As far as Swift goes, The school is 4000, however if you stay with swift they will repay your schooling to you. You will have 6 weeks with a trainer at trainee pay, 450 for the first 4 weeks then 500 for the last two weeks. You will get your reimbursements for schooling beginning on your 7th consecutive paycheck, Unless you have a circumstance extended your training, then you will get reimbursements the first payperiod after you complete training and are running solo.
You will go through a complete background check and THEY DONT MISS ANYTHING, trust me I know. Ive terminated at least 30 drivers over 3 yrs for failing to report things on their apps, only prob is that swift security takes about 9 weeks to get the checks complete. Pay is not bad down south, FLorida is bad. It is a consumer state and therefore alot of traffic into the state, not alot of freight out of the state. The best freight is if you run out west. Especially california and the shuttle runs.
They pay your motels and they pay layover pay to a certain extent, IE you arrive to a shipper ontime and do the proper macros and the shipper takes too long to load you, then you will get layover pay. However if you mess up then you forfeit that. Repairs do not come out of your pocket if you are a company driver, only owner ops pays for their own repairs. There is a certain amount of breakdown pay for owner ops, its a different amount for company drivers I believe.
620 miles a day is not all you can drive, you have a log book and you are restricted by time. You can drive for 11 straight hours then your required a 10 hour break, you can have a total on duty time of 14 hours before being required to take a 10 hr break.
Hometime is unpaid everywhere, but its no different than working 9-5 and having weekends off. No job pays you to sit at home.
I've met all kinds of drivers Especially working so close with our recruiters and students and mentors. Both experienced and non. And theres two types of drivers, motivated drivers with initiative, and those who arent, they run a load, take a few days off andrun another load, turn down short miles and sit for 5 days waiting for the 3000 mile run. It just depends on how you work, it also depends on what terminal you are based out of and the freight in that area. I have had team drivers complaining of no freight and needing to make a living, while a solo driver comes in right behind them and he's making 1500 a week.
These arent the days when you can keep two log books and make a bazillion bucks driving anymore. Its difficult, I have alot of respect for alot of drivers, they have it rough. But like any other job it is what you make of it.
Oh the reason they make you go home to get your cdl now by the way is because, all the student going through the memphis and san antonio schools were having trouble with their cdl's. San antonio issues a paper permit, which is unaccepted almost everywhere, and students are required to get their cdl in their homestate within 90 days anyways. Too many students were procrastinating and they were being put on safety hold(means they cant drive) which shuts down the mentors truck and they cant get dispatched. Its easier to have the student just get licensed in his homestate from the get go and makes life easier on the company and the student and the trainer in the long run.
Swift aint the best out there, but for a beginner its a great start. Once you have some experience under your belt with a company like swift or werner, then eventually you can sign on wiht an owner op or become an owner op yourself. If you get a trainer for a dedicated run sometimes they will keep you on hte dedicated run right outta training. (Supervalue and the Target dedicated is the best. But you need to be reefer qualified) Swift tells you that students dont get dedicated runs until they have beenw ith the company for 1 year. However ifyou have a good trainer then they can get you pulled in.
Theres alot of detail to any driving job, if you need work though the best thing to do is grab your balls and jump in. Even if it dont work out the training pay alone is still a flat rate paycheck despite what the freight might look like.
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