Frontier Transport Indianapolis, Indiana

Sorry to hear that, but, How is it that you are the only one on this thread commenting on this company...obviously you are the only one they are picking on...Just sayin??? Have you thought about looking for work elsewhere???

 

Give it a little while to get read by someone who used to work for them! It was only up for 2 hours B4 you posted!

 

Anybody have recent info on them? Just got called..scheduling my orientation.

 

For anybody that follows this thread looking for info on Frontier Transport (a division of On Line Transport) I started with them today and will try to give periodic updates. Here is what I have so far....

Attended the first of a two day orientation today in Fairburn, GA. I signed so many danged documents that I felt like I was at a real estate closing. LOL I will be driving Southern Regional and the pay is .36 CPM with a .2 CPM safety bonus. Detention pays $11 per hour, layover pays $75, clean DOT inspection pays $50. There is a $1500 sign on bonus...$500 after 30 days, $500 at 60 days and $500 at 90 days. They give you a "free" $100 after you complete your first trip (to pay for tolls, etc) that does not have to be repaid. Because there is a two week payroll hold-back, they give you a $500 advance during your 2nd week and after 6 weeks they start taking it back at $20 per week. Insurance is higher than recruiting told me (because I smoke.) I will end up paying between $75 and $80 for health, dental and optical. There are NO paid holidays..they said nothing about vacation and I forgot to ask so I doubt there is paid vacation. Trucks and trailers are crap..used, worn out USA Truck and WalMart 2006 International tractors with Cummins engines and auto trans. Home weekends (I live in West Tennessee will be dispatched out of the Knoxville TN terminal.) Senior drivers that I have talked to tell me it is 90% drop and hook and they pay for lumpers. More to follow as I learn it...will be leaving with my 1st load tomorrow. Oh yeah..had to ride Greyhound to orientation (that sucked) but the hotel is awesome!

 

I may as well make my report on Frontier Transport, a division of OnLine Transport with a copy of my exit interview email. I lasted two weeks. Here it is, with names deleted........

XXXX and XXXXX,

As per my telephone conversations with XXXX on Friday when I resigned and again this afternoon, I am detailing the reasons why I resigned after a mere two weeks at Frontier Transport below. This email will be quite lengthy, but I plan to cover ALL of the issues that led to my resignation that I can.

My most pressing concern was poorly maintained, unsafe and illegal equipment.

You should be aware that I was shocked when we left orientation and went out to receive our truck assignments. What I had thought was an out-of-service line of trucks that was being used for parts turned out to be your operating fleet. I was offered a truck that I declined, then offered another truck that I accepted. This truck had just received an annual inspection that day according to the sticker affixed to the truck, so I felt more comfortable with it. I soon learned that assuming that the truck had actually received an annual inspection was a mistake. I was in a rush to get onto the road and head to my first delivery, so I completed a quick pre-trip, hooked and hit the road. Before departing, I had to adjust the piece of string that was serving as a hanger for the air hoses and pigtail to keep the hoses from dragging on the deck plate. I kept hearing a strange banging noise in the drivers door as I drove down the road and noted that there was duct tape on the driver's side mirror bracket. At my first stop for fuel in Dalton, GA, I removed the duct tape and observed that a bolt and nut was missing from the mirror bracket (which was being held together with the duct tape alone.) I re-taped the bracket until I could get a bolt and nut to repair the mirror bracket. I then hit rain in East Tennessee and activated the wipers, only to find out that the driver's side wiper blade was broken and that the wiper arm was scratching the windshield. At this point, I knew that I was going to have to closely monitor Frontier's equipment for defects. The "check engine" lights and "ABS warning" lights did not help to alleviate my concerns. After all of this, I was not surprised when the passenger side box tool compartment door fell off my tractor in Northern Ohio (I put it back on with duct tape until I could get to Knoxville, where the mechanic cannibalized another truck for a tool compartment door because he did not have any rivets.)


The majority of the trailers in your fleet should be used as storage trailers only, not in on-road OTR service. Floors were weak and buckling, daylight was showing through the trailer bodies, doors did not seal, trailer tandems would not lock in place, marker lights were not working, I even pulled one with defective brakes (they would not activate until five to eight seconds after pressure was applied to the brake pedal.) While some of this should be attributed to the previous driver not reporting the defects, there was no excuse in my opinion for trailers having cracked and bowed tandem slide rails that prevented the pins from seating in the holes of the rails. As XXXX was made aware on Friday afternoon, I hooked a trailer (F3283) in Lockbourne, OH on 4/17 and was not able to lock the tandems in place. This is because the previous driver had pulled the trailer from Charleston, SC with only one pin locked into the rails and the tandems had twisted. I spent over two hours waiting for a vendor to come out and assist me in locking the remaining three pins in place. Then when I arrived in Knoxville on 4/18 for a drop and hook, I was assigned a trailer in identical condition that had been pulled from Weber City, VA to Knoxville with only one pin locked. The tandems had twisted so bad that I could only lock two pins into place (after working them into place with a crowbar) with the remaining two pins above their respective holes because the rails were bowed and warped (and had visible cracks that rendered the trailer completely unsafe even if I had been able to lock the remaining two pins.) While it is true that XXXX in Knoxville offered me a different load on a different trailer, my experience had been that these types of trailers were the rule at Frontier instead of the exception. I photographed the defects on the equipment I was assigned at Frontier to document that my resignation was not voluntary but was submitted to protect my driving record, my CSA score, my safety and the safety of the motoring public. I am still trying to figure out how Frontier only ranks 18% equipment out of service inspections..my observations are that the out of service rate should be more in the area of 80%.

When I initially talked to recruiting, I was told that Frontier South Regional operated in the south only. I informed XXXXX that I did not mind running midwest and she said that I might occasionally see Indianapolis but any midwest loads would be re-powered with a midwest regional driver and I would be returned south. She made it very clear that I should plan on running the I-40 and I-30 corridor between the Carolinas and Texas (a dream come true for me.) Imagine my surprise when I was in the Toledo area last week. I was also told that my health insurance would cost me approx. $54 per week, but in orientation I learned that it would be closer to $80 per week. I was also told that I would be home on Friday nights and go out on Monday mornings. My first week out I was in Knoxville on Friday night and I did not get home until 2:00 Saturday afternoon. I chalked this up to the planners not realizing that I live over 350 miles west of Knoxville. The following week, I asked XXXX XXXXXX to remind the planners that I live in extreme northwest Tennessee and not in Knoxville. He assured me that the company was going to have everyone home on Friday night for the Easter weekend. Then when I was in Lockborne, OH on Thursday, I am dispatched with a load from Lockbourne to Waterville, OH. I am not upset at this point, assuming that I will be loaded from northern Ohio to west Tennessee to get me home Friday. Instead, I am dispatched to pick up in Delta, OH and deliver in East Flat Rock, NC on Friday afternoon....500 miles from home. I called XXXX XXXXXX to express my concerns, informing him that recruiting had told me that we ran south only and that I would be home on Friday nights and out on Mondays. In regards to being home on Fridays, his response was "Recruiters will tell you anything." He told me that we always run Ohio. I again reminded him that both XXXXX and XXXX had told me that we ran southern states only and he replied, "Like I said, recruiters will tell you anything." Nobody was making an effort to honor the conditions that I was hired under.

When I was being hired, Angie told me that she was sending me for a physical and drug screen. I told Angie that I had just completed a DOT physical two weeks earlier in order to maintain my CDL and offered to provide her with a copy of the long form. She advised me that Frontier requires drivers to submit to a physical with a physician designated by Frontier, therefore, I reported to the clinic that Frontier sent me to and underwent another physical EVEN THOUGH MY CURRENT DOT PHYSICAL WAS LESS THAN TWO WEEKS OLD. After arriving at Fairburn, GA, I was required to sign an agreement that I would reimburse Frontier for the cost of this unnecessary physical if I resigned before some arbitrary date. I was over 400 miles from home without transportation back to where I live, sleep deprived after an 18 hour trip to Georgia via Greyhound and I signed this agreement involuntarily and under duress because I had no way to get back home and could not start work until I signed that agreement. I signed more documents at Frontier's orientation than I did at my last real estate closing!! In my opinion, this wreaks of a deceptive practice. I am recommending to you in the STRONGEST possible terms that you do not withhold the cost of that physical from my pay. I did not need a physical, my current physical was less than two weeks old and was a two year certification, and YOU required that I submit to the physical as a condition of employment. The cost of that physical is YOUR responsibility, as I did not desire nor need a new DOT physical. Rest assured that should you deduct the cost of that physical from my paycheck, there will be consequences.

Be advised that I will be returning your Company Driver Manual, accident camera, COMDATA card, drug screen chain of custody form and various other publications belonging to Frontier Transport via the US Postal Service, return receipt requested. The tractor keys were surrendered to XXXX XXXXXXX at my home terminal in Knoxville on Friday afternoon.

In closing, I resigned under duress from Frontier Transport because I was misled regarding my working conditions from the start, coerced into signing documents at orientation, dispatched unsafe and illegal equipment, and operations made no attempt to honor the commitments the company made when I was hired. I hope the content of this email satisfies the questions that were to be posed to me during my telephone exit interview.


XXXXX XXXXXX

 

One more follow up email.......


XXXX,

I almost forgot two other things that led me to believe that there is a pattern of deception at Frontier....

First, we were told in orientation that we would be paid $11 per hour for detention. I sat at the shipper on load #859510 from 4:12 PM until 5:45 AM the next day waiting to get loaded (no food, no drink, no washroom). That totals 13.5 hrs, or 11.5 hrs of detention ($126.50) The next day, XXXX XXXXXX advised me that I would get $75 in layover pay instead of the $126.50 that I am owed in detention.

On Tuesday, April 15, I called XXXXXXX in Fairburn to ask if I was supposed to pull my $500 hold-back advance off the COMDATA card or if they were mailing a check. She said that they mail a check, had me hold on while she called payroll in Greenfield, then returned on the line and told me that payroll said they had mailed the check "today." (which was Tuesday) It normally takes two days from mail to get from the Indianapolis area to West Tennessee (I have an aunt in Greenfield that mails cards and letters to me.) I did not receive the check on Thursday or Friday and became concerned. As you are aware, XXXXX checked with payroll again on Friday and this time they said they mailed it on Thursday. If they mailed it on Thursday, why did they initially tell me that they mailed it on Tuesday???

Far too many misleading and false statements were being made for me to be comfortable staying at Frontier.

I am holding on to the numerous photos that I have until I see if I am charged for that physical that I did not need or if there is any adverse information entered into DAC/Hire Right. I honored my commitment when I can to Frontier...they dropped the ball. I do not expect any adverse information to be reported regarding my employment.

As a courtesy, I attached a photo of an OnLine trailer to my original email. That trailer was sitting on the yard at Knoxville with the dollies ready to collapse, leaning hard to the driver's side (as you can see in the photo.) I thought somebody might want to address that problem before you need a wrecker to pick that trailer up off the ground somewhere or someone gets injured loading or unloading it.


XXXXX

 

Wow. Good luck on getting reimbursed for the physical. Hope you find another company with less equipment problems at least.

 

Gotta see some of these pics you got as well.l

 

2 weeks, eh? I probably would have lasted 2 days.....