Originally Posted by greasemonkey  Con-Way Truckload guy here, checking in. Let's see if I can throw some stuff out here to help.
It's a good company, I have a little over a year in and have a good fleet manager. I leave him alone, he keeps me moving. I don't have much problem with short runs, multi-stop loads, whatever; as long as I am moving, I don't go crazy. Plus, on multi-stop or multi-pickup loads, you get $35 for each additional stop and/or pickup.
chevyryder86, if/when you come aboard and get your own rig, I hope you have a place in mind to park it. We have a drop yard off the south side on 285, but you probably don't want to go there unless you have to. We used to be one of the only ones renting space there, now there are so many trailers from us, werner, crst, north american, melton, etc that you can't move around at all. Last time I relayed there, I had to back out because there is no room to turn around. Anyone that has been there can vouch for this. It is a secure facility with a guard, but not a whole lot of fun to go to. Hopefully, enough complaints have been turned in and we will get a new one soon.
I will also throw this warning out there to potential hires: when you get hired, they try really hard to get everyone to opt to go to Canada. You don't have to, but they will snag you with promises of 2000 mile runs from Laredo to Ontario. Reality: out of the 10 or so loads I hauled into Canada last year, 2 were just over 1000 miles. The others were the little short hops, say from Chicago to Toronto or Fort Wayne to Grimsby. Plus, Canadian customs will hate you simply because you are there. It doesn't matter if your paperwork is perfect and you have all the right answers. For some reason, they think you are there to mess up their precious country and will grill you unmercifully as to why you are there, what you are hauling, why you are hauling it, why you live in Florida, why you don't have a passport, why your truck says CFI on it, when you are leaving, what you will be leaving with, what you will do while you are there, the last time you were there, the last load you hauled, how often you drive there, why you drive there, why the customer selected your company to haul it there, etc. If you blink at them wrong, they send you to immigration and search the truck. I must have blinked at them wrong almost every time. I have literally sat at customs crossing into Manitoba for 5 hours while they ripped everything out of the truck, sent me to immigration and the broker, they broke the seal and searched the cargo, x-rayed everything, and finally let me go. Remember, you are burning up your hours while sitting there, so the $25 you get for crossing the border doesn't really seem worth it anymore. I have never hauled anything over 700 miles out of Canada. US customs isn't quite so bad, but you will still be questioned and searched and lose a lot of time.
Needless to say, I opted out this year. Some people say that's a mistake, and that freight is picking up from Mexico to Canada, but I just don't need the hassle anymore.
You guys going through an independent school will be going to a one week boot camp in Neosho, MO just below Joplin. It is awesome! If you have any concept of driving, you will pass with flying colors. We had 25 start in our class. One left the first day, another later due to family problems. Out of the 23 left...23 passed. Always volunteer to go first. For example, if you take your road test first, you will have the rest of the time to kill back at the campus; they let me and my roommate (who is now my best friend) take one of the trucks out on the shifting range and obstacle course and practice by ourselves. A couple other guys stayed too, but they just goofed off. My buddy and I also scored better than they did on our following tests. You get fed lunch every day, which is pretty good cafeteria food. The hotel you stay at is across the street from WalMart, there is a little sports bar/ grill a couple blocks away which is a good place to hang out and celebrate once you have passed. (I forgot to mention, you get bused between the hotel and campus every day).
Trucks for solos are the remaining old Kenworth T600s, new KW T660s with 72" sleeper, Freightliner Cascadias, and some International Prostars which I have yet to see. Teams get the KW T660 with the studio (84") sleeper. New solo trucks will be fitted with APUs, but none of the existing non-APU trucks will be retrofitted with them. Teams don't get an APU simply because they don't sit and idle as much (obviously).
When I started, I was told 2500-3500 miles a week. That's pretty accurate, actually. Some weeks are great, with CA to GA runs, other times you get stuck running in circles in the northeast. You do get an extra $.05/mi running northeast.
Reimbursments are also prompt. You get reimbursed for scales, 1 shower per day (you usually just use your driver loyalty cards to get showers. Generally, 50 gallons of fuel gets you a free shower), truck essentials like coolant, washer fluid, oil, etc., faxes, minor truck repairs, and so on. You just fill out a reimbursment form, staple the receipts to it, and mail it in with the rest of your paperwork.
Here's an example of my miles; I got off hometime Jan 8.
Jan8- deadhead 70 miles to Theodore, AL to pick up load going to St Hyacinthe, Quebec. Drop and hook. Dispatched 995 miles to CWTL terminal in Taylor, MI. It turns out the load didn't deliver until the 13th, so instead of having me sit on it for a long time, I dropped it at the terminal and someone else (we have local drivers that only ferry trailers to and from Canada) took it to Canada later on.
Jan9- arrived at Taylor at night after sitting in a shop in KY for 6 hours getting trailer tire replaced. Not everyone stocks super singles.
Jan10- assigned load picking up in Port Huron, MI on Jan12, delivering in Green Bay, WI on the Jan13. This is where people start complaining, but at least you are at a terminal with all the creature comforts while waiting, and you get a reset. Plus it was snowing, and MI isn't very prompt about snow removal so I didn't mind sitting too much.
Jan11- sitting at Taylor.
Jan12- dispatched deadhead 77 miles to Port Huron. Pick up load of paper (live load), dispatched 554 miles to Green Bay.
Jan13- deliver said load of paper (live unload), assigned picking up a load in Tomah, WI to relay to a service plaza on the OH turnpike. Dispatched deadhead 164 miles to Tomah.
Jan14- pick up load (drop and hook), dispatched 518 miles to relay point. I ran through Chicago in a snowstorm so needless to say, it was running behind. It turns out, the outbound driver decided to sit at a truck stop instead of at relay point, so by the time I got close to the relay, it was snowing and he refused to leave the safety of the truck stop. So I had nobody to relay the load off to. Called ops, went to sleep.
Jan15- woke up, had 10 hr break by this point and other guy still refused to drive to pick up the load from me, so called ops and was given the go-ahead to take the load the rest of the way to Albany. Dispatched 550 miles to Albany. Dropped load, assigned picking up in Egypt, NY Jan16, delivering to Atlanta, GA Jan19. Dispatched 221 miles deadhead to Egypt.
Jan16- picked up load (live load), dispatched 976 miles to Atlanta. Currently sitting in Austinburg, OH after driving through yet another snowstorm in which my wipers decided to quit completely. Rain-x was my best friend today.
Hopefully this helps some of you guys out. Any specifics, just ask. I finally got internet for my laptop on the road and am loving it.
Later, John |
03.23.2009
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