my experience with Ashley Distribution

I read all these horror stories about these different trucking companies,and i can say that this experience was not anything like mine starting out of trucking school. Before people discount what I say and assume I am a recruiter, I can tell you that I am not. I am a deputy sheriff in Mississippi.

I graduated trucking school from a small community college in Mayhew, Mississippi while I was a police officer. I applied to Ashley Distribution, TransAm and Werner because those were the best fit for me. I had pretty much lined up the job to start with TransAm when Ashley called. I had already graduated trucking school and was pretty upset about not hearing from them, so I had written them off. Fortunately, in my limited wisdom I did not realize the man upstairs was just trying to teach me patience and I got hired on with them in May 2004.

From the first day, it became apparent that Ashley was a quality company with great benefits. They ran you for 6 weeks with a trainer, but they dispatch you like a solo driver. The trainers were well qualified and personable, and the equipment was great. All 770 and 780 volvos, and the lease trucks were even nice if you didn't have a 780 yet. During training, I was home probably every other day, and off on the weekends.

Once training was over, I was assigned a 2004 Volvo 780 with all owner op specs including cd player, fridge, etc. A typical run would leave Ecru, Mississippi with multiple stops, sometimes up to 14 stops. Sometimes I may just leave with a single drop. Ashley paid hub miles, so every mile ran you got paid, as long as it was in reason. They never routed you, no qualcomm, and provided you with a company cell phone to use at your disposal. They only expected a phone call if you were running late and when you got empty.

I made 29.5 cents per mile after training plus stop pay. A one drop load paid $80. I think a 10 drop load paid $170, and the 14 drop load paid around 225. That being said, on the 14 drop load which was the most drops I ever had on a trailer, I got 11 drops done the first day. Sometimes you would have two or three drops in the same shopping center, so it could make for fast unloading. Other times you may have a 6 stop load that would take two days because of the distance from the first stop to the last. On an average week, I would run anywhere from 2400 to 2800 miles.

When you left out with a load, 95 percent of the time, you are coming back empty. Unless you are near a supplier that has foam or plywood to bring back to the warehouse or the occassional load for a wal mart distribution center, you deadhead back home. Yes, you get paid for every empty mile. So, I could start out the week on Sunday on a 6 stop Georgia load for Monday, come back empty and be home Monday night. Leave out Tuesday on say, a 4 stop Tennessee load for Wednesday, empty out Wednesday afternoon and be back Wed night, leave out on a single stop for Fri and be back friday afternoon or fri night.

Well, shogun, you make it sound so great, so what kind of money were you making? First year out of trucking school from June 2004 til December 31, 2004 I made 32k. From January 1, 2005 til Sept 2005, when common sense failed me and I quit because my girlfriend at the time didnt want to marry a truck driver, and yes she is now my wife, I made 47k. I was on pace to make $62k-$65K that first year on my own. My best week was $1600 gross on about 3100 miles, and I was home three days that week and off that weekend. On an average week I would gross about $1100 to $1300. Let me also mention that while in training you make half rate, so on a good training week you still grossed 700. After a year, I moved up to 32 cents per mile. On a good week I could average 50 cpm with stop pay. (BTW live load/unload paid 50 on a backhaul, drop and hook paid 20 i think).

Having a college degree, my parents strongly discouraged me from driving a truck. When they saw how much money I was making, my dad, who drives for Roadway said "I didnt know ashley paid that well, they are a good company." I regret leaving such a good company, especially when I came back to law enforcement and make half of what I used to.

The benefits at Ashley were very good while I was there. The insurance was very good, paid holidays and vacation, the cell phone, and you could get one hotel room a week reimbursed if you were on a two day delivery. So was there anything bad about Ashley, you ask? Depends, if you dont like to do manual labor, then stay away. The driver is responsible for tailgating the furniture meaning you get it to the edge of the trailer, sometimes the furniture store comes into the trailer and all you have to do is turn it for the handtruck to get it. Some stores like Mrs. B's in Omaha, NE did all the unloading, just depends.

Another difficult thing is that the places you go to can be tight. Some of these furniture stores werent built for 53 foot trailers, and same goes for the shopping centers where you deliver to Rent A Center type outfits. I did not like going to North and South Carolina, but thats just me. Other people did, I preferred the southeast and Oklahoma and Texas. I still talk to some of the drivers that work there and they are still making $70k a year or better and not running that hard. On another note, the maintenance dept there is top notch, just look at the equipment.

I have said enough for now, and while my information is five years old, I know that it probably still holds true since my friends with common sense still work there. If you have any questions I would be glad to answer them as best I can. They have locations throughout the US. Thanks for reading, Shogun.

 

Ok, I just found my next to last paycheck from Ashley dated 9/24/2005. I grossed $1365.58 that week, I had 3171 total miles, I pulled a four stop load, and two one stop loads. I had one live load and two drop and hooks. So, here's how it looks since my blackberry phone camera is way too grainy to take a clear picture.

Three loads, all out of Ecru.
Mileage for first trip was 1250,#.325 cpm .
Mileage for second trip was 1227@.325 cpm
mileage for third trip was 694@.325 cpm.
1 live load@ 50 bucks.
2 drop and hooks @15 bucks a piece for $30 total.

$1030.58 mileage
+255 for drop pay
+80 for live load/drop hook
equals $1365.58 gross. Not bad for being home three nights that week, getting in friday evening and being off that weekend. Health and dental insurance ran me $16.90 a week.

These are all round trip totals. So if I remember correctly I left out Monday, came back monday night, left out tuesday, came back wednesday, left out thurs and came back friday night. I know that live load was lumber for the plant in Ripley,Ms and then I had to drop and hook there, and I may have done one more drop and hook at that plant.

 

Update, my year to date as of 9/24/2005 was 45,246.89 With my last paycheck on Sept 30, I made 46,500. Thats an average of $5166 a month, or 62k a year.

 

Voyager,
As for the trucks in Reading,Pa I can't attest to them going into Canada. They were just starting the Reading terminal and some Mississippi drivers would volunteer to go up there and run for two weeks. They usually pulled five trips a week in the northeast, going back and forth from Reading. Some of those drivers made $2300 a week because of incentives to stay for two weeks. None of them ever ran into Canada that i knew of. Some places you get it to the trailer edge, some come into the trailer and you help them get a handtruck under it, and some places unload for you.

Big Don, what some guys did is carry a handtruck with them and use that. Ashley only did small children's mattresses to Rent A Centers, so they didnt barely weigh 25 lbs. I was 28 years old, a young strapping man, haha, so I just off stacked the furniture and slid it down the trailer, as the floors were pretty smooth. Some people would throw down bowlers wax or sand to help the boxes slide. Most everything we unloaded was in boxes or wrapped in foam. A full load of furniture rarely weighed over 15,000 lbs unless you had a lot of dinettes and curios. A full load of recliners and sofas may not weigh 6000 lbs. The heaviest piece I ever unloaded was a hutch that weighed 300 lbs, and someone with a handtruck came and got it. I just got it ready and helped him lean it back.

 

Canuck,

The facility in Arcadia, Wi had a truck wash on site. They also gave you blue beacon truck wash certificates so you could get it washed once a week. They also made no bones about taking you out of the truck and putting you in an older truck if you didnt take care of it. They had a lease agreement with Gator Volvo and they would do preventative maintenance on the trucks early instead of letting it go past. They would ask you when you were leaving out so they could get it done before you left.