Knight Refrigerated/Transportation

My personal experience with Knight Refrigerated, not yours.
Pros: None So Far
Cons: Very Bad Equipment

Orientation was quick and easy, spent several nights in a hotel.
Majority of the fleet is either old International ProStars or old Volvo VNL64T670
Don't expect to find a truck with less than 200,000 miles without fighting tooth and nail for one.
Don't expect an auto, because you shouldn't be expecting a truck with less than 200,000 miles on it.

Took a week off.

First week on the road, I was assigned to a Volvo with engine problems, then re-assigned to another Volvo with engine problems and no A/C. They told me to suck it up and drive 500 miles when it was 92 degrees outside and 102 inside the truck. I came to the shipper an hour late, roasted in the sun for 4-5 hours and then drove to the the next terminal to be re-assigned to another truck. -- Truck 1 had 450k miles, Truck 2 had 300k miles.

Terminal 2: I was re-assigned to another Volvo with no A/C (300k+ miles). Found another Volvo truck with 300k miles. So 4 re-assigned Volvos on my first 2 days on the road. I drove that truck roughly 80+/- miles before it started throwing codes at me. I noticed a sharp decrease in power, going 15 mph up slight inclines. I pulled over to the next exit and was told to turn the truck around by breakdown. I drove roughly 30+/- miles before... I started going 5 mph up slight inclines. I pulled off onto an exit and called breakdown. They told me to suck it up and drive 5 mph on the shoulder the next 50 miles back to the terminal. I tried to move the truck, but it wouldn't budge. Talked them into a tow truck and 2 hours into the breakdown period the code updated. It restricted me to 5 mph. 3-4 hours later I was finally towed back to the yard.

2 days on the road, 4 old Volvos and 1 had to be towed.

Terminal 2 Return: I lost my load, because I told them i was not going to get it on time. My terminal couldn't find me a truck so I went into the office at the terminal I was at, and a Driver Manager (DM) started hunting down a truck that I could drive off with. I got 2 stickies from him, each with at least 10 truck numbers, 75% of which were Volvos. I came across maybe a dozen trucks. In that batch, I found 3 internationals, all old, but I could not get into 2 of them and start them up. The one I did get into had super bad wheel play. All the Volvos were old as well, and half of which would not start up. The other half had check engine lights, except for 1 that was a Knight Transportation Volvo (Dry Van Side). That truck was the newest one, had less than 200,000 miles on it and was an automatic. My driver manager said no. So, the next day, we decided to drive the original truck I went out with back to my terminal with an empty.

I took a week off. .

Week 3: Came back to the terminal (note, its a 4-5 hour drive in a rental car, but forced another drive to hitchhike me to the yard and we ended up both being late). As we were driving, my driver manager said he was looking for a load. I had 2 options, both were short trips. He told me he would call me back and let me know which one I would take. Both me and the other driver over heard the conversation. We roll up to the terminal, 7 hours later, and started looking for the truck my DM gave me... couldn't find it, so i rushed all my crap into the break room while trying to figure out what was going... found out it was the wrong truck number, and had to guess which one was mine. Found out I got an old International (<300k miles on it).

Next day: Woke up with the phone ringing, DM asking me where I was. I told him I was still in the terminal and in an angry tone he asked me why I did not pick up my load. I told him he never called me back with an update and i never got a load call. Told me it was my fault that I did not call him back, even though he told me he would (this happens often). He must assume all drivers are clairvoyant? The truck had no privacy curtains and he was trying to push me out of the yard. Got my curtains, rushed to the shipper and got loaded. Got maybe 3 hours of drive time before the check engine light came on and another heat related code. I called breakdown and then read the codes through the e-log device (Zonar). They told me this and that, then told me to drive to the nearest terminal. Then my Driver Manager called up breakdown, maybe because he didn't believe me, and the guy at breakdown told him an entirely different story relating to my issue. Told him it was such and such and that it did not need to be taken care of right away. Ended up driving it back to the terminal after the DM called breakdown once more to get the story straight, and they re-assigned me to another Volvo with <200k miles on it. This was the first automatic I've had the "pleasure" of driving. So,

Currently taking week 4 off, reconsidering my career choice, as i have had a very similar experience with a previous company.

NOTE: Finding an available International is VERY difficult, as the majority of drivers don't want to drive in a Volvo. Volvos have a small sleeper cab (both width and length). If you are 6'3" or taller, your head and feet will be hitting the walls. If you have wide shoulders/frame, your shoulders will barely touch the cabinet and wall. The older Volvos with an automatic have controls right next to your leg, on the side of the seat, which prevents you from comfortably opening your legs or stretching without putting the truck into neutral.

Also, not all trucks go 65 mph cruise. All of the Volvos I was assigned to, except for the one I'm in now (62mph) are governed at 63 mph cruise and 65 pedal. My truck was 62/64. If you idle the truck for more than an hour or so, your cruise will reset at 63 mph. About half the time you are driving the truck, you are driving it at 63 mph. The only truck that allowed me to go to 65 mph cruise, was the international.

Also note, the trucks have a lot of annoying safety bells and whistles that prevent you from driving the way you want to drive. The Volvo in particular has an incredibly loud warning alarm that goes off if you drive to close to someone. Example, 200 feet away from you, a truck is going 1 mph slower than you. You must slow down to disarm the alarm or move into the other lane. This will stress you out, I guarantee that.

This has been my experience so far. I have taken a lot of time off because in 8 days OTR, I've been re-assigned to 6 trucks, and went through a dozen to find one that worked at Terminal 2 (which was only 1).

Their fleet age is not an average of 2 years old from what I have experienced. Almost all the trucks (18+) had between 200,000 and 500,000 miles on them.

==== Update: To prevent 100 people criticizing me on the same issue:
- Yes, 200k-500k isn't old for a truck, but it is for a mega fleet with thousands of trucks across the country. For Knight, the trucks usually go out of service between 350k-450k. I just happen to get the oldest, active trucks in the fleet that don't work.
- No, I was not expecting a brand new truck, i just wanted something that was reliable. You should never expect a brand new truck, ever.
- No, I do not like automatics, but most or all new trucks are automatics. I much rather prefer standard.

Knight Refrigerated, Knight Transportation, Knight Trucking, Knight OTR,

 

Lol, that's what sold me. Didn't waste a minute after it was done... called them right up and said i was ready to start tomorrow. *rolls eyes*

But someone had told me the trucks are paid for and not leased, and that is why they have a lot of older trucks. But yeah, the trucks are not well taken care of. One of the trucks i was in had a bad alignment (pulling to the right) and i asked for them to repair it, but they refused to. Their reasoning was, an alignment had been done less than a year ago...... I could drive over a pot hole in a brand new truck and it may go out of alignment.