Knight Port Services-Long Beach-Any Good?

Tri Color is what Kool Trans is to the refeer side of Knight, It's another company but using Knights Terminals and Equipment but a different business all in its own. Got to love our negative employes who stick around and stay employed here even tho according to them things are in the "crapper" and not worth working here.

 

Kool trans is not a separate co...they were formed ny knight transportation..even they admitted that it will eventually screw up knight refrigerated...

 

Wrong, Kool Trans is owned by the Ex CEO of Central Refrigerated before Swift bought the company. It has excs at Knight that are considered "investors" as it gets off the ground. Kool trans has its own terminal in SLC but currently uses Knight terminals for Shop work and our planners for relaying loads to Kool trans (My terminal is the one that relays them loads) they do have thier own separate dispatch now based out of their terminal in SLC.

As Kool trans grows it will split more and more from Knight. Short story is Kevin Knights hunting buddy wanted to start his own company and Knight gave him the ability to do that, Knight refrigerated currently gets a "cut" of the profits for every load they move.

 

Here's one guy's reality. I've been running an easy three turns (800 miles each) a week since the end of the slowdown, right through what last year was the post Chinese New Year slow down. Probably because there is a backlog. Depending on the terminal, what I see is people working according to the rules, and getting things done pretty efficiently. The waits are much less than they were. In addition to there being plenty of work, getting in and out of several of the terminals is happening relatively quickly. Like four out of six drop/pickups last week in less than an hour. (except Maersk - which seems like it's stuck in some kind of weird time warp) Even APL has cleaned up their act, and it's far more efficient than it was.

So I'm not sure, other than maybe talking people out of going into port work why you're saying it's bad. Its way better than it has been. It's not really work for just anybody though, it's an actual job, with work involved, and it requires at least half a brain, some patience and stress management skills, both in the port and dealing with LA traffic. I wouldn't really recommend it to very many drivers. Most would NOT like it, or last more than their first couple of weeks. It helps to be able to speak Spanglish and understand non-native Asians trying to speak English. lol

 

http://m.investor.knighttrans.com/p...orts-second-quarter-2014-revenue-and-earnings

On this link.it clearly states...knight formed another entity....this is from knight it self...

 

Developing and retaining high quality driving associates remains a significant challenge to the industry. Despite a strong freight environment, the current driver supply situation has been a headwind for adding additional capacity. Our driver development and training programs remain a primary focus area for our management team, and we feel well positioned to continue to make progress in the coming quarters.

The industry continues to be faced with multiple challenges that have led to higher costs, including rising driver pay, increased regulation, additional maintenance cost associated with the 2010 EPA emission engines, and rising equipment cost. We continue to intensify our cost control efforts in order to manage these inflationary pressures

Straight from Kevin's mouth....so he thinks driver wages are an inflationary pressure to be dealt with.......and he says "despite a strong freight environment" he still can't get drivers.

There you have it, exactly what management thinks of you and your wages. You don't need a higher wage per, you need more miles.......

Another driver spoke of difficulty getting his money....how about this: I took a post retirement job for a common carrier... ( yeah I knew better but ) and about 6 months in they asked me to do a specialized job..... round the clock standby cryogenics because I had experience so I said ok........ ran up an $1800 payroll tab and when payday came I got a check for negative $45....no sheet. Seems a payroll gal saw the big numbers and decided no way, not possible for a driver. Anyway I raised all kinds of static with the T.O.M. and guess what....they offered to "loan" me 70% of my expected check...I refused and demanded full pay.

They ended up breaking it up over 6 weeks and I'm still not sure if I got it all, I doubt it. Probably some corporate mandate that no drivers check can ever exceed xxxx or the VP has to be called. Seen that before elsewhere.

Glad to be out....!!

 

We hired a former CEO of a large temperature-controlled truckload transportation company to lead and grow this business. Kool Trans will be marketed and operated separately from our Knight Refrigerated business.


The CEO is the dude from Central Refrigerated, Knight is the stakeholder or aka investor in the company, they are to separate companys ran to completely different ways. Kool trans will eventurally buy out its contract with Knight or if they fail (which currently they are doing fine) Knight will simply absorb the company into Knight.

 

They have the exact same pay structure and bonus plan that knight has and their equipment is marked the same way knight has theirs marked...

 

Well this conversation is just going in circles, I was trying to explain to you whats going on "under" the hood and that Kool Trans will not always under Knight, currently they already spliting off little by little. As for the pay structure they pay a bit higher and there internal policys are different then ours. As for the trucks being marked the same, what do you expect ? The decals are in 90% of the exact locations that other companys put them, the only resemblance to Knight is the K on Kool trans other then that its pretty much industry standard. Well except its missing the "leased to Knight" hummm.

Anyways I have givin you all the info I have, if you want more just ask a Kool Trans driver or as I did talk to the people at Kool Trans. Last post from me on the subject as I have no more info to give. Stay safe out there.

 

Have you seen they're pay structure?...exactly like knight to a tee.. check it out.