Paschall Truck Lines, Inc. - Murray, Ky.?

i was thinking about working for paschall. the recruiter told me in oct of 2010, that there truck speeds are, 65mph on foot, and 70mph cruise. i just want to know if thats true.

 

Hello,

From our experience you best run run run as fast you can in the opposite direction of PTL. They are a terrible company to work for. My husband and I teamed with this company for a year too long. You have to learn early on not to believe the the recruiters. They make a nice chunk of change for getting newbies in the door. As for as PTL they will give good miles to start with and then they start going down. They will give you loads that should have been there yesterday causing you to have to do a little creative logging. No these trucks won't even touch 70 miles per hour they might do 65 coasting down Monteagle.

Good luck with trucking.

 

thank you for the information!

 

Look, for anyone that's contemplating working for ptl, here's a suggestion. When you call the recruiter, have all your questions in order, (i.e., pay per mile, home time, type of equipment, detention pay, insurance, etc.,). Cover everything imaginable. Tape the conversation. When you go to orientation, and you realize you have been deceived, you tell the (i.i.c.), (idiot in charge), what the recruiter promised, and he tells you that you are lying. Then you whip out the tape and you play the taped conversation, and watch how the anger immediately burst from the "i.i.c." and he tells you that you aren't ptl acceptable, and that you must pay your own expense to get back home. Wished i had a video camera that day, it would have made me famous with youtube!

 

thank you for the information. i will do that next time i talk to a recruiter! i will bye me a voice recorder! thanks!!

 

Here's MY scoop on PTL. All companies have good, bad, and ugly reports. I'm just going to tell you mine. No addlibbing. Just the truth from MY experience with them.

They were upfront about the pay thing: .30 cpm west of the Mississippi River. No bait and switch.

They told me point blank once I got on the road, "You should NEVER have to get a restart or run out of hours!"...I had 45 minutes left on my 70 when I pulled the brake at the Flying J in Kansas City. I told my dispatcher that and that I needed to get a restart to get my hours back and they sent me a dispatch to go from Kansas City to Joplin to Albuquerque in a day and a half. I said no. They got pissed and told me to call the log department. I said okay and it backfired on them. The log department, after getting my logs scanned to them, told dispatch to leave me alone. That went over like a turd in a punch bowl. Crap run...sit....crap run...sit sit....crap crap crap. I survived that ordeal and started getting better miles albeit the truck was a piece of junk that kept hanging in gear and cutting off at random (automatic) that put me down in a hotel 11 days in a 14 day period at 3 different Freightliner dealers. One in Chicago, one in Joplin, and the last in Tulsa. I finally got back on the road with my "fixed" truck and made it as far as the toll booth in Big Cabin and the truck actually hung in gear and cut off IN THE TOLL BOOTH! They had to put cones behind me and they were NOT happy about it. Got it started finally and made it to the consignee in Morris, Il. and come to find out that I was 24 hours early (del per appt) and had to leave and come back. Try and figure that one out. Had another load "per appt" 48 hrs early. When I went to make a u-turn on the cons property and leave, it hung up and cut off again. Now I'm blocking the entrance/exit to the whole place. They were PISSED!!! I got it to start and still hung in gear, hobbled it to the T-A right down the street and found a parking spot, called road maintenance, told them what happened and they told me to drive it to the Freightliner dealer in CHICAGO!!! Needless to say I told them no way. That was it. No more driving this truck. It is unsafe. They said they didn't care if I sat there for 2 weeks waiting, they weren't calling a wrecker, that I could drive it myself or sit. I'm a calm person and I take it on the chin more than most people would, but that pissed me off. I called someone over their head and pretty well showed my #####. They sent a wrecker, and the next day got me a ride to the Murray yard with another driver and I got a "different" truck. Not a new one like all the rookies were getting but it had an APU and it was in a lot better shape so I bit my tongue. Things went pretty well for a short while after that but then it started again, why can't you do this, why can't you do that, why can't you do the other? Illegal illegal illegal. They didn't care as long as their freight got moved from point a to point b. Well, this ain't the good ol' days and this CDL is my families livelihood. Are they going to pay my bills when my CDL is no good and no one will hire me because my CSA score is through the roof? NO!!! So I said no to protect myself and my family. Drivers there are apparently a dime a dozen, like a lot of places, but I've been doing this long enough to know when to say no and they do not like that word. We got into it over idle time before I got the APU (they WILL fire you over that). Iowa...5 degrees...no load... sit sit sit..."Don't idle the truck"...yeah right. I had to go to the Memphis yard and watch a 4 hour video about idle time. Stayed with them a year and a half total and pretty much got slapped in the face when my APU broke and they refused to fix it and told me no new truck so I was going back on idle watch again. That was the last straw. I turned in my 2 week notice and actually worked it out. They didn't ask why or try to get me to stay. Took an 18 hour bus ride home and THAT is when they finally asked why I was quitting and said they wanted me to stay. AFTER I got home. My opinion..."Once bitten, twice shy"..."Screw me once, shame on you...Screw me twice, shame on me"....Some drivers love it there, others have nightmarish stories...that is mine. Would you go back?

 

PTL is an employment of the very last resort. It's better than no job, but if you can run, don't walk. Cheap, CHEAP, did I say cheap? They paid 30 cents/mile (West of Mississippi) with 4 years of experience back in 2009, 34 cents/mile east of Mississippi. Guess where you'll be running the most in an old, caulked windshield, noisy, hole in a floor, 62 mph truck? FORCED per diem, if you didn't figure that per diem is a legalized robbery yet, PTL will teach you a lesson even if you are mentally challenged. You will get a crappy health insurance only after 12 months with PTL, but since there are very few drivers who works there for more than 6 months, it means no health insurance. They have two orientation classes per week, 25+ people each. Breakdown, means you sit essentially for free. 10 days in CA netted me $138, but since PTL pays only for the "approved" motels (never mind that there are cheaper deals right around the corner), I paid $60 for cab to get me to one of their motels (1 motel night out of 10 I've spent waiting in a broken down truck in a scorching CA heat and they would not reimburse $60 ), so it's 138-60=$78 per 10 days. RUDE, disrespectful, condescending, ... dispatchers, only one out of 4 (in my 6 months with PTL) treated me like some kind of an intelligent life form and not a steering wheel holding dirt (and they fired her).

Miles were OK on the average, 2400 -2600/week, but I don't need miles, I need money and that's something you'll not make much with PTL all things considered. They were not strict on the logs, you could run round the clock earning yourself a good sized hemorrhoid if you wished. I worked for 4 trucking companies in my "career", PTL is the only one where I felt as dirt, literally speaking.

The only good thing - they did not cheat me on the last paycheck, I got my $300 deposit back without squabble.

 

Most phones have them included ( smart phones) now days no need to buy 1

 

PTL stands for Poor,Tired and lonley.

I wouldn't touch them with a 100 foot stick. Nuff said!

 

its ok we work for them and they real suck my oppion