KLLM Background Info

leannamarie · Sep 29, 2008

Yes, cancelling it if a big storm blows in would be the thing to do, and then just reapply for hometime again. The company seems to be very accomodating.

dbcad7 · Oct 5, 2008

Tried contacting them on Wed, but with time difference had to leave a message.. then on Thursday eve just took the plunge and did the online application.. (kind of hard to squeeze in a phone call at school, and it's after hrs for them when I'm off).. No word yet, but figure maybe I'll get a call next week sometime.. If I don't hear from them by Wed, I'll call the 800 number.

We had some delays at the school last week, so lost some practice time for the final road test for DMV and I decided to push it into next week. (I probably could have passed it, but want more confidence in my downshifting).. It all works out better anyway towards the 160 school hrs that KLLM wants.

One of my other choices, FFE, contacted me but the recruiter thought Reno was close to Vegas... She was working on getting approval based on distance from Sacramento.. but although she was hopeful, I kind of have my doubts.

dbcad7 · Oct 9, 2008

Finally heard from KLLM.. guess Reno is out of their hiring area now. This has become a problem, I have been turned down from 4 companies now for that.. So far only 2 willing are Werner and Covenant (waiting to hear from 4 other companies)

leannamarie · Oct 9, 2008

The last 4 people that I have heard that tried to get hired were not. They are really tightening things up.

mhw · Oct 10, 2008

as a KLLM driver I am appalled that you have written this statement. Not to mention that several things you verbalized tend to lean toward that you are a bigoted disgruntled driver. there are 6 weeks of training, and if you give them a reason to look at your performance and log book errors they will call you into question, carl is no longer the head of training and safety, and as with any company and their training program, no one is perfect. I was fortunate to get a very good trainer, and although there are some trainers that do not deserve training status, it is up to the students to speak up for themselves and not tolerate behavior that will lead to balk and come away with a bad taste in their mouth. I am sorry you were not happy with your time at KLLM maybe if you had spoke up for youself and stayed a little longer you would feel differently.

RoadToad69 · Nov 28, 2008

Time for rumor and misinformation control.....

stocktonhauler said: ↑

Newbies looking for KLLM training and employment may want to know a few things about this company, which is the largest transportation company in Mississippi (which isn't saying a lot, frankly). A few years back, WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers once has a 10% stake in the company, and for awhile the SEC froze the company assets as judicial prosecuters tracked down Ebber's case of fraud and corruption. Several tenders of offers to buy the company outright by a Mr. Low resulted in a showdown between Board President Liles (whose inherited name is the "L", the other "L" was added after KLM the airline threatened a lawsuit). This year Lilies (and probably other investors) took the company private, but given the repeated SEC files showing Liles attempts to do this before, one would think the company may have been put into debt in order for Liles to secure the necessary capital for the purchase. Further evidence of this is the sale of the dry van division and closing of the Dallas terminals to reduce costs and "to concentrate on what [they] do best"--refrigerated transport.

Yes, the dry van division was sold so that the company could concentrate on its refrigerated transport services. This was, IMHO, an intelligent move. While you can haul dry van goods in a reefer trailer, you cannot haul refrigerated goods in a dry van trailer. Also there is great truth in do one thing and do it well. Selling off the dry van division has allowed the company to purchase additional new reefer trailers along with brand new trucks (Freightliner Cascadias) to update the fleet and provide it's drivers with new, reliable equipment, including a plan in action to install APU units on all trucks in the fleet. Far from drowning in debt, the company is taking steps towards growth and is suceeding.
The Dallas terminal was closed and moved to a drop yard several miles away for the moment. This was done with an eye towards opening a new terminal along the I-40 corridor, one of the fleet's main routes. More of the fleet's traffic goes across I-40 than I-20. For example, I just took a load from California to Georgia and my route was across I-40 and I did not cut south until I-55. Company interests, and drivers, are better served by locating a terminal along I-40.

The attention to detail for refrigerated loads has earned KLLM solid contracts with among others, Fresh Choice, a Salinas, CA based company specializing in prepackaged salad greens. Drivers thus can be expected to wait sometimes hours for lettuce and other produce to be packed into their trucks before making a run, say, from Salinas to Chicago or Atlanta. The company is more diversified than this though, as refrigeration units are also used to transport Hazmat pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and hospital supplies, and as dry vans for agricultural fertilizers, and even misc. general cargo.

Yes, Fresh Express is one of the company's major clients. Yes, you may have to wait to be loaded in Salinas, King City, Arvin, etc. HOWEVER, so long as you arrive on time for your appointment, you will receive detention pay for any wait over 3 hours at the rate of $10 per hour up to a maximum of $100 per day. On Fresh Express deliveries to Morrow and Franklin Park you may drop any time. I have dropped more than 24 hours before the delivery appointment.

Driver training begins at orientation in Jackson, Miss or Fontana, CA, with the latter being a remote and poorly supervised satellite entry point for new drivers.

I'd hardly call Fontana "remote" or unsupervised. There is a terminal supervisor there every business day as well as a small office staff. Is it as big as the Jackson or Atlanta yards? No.

OTR training is mostly "team" training, meaning that drivers can expect to be used primarily as labor for the benefit of their trainer. Logbook hours possible are same as a team, so the trainer will typically sleep in the berth while the trainee teaches himself to drive. Frequently, trainees drive the freeway, while the trainer steps in to manuever urban challenges or at the terminal for loading and unloading.

If you, or anyone else, knows of this happening, I can tell you right now that the head of safety wants to know about it YESTERDAY. I recently have had a trainer with this problem but the problem was not with him, it was with the load planners. The problem was brought to the attention of safety and resolved very quickly. I will say that there have been cases of trainers who have left students to drive on their own almost from day one, looking to maximize their incomes. When these trainers and their practices are discovered they are dealt with and removed from the training program.

KLLM success rate appears to be quite low as trainers report a very low success rate with their students. Some of this, to be sure, is a product of the overwork during 8wks of training, and ordinary mismatch of expectations between OTR and trainee ambitions.

Actually their sucess rate is quite good. Are there trainees who wash out? Yes. But that is true of any company. I have found them willing to give a trainee ample opportunity to succeed. This has included changing trainers if the trainee feels they are not getting the help they need or if there is a personality conflict or if the trainee perceives a problem with the match or trainer.
The training program for student drivers is 6 weeks, but may be extended to 8 weeks for further instruction if the trainee has correctable issues during their upgrade test.
My own trainer was fantastic- very patient and took the time to explain things thoroughly. We ran like a solo truck until he called safety to let them know that he felt we could run like a team- and this was not until at least 3 weeks into training. Even then he made it clear that if I had ANY question or ANY doubt about my ability to handle a situation that I could, and BETTER, wake him up. As my training took place in the winter months, with sometimes iffy (for a newbie) road conditions, there were time I did wake him up. I never heard boo from him about it either.

But, the training program also appears poorly conceived by the manager of safety, Carl ---. Training materials, driver manual, syllabus of training, and tests are poorly written and distributed. The safety manager promotes a belief that driving is not learned but inherited, and that older drivers in particular are less likely to succeed. The exit training exam is a time consuming onerous open blank test of many pages, includes issues never taught (especially in the Hazmat section), has many poorly phrased questions, and is clearly difficult to score. However, the test is just a bureaucratic experience. Carl lets everyone who he thinks can drive pass this test.

Many things I could say here but I will simply address this by pointing out that Carl is no longer the head of the safety department.

Carl has a turkey trophy on the back of his office door, and projects the stereotype image of a good-old-boy white guy who commands respects over subordinates by his manipulations. He once remarked with a laugh that yelling at a trainee is "sometimes acceptable and necessary". Obviously, matching trainer and trainee perspectives from the comfort of an office is a challenge he understood, but during a phone conversation I observed in his office, I nevertheless found him both judgemental and naive in the handling of a trainer "in crisis".

Again, Carl is no longer the head of safety BUT....
I did some major, porker, bonehead things as a trainee- mostly out of pure nervousness. I've never been cool under scrutiny. I thought, for sure, I was going to be sent home. However, Carl, yes, Carl, sat me down and told me that he knew I was intelligent and capable of doing the job and that he was not there to eat me for lunch. He sent me out for an additional two weeks after which I upgraded with no problem. I have now been driving, accident free and confidently, for a year. Hardly what I would call judgemental. From day one of training he made it clear that if I had any problems that I didn't feel I could resolve with my trainer that I was to call him immediately. He also called me at least once a week during training to check in with me and make sure I felt things were going ok.

The mentality of the working poor who make up most of KLLM's driver pool, is a special KLLM challenge; however the personnel style of the office staff is to discourage any questions. I had found irregularities deserving change-- benefits that I was signed up to pay for which I didn't want, and a per diem program that benefited the company at the expense of the driver's Social Security contributions.

Funny, there are no benefits that I pay for that I did not sign up for. Perhaps you failed to understand the paperwork and what you were signing. Per your comment above, I can tell you that I fall into what you perceive as the minority- the intelligent drivers. I'm a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the national college honor society. I read, ask questions, and make sure I fully understand anything I put my signature to.
As for the per diem program- it is VOLUNTARY. If you don't want to sign up for it then don't. I didn't. It mostly works for those with two or more dependents. One or less, you are better off opting out.
Before you sign anything, anywhere, with anybody, for any reason, make sure you KNOW what you are signing. Period. It is just good sense.

Assignment of trainer to trainee is almost completely segregated into black and white--blacks train with blacks, and white train with whites--although for myself the half-crazed, smelly, and obese fellow with whom I spent two weeks was demanding and rude to those behind the glass at shipping & receiving, and a lazy instructor who frequently awoke from the sleeper berth with some irrational and angry fear after I had peacefully and independently driven, for as much as 8 hours. I had to listen while he whined over the phone to his sick mother or yelled at his daughter, who recently had been busted for drugs and expelled from high school. A Virginian with an impossibly thick accent, he barked commands to the passenger window ("park thar") and then expected me to comprehend him. Overall, he was a poor substitute for the generally good humored and thoughtful black drivers whom are otherwise the backbone of KLLM's workforce. The black drivers though are forced to deal with a similar number of largely disfunctional southern white drivers.

If you had an issue or personality conflict with your trainer then you should have called the company. I know of NUMEROUS instances where they have switched trainees to new trainers. And let's refrain from making this a racial issue. Trash comes in all colors, shapes, sizes, and walks of life.

I quit and went to Salem, OR based May Truck Company. After a week driving around the west, my trainer booted me into solo status. I drive long hours and can still manage to back into a slot anywhere in the country. I have Hazmat clearance, have zero tickets over the past 5 years, and I have never had even a reportable fender bender in 30 years of driving. I have more street smarts when it comes to supervising and protecting cargo filled trailers than any of the drivers at KLLM whom I worked with. KLLM booted me because I couldn't drive, but May Truck Company--which pays the same salary--enjoys my services.

I am glad to hear that you found a company that you are happy with and that has proven a good fit with you. I am also glad to hear that you have proven to be a safe and competent driver. I have found that same experience with KLLM and have 1 year of safe, ticket free, accident free, safe cargo handling under my belt with , knock on wood, many more to come.
I'm sorry to hear that you didn't have a good experience with KLLM. There have been some major, and positive, changes in the company in the year that I have been with them. I can only hope that with different timing that perhaps your experience may have been different. I, myself, had an experience similar to yours with CRST so I completely understand. KLLM now enjoys my services and I enjoy a higher rate of pay than I would have received with CRST.

So I will end this with here is to you and May Trucking, may you continue to have a long and prosperous relationship. And with your driving record I'd be happy to share the roads and drive along side of you!

Hope this helps...
Click to expand...

Hope we have both helped those out there looking for the right company for their trucking experience. There is no "one size fits all" and the more information, positive and negative, that is available, hopefully makes narrowing down the prospects easier for seekers.

RoadToad69

RoadToad69 · Nov 28, 2008

leannamarie said: ↑

I don't know. I can't recall what the requirements are for being a trainer with KLLM, but I know it isn't something crazy like 6 months. I know that my husband's trainer had about 20 years in. But really your training begins once you get your solo truck and you realize how much you don't know, and then it is sink or swim.
Click to expand...

Minimum 1 year with the company plus two winters worth of winter driving experience.

RoadToad69

Hutson909 · Apr 21, 2009

I was pretty po'd to find out that KLLM wasnt hiring out of So California anymore. Even though they have a major terminal right here in Fontana. #### the reccesion

TRKNIAM · Apr 23, 2009

I just finished school and I am waiting to hear back from the recruiter, I live in St. Louis, MO.. Does anyone know if being in St. Louis is a good thing or a bad thing?

LostSoulCA · Jun 26, 2009

Stockton Hauler,
Did you quit KLLM or did they boot you? You said both in your post. Curious minds want to know.

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