Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

Obviously it’s not going anywhere.

 

Well no wonder the privy was full.

 

Guess it’s time to invest in a porta-potty for the truck!

 

If they don’t listen to what you are saying, @JohnBoy, then the rest of us truly have no chance. I, like a lot of others, have had a frustrating time where pay is concerned, which I have made clear here before. No need to rehash it at this time. It’s hard to believe that I have actually been here a few weeks longer than you!
Yes, they’ve been good to me regarding my family issues; however, I have not seen a raise in pay in almost 4 years now. There have been various reasons given. None of which really fly, but as the driving position was what was needed at the time, I just dealt with it. Now, not so much.
I have not worked since December 27th. The first week was planned to finish clearing out my mothers place for the new owner. The next few were recuperating from the unexpected gigantic waves of grief that slammed into me from doing that. Let’s just say it was bad for a bit. But, I’m a total bad ### and got it together.
I may have had some personal things happen, but I do know this: I am a good driver. I have +5 on my MVR, no accidents or tickets, nothing on my DAC, no write ups, have on time pick ups and deliveries, pretty much ran where/when I was told, have rarely refused a load (yes, I have refused some).
When it was time to come back to work, the hoops to jump through immediately came out (some of which I believe violate HIPPA regulations, but whatever), a trip to the RVA yard ended up in a - go to HR from my DM, then a go to Safety from HR because there was a meeting in progress, then a go to HR from Safety - run around. That was 3 days ago and I’m still waiting.
So yeah, it’s definitely not the same company from 2013 or even 2017.

 

I think alot of it now to is the office people they're hiring,seems to be more caring about the freight than the drivers.

In my 4 1/2 years here,never been late,no tickets or accidents etc...

Never once has Abilene acknowledged Ive been a good driver for them,I don't give them alot of trouble,go where they send me,drive nights etc...

I don't need a pat on the back,but it would be nice,to be felt welcomed every once in a while.

 

Overall, Well said... I cannot disagree...

Training Company
I was one of those second career trainees they hired on, and I AM truly grateful that I found the then Family Owned Abilene and didn’t have to do the training phase via Knight, Swift, Werner, etc, ... {shivers} ... and I’m still VERY glad I signed on with Abilene then and honestly thought I would stay on there forever... (I did my fair share of recruiting too)... even after returning from my short break from OTR... so I don’t think it’s the move to a Training Company by itself that’s bad... it’s good to have the option to train at a non mega company... and, if done right, can be a great way to fulfill, no... rather supplement, the need for drivers... BUT quality vs quantity really comes into play... ratio of hiring trainees to hiring experienced drivers... want to be a training company great... but be a bit more picky about those you put in the seats or keep in the seats... use that time to Cull the Herd... cut the ones that need to move along... or give them some time to find a better fit... give a 6 month contract or something before actually hiring them on.

Don’t have enough drivers? Base your business on the number of quality drivers you have and not the reverse. Yes, it’s nice to grow but if you are growing but don’t have the quality drivers you get what you have become. Bigger business but less quality. Choices.

Experienced Drivers:
Sure, use the training to find and develop those quality drivers... and then fight like hell to make them WANT to stay... you mention “can’t get enough experienced drivers”... how about trying to KEEP experienced drivers??? Just how many drivers of green trucks are now driving red trucks??? How many experienced drivers left because of Planning? How many complain about the Shop? How many get really ticked off when you play games when it comes to signing up for Benefits? (Ok, that last one is probably pretty small... lol)

Not saying Abilene doesn’t have any good qualities, they do... and I still miss some of those Pros when I did the Pro/Con analysis before leaving... but wow, WOW can there be big differences in companies and how they operate...

If anyone from Operations is actually reading this, feel free to contact me about the differences that this now kind of experienced driver sees between driving a green truck and driving a red truck.

that is, unless you are happy with the status quo.

 

Had hometime last weekend. My usual three days off to see my kids.

My kids are the only reason I take hometime. I'm divorced, I live in an apartment, I don't gotta go home to mow the yard or anything, nobody at home waiting for me. If not for my kids, I would stay out 2-3 months at a time. Would just have to swing by once a month to check the mail.

That was, in fact, one of the reasons I hired on at Abilene. When I was looking for a trucking company to work for, I asked 'em all the same question: "I need three days off every three weeks to see my kids. Friday-Saturday-Sunday. Every three weeks like clockwork. Can you do that?"

First few places I called kinda hemmed and hawed about it. "Well, y'know, trucking is trucking. Can't always guarantee that." When I called Abilene, Rusty said "Yeah, we can work with you on that." And so far they've followed through.

If you're reading this and you don't work for Abilene, we have a 6-days-out-for-1-day-off policy, with a minimum of 12 days out. And so it works out perfectly. I go out 18 days, I take three off to see my kids. Sometimes I go out longer so I can get the kids longer, like when I stay out a month and a half to get 'em for a week for Christmas. But otherwise I'm pretty regular with that 18-days-out/3-days off schedule.

So anyways, last weekend was my weekend with the kids. Parked the truck, got all my crap together, hopped in my car and...it wouldn't start.

Eventually had to get Chris out there with the portable jumper to get it started. It rolled for a little bit then died again. Took us a couple more jump starts before we finally got it going.

So instead of spending the weekend with my kids, I put my car in the shop and spent the weekend alone. Kids were disappointed and so was I. Had to take an Uber to get back to the yard on Monday.

On Monday, I talked to my DM. Explained the situation. And asked him a favor: "Can I have this coming weekend off?"

And, I mean, I'm just coming off three days off, right? And now I'm asking if they would let me drive for four days and then give me another three days off to see the kids I couldn't see this past weekend.

He said "Sure, no problem." He typed it in right then and there, and he made sure I got back to Richmond in time.

So now I get to go have hometime with my kids.