They still do. Eastern is a truckload subsidiary but seeing it has a different name we must have a different DOT number and carry lease agreements from NEMF to Eastern for the truck and trailers. Everything is "owned" by NEMF.

I agree the NEMF equipment is substandard in many cases. Especially the day cabs which they seem to run forever. They have scores of new Volvos parked at NEMF terminals. They did the same when they bought the 60 610 Volvos for Eastern. They buy them and then store them for a year or 2. I suspect it has to do with taxes and emission controls on the newer equipment. By pre-buying the owner does not finance anything and is able to dodge newer emission controls on the engines for several years while the "bugs" get worked out.

I was never bothered about the small bunk trucks because the pay was head and shoulders above anything I got prior to working for Eastern. Now the equipment is being upgraded and the complaints of the older and former drivers were heeded.

Like I said in the past; It is easier to affect change from within than without.

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Adapting to an ever changing world.

i have had a few buddies work there out of ,i wanna say elizibeth nj...

Some like it some didn't...

Its all a preference call...i was on nemf nite line haul...that was hell.hated it....great money though..

Night shift was hell,terrible day cabs(not road worthy) and of course last one on the union board..the next guy ahead of me had 12 years...

I new i was doomed,lol,lol

that was years ago.i cant even remeber what year..1980's?

I worked there for several years a couple years back. I know you fairly well. How have things changed since some management people have left or got canned?

Not sure who you are but heres a list of the changes and personnel changes in the past couple of years.


Since Moses blew the whistle on the outlaws (me included) to DOT and after the subsequent audit we have some new protocols as far as logging. Drivers have to match EVERYTHING. We have a new (hired about 2 years ago) in house safety guy "Gary" that is a bit of a hard nose about the logs and making sure they match the computer. He seems to enjoy busting drivers on violations and canceling their monthly bonus. A real no nonsense type. Fortunately my logs are pretty tight and he only caught 1 error on mine in the past year (I marked 2 logs with the same date and lost a bonus).

We have scannable logs and DVIR (Driver Vehicle Inspection Report) books to fill out each day now too. Those were implemented when Gary was hired.

Jim the ops manager quit a couple months back. From what I heard he asked for more money and was rebuffed. He got a better offer some where else (not sure where though).

Looks like Tommy is muscling his way back into the top spot in the office. He used to be the load planner and left after the audit to work somewhere else (a brokerage I think) but came back almost a year ago now. Brian was doing the majority of the load planning before Tommy came back but now it seems Tommy is doing more planning rather than dispatching.

Ritchie the night dispatcher got the axe a few months back. Inter office gossip basically states he was passing the buck too much on late loads. Rather than look through the boards and try to find a driver with hours left to run a priority load that was going to be late he would simply send an email about the load being late and suggest the day shift reschedule the appointment.

Ray was bumped from day dispatcher to night dispatch and a new female was hired for day dispatch. Cyndi seems to be catching on pretty quick and from what I have been told she has 15 years in the biz so she should be a quick study.

Lee is still with the company. He went from day dispatcher to recruiting and orientation manager.

Amy is no longer with the company either. She was in charge of payroll for a few years but moved on about a year ago now. She was a fine lady and was a pleasure to work with. She always made time for me and took care of any payroll issues I had.

Tom the Russian shop mechanic was let go. Not enough money to pay 3 mechanics apparently. The shop hours have been reduced at EFW and is not open on the weekends any more.

Jose and Jorge do what they can to keep the trucks up and running despite the reduced work hours. Parts inventories are being reduced at all shops to try to save money rather than having stockpiles of parts and no cash. Means trucks are down for longer periods of time waiting for parts now.

Some new changes to the vacation schedules and paid days off. Apparently they are instituting a new policy where all paid time off gets reset January 1st regardless of when the drivers hire date was. Of course they still will not let you "bank" any paid time off. You either take it within the allotted time (1 year) or you lose it.

The older trucks that were set to run 75 mph are being turned down to 68. I hear the blue (former Jevic) team trucks are set at 68 as well. At least mine will still run 70.

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Adapting to an ever changing world.

Wow. I'm surprised to hear Jim quit and not so surprised that Richie was canned. Brian must be pissed though, he always treated me well and did his best under the circumstances. Now Ray, OH BOY! Mr. personallity himself, his attitude is bad enough, now on nights? WOW!. Lee, always a gentleman and a professional, if anyone should move up it's Lee.

Everything you say is true. The problem is that except for Ray, its one big clique with nobody to keep them under wraps. Bellino stays out of the way. Pat works very hard to get loads for the drivers and with Pete gone she has double the responsibility. The girl that was hired is very smart but she is a friend of theirs. Place must be a real circus now that its slow.

Good discussion. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

A lot of good drivers left while I was there, being trated like #### and not making enough money for the time they had to stay out. The accounts they chase either dont pay their bills or go bankrupt. Without NEMF line haul, they wouldnt have anything but broker loads and conair garbage. Company hasnt made money since inception, cant blame it all on management, which changed several times over the years. its the NEMF philosiphy which needs to change. Now with the recession its all bets are off what will happen. Carrier lost a large part of business. They will try to force people out the door that they dont want who make a lot of money and arent part of the CLIQUE.

You know thats the strange thing about Ray. He has got to be one of the strongest drivers I have EVER seen. I ran with him a couple of times a few years back and this guy makes me look WEAK! Hell he turned a load from Camp Hill Pa down to the Valdosta Ga running with one driver (a 940 miler) and then met me in Ga (I was fresh off of my break) on the way back up to North Brunswick New Jersey to go home (a 1040 miler). We stopped for fuel and rest room breaks and that was it. The first guy Ray ran with hung it up in SC while we continued north. I have nothing but respect for Ray because he not only knows how to do the job he's a freakin' Iron Man. Too bad he had a heart attack a while back and can't drive anymore. I would hate to compete with him on a stamina basis. I can turn a thousand miles a day (still do if wife is under the weather) when needed but cant seem to do those all nighters without getting sleepy. Ray can be a hard case especially when it comes to complainers. He is old school and does not have mush sympathy for newbies crying about an a/c that doesn't work.

Brian has always been a decent guy to me and always listened to what I had to say. Good phone etiquette for sure.

Tommy is a bit tougher. Can get an attitude but more level headed than Jim was (from what I saw anyway).

Cyndi is personable enough as well. I have not really had any difficulties with her yet and do not anticipate any.

Pat is pretty good at digging up loads to keep us busy. With the economy in the toilet even she isn't able to prevent us from laying over once in a while. She is pretty capable as well from what I have seen over the years.

It really doesn't bother me if they are all friends inside or not. As long as they keep me busy and the checks don't bounce I am content. I have never been one for worrying about interoffice politics either. I am usually one of the last drivers to hear things believe it or not!

Tommy keeps trying to get us to fill in for the Florida team and turn the Camp Hill to Miami run for him but we won't run it straight. NEMF apparently wants it turned in 26 hours or less. The normal team does the 1200 miler in 22 to 23 hours. The wife and I will run 16 to 18 hours per day but thats it. Neither of us can get any quality rest while the truck is moving so we will leave those Miami turns alone. I would rather turn 800 to 900 miles per day and be rested than try to squeeze in 1200 a day and crash because we got too tired. Just not worth it to us.

Yes it is slow and it seems we lost another driver because of it. A fellow from NC parked his truck in Greensboro NC and we will recover the unit tomorrow. The good thing about that is when we each run solo I get .44 cpm and Kim gets .39 cpm. Pretty decent for her considering she has only been driving a year. Man it took me 4 companies and 12 years to make it to .39 cpm! Oh well times change I guess.

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Adapting to an ever changing world.

Conair loads, Home depot loads, Behr Paint loads are all pretty skimpy on the miles. I have done them all though as needed. Of course I did try to explain it to Jim that he would not be able to keep good drivers if all he could give them was a Home Depot load that had 3 to 4 deliveries in the Pittsburgh area but picked up in Breinigsville (Allentown area). 250 to 300 miles with extra stops just isn't worth being a regional road driver. Now if he could have set up a relay where a regional driver secured the load from Breinigsville and then ran it out to Irwin and dropped it for a local driver to deliver that could have worked. Of course I am just a driver and most of my suggestions are ignored (or so it seems).

I don't know about "forcing people out." I suppose it happens but as long as you do the job (without too much grousing) you are supposed to do I think they will keep you.

I know the run my and the wife do each week is in fact a NEMF line haul. So are the trips from Chicago IL to Irwin Pa and then to Pawtucket RI. Doesn't matter to me seeing my check comes from NEMF anyway.

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Adapting to an ever changing world.