Caregan Transport

So how do you REALLY feel about that place. Don't sugarcoat it!!!

 

Hey, watch what these people are calling their "new trucks"; they're buying Covenant & KLLM's used trucks. Fleet Turnovers/Trade-Ins from Covenant and KLLM @ 500,000 miles +plus; straight from the auction. You'll still see a "ghost logo" from Covenant or KLLM, on one of Caregan's cheapo replacement trucks. These people are so cheap, they don't even pay to get the truck painted. Also, look up their Saferweb (it sucks!); and it really needs to be updated so it can go on their CSA 2010, @ this riff-raff company.

 

I still really get the feeling you're not being upfront about how you feel about this company. Seems like you're trying to cover something up......

 

I have 5yrs. driving otr, looking for a driving company that dont really look on your DAC, but look at what u doing now. i was driving for this one company in 8/08 to 12/08 and was layoff, and in 2009 i finally i got a job on 08/09 as a lease driver until 03/10, at Caregan Transport, where the company faslely fire me and after they found out the truth, they wanted to hire me back as acompany driver, for 30 days, and freeze my lease, and i told them that we will check it out on paper the next day, but 2hrs later they call me and fired me again. can anyone help me.493

 

Theres alot company out here making a bad name for drivers like Caregan Transport, firing drivers for no reason at all, then want you to come back as a company driver, then take all ur money as a lease driver and screw u like ur never was a driver ,that why they have a big lawsuit against them now, and about to get there pants set on fire by alot of drivers, so dont apply for a job with them if you dont want to get burned!

 

logan,any truth to all these negative posts?also hows the benefits.and how fast do they let the trucks run?

 

I guess I need to set this up so I get an e-mail when someone posts here. If these people would give me their names I'd be glad to look at their history and find out exactly what happened, but my immediate guess is that they had all of these issues without communicating them with us. I'm also quite certain that they're overstating things. Every disagreement tends to be exaggerated by both sides.

• The only way for us to be able to manage a driver's HOS is to install EOBRs, which is something I understand none of you would like us to do. As it is now, we rely on the drivers to make us aware of their available driving and on-duty time. When a driver has an issue and they communicate it to us we can either reschedule their delivery or swap assignments or both. We've been operating since 1994. We wouldn't be around today if we were as bad as this thread indicates. I would guess that these posts are coming from people that we've terminated for cause who have no outlet for their frustration but to come online and vent. Nobody gets fired and feels like they had it coming, and nobody who is happily employed has the time or the motivation to go out and talk about us on an internet forum.

• Our fleet ranges from 1999-2012, but about 75% of the equipment is 2007 or newer. The older equipment is almost entirely local only. Most of our new hires end up in a 2007. I believe everything older than that is eligible for the lease/purchase program.

• We have had a lot of people complete their lease, and we have about a dozen on the program right now. We've also had a lot of people fail, but these same people expected to be able to cover overhead, fuel, and maintenance while still making a truck payment on 1700 miles/wk. That's obviously not feasible, and they end up losing money each week. It becomes unsustainable and the only option at that point is to switch back to company driving. We have absolutely no problem giving any driver over 3,000-3,500 miles per week. There's more than enough freight right now, and it's entirely up to our drivers how many miles they turn each week.

• We have a lot of return drivers. Guys who wanted to leave for various reasons and left with notice (relocating, want to be local in another area, interested in another company, etc.) are always welcome to return and a lot of them do. Our most recent rehire is a former Lease/Purchase driver who completed his lease with no issues and left us as an owner-operator. He wanted to try running locally in the Baltimore area so he could have more home time, but eventually he decided he wanted to switch back to OTR and called us just last month. Between people who have left and come back, and people who have just never left, I would guess that our driver pool is less than 50% new/recent hires.

• We have two CSA alerts right now but the details are publicly available. If you look at our specific violations you should notice a few things. First, each year we receive less violations than the last. Most of our CSA points are leftovers from 2010 and early 2011, when CSA was still being formulated. There's nothing we could have done to avoid accruing CSA points on violations that occurred before CSA's implementation. Second, the vast majority of our mechanical violations are a result of drivers skipping or shortcutting their pre-trip. We've had drivers pull in to scales with flat tires before. Most of our HOS violations are from logbook form and manner or drivers just not being current. If anyone here can tell me what I can do to prevent those without angering my drivers, I'd be glad to hear it. These were all drivers who had more than enough time to make their deliveries and simply didn't take the time to update their duty status. We're improving every month, which is the main thing that the DOT looks for.
  • Rather than punish drivers who receive preventable violations, we elected to create a bonus program that rewards drivers who do things to improve our scores. You get a bonus just for not having any violations each week, and you get an additional bonus for every clean inspection you receive.

• I'm not sure who Durango is, but I can tell you now that nobody in our office will ever tell a driver to fudge his logs or cut his break short. It's never happened and it's a ridiculous accusation. There are sometimes disputes between dispatch and a driver about whether or not he should have the time to make a run, and when those happen they come to me. I pull the driver's satellite data, check it against his logs, and then tell dispatch when that driver can legally arrive. Almost every time, I find that the driver is right and dispatch adjusts their plan accordingly. If someone here feels that they were forced to run illegally I can promise you they never brought that concern to me. I wouldn't have allowed it to happen. Durango was partially right about one thing, though. We do take care of our own. He just didn't realize that includes all of our drivers. The yard he's describing is our shop. It was never intended to serve as a trucking terminal. There's a small room with a table where a driver can sit and review his paperwork before turning it in or have a quick lunch, but it's not meant to serve as a lounge or terminal. The other side of that door is a service and repair facility, and if a driver is injured in one of the bays, insurance will not cover it. It's for mechanics only because they are the only people covered under worker's comp in those areas. Those signs are posted for driver safety.
  • This is a good example of the overall tone of Durango's posts. Rather than discuss these things with us, he just guesses about what our reasons are and assumes they're negative. There's no need for the drivers to interact with those mechanics. That's what our shop foreman is for. He's the only employee at that location that should be talking to the drivers. A mechanic actively wrenching under an engine doesn't need the distraction. It's not safe during the repair, and it's not safe when that unit goes out on the road.

• We've only had two drivers named Dwayne, and only one who spelled it with a Y. The first one, Dwaine, completed his lease/purchase program with more average weekly bring-home pay than any other employee in the entire company. The other one, Dwayne, had such terrible employment history that we weren't even going to hire him. After he called us almost daily for several weeks, we finally agreed to a probationary hire. He had two accidents and was terminated. He refused to leave the office until police arrived to escort him.

Edit:
I think I was able to figure out who Durango is based on our load history and the trip he described. If it's who I think it is, he was terminated for attempting to fistfight another driver in our parking lot. He was on the way to losing his job already, due to the repeated complaints we received from other motorists about his road rage and extremely unsafe aggressive driving. He drove for us in 2010 and I assume he hasn't been able to find a job since, because he calls us every couple of months to politely ask that we remove the negative (but accurate) items we listed on his DAC. When we explain that we aren't going to do that he cusses at us and calls us names for a while, tells us he's calling his lawyer, then hangs up on us. If Dwayne is who I think he is, then he was also terminated in 2010.


As always, anyone is welcome to call me at Deleted or even on my cell Deleted and I'd be glad to put them in touch with some of our current drivers so they can hear first hand what it's really like to work here. I also invite those who are posting negatively about us to discuss specific events openly in front of everyone on this forum. I genuinely feel like we're a good carrier to work for and I'm certain that whatever your complaint is had a good reason behind it.

 

Also, here is a list of where our drivers live and their hire dates;

City, State, Zip Hire Date

1. Winchester, IN 47394 5/27/2003
2. Richmond, IN 47374 6/29/2004
3. Richmond, IN 47374 11/20/2006
4. Richmond, IN 47374 12/11/2006
5. Tipp City, OH 45371 8/15/2007
6. Lynn, IN 47355 10/14/2007
7. Gettysburg, OH 45328 11/7/2007
8. Richmond, IN 47374 2/1/2008
9. Richmond, IN 47374 4/22/2008
10. Richmond, IN 47374 10/6/2008
11. Richmond, IN 47374 11/4/2009
12. Harriman, TN 37748 4/9/2010
13. Richmond, IN 47374 6/2/2010
14. Richmond, IN 47374 8/9/2010
15. Chesapeake, VA 23321 10/5/2010
16. Lawrenceb.., TN 38464 10/6/2010
17. Richmond, VA 23234 10/8/2010
18. Franklin, OH 45005 1/18/2011
19. Richmond, IN 47374 2/16/2011
20. Centerville, IN 47330 3/7/2011
21. Richmond, IN 47374 4/8/2011
22. Richmond, IN 47374 5/24/2011
23. Centerville, IN 47330 8/4/2011
24. Richmond, IN 47374 8/11/2011
25. Richmond, IN 47374 11/16/2011
26. Liberty, IN 47353 12/15/2011
27. Clay City, KY 40312 1/10/2012
28. Cambridge.., IN 47327 1/31/2012
29. Indianapolis, IN 46218 2/29/2012
30. Richmond, IN 47374 4/13/2012
31. Richmond, IN 47374 4/16/2012
32. Bucyrus, OH 44820 4/16/2012
33. Mount Dora, FL 32757 4/30/2012
34. Richmond, IN 47374 5/4/2012
35. Timmonsville, SC 29161 6/21/2012
36. Richmond, IN 47374 6/26/2012
37. Mountain C., TN 37683 7/3/2012
38. Waco, KY 40385 7/9/2012
39. Chicago, IL 60612 7/11/2012
40. Ballwin, MO 63021 7/13/2012
41. Litchfield, ME 04350 7/27/2012
42. Atlanta, GA 30318 8/2/2012
43. Atlanta, GA 30311 8/2/2012
44. Indianapolis, IN 46222 8/8/2012
45. Liberty, IN 47353 8/11/2012
46. Shelbyville, IN 62565 8/17/2012
47. Jefferson C., MO 65109 8/23/2012
48. Knightstown, IN 46148 8/24/2012
49. Ocoee, FL 34761 9/19/2012
50. Toledo, OH 43606 9/25/2012
51. Richmond, IN 47374 9/28/2012
52. Liberty, IN 47353 10/2/2012
53. North Bru.., NJ 08902 10/4/2012
54. Wilmington, NC 28405 10/4/2012
55. Baltimore, MD 21206 10/8/2012
56. Muncie, IN 47302 10/9/2012
57. Richmond, IN 47374 10/15/2012
58. Medford, NJ 08055 10/17/2012
59. Pasadena, TX 77502 10/18/2012
60. Richmond, IN 47374 10/19/2012

 

Does your company hire drivers with less then 3 years of experence? I live in Hagerstown about 20 miles from Richmond

 

The 3-year rule is commonly imposed by insurance companies on mid-size carriers.