? for Knight Refrigerated drivers - what are your thoughts on Kooltrans?

Discussion in 'Knight' started by GabeScott, Jul 31, 2014.

  1. GabeScott

    GabeScott Medium Load Member

    422
    282
    Feb 16, 2014
    0
    How's it make you feel seeing those new white Cascadia's arriving at the Knight yard? Are you guys going to be the dull penny nobody wants because there is a bright new shiny one now?

    I'm a little baffled by why Knight would start a 2nd reefer division and just looking for some thoughts on the subject.

    For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about here's a link to a news blurb.

    http://www.robinsconsulting.com/2014/07/knight-transportation-launches-kool-trans/
     
  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. drvrtech77

    drvrtech77 Road Train Member

    12,870
    115,176
    Mar 20, 2010
    0
    This doesn't make any sense...on too of that they hire the former CEO of central refrigerated to run the company...
     
  4. JimDucan

    JimDucan Medium Load Member

    395
    165
    Mar 31, 2010
    0
    Talk about stuff that doesn't make any sense.

    I'm going to go out on a limb and say they are doing this to pay back some favor somewhere. Guy has been around the Mormon boys for a long time.
     
  5. snowwy

    snowwy Road Train Member

    19,720
    12,268
    Jul 6, 2009
    0
    where does it say the boys are mormon?
     
  6. drvrtech77

    drvrtech77 Road Train Member

    12,870
    115,176
    Mar 20, 2010
    0
    They're mormons...look it up..
     
  7. CACressida

    CACressida Bobtail Member

    17
    7
    Jul 1, 2008
    Modesto, CA
    0
    I'm a driver for KoolTrans and I can tell you that Knight's reefer loads are a snooze. KoolTrans is here to fix that up. So if anything, Knight drivers should be happy that we're raising the bar on weekly mileage with better timed appointments. Quite frankly, I don't understand why Knight would run their reefers and dump so much money on reefer fuel by scheduling loads to deliver days longer than necessary. I notice that Knight drivers don't like to run hard. What's up with that?
     
  8. Dna Mach

    Dna Mach Road Train Member

    3,203
    2,820
    Aug 8, 2008
    Texas
    0
    You answered your own question.

    In addition their pay is so low, most drivers have been out a month or longer and are trying to get home so they can quit. They aren't very motivated.
     
    OverDrive Thanks this.
  9. OverDrive

    OverDrive "A Watchman on the Walls"

    Most Knight reefer rigs are like 'turtles' and carry their 'shell' with them---i.e. dont have to look for MT's as their loads are all live load/live unloads which means their runs take 2-3 days with waiting times for a typical 300 mile run........but no time spent looking for MT's as reefer trucks can always carry a dry van MT if needed (seen several doing so myself, altho dry van trucks arent allowed to carry MT reefers and must spend time looking for the MT's not 'stolen' by reefer trucks!)
     
  10. CACressida

    CACressida Bobtail Member

    17
    7
    Jul 1, 2008
    Modesto, CA
    0
    When I first started a month ago, the first week was like that. After that we pick up the load, haul ### the same day and dispatch would bug the planners to reschedule the delivery dates to when we the drivers say we'll get there. In 28 days we've averaged 11,000 miles so far and were still not satisfied. A lot of the loads I'm now squeezing in delivery, dead head and pickup all on the same shift and then run 650-700 miles a day to get it there just so we can show Knight that these reefer loads don't need 2 days extra. KoolTrans doesn't plan on dropping and hooking trailers and I for one am for this. My truck and my trailer stay damage free and well maintained. I don't have to worry about picking up another trailer that's missing lights, flat tires or ripped chutes Etc.

    Im really hoping we get our own planners and customer service personell so we can run the way we used to do it in Central. If any knight drivers want to run hard and not cry, come over too the Kool side :)
     
    doug79705 Thanks this.
  11. Fajo

    Fajo The Dark Knight

    2,214
    2,352
    Jan 26, 2013
    Boise, ID
    0
    Going to be honest. This post made me chuckle a little inside. Most loads on the reefer side have 1 day at most extra on them some have none (Few hours) most can be changed if needed if not I simply drop it in a yard a day early and move on. As of not running hard, Solo I avg between 2900 on a very slow week to 3400 to 4000 on a busy week. The miles are there if a person wants them. It's on them to decide how they want to run or not.

    As of raising the "Bar" please realize that Kool trans was created by a few Knight exec's to pick up loads we were "MISSING" because of ether a conflict of interest with another contract or simply did not have the trucks in the area to service them. Kool Trans was based out of SLC to be able to soak up that market. Its a experiment to see how it works under the Knight umbrella. How do I feel about this ? Awesome to be honest. We are getting additional contracts on both sides because of this and less loads are going to "Other company's" Allowing more of us to soak up the miles. Will it work ? I guess we will see and frankly hope it does. All else fails MR Knight will just absorb Kool trans back into Knight if it does not.
     
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.