Don't walk, "Run From This Company."

I am starting orientation with Barr Nunn tomorrow. I live in the southeast and I'm going to run solo otr. I am hoping to get home every other weekend. I've seen and heard good and bad about this company. Sounds like it largely depends on the driver/dm combo. Freight is slow for all companies right now but hopefully with spring around the corner and a public that seems more confident in its leader the economy will start to turn around. As soon as people start spending some money this economy should start shifting in our (drivers) favor.

 

Hope you'll have the opportunity to post here this weekend, after orientation. I'm scheduled for orientation on Monday. I assume that living in AL, you're going to Charlotte for orientation?

 

I got a buddy who's dad is a O/O for them. He had no complaints except it took them almost 2 days to find him when he had a stroke(at the reciever) Guess dock workers aren't always smart enough to figure out "we're waiting on a truck and there is a truck sitin there maybe it's for us" Anyway like I said he was a O/O and bought the truck from the company, unlike most companies who cut your miles to get you in a new truck they always gave him the miles he wanted even when he payed off the truck.

 

Normally I would have had orientation in NC. I was in Des Moines this week for

orientation with another company and that didn't work out so I called my recruiter

and said "guess where I'm at" lol. So he just set me up with a room up here and

scheduled me to start orietation Wednesday in Des Moines

 

Have Been Trucking For 20+ Years Now And Have Herd All The Lies From Recruiters, Dispatch, Managers, Other Driver's And Of Course The CB !But These People # Barr-Nunn Has Got Them All Beat !
The Recruiter Called me Several Times With New Lies Every Time He Called And Every Time He Called Me He Always Made The Company Sound Better And Better And Told Me To Check Out There Web Site So I Did, Man They Got A Good Website !Check Out There Nice Picture Of The Columbia Condo Tractor And Read About There Nice Equipment. The Web Site Made Me Interested So I Let Him Sign Me Up For Orientation Just Before Christmas 08 In Charlotte NC .They Sent Me An E-mail Telling Me What To Bring Where To Go And WhoTo Call. I Called The Motel a Couple Of Days Before The Orientation, They Was Susspose To have All The Information I Needed On The Motel And The Free Taxi Ride From The Bus Station.
I Called About Six Times And All They Could Say Was Yes And No And Kept Hanging Up The Phone ! They Had No Clue About Barr-nunn Or What Taxi Cab Company That I Was Sussposed To Use, Yes And No Was All The English They New! I Never Could Get In Touch With The Recruiter So I Went ahead And Left That Sunday Morning And When I Got To The Buss Station i Called A Taxi Company and Paid The 26.00 Fare Out Of My Pocket On top Of The 78.00 Bus Fare Which I Never Got A Dime Back For !
When I got To The Motel They had no Clue Who i Was Or Why I Was There Or Who The Hell Barr-Nunn Was. After about a half Hour Or So And An Interpreter I Got A Room If You Could Call It That ! It Was The Most Nastiest Stinkingest Room That I Have Ever Been In ! Went to Bed Hungry Because There Was No Way That I Was Going Out On The Street To Hunt A Place To Eat After Seeing All The Boy's In The Hood Walking The Street's !!!
The next Morning Setting And Waiting Untill 9:00 For Someone From Barr-Nunn To Come Pick The 8 Of Us Up Without Any Breakfast Or Even A Cup Of Coffee We Went about 15 Miles To The Charlotte Terminal Because They Are To Cheap To Get A Decent Motel On That Side Of Town! The Van Driver Had A Cup Of Coffee And It Sure Looked #### Good. I Tried To Get Him To Stop And Let Us Get a Cup Because We Had Not Had Any Yet And He Said No because We Where Running Late ! Now Whose F Fault Was That ? I Wonder !
When We Pulled up # There Terminal If You Could Call It That! I Thought OH MY F ###### WHAT A DUMP ! And When I Saw The Nasty Junky Equipment I started To Just Walk Away and call A Cab, Did Not look Like The Truck On The Website. The Web Site Showed a Nice Condo These Where Old Worn Out Mid Roof's Not A Condo On The Yard ! Most Of Them Where Just Junk With Flat Tire's, Bent Up, Nasty , Greasy, They Where Completely Striped Down Models With Small Fuel Tanks, Non Sliding Fifth Wheels, No Bunk Heater's/Cheap Seats, No Wrap Around Curtain's No Heated/Power Mirror's, No Power Right Sde Window,No Fog Light's I Could Go On and On But To Make A Long Story Short The Trucks Are Just A Piece Of ###### ! I Have Not Seen A Piece Of Junk Like That Since The Early Eighty's!
Well Still No Coffee Nothing To drink Or Eat They finally Got Us A Sandwich Brought In No Mayo Or Mustard Or Anything To Go On It no Chips No Drink!
They Did give You A Coupon For Supper For One Night At The CATFUYANG Restaurant Near The Motel If You Wanted To Walk Down The Street And Take A Chance That You Would Get There And Back Alive.
When They Started Telling You What You Would Make And The Few Miles That You Would Get Driver's Started Disappearing From 8 Drivers it Got Down To Three And When I Got The F Out Of There, They Was Only Two Left Dont Know Where They Stayed Or Not.
The recuriter Missed It By 5 cents a Mile And By 1000 Miles A Week They Said You Would Only Average About 1500 Miles A Week And Make About Four Or Five Hundred Dollars A Week Before Taxes ! Get F Real Who Can Live On That?
I Could Go On But This Has Gotten A Little Long But Take My Advise And Stay AWAY From These Liars It Took Alot Of Money Out Of My Pocket That I Did Not Have To Find Out About Them.
Made the mistake
columbus, Ohio
U.S.A.

 

So why were you in Charlotte? Why weren't at washington court house terminal? Sounds like you were not communicationg with Barr-Nunn. Why would you go ahead and leave without talking to someone if hotel problems had come up? They have 2 orientations a week. You could of waited til Monday and talked to the recruiter.Then went to a Wednesday start.
And what you say about there trucks is not true! I'm sitting in one right now.
You said that you 've been trucking 20 years.I bet this has happened to you at other companies too.

 

I started orientation today in Granger IA. I was here for orientation with another

company but it didn't work out. I had been offered a job with Barr Nunn prior to

taking the other job so I called my recruiter and they paid for the cab from the other

companies hotel to the hotel Barr Nunn put me up in and paid for. There was a good

overall atmosphere at Barr Nunn. I filled out a bunch of paperwork and met with their

operations manager and safety man who were both up front about what was

expected of me but very friendly. Then it was off to the shop to meet the shop

manager who explained how he liked things done and was also very friendly.

He also showed me my truck which was clean and showed no major signs of abuse. I

will have more of an opportunity to look at it tomorrow. They gave 2 more cpm than

what the recruiter had offered me after I had a chance to talk to them in detail about

my experience. As of right now I'm supposed to do some more paperwork and meet

my FM in the morning. Then get my truck in the afternoon and be scheduled a load

headed for the house so I can pickup some things. All in all I'm happy. As always

seeing is believing and time will tell but as far as orientation goes so far so good.

 

Even if the other guy got into an older truck he would have been further up the list for a trade in as trade ups are done on milage not seniority. Our trucks have air bag dump power windows on both sides as well as power mirrors on both sides. We can idle if we need to and the new trucks have APU's.

Granted the milage guys are not getting the miles right now but most companies are in the same situation.

I can honestly say that Barr-Nunn, when the freight is moving is one of the best companies to work for. Especially if you need to be home on a certain day. I've worked for companies like Heartland Express that just don't care about their drivers and can tell you first hand that the driver that wrote the note about how bad his experience was with Barr Nunns equipment is a bit of a stretch.

 

I agree with shadowrider, I have also posted here before. I have 18 years experence driving. During recriting and oritention, they tell you exactly what they think you want to hear in order to get you in the seat. And maybe the first couple of months they are nice to you. Then they forget everything that they said, and you are left holding the bag and trying to figuare out how to feed your family. Unless you like to do a lot of Fed EX and run a couple hundred miles during the night and then sit all day the next day, then you will be lucky to get a load then, trust me you will do a lot of sleeping in Fed Ex yards, that is the ones that will let you. And of course they do not want you to move to far to a truck stop, so half the time you sleep on the street, with no facialties, or food close. Then when you do load up, you have just enough time to get to the next Fed Ex hole. I have seen companies that treat the dirt under the rug better then they treat thier drivers.