The Swift Fiasco

There are a lot of perks with being an over the road driver. What other job would enable us to spend 24/7 together? We can’t afford to live, but we do get to drive each other crazy, and have fun.

Soapbox Alert!

Last week I read a news story on OOIDA's Landline magazine regarding last years fiasco at the Swift training center in Memphis Tennessee. Last January, officers from about 6 different law enforcement agencies, including The Secret Service, ATF, Immigration, US Marshalls, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Tennessee department of Safety, raided a CDL training facility run by Swift transportation. Hints were made that there were immigration violations and illegal issuances of CDL licenses.

The link to the entire story is here: http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2009/Feb09/020909/021309-02.htm

------ they are finally confirming it was the Swift transportation facility that was involved. Ok, this is almost a year later. Now they are saying that CDL’s (commercial drivers licenses) were issued to drivers that were enrolled in Swifts drivers training program. 5000 CDL’s are considered at question here and will no longer be valid. Drivers are contacted by their individual state are being told that they need to have the skills part of the test retaken or their CDL’s will be void.

So my take on this is, individuals wearing Swift instructor uniforms were testing drivers and issuing CDL’s, something that is normally (and legally) done by the state of Tennessee. Which raises several questions:
What knowledge did the state of TN have of this? How could they accept CDL’s from an organization not run by their state and issue actual licenses under these conditions??

The article goes on to state that NO CHARGES HAVE BEEN FILED AGAINST ANYONE IN THIS MATTER…………..huh??????? Obviously some wrong doing went on somewhere if 5000 CDL’s are not valid!!! If no laws were broken , and no “wrong doing” occurred, then why are these drivers being informed that their licenses are no longer valid??

So yet again, big corporation and big brother are giving the screw to …. You guessed it………the american truck driver. I guess its not enough that these big corporations like Swift are driving the freight rates down into the toilets, they need a hobby in their spare time too.