Reason Why US Xpress Cant Keep Drivers....

Discussion in 'US Xpress' started by guitar_plyr, Dec 31, 2011.

  1. guitar_plyr

    guitar_plyr Bobtail Member

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    Cleveland, TN
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    Just thought I would drop a few lines as to why I think US Xpress can't keep drivers. I have worked on and off for US Xpress since 2005 so I think I know quiet a bit about how their practices affect drivers. These rants are not in any particular order.

    The sliding pay scale.
    This is the most idiotic thing I have ever seen, it is where your cpm rate changes according to the length of the haul, longer the haul the less cpm. I think a driver should get paid the same rate for all the miles he drives. Its hard enough to keep track of your pay let alone trying to make sure your paid right when on a sliding pay scale. You never know if your getting cheated or not.

    Not paid practical route miles.
    Well what can I say about this? You basically get screwed out of about 20 percent of the miles you drive. Even on practical route miles you still dont get paid close to what the actual trip hub miles are. But its alot closer than what US Xpress pays.

    No paid vacation.
    You get whats called retention pay, basically after you work for them for a year on your anniversary you get $250.00 bux and then $50.00 ever year after that. So after 2 years you get $300.00 3 years $350.00 etc. etc. Thats all well and good but how about time off plus the pay?

    Playing hunt the empties.
    If you do a drop and hook somewhere alot of times there are no empty trailers. So then you get to proceed to play a game a call hunt the empties. They send you to a place to get an empty only to find out they have no empties either. Sometimes you may go to as many as 3 or 4 places before you get one. Best part of all is that you dont get paid to go look for them! You do all that driving for free!

    No detention pay.
    Sure they say that will pay you detention pay after 3 hours. I have never got one hour of detention pay since I worked for them. I do all thier messages, log it on duty, get times in and out just like they say to do. Never got 1 single hour of pay! Bet they get their money though want to place a bet?

    Terminals are like nazi death camps.
    Once you enter a terminal when you try to get out it takes an act of congress. You get issued a gate pass that you must fill out and get stamped by various departments before you are allowed to leave. They are as follows. shop, logs, e-logs, saftey, training. Not that big of a deal but #### are we that bad?

    Routing
    Well some people may not think this is a valid complaint so I wont rant too much on this. But I will say that when they book a load that requires running a toll road I bet you anything they charge the customer extra to cover the toll fees. But they route the driver on a road that has 500 stop lights and pocket the extra money they charged for the toll. Wanna bet I am right on this?

    Idleing times.
    Not to much to say in this area, the trucks have bunk heaters in them which will keep you warm. There is a problem with them though if you use it all night 9 times out of ten you wake up to a dead battery. What a way to start the day frozen to the bed, waiting on someone to come jump your truck off. US Xpress get over yourself if you dont care enough to put apu's on your trucks why should we care if you use 5 or 6 gallons of fuel to idle over a 10 hour break?
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2011
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  3. vinsanity

    vinsanity Road Train Member

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    Other than the sliding pay scale, all that stuff is standard fare for larger carriers.
     
  4. 7122894003481

    7122894003481 Bobtail Member

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    :biggrin_2559::biggrin_2559::biggrin_2559:
     
  5. flood

    flood Road Train Member

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    ......[​IMG]...
     
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  6. RAGE 18

    RAGE 18 Road Train Member

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    Another reason to give thanks for the New Year...I don't get to work for a politically correct annoying a s s company. WOO HOOO!
     
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  7. guitar_plyr

    guitar_plyr Bobtail Member

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    Dec 31, 2011
    Cleveland, TN
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    Well thanks for the input flood but I wonder first off how old is your driver handbook? Because mine sure dont have anything about vaction pay in it. Its called retention pay and it is paid as I stated. And even if it was vacation pay you mean to tell me a week paid vacation is $250.00 bux? And for a bonus you cant take the time off you have to work? The point I was making about it is the simple fact that a vacation is to be spent at home with family and being paid for it.

    The point I was making about the sliding pay scale is why are all miles not paid the same cpm? I understand that the company gets better rates for the shorter hauls so they pass some of that onto the driver. Thats why you get a higher cpm for the shorter the loads. I think if your a company driver you should make the same cpm rate for every mile you drive. Whats next less cpm for deadhead miles? Because the company makes less for deadhead miles so what you think they outta pass that loss onto drivers too?

    As for the point about the miles paid. Your information is incorrect about the way US Xpress pays is they pay by household movers guide miles and if you check any trip from one city to another using that and then do the same trip using practical route miles you will find about a 20% difference.

    As for playing hunt the empties and detention pay well I'm glad you got paid for them. I sure didnt and I have worked for them off and on since 2005. Heres a thought how about they call the place they are gonna send you to get an empty and find out if they have any before they send you there? Or at least give you the phone number to call them yourself? Wanna bet they would argue with you if you called them and they said they dont have any empties?

    As for terminals being like nazi death camps. Ok so punish all the drivers for the few incompetent that dont keep up with their pm's and training and stuff. That kinda remark is just exactly whats wrong with this industry now. Punish all drivers for the few that dont drive legal, talk on the phone for hours, text and drive, litter and throw piss bottles out. Thats why we get treated the way we do and people think of truckers the way they do. Heres a thought how about just punish the drivers who are not following the rules?

    Routing not using tolls. Well what does a driver have but the time he uses to drive? How does a driver make money? Time my friend is all a driver has and if he spends 3 hours using a crappy 2 lane road with 50 red lights to drive what he could have done on a toll road in 1 hour I guess thats worth it right? I mean after all he saved the company $20 or $30 bux on tolls that they probably charged the shipper for anyways right? And what did the driver get? Did he make a higher cpm rate? Did he get a share of the money that he saved on the toll? No he lost vaulable time that he will never get back.

    As for the ideling. One more time my friend I said the bunk heater will keep you warm, and yes I know what a low voltage alarm is. The point is that it will cut your heat off in the middle of the night. Then if its really cold outside you will be lucky if that low voltage cut off saved you enough power to crank your truck. And if I was paying for the fuel in the truck your are correct sir I would care alot about ideling so much in fact that I would put apu's on my trucks so that not only could I save money in the winter I could also save it in the summer! And my drivers would have no reason at all to idle and it would be a non issue.
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2012
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  8. slim shady

    slim shady Road Train Member

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    Running the back roads to save on tolls, Is asking for ##### to happen, Tight traffic, Red lights, 4 wheelers , stop signs.
    The toll system is IMO THE SAFEST WAY to travel
     
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  9. flood

    flood Road Train Member

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    this is a business (for them just as it is for me) the the idea of running a business it to make money and part of making money is not spend money on things you DON'T NEED

    now if you don't like the way usx does things WHY do you keep comming back....?
     
  10. HD_Renegade

    HD_Renegade Road Train Member

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    Sorry but the bottom line is, if you treat your people decent then they would not quit. If you beat them like a dog, and or pay them slave labor rates then what do you expect?
     
  11. guitar_plyr

    guitar_plyr Bobtail Member

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    Dec 31, 2011
    Cleveland, TN
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    Well thanks again for your input I can see we just disagree on certain things and thats ok. The reason I posted this was for information to other drivers who might be thinking about going to US Xpress. You asked me a question as to why I keep coming back to US Xpress? The better question might be why do I keep leaving as to the topic of this post? Well rest assured I wont be going back I have enough experience now I can go anywhere I want to. And I am starting a new job the Jan 4th and I am sure it will have its problems too as they all do. I never said US Xpress was a horrible place to work I was simply pointing out some of things I find hurtful as to them keeping experienced drivers.

    And to clear up a few things....I was told you do not get a vaction, you get paid your retention pay BUT YOU DO NOT GET THE WEEK OFF! Sure you can take a week off anytime you like but you have to turn your truck in. You can argue this all you want and as an O/O Im sure you can take off anytime you like, but company drivers can't unless you turn your truck in.

    And as for the idleing I dont care what you say, if it wasnt cost effective other companys wouldnt be using them. The reason US Xpress dont do it is becasue and I know this for a fact because I asked Ken the equipment manager and he said its becasue US Xpress leases there trucks and it would not be cost effective to them because they trade their trucks in every 3 yrs and they would lose money.

    As for the terminal nazi death camps.... If they have that big of a problem with that many drivers not keeping up with their pm's and logs and training and such maybe its because they dont keep experienced drivers. And if its not that maybe they outta hire better quality drivers?

    And as for the routing/sliding pay scale thing.....I will be making .42 cpm for every mile I drive on practical route miles. You tell me how I make more on a sliding pay scale when the most I ever made was .42 cpm and that was only for trips 0-300 miles? .40 cpm 301-600 miles and .38 cpm 601-900 and .34 901+ I call bull crap on that sir your just flat out wrong. Not only do you lose milage pay on the household movers guide route vrs practical route most trips are 301-600 miles theres .02 cpm right there.

    So like I said we can just disagree this was not a company bashing session, it was for information! I say to each his own I worked for US Xpress for a long time and the reasons I kept leaving are stated above. I think if I am gonna drive a truck I should make as much money as possible. And I think US Xpress makes it impossible to do that so thats that. US Xpress might be all well and good for O/O, lease, team drivers or newbies just starting out but after you get experience you learn as I did that you work alot for free. And you are treated just like a newbie, senority means nothing to them because they have 100's of students just dying to take your place.
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2012
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