info on kllm se regional?

Where DO I begin? It's a rant!

I work for KLLM S/E and I don't have anything nice to say about this side of the company except that it's a job like any other in this big business driven economy and political climate. Screw the employee (drivers to be specific) to maximize profit. What's to say about that mentality? The rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Typical business in the U.S. and in this industry, we keep taking it in the shorts and instead of doing something about it, we keep taking it in the shorts.

With 15 years commercial driving experience under my belt, and a year working here, I feel qualified to speak of the industry and especially this company.

Honestly, this company seems to be no different than any of the other bottom feeder companies out there, although to call them bottom feeder seems a bit much because I KNOW there's worse, but still. With the practices going on here, I consider them close enough. I believe I either heard 1900 employees or 1900 trucks, but whatever...with their business practices and treatment of drivers, they're big enough to be considered along with those bottom feeder companies.

So why do I continue to stay and work here? Truthfully, I don't know. More a fear of not being able to find anything in the current economy? I need the work to scrape by, as most of us "blue collar types" do, because I have bills to pay...(nothing like being misclassified as unskilled and unentilted to protections afforded most employees under the U.S. labor laws, but I digress) and with the schedules they keep us on, I don't really have the energy to stay up the better portion of the day, after driving all night, to make phone calls and talk to lying recruiters or fill out online applications. And when I get home? I don't really want to spend the better portion of my time off, filling out piles of applications that come in the mail. I want to spend it with my family, get to some of the honey-do's and catching up on some rest. So I just suffer until I can find something different in my own time. I stay because I'm not willing to put forth the effort just to end up at another #### company and go through the same thing. Honestly, the grass isn't always greener. You trade one bad thing for another. Most of us KNOW that. Let's not pretend we don't

Am I bitter? Yes...a bit...sort of.
Partly because this is probably a decent company, that's just in a #### industry and forced to be the way they are because of competition. This isn't really ALL directed at this company though, because they're just trying to survive against the true cheap companies, but they DON'T help in (my) the perception of the industry.
Mostly because of industry practices of getting free things from drivers and ripping them off to support their all consuming worship at the altar of profit and treating us like crap. Going to the gubmint begging for help by trying to bring in CHEAPER foreign workers instead of just treating us decently to begin with. And then the industry wonders why we "churn".

Does the fact that no one at KLLM (or in the industry in general) takes the time to address retention or turnover say anything to you? During a discussion one day between us drivers about this very subject, the safety director, who also conducts orientations, walks up and chimes in something that sort of encompasses this and many other company's policies about the subject. Paraphrasing him, "It's pretty bad when you bring in 15 potential drivers and 16 quit the same week." Just what DOES that say?

(Read that it's always an uphill battle because they KLLM, and the industry in general, refuse to change their business models and treat drivers better and RETAIN them. They'd rather biotch about imagined driver shortages (with the truth being "we WANT cheaper labor") and waste money on recruiting and lobbying Congress to try to recruit foreign workers, rather than just treating us better to begin with) Anyone wonder why there's a "supposed" driver shortage?

Am I saying ANYTHING, ANYONE doesn't already know about our industry?

At this point in time, with about 3 months in with this outfit, combined with many of the other aspects I'll soon describe, told me right then and there, I DON'T need to be working here. Out of the 14 people that came through orientation with me, I seem to be the only one left after one year of service. Is that fact? Well, I don't know for sure, but I sure as h*ll haven't seen hide nor hair of ANYONE I went through orientation with, in months. Additionally, several people that I became acquainted with have also mysteriously disappeared. Hmm, I wonder where they went?

Truthfully, I think this company (the S/E regional aspect anyway) is cheap and they suck! There's major favoritism going on here for some drivers, while the rest of us struggle and starve, but PROVE it. Tell who? It goes all the way to the top at this terminal and corporate either turns a blind eye to it, or doesn't care to address it as long as the profits keep on rolling in. So who do we tell?

This terminal (per rumor) is ran pretty autonomously so to speak, and does things they way they see fit. I honestly don't think that corporate cares as long as there's a profit, which isn't hard to do when you take it from the backs of your drivers as most companies do these days. Tell who?

The pay rate I receive here at S/E, is 25% of something. I don't know if it's the actual gross though, because unlike O/O's, there's no LAW compelling companies to reveal the rate they receive to haul to "company drivers" on percentage. The last time I looked, about three months ago, employment ads placed by this company offer $800/WK. Since I've been here, I've only seen $800 maybe five times. Most times, somewhere between $450 and $600 is more like it. The ONLY reason I've EVER received MORE than $800, was because of calculations based on submissions in the pay period. The week prior to a $900/WK is usually $300 or so. So, $1200 divided by two weeks, is $600/WK, NOT $800. I've stayed out for two weeks sometimes and it's no better. I've had $250 paychecks as well, for 10 days out.

They have one MAJOR, PRIMARY account that they trip over themselves to service because it's supposedly high paying freight. They will deadhead you (personal experience) sometimes DOUBLE what the paid miles to them are, ALL THE WAY BACK TO ATLANTA, to service this customer. Problem is, 25% of an empty trailer is nothing. So cut that wonderful rate you just received, in half.

Then, on the other side of the coin, they'll send you out with this high dollar per mile freight, just to bring you back dragging something for the well known industry wide cheap rate of 88-92 cents/mile. So the 61 cents a mile going out you "thought" you just made, turns into 38 cents a mile average (less than that for the deadhead you don't get paid for either) After factoring in their cheap "backhauls" this is why $800/WK is ###### near impossible and they don't seem to care to change it.

The attitude of "if you don't like it, you know where the door is", in this industry and here in particular, just doesn't cut it anymore.

How do I know the pay rates of particular loads? Assuming the pay I receive is the TRUE percentage of the gross, I can easily compute what a load pays by multiplying my gross pay by 4 and dividing that number by the paid miles, and I'm here to tell you that some of the stuff I haul, pays that cheaply. 88-92/cpm. If it's not that cheap, then someone is taking something off of the top.

Other things? They dispatch you mostly from this particular customer, (yes, there's other customers, at other times, so don't think I'm forgetting them. It DOES happen.) after 6pm in the evening (sometimes even at 3am) for a delivery sometime between 3 and 9am the next morning, so the fresh, very perishable product can get on the customer's route trucks for asap delivery. Then after you deliver, you either sit around all day waiting for them to MAYBE find you something OR, you sit around all day waiting for them to find you something that doesn't pick up until the next morning. IF you're lucky, you may pick up SORT OF directly, after you deliver, but the new delivery won't be until the morning following. As in...deliver Mon morn, p/u Mon asap, deliver Wed morning 300 miles away. 36 hours after p/u. Go figure.

As for sitting around? Yes...A LOT of that here! Trips average anywhere between 200 and 400 miles. Occasionally you MAY get lucky and score one for 500 miles or a bit more, like 523...545, etc...(because the favorite is elsewhere). I've NEVER had a load of more than 600 miles, one way, unless I had to cover a load for the OTR side when their ### was in a sling (driver caught at a scale, out of service or hours, breakdowns, etc.) and a service failure was emminent. I only got lucky and did that once.

Sit too long loading or unloading? Your promised $10/hr detention pay, *after 3 hours*, turns into $50 bucks layover because they're afraid of losing the customer's business if they bill them for it, despite the fact that the real total may be MORE than double or triple that for detention pay. "Sorry for ya' driver" Personal experience on this one.

Hometime here? That's supposed to be one day for every seven, but I take two or at least a 34 hour restart. I stay out 10 days on average, sometimes 9, sometimes 12, so I feel I'm entitled to my time off after the crap of waiting, short sh*tty trip miles, being ripped off in general and lousy paychecks I should be "grateful" for during the time I do spend out. I DO pay for that behavior though. They retaliate by keeping me home an extra day and then tell me to "quit b*tching" when I don't receive a "decent" paycheck because I stayed home so long. Can you BELIEVE that? I figure "screw 'em". I love my family and they and I deserve to see each other despite my pay sacrifice.

Other times, I'll be home and call in after 24 hours to schedule a load for when I come out and they'll want me to go immediately. So much for hometime! So I figure I'll then wait until my 34 is up and call? Then they'll say they don't have anything today, try tomorrow. Or I'll call in to report, get my dispatchers voice mail, and I don't get called back. If I don't call in, they don't call either. I'm not going to BEG for work. I tried that and got the shaft for two weeks for complaining that I'm not getting enough work. Kind of the "fine, if you don't like what we DO have, try less and you'll be grateful for what you DO get" attitude. Casual conversations about this aspect with other drivers, warned me of this retaliation. Of course with my being stubborn and having to find out for myself, I surely did. I spent two weeks driving 1800 miles and received about $600 total. 17 days for $600 and I should BE grateful? Hahahah! Tell who? I sort of learned to keep my mouth shut.

Are you sure you wanna work for this company, driver?

Are you sure you want to work in an industry where people get treated as we do?

Companies BETTER than the industry average (hell, AT the industry average) are few and far between. Someone has to die before you can get your foot in the door at those places and with the economy the way it is, companies keep upping their standards, and I don't blame them, to attract the "best" drivers they can get. As an example: Con-Way bought CFI a short time ago and they want a five year spotless record before they will even look at you. Where do you get one of those jobs when you have to suffer crap companies just to survive? 15 years for me, and I'm STILL looking for that ONE glorious company. I've applied to such companies before, but you need a spotless record and years of experience that I didn't have at the time.

I've had my scrapes with citations over the years, but my MVR is clean for the last three years. However, not for five years. No major preventable crashes either, just stupid mistakes. Count me out for Con-Way truckload.

My DAC/USIS report is average because at first, I'd quit companies that treated me like crap...refusing to be treated as such...but lately, I've given up.

One job, I got injured at while "on the job" and when I went back after 20 days of recuperation, my position wasn't there anymore. Was it because of the medical aspect? Yes, I know it was and so do they, and that's a wrongful termination, but prove it, and prove it in a "right to work" state on top of it. Legal council to fight a company like that is expensive and who wants to continue to work for a company that'll treat you like that anyway? Would I have had a case? Yes, I'm sure I would have, and despite my righteous indignation about the whole thing, it's pointless and unsustainable under legal challenge in a right to work state anyway. They don't REALLY need a reason to terminate you. They can just make something up...like no position available.

How about the job where I was threatened with the cost of replacing two used, recapped tires that were flattened in one day? I was accused of being careless by the employer. And get this! I was hauling trash from the city dump to the county landfill. I asked him, " What am I supposed to do?" "Get out and rake the top six inches of the half mile of the landfill I'm forced to drive on, OVER THE PREVIOUS DAYS DEPOSITS, for hazards to your protect your preciously CHEAP tires?" Lord only knows what's just under the surface. Needless to say...QUIT!

Another time, in a job I loved and worked at for 2-1/2 years, and would still be working at even AFTER sustaining a painful "tennis elbow" episode that lasted two and a half months, because of an ill shifting transmission that I complained about for several months prior. A year before I planned to relocate OUT OF STATE, I spoke to the owner about the move. I was told to go ahead and move. It may be difficult, but we'll keep you working. I even offered to stay out little longer, after being home every weekend with this outfit, to help. During the interim, this tennis elbow thing reared it's ugly head. Isn't it amazing that after my recovery and move that the work dried up? Injury and right to work state, but prove it, again. This one I didn't quit, but what choice did I have?

How about the job where the two paychecks I received in the month I worked there, (we were paid twice a month), bounced. $1200...twice...QUIT!

How about the company that promised me that they repaired my inaccurate, broken speedometer? I promptly went out and got a $90 speeding ticket. My fault? Quit!

Are you seeing a picture here? What part of the industry, the Government, or the legal establishment that makes labor laws for corporate protection (right to work laws) doesn't know that these practices go on? How does one GET a job with a decent company when one has to deal with crap like I have? How do you explain 10 jobs in 15 years? Sure doesn't look good to the good prospective companies that's for sure.

I've been beaten into submission because I, like many others, just take what we can get to pay the bills. We can't afford to sit around and 'wait" for that "perfect" job. We're NOT all financially independent enough to sit. We have lives or wives and children that need our financial support.

So much for showing Con-Way a long term employment history. Not to say that they aren't a good company, I don't know, but if they are, how do I convince them to hire me with things as they are with me? Most outcomes with sorry ### employers aren't my fault. What legal recourse do I have? How DO I get a job with a good company anywhere...assuming there ARE such companies left?

I need to ask? Does anyone know of a company that doesn't pull this type crap, and pays fairly and accurately for a safe, conscientious, on time driver? Yeah, I know...good luck with that, lol!

Are you sure you wanna be a trucker?

can anyone tell me about the southeast regional at kllm? they say they get you home every week? if so for how long? hows the pay work? etc. thanks

 

I was looking for info on this SE Regional job as well. Do you have to live in a certain area? For instance, Crete told me I had to live near their Georgia terminal. I am planning to move back to North Carolina fairly soon. If I can land a regional job, I will be back more sooner than later.

 

PJ,,I'm begining to think you don't like KLLM,,,lol

 

Wow,
Pj is a prolific writer! LOL Maybe instead of trucking you should be writing your own freakin trucking colum. So I am curious did you finally figure out what you need to do to make money on s/e regional with kllm? Or do you even still work there? Just curious
Good luck!