I haven't heard any posts about Dart in this forum. Maybe someone has experiences with them ,Good or Bad,just thought i'd throw it up for grabs. Wondering""

Since Dart is an all O/O company, you won't find much here. O/O's simply tend to quietly move on in most caes, rather that get on here like a lot of the company drivers do.

Dart is an all O/O company?? Then why are they under forced dispatch AND only getting a mileage rate? What kind of an all O/O company is that???

__________________
Keep right,pass left.

no, it's drivers as well as o/o's.


[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link.

As far as I know, Dart has always been an O/O company. There are small fleets that are signed on with them, and they may be getting mileage pay as drivers working for them, but I have never seen a Dart company truck. I've never come across a dissatisfied driver for them, so they must be doing something right. As for forced dispatch, I can't say anything about that. Maybe they do, maybe they don't.

They have been sending me a whole book like deal on being a lease truck operator for a year now. They have lease purchase and you actually get to keep the truck or trade it in. Drivers don't complain much,that's why i asked ya all.

Dart Transit only has contractors, or so they offer to the public. They have a division called Allpoints, that operates just as if it were a company driving arm of Dart, but to the best of my knowledge, this company is a contractor just like all the others, and has always been marketed as such.

It's not made clear who exactly owns that company, and if it indeed is actually owned by Dart, then it raises a big red flag for me. I'm not fond of deceptiveness in a company and see no reason to not be up-front about things like who owns a company. Allpoints, Inc. is not listed as a motor carrier in the FMCSA database, which would be the case if they were indeed simply a contracting arm of Dart Transit.

From a contractor standpoint, their up-front leasing terms are not all that great. I find that the fuel surcharge that they offer, and it's term "floating fuel surcharge", is suspect as being open to abuse. The site lists today that they are paying 20.8 per mile for all miles, as of October 2, and that was quite a bit lower than the normal fuel surcharge that was to be expected.

They offer .88 to .90 cpm "average" for all miles, and that doesn't warm my heart either. It tells me that there will be instances and times when the per mile rate will be lower than that, and that's pretty darn low as it is.

Allpoints doesn't fare any better, from a driver's perspective. Their terms are equally devoid of details, and wide open to interpretation. I hate the word "competitive" when used to describe a company's pay scale. It usually pans out to be quite the opposite. It is sub-par. They list a .33 cpm starting base rate, which may very well be eaten up by employee contributions to their benefits. But...if they can keep a driver busy, and the freight is driver friendly, in that one is not going to be sitting at docks all week long, then that may be a trade-off to consider. As I always offer, the per mile rate doesn't always tell the whole story.

Now, to their credit, they have many long time contractors who have hung with them for years, and I know two of them personally. They could be doing better in my opinion, but the company appears to be good to their people, and a bit more flexible with contractors than can be the case elsewhere. And as a person who will trade financial maximization for a little peace of mind, I'm in no position to criticize anyone for doing the same thing.

They have a mediocre safety record, which has steadily improved over the past five years from one that was not so good.

Highway Sales, Inc., the truck sales division of Dart Transit, will lease trucks to those who have been with the company for at least six months, and while the offered payment amounts are well below what other companies lease trucks to drivers for, one would need to get into the details of the entire cost of leasing one of them. I may put this on my list of things to do, because again, there are very few complaints out there on all of Dart Transit's operations. They may well offer a decent and workable plan.

One detailed complaint I received about four years back, was indicative of a pretty rotten experience after leasing a truck through them, but I knew this person from way back, and he was not one to stick out a job anywhere for very long. So I don't put a great deal of faith in his complaint.

My advice? Get into the nitty, gritty details before making a decision on Dart, Allpoints, or into leasing a truck through them. Because they are not generating many complaints, it may well be worth giving them a whirl. The company does not draw anywhere near the complaint level of similar sized companies, so they must be doing something right.

Thanks for the insite Turbo. I believe their fuel surcharge is setup like jBs, they have an alotted fuel amount set up for a certain price,while they don't give the whole surcharge to the lease operator,the lease operator saves too,I believe dart lease operators get their fuel at about 1.24 a gallon,no matter how high it goes,that's alot better to maximize the lease operators profits. That's about the only thing good that JB does for their lease operators and oo. You really have to figure all of this in compared to other companies,on cpm and fuel costs. Just wanted to add that in. thks again

DART ARGGGGGGGGG!!! I was recently leased to them for almost 3 years.Dart is owned by Don Oren or Dave One is the current chairman after the older one semi retired. I only happened to run across them once or twice by accident. They are supposedly anOO company but a real owner op is treated like the red headed step child. They cater to their psuedo oo the highway sales rent to own operater. It may as well be forced disp, because they tell the lessor how much to put into escrow, where to get certain things done and if they refuse too much, the dispatcher threatens to cut off their fuel card.
They tried it with me once, but I was a REAL OO and I told them I dam well will do as I please. Then he looked it up on his computer and noticed my truck # wasnt a highway sales truck. So he reconsidered his argument and I got my way
Anyway justa a bit of gloating. You dont often win a point with dispatchers. Many of Dart's dispatchers are young college types that dont even know what the inside of a truck looks like. They cant take responsibility or make a decison without checking with a half dozen bosses.
Alpoints is the company side of dart, the ones that get the miles, and they are forced disp.
I guess all in all its about as good or bad as anyone else.
Lostsoul

Thanks Lost Soul,good info,wasn't going to work for them but was curious as never heard any real bad things about them. I ran into a couple of their lease ops awhile aago and they were happy. have a great day.