BOYD, whats in a name?

Not much when dealing with these people. If you like short runs, lots of sitting waiting for loads, beat up equipment with lots of problems, 60 mph trucks that wont climb a hill over 35, these are the people for you. They tell you when and where and how much to fuel, if you deviate, no fuel bonus. If you don't make 6.7mpg or better a month, no bonus. They use combination tarps with 5ft drops instead of lumber and steel tarps. They're too small for a lumber load and too big for a coil. On a typical lumber load, you have to turn the tarps sideways and use all 4 that they issue you to cover it. But dont worry, they'll show you how to do that at the end of orientation. OH, and you only get $18 to tarp a load. Their little fuel mileage nazi, Jayson, in Birmingham is a treat. When I did my road test with him, the first thing he says is "forget whatever you think you know about driving a truck, I'm gonna show how to drive." And learn to shift your truck between 1000-1300 rpm every gear or you get nasty grams on qualcomm about "watch your speeding and shifting". And pretty much anybody that doesn't like you or you have a disagreement with, can send you home. I don't know about all the dispatchers, but mine was always "waiting on the sales department, I'll get back to you." I have a 100mph dispatcher with a 60mph truck, if you know what I mean. When you get unloaded first thing in the morning and have to sit and wait till 3 or 4 or 5 pm to get your next load, it's hard make any money. I've worked there a month and half and haven't made a paycheck over $500 yet and thats with living in the truck 1 to 3 weeks at a time. Come Thursday or Friday there's "no freight moving up by your house right now." I called my dispatcher and the ops coordinator and told them that I'm turning my truck in today because i couldn't live and support my wife and two kids on $350 a week. I was told "if you want to quit that's ok, we don't care, but we need you to pick up this load and bring it to yard with the truck or it'll damage your DAC from now on." My truck's going back empty. They've already cut off my fuel card so I hope there's enough fuel to get it there or I'll have to call them and tell them on the side of what road it's sitting. I've run into some other former Boyd drivers who've had similar stories, but this, of course, is just my personal experience. Feel free to PM me for any additional information.

 

They had stopped their fleece purchase program before I started there, but I just found out they started it again, so anyone wanting that, good luck. If the way they run their company drivers is any indication, I don't see how anyone could make it.

Skinny, thanks for your reply also. I'm still looking for a new job, but looking more local with smaller fleets. This experience has made me real gun shy of big companies and IMO, I don't think now is a good time to try O/O. So, I'll keep pounding the pavement and blowing up the phone lines and internet. I don't know, maybe coming back to driving after the military wasn't such a good idea after. I've seen many changes and not many for the better.

 

Ok, just got my last pay stub from these "jems". Not only did I not draw anything for the last two loads I hauled for them, They charged me $818 for taking their truck back to the terminal. Said it was $2 a mile for 409 out of route miles. I asked my ex-dispatcher about this, he said "you should've brought that last load to the yard, then quit."

I said "so I could have a quit under load on my DAC?"

his response "oh no man, it don't work like that."

my response "If I'd have known you were going to charge me that, you would've found that POS in a cornfield somewhere. Thank you, have a nice day."

I did what I said I would, brought the truck back in better condition than when I picked it up (at least it was clean upon turn-in), with all the assigned equipment, at the time and place I said I would. I did have the mechanic that I turned it into sign that everything was turned in and in good working order with the time and date and make copies for me and the terminal.

As far as I'm concerned, this is company is just another bottom feeder, somewhere well below Swift, JB, Werner and Schneider (whose trucks will all pass a Boyd truck, by the way). I wish them the worst of luck and hope how soon they loose their authority to operate in the US. Flatbedders BEWARE this company, they WILL starve you and your family and make you go broke.