Resigned at Covenant today

this is a copy/paste of an email i sent my fleet manager a few weeks ago...


We have tracked our production from our first day then backed out the days we have been on hometime and the time our truck was in the shop in Dec 2010. The following is what we came up with. We consider these numbers as close to 100% accurate as possible, though we yeild to them as close approximates.

13 weeks

83 days available for dispatch

43 trips

44,914 miles

1044 mile length of trip avg

3454 mile avg per week

$7410 per driver from start date

$570 per driver per week

$172 per driver per trip

$89 per driver per day

As we are being recruited, (read "pursued"), by other companies. Before we make a decision to give our resignation we feel a sense of loyalty to Covenant. Please take a good look at where we feel our production is, share it with the Team Division Director if you feel it is worth sharing and we will be calling this afternoon to get a good idea if and when we will be closer to expectations in terms of miles and earnings.

Thank You,


and this was the reply:

I appreciate the info and do not get drivers sending their stats like this too often. You get to see where your time and $$ are going this way.

I see your avg length of haul is at the company goal of 1000 miles.
Your miles per week we need to work on, that needs to be around 5000.
You just cant make a good living on $89 a day.

As soon as you guys have your hazmat endorsements I think you will see a big increase in your miles (I hope). You are losing out on a lot of freight opportunities here due to not having hazmat yet. So I don’t think you can make an accurate judgment about Covenant until you have run at least 2 or 3 months after getting your hazmat endorsement.

We have to work on getting at least 1 more trip on you each week, I think that will make a big difference. Unfortunately this is a slow time of year for the industry as a whole and factor that in with a bad economy that is slowing down more and not picking up and the Chinese new year kills our freight out of CA this time of year.

I don’t know what to tell you about other companies calling you, that is a choice you have to make but I can tell you unless you get a signed contract for what they telling you they will give you I can guarantee the grass is not greener on the other side.

Hopefully this helps.

Now, I dont think we were a perfect team, far from it. This is the first time we teamed together and we are not aggressive drivers, usually 5-7 mph slower than prevailing traffic when in busy city driving, interstate or surface roads.

Covenant is a really smart company, but, there are quite a few things you will want to know about... look forward to my next post here.

 

so we resigned today because things have not changed much, AND because of some other things. info to follow.

 

I am not going to try to judge the policies or practices of Covenant but I am going to try to describe them as accurate as I can.

each time your truck enters the yard at the chatt terminal it gets an annual dot inspection.(no exception) we've been subject to 3 of these inspections. also, if you are not bobtail, the trailer gets a thorough going over. this inspection bay is a nice touch, but there is a dark side as well... there is a policy in place that goes like this: any damage to your truck will be subject to a company fine of $400 (was $300 until 1-1-11) at the tune of $25 a week until its paid. example: a friend broke a right side mirror bracket on his international. he isnt even sure when it happened. this was a $45 part. he was fined by the company $300 as the missing part was discovered in the inspection bay. he takes responsibility for the mishap, but $300? its called a "determent fund". i think these fines pay for the labor and costs in the inspection bay, but this is speculation.


any "dirty" roadside inspection performed by LE, and by "dirty" i mean something as simple as a speeding warning for 1mph over the speed limit written on the inspection, or 1 light out, or anything at all, and you'll be subject to a company fine of $50 at $25 per week. also a "determent fund"


covenant no longer buys tire chains. so, if you get a load into chain territory you buy the chains yourself, or they repower the load to a truck that has chains. they will gladly take $25 a week out of your check for the chains that you buy for their load.


if you dont know how to request pay for layover, detention, city pay, motel reimbursement ect, good luck. its likely you wont be shown. you will be told you're getting that pay, but without an authorization number from a formal request, forget it.


there is more but im outta time, will share more later...