Reliable Carriers

I would venture to say people who have expensive collector cars, have put a lot of trust and given their business to Reliable. Not to say that their the only ones in the business, but I'd say their reputation precedes them.

 

Moved vehicles into and out of the annual Phoenix auto show for many years. Every year Reliable was there moving high end iron. Every Reliable driver I saw was 1000% professional.

I would say they will do the right thing with any vehicle they touch.

 

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Horseless carriage is along the same lines. High end expensive cars and such. Used to see them and their massive sleepers going across i-80 out west. Now I'm only running Midwest and never see them

 

Reliable has been around for a long time. You can find them at a lot of car shows. They have a lot of good looking trucks which are primarily owner operators. They have some company trucks one of which is to die for. The tractor and trailer is the owner's pride and joy and it is the largest studio sleeper you have ever seen. It even has a 2 stick tranny. I mean it is sweet! They have some open carriers and enclosed carriers. I decided to give them a call in the early summer of 2012. I wanted to join their enclosed division. I was told that they had no openings but that they had an opening in the open division and when an opening became available in the closed they would call me. I also asked them if they would mind sending me some close up pics of the truck that I would be assigned because I wanted to know what I was getting into before I agreed to move forward and they refused to comply.

So with a little reluctance I joined Reliable Carriers. When I arrived there, I was excited about all the trucks with the huge studio sleepers. I saw one open car hauler which looked like a piece of crap and I figured it was a truck that had been retired or something. The next morning I started my orientation and at the end of it all guess which truck I was assigned? That piece of crap that I saw in the back of their lot. I was so disappointed!! I spent more time in the shop getting that truck fixed and fixed and fixed. Besides rare and classic gems Reliable hauls a lot of prototypes and test vehicles for the car manufacturers. Several times, I hauled a load of prototype vehicles with HO packages to race tracks where they would be tried out by the general public for a healthy fee. In the mean time, I was expected to just wait in my truck wherever and at my expense without pay until they were ready to be reloaded and hauled to the next track. This would take at least 2 days and nights. This got old very quick.

I had to pick up 2 Fuso(Japanese)commercial test vehicles one time. One had 10,000 Lbs. of weight in the bed and the other had some kind of tall frame. The heavier one probably weighed 8,000 without the weight.I wanted to put the heavy and shorter truck over and behind the cab but there was a problem. With the mirrors completely pulled in, there couldn't have been more than 2 inches between the mirrors and the rails that you find on a Cottrell High Rail. On top of that, it was a stick shift and the engine had no guts. There was no way I could get it up that hill without breaking the mirrors and it kept wanting to stall as the clutch kept overheating and so I backed it on to the back of the trailer and drove the narrower but taller and much lighter truck up and behind the cab. Auto transports are not designed to haul large heavy vehicles like this. They should have been loaded on a detachable gooseneck. What a terrible ride it was from Canton, MI to Cleveland, TN. The equipment also required some repairs before departure due to how heavy that truck was. I told them that I didn't think it was a good idea to load them on this truck like this. The manager(I think his name was Steve) replied with anger and said " If you can't handle it, bring it back to the shop and I will get someone else to do it!" Very bad experience!

One day when I was in the Canton, MI terminal I was talking to another driver and complimenting him on his new studio sleeper truck. I asked him how long he had been here at Reliable and he replied that he had just gotten hired in the enclosed division. I went into the terminal and demanded to talk with Dave, the other high roller at Reliable and he tried to explain to me that this guy had prior experience. I told him that I was told that when a position became available that they would contact me. I left there no closer to being in the enclosed division. I was lied to and felt very disappointed.

We had CLC cards and were supposedly allotted one hotel per month per driver. One day when I was spending a lot of time in their AZ terminal getting more repairs, I decided to contact Dave and ask him if I could get some compensation for all the down time that I was acquiring due to truck repairs. His exact response was and I quote" If you are using your CLC card more than the allotted time per month I will take it out of your pay." I said, "Is that all you have to say?" He replied 'That's all I have to say." I hung up the phone and then realized that I had been caught up in a very bad deal. When I got back to the Canton terminal, I cleaned out my truck and quit.
This all happened over 3 months. It was the worst job experience I ever had.

Just my experience.

 

Wow that's pretty crappy they expect you to sit for free. I'd be calling up HQ and asking who the moron is who didn't quote any detention time in.

 

He said he was not getting paid detention time. I guarantee Reliable was getting paid for the truck to be there. Reliable is all about show moves, photo and movie shoots with high end vehicles. They are getting top dollar for what they do. As in revenue to Reliable.

 

While I never worked directly for Reliable I did a few loads over the years for them when drivers quit or broke down. The last one I picked up 9 race car Focus' in the northeast at a autocross track set up in a parking lot of a football stadium. (Where the NFL quarterback with the hottest wife plays). I had agreed to take the load to someplace near L.A. but after I was loaded and on my way they called and said we need them in Canton Mich. OK time to renegotiate the rate I thought. The load to California wasn't any great rate but it was something to do. They said we're going to give you x amount to bring them to Michigan for us. Uh, no for that rate they'll be back where I picked them up. Finally another guy calls back , we agreed on a rate and I take them to Reliable terminal in Canton MI. I picked the cars up on a Friday. Went home for the weekend and roll into their terminal before 9am Monday morning. They were kinda nasty. These cars have to be in California by Thursday now they said they'll have to be taken by a team to get them there on time. I remember thinking that's not my problem. I told the manager they'd have been there Tuesday morning if I took them straight from the start. I get unloaded and they pulled the cars inside the building, they sign my paperwork and close the gate so I can't leave. When I asked if someone could open the gate they told me they had to inspect the cars first. Then they ask for my bol back because some of the cars had cuts in the sidewalls of the tires. Remember these are little race cars with slicks and roll cages, the whole nine yards. You moved the cars after they were unloaded , tough ####. The guy I picked the load up from had given me his cell number and said to call if there were any problems. He worked for a marketing company contracted by Ford to put on these events around the country. I called him, told him the scenario and he thanked me for calling. He said he'd take care of it. Within 15 minutes this tough guy manager came out and opened the gate himself and I was on my way. I called the broker who set up the load and told him I had delivered. He asked what my problem was. Seriously I thought who the f are you. Click.
Total dick wad company to deal with. I had met several drivers from Reliable who were happy to be gone months at a time living on the roadbut their management are dishonest pr1 cks.