Western Express, King of no answer and sit and wait for no pay

When you have to tell people that you're educated... Lol

 

Sounds like a bad experience at any big company terminal with a mechanic shortage (pretty much most of them) ... the best techs leave for the dealerships and private shops for better money. Not just a driver shortage with cheapskate trucking companies.

 

Okay, how about giving this couple some real advice.... like how to finance getting their own truck/authority/broker? Sure l/p stinks, but provide a positive alternative. So much easier to criticize, right? This Forum never changes, no matter what the mods do.

 

Some people don't need to own trucks or even be behind the wheel of one. Some people can read between the lines. That's what good drivers do. You are not going to have filthy rich people asking about company sponsored training or how they can pay for an overpriced piece of junk in which they have very little say so. If you don't like the Report. You can exit stage right. Because I am or will be Americas next top trucker report administrator. I run a tight ship. Have your people call my people.

 

Ok...be a company driver for a good company.

 

Okay, I wasn't going to add my $.02 but..
First off I'm not going to say anything about the level of education, I too am very educated and have pieces of paper from two different Universities saying so yet I make stupid decisions every day. Nuff said on that subject.

Now if your husband thought that doing a L/P program with ANY company would allow him to work at his own pace then he needs to look for a different line of work because that will not happen. If anything a L/P driver will have to work 50% harder than a company driver just to come out the same at the end of the year. It's sad these companies have figured out a way to get the driver to pay for the truck that they will never own. The only company I personally know of that is honest about their program is Sammons and last I knew they'd tell you up front your not going to make more than barely enough to survive till the truck is paid for and your going to run 364 1/2 days a year till it's paid off.

Essentially what most L/P drivers are looking for is a company to take on all the risk of financing the truck without any skin from the driver. If you can afford to purchase your own truck then looking at a L/P program is like having $1,000 in your pocket free and clear and going to the payday advance place and paying 799.999% interest for a $500 loan to buy an Xbox. Or refusing an honest financing offer from a car manufacturer to buy a wore out POS from a buy here-pay here lot.

If you can't afford to buy the truck, buy the Xbox or your credit is too bad to buy a car through traditional financing then maybe doing a L/P with the goal of being your own boss may not be the best decision. I'm a company driver, I make exceptionally good money and I do get to call my own shots and work at my own pace. The best part, I drive their truck which is a brand new 2015 KW with every available option including air conditioned leather seats (like I knew those even existed or thought I would ever need such a thing.) My company puts satellite TV in every truck with a DVR and 22" flat screen TV, APU's, Inverters and real fridges and here's the kicker, I'm not paying them rent for my job, they're paying me to be an employee.

As for not getting paid for orientation, your husband chose to be an independent contractor (self employed) and going through orientation is part of the job. If he buys a truck on his own and leases to ABC company not only are they not going to pay him for orientation, they probably aren't going to pay for his fuel to get to their location to have his truck inspected or his accommodations while there let alone for his time in orientation. Self employment is exactly that. Your looking for the company to pay for things as if he were a company driver yet on the same line your wanting to be self employed. You can't have both and won't get both, it's one or the other.

As for the shop not working on his (their) truck in a timely manner, welcome to the wonderful world of independent trucking renting someone else's truck. Your husband is renting their truck, their rules and it will get worked on when and where they choose. If he's that set on being his own boss and doing his thing then he needs to buy his own truck then he can decide when and where he's going to get the truck worked on. If the shop he chooses doesn't work on it in a timely manner he can take it somewhere else. Honestly he is driving a truck that he doesn't nor will it ever belong to him and the real owner of the truck will work on it the way they want and just because he signed a L/P agreement he will never have a say in it.

As for the part about not telling him there's a "nicer" drivers waiting area. Well I'm going out on a limb and going to guess your husband is a quite person with a type B personality and as such will not take charge and find out things on his own but is more comfortable letting someone else show him. Please don't take that the wrong way, if every man in this world were an outspoken type A we would have blown the world up by now, it takes every type of person for this world to work. Even if it is dysfunctional!!

Maybe the whole L/P program in general is not the best suited path for your family. There are good companies out there but in general they're not the ones you find advertising all over the place. If a company isn't sinking loads of money into advertising for new drivers there's probably a reason, the drivers they have are happy and they aren't looking for someone to fill a seat. When I came to work for this company I had to wait for a job, someone had to retire or they had to purchase a truck. I waited for several months to finally get hired on, they flew me to orientation, put me up in my own room at business class hotel, gave me a car to drive and cash to pay for my meals while there.

If you and your husband can find a way to make the current situation work in the short term financially then tell him to stick it out but keep knocking on doors and ringing phones. Something will come along and remember, if they have a big glossy full page add in one of those truckstop rags then don't walk away, RUN!

 

One of the drivers at my barn is looking for a change, and mentioned that he was looking into WE's walkaway lease program. I was dumbfounded. This is a dude with 25 years driving experience and I'd thought he would know better. All I could say was "Why would they offer to let you walk away penalty free unless they were expecting you to fail?" But he was distracted by the shiny objects on their web site. All I could to was point him to TTR and hope he looks into it first.

 

Company drivers don't get paid to sit.....only to drive....I really think you two should do more research on OTR trucking before you keep going...

 

McDonalds ??