FirstFleet Inc.

I drove for FirstFleet for about 2 years altogether. I would still be there if family circumstances hadn't dictated that I move on. I lived in Las Vegas, NV, and ran out of the Phoenix terminal. Here's how it worked: Do your five days on duty, run your tail off, make $1000, take two days off, rinse and repeat. They are very good about giving you the option to work a sixth day and bump pay to about $1250 per week. A driver has to run illegally to complete almost any of their assignments, but there is nothing sinister whatsoever about it.

Example:
Start out at Las Vegas at 5 a.m. Monday morning, drive to phoenix, wait at grocery warehouse, get store load, drive back to vegas, deliver grocery load to two or three stops. This process entails about 700 miles, and about 15 hours on duty if all goes smoothly. You can get a run that completes in 12 hours, but these are rare.

Next day, (Tuesday) drive to Los Angeles, pick up warehouse freight, get it back to phoenix by Wednesday morning. This is usually the relaxing part of your week. I usually pushed it back into phoenix by tuesday night so I'd have plenty of time to rest up before Wednesday's grocery load back to vegas. You complete this process two and a half times a week, and that equals about $1000.

The company pays all miles loaded or empty, and since you are operating within a fairly restricted geographical area, they don't mess with you about routing, there's only so many ways you can do it. They don't mess with you at all about idling, just ask politely once in awhile that you keep it down. They were always very accurate with my pay, just had to haggle over detention once in awhile, no big deal. You fuel up at the company yard in Phoenix, with a 1000 mile range there is usually no need to fuel elsewhere. They do use Pilots and TA though.

I really liked this company, and I'll go right back to them if I ever move back out west. The worst thing about this company is the shippers and receivers they deal with. The grocery warehouse is a typical setup, your load could come out on time, or it could be hours late, completely messing up your schedule. The grocery stores themselves are an entity to be hated and despised. All you can do is call them, or go inside when you pull up and let them know you're there. The rest is in God's hands. Once in awhile it'll go real smooth, but not usually. Freight is mixed dry grocery, palletized. You quickly learn to negotiate winding roads so as not to have to pick up 30 pallets of grocery off the floor when you get to the stores.

Insurance is with BCBS of Tennessee at $60/week for driver and spouse. They are strictly company solos, very very few teams, and no O/O that I ever saw. They also have a fuel bonus at 7 mpg, and quarterly safety bonus if no accidents or tickets. I hope this helps if you are considering them. I liked them alot.

FF has operations in other parts of the country as well. I have no idea if other areas would be as good as Phoenix, although I have a feeling they wouldn't be.

 

They have brand new Volvo's, with sleeper cabs. The newer ones have a Volvo engine, (not so good). They are set at 71 mph.