After working for several large companies, I have never really been happy with any of them, I mean things seemed good in some areas, but others just left me thinking i would just use them for the experience and walk away.

Well my newest job search turned me away from my old company, arrow trucking. while not too horrible, i never saw home so that was what i hated the most, and not to mention the aditude from dispatchers.

So after a long bus ride i found myself at the door step of J & R Schugel.
First impression was not so hot. No sign on bonus, lower pay than the big boys, but the fact they are such a smaller company told me things might be better.

I arived in columbus ohio for orientation, a cab came to get me from the bus station and i went to my hotel room.
not bad at all, single room with a big king bed.
orientation started monday morning, picked us up at 8:30am and we went to the terminal on the company van.

5 people total went, and it was nothing i had expected, turns out most people in there already did their drug test from home and mailed it in with a package they received from j&r, all it was is paperwork, my drug test cause i had not, and no physical as my previous one was accepted with the long form faxed over from arrow trucking.

i thought that alone was awesome cause werner enterprises and usa truck did not do that.
then they gave us each ten dollars in cash to go eat, and back to the terminal to finish paperwork.
at the end of the day we got another $10 cash to take to the hotel with us.

day two, roadtest from a current driver that just happens to be at the terminal at the time.
you pass, and get assigned a truck thats at the terminal.

2nd day i had a 2006 international, swivel seats, tilt and teliscope stearing wheel, power windows and locks, and a load to get me home to get my stuff.

i've been with them for two weeks now and i've been home three times already and completed 6 loads. lots of miles, and i get to see the woman more often!

anyhow, i'd say so far its been a great experience.
if anyone out there is looking for a good company to go with
try them out, i'm happy
****Edited by kc0rey******You can't post your name or any phone numbers****

give it another month or two. keep us updated on this. i'm curious to see how it goes.

sounds good so far ....

J&R Shugel doesn't generate alot of complaints, and they've been around for years. Back in the late eighties into the early nineties, I traveled in the same circles as they did, because they did alot of hauling for Kraft Foods, as I did. They may still do it, for all I know.

I perused their website, and found them to be average in terms of compensation and offered benefits. They offer a sliding pay scale that drivers in general, do not like. But, they don't force NYC, so that's a plus. I don't like the looks of their Lease/Purchase plan, but then I haven't seen one of those yet, that looked worth a whirl. They don't want the driver in the back of the trailer unloading, and that's a plus too.

Ugh....their safety numbers are way out-of-whack. They rate a 99 on the ISS-2 scale. 10.3 OOS rate for logs. Their trucks are involved in a DOT reportable presently at a rate of 1 in 6.6, which is the worst ratio I have seen in quite some time.

All that aside, they must be doing something right, because they don't seem to have the big turnover issues that some have, but then they aren't really all that big, which is a good thing.

They're going to have to work on those safety numbers....because apparently they were audited in April of this year, and I'm betting that a follow-up is planned real soon.

Turbo,where do you get the info on these companies ,and what do they mean(ISS-2 scale,OSS for logs) ?I am thinking of changing jobs and would like to see more in print than just word of mouth(although that`s not bad.)

I'm going to refer you to three articles I wrote last year, that basically describes how I size up a company....all will be answered in them....

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Turbo's right. Those safety numbers are hideous. One bad thing that's been said about J&R Shugel is a complaint regarding the new management in a post from a long time ago. I guess J and R, who apparently were good people to work for, washed their hands of the company and someone else took over, who isn't so nice to work for. That happens a lot.

__________________
Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

How do you find out which companies have the best ISS-2 numbers, without knowing the name of the company.

You can access the SafeStat pages to sort companies based on their ISS-2 Score, BUT because the intent of SafeStat is to identify HIGH RISK companies, they only show those companies that have an ISS-2 above 50 on that compiled database.

To find the safe ones, you just about have to know the name of the company to look at their statistics.

Oh well, thought I could see the lower ones. Guess I would have to do alot more research to figure that out. I searched on one company that has a local terminal and theirs was 37, so I thought there would be a way to see the other ones with lower numbers.