by Tuesday morning he had the job and called Swift to see where they wanted truck left. He drove it up to Eden yard, turned it in, drove to new job and climbed in new truck that evening. Seemed kind of like fate to us and a positive one until he fell off flatbed 2 months later.
However, things are looking up once again because once you get 2-3 yrs experience some decent jobs can be found.
Answer:
Questions:
Swift will route all loads? Where does driver responsibility / discretion come in for weather, legal roads and bridges or preferences?
Swift keeps track of and takes responsibility for the fuel gauge for the driver?
Swift requires a driver to run a particular path, but pays a driver (shorter miles) for another?

Answer:
To answer your questions:
1. Yes, Swift gives you a route along with your dispatch over the Qualcomm. It includes your fuel stops for that trip if needed. When you enter your driver status? or empty call? or both? (its been a while, thankfully I'm forgetting) you enter the amount of fuel according to your gauge. They are supposed to take that into account for your next trip as to whether you need fuel or not but that is an imperfect system at best. Many drivers enter as having less fuel than they actually have to ensure being given a fill up somewhere instead of lesser amount.
Swift says they pay all loads by Rand McNally miles which is a fancy term for Household Movers Guide as far as I can tell. It is close to the miles and routes given by PC Miler for the Shortest Route option. You shouldn't have to worry about low bridges with this BUT Hubby and I have saw situations where only an idiot would have followed the Swift route with a '53 ft trailer. Those are times we took the fastest route, which is not necessarily the shortest and he asked his DM to pay him for the mileage difference and explained the Swift route was not good for a truck (see above post). Every so often Swift gives drivers a performance review where your boss goes over your stats as recorded by Qualcomm like out of route miles, overspeed, etc. We always followed the best route for the trip and even with that Hubby's out of route miles were something like 8-12% which is good in a system where you hear about drivers with stats over 20%. You treat weather the same way. If the only sensible way mileage wise is thru bad weather and you don't want to drive, shut it down.
2. It is driver's responsibility to let company know fuel status (see above paragraph). If they ignore that info and give you a route that doesnt make sense then it is STILL drivers responsibility to get on phone and tell DM he needs fuel. Then you will be given a workable alternative.
3. If you run your route of preference you are still paid the fixed Household Movers Guide miles for the trip UNLESS you have a valid reason for running another route, such as illegal 53' access, bad roads (weather, curvy, etc.). In that situation Hubby would call his DM and explain why he took another route and ask for some miles to be added to his trip. As a rule of thumb any time he followed Swift's route to the letter and the miles paid were 8-10% shorter than what he drove (this if often the case with Household Movers Guide miles) he called and got miles added to his trip.
Answer:
sounds like a lot of wasted uncompensated time to me.I thought I had it bad with my company fuel stops I guess I am not that bad off anyway,other than having to use Flying Jackazz
aman