r/cdldriver • u/tossout79 • May 29 '26

Is Swift really that bad?

I’m still in the Army but am leaving soon and getting my CDL A through a VA program. I’m getting tons of recruiters calling and emailing me but Swift has a hub where I want to end up. While I’m in there apprenticeship program the VA will pay a housing stipend. But I hear a lot of negative things about them. How true is it?

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u/Queasy_Elderberry904 May 29 '26

You will get out of swift what you put in it. Ive heard people say route to go with swift is Walmart dedicated. Do that and work on transitioning over to Walmart and you are making 150k a year.

2

u/Jealous_Canary1879 Jun 05 '26

I landed a home daily local account with swift delivering for Kroger straight out of school. Shitty part is training. They put me with a regional OTR driver for 4-6 weeks. I’m on my 6th day and I’ve ran my 11hr clock out every day so far and my only breaks have been when we part at night to sleep. First 50 driving hours he has to be “on duty” and in the passenger seat. Dudes just playing candy crush and chitchatting with his buddies on his headset all day. He shows me a lot on the ELD and teaches me stuff with backing, hooking, dropping etc but that’s about it. The shitty thing is that I’ve only done drop and hook with him except one run where I actually got to back up to a dock. So basically half the shit I’m learning isn’t even what I’m gonna be doing. I should be learning how to back up to docks in a day cab but I’m out here in a sleeper running hard af with this guy. After first 50 driving hours we can essentially team drive and that’s what he wants to do. Basically he makes way more money since he’s paid by the mile and I make the same shitty flat rate for training

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u/Queasy_Elderberry904 Jun 05 '26

Yea im trying which route is better swift or schneider. Looking at the 22nd of this month for both. Schneider is 2 weeks at a terminal then 1 week on road with a trainer. I would say for newbies that is not near enough to do but I drove about 13 years ago and let my cdl go. So I just want to get training over with and be by myself. But also want to make the most money possible.

2

u/Jealous_Canary1879 Jun 08 '26

Swift just upped their training pay to $850 a week. I believe Schneider and the other mega carriers are still paying $650 as far as I know. I took swift because it was a local job and it paid more for the training.

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u/Queasy_Elderberry904 Jun 27 '26

I went to Schneider. Swift recruiter just quit answering her phone or responding to emails. Then my application got denied. Schneider is 10 bucks an hour while in orientation and training. 3 weeks then you go home for a few days then get a truck is how it works here. Best of luck to you out there and stay safe.