FFE /KLLM

I don’t recall where I said kllm doesn’t pay much, I have said that if pay was the biggest concern, you can make more elsewhere. I did say that kllm doesn’t have much “extra” pay; no safety cpm bonus for example, some companies have a bunch of cpm bonuses. You still get detention and layover on otr and it varies for dedicated.

I would use site search for additional details on FFE, my info is limited, but that’s mostly what their linehaul does. Solo wise there could be deadtime between loads… team wise, I don’t know.

I didn’t choose kllm over ffe, I didn’t know anything about trucking companies. I was tired and wanted a change; Swift wait was too long, Prime said no, and kllm said tomorrow. I’ve always felt sorta lucky.

I’m pretty sure we’ve got the miles, but in this market there’s no guarantee. If you want a guarantee, pick someone with a minimum; that’s why I’m on an account with it. Most otr company drivers I’ve spoken too seem happy with their miles; lease-ops seem happier on the regionals.

I know my first full year (‘20) I did about 110k hhg miles (otr is now practical). ‘21 was a bad year for me, about 4 mos off work, but was never afraid to report my injury or go thru workers comp. ‘22 would’ve been a bit better if the dedicated pay increase had already been in affect.

We do share yards, we don’t really share freight; I have picked up full truckloads that delivered to FFE warehouses where’d they’d break it down for local/regional delivery. kllm is more of a point to point, whereas ffe brings to hub and then linehaul between hubs. We can park at each other’s yards, but some of theirs don’t have much extra space.

 

Everywhere you go someone will always say, "you could be making more elsewhere." That said, I've compared both offerings for team drivers. KLLM's offering sounds pretty tempting. 82cpm for new driver with weekly minimum guarantee (doesn't say how much) or the alternative pay package of 72cpm plus with $175 / day paid time off. Not sure how that works exactly. They've got a generous sign-on bonus that pays within first 30 days. Says the job is 90% drop&hook. Sounds better than FFE. I'm not sure why someone would choose FFE over KLLM. Maybe the only reason would be that KLLM's hiring area is smaller. Perhaps being more linehaul heavy with FFE would be better not having to deal with shippers/receivers, but I bet KLLM is pretty linehaul heavy too if it's really 90% drop&hook. Hard to say. Hard to know. Maybe one company gets better miles than the other.

Amount of time with a trainer is pretty rough at six weeks.

Nice to know they can share parking at each other's yards.

Earlier you said KLLM gives you 2 days hometime for every week out, which you can bank for up to 14 days off? Sounds like this might be an option for us. They've got some good dedicated accounts too if you want to go solo?

 

Yeah, some of our dedicated lanes are comparable to linehaul, you deal with the same shippers/receivers. I don’t know much about the team side, before our quest absorption, it had mostly consisted of trainers with students. So the stuff you mentioned is our expedited team, it’s geo-locked (has multiple hiring areas tho), and requires a pre-formed team; we also have otr teams, but their package is not as good.

Our hiring areas are different, some lanes and accts are geo-locked. Some also have waitlists, but moving can open up opportunities. We’ve got a lot of drivers based in MS, GA, and TX so dedicated accts in those areas tend to have a waitlist. I moved to IN, and it immediately opened up an acct that would’ve had a wait in MS (Tyson) and made me eligible for 2 more.

I’ve offered to move, stay out a long time, and/or park at yards to get on some geo-locked accts… got bumped off my good acct (they downsized) and my new one is ok, I’m considering asking if they’ve got a different one for me to try.

Trainers are hit and miss; both of mine were not good, I’ve met trainers who seemed ok tho. I recommend just toughing it out with the trainer, don’t do what I did: I got off both trucks and said either upgrade me or…

I must have a screw loose because I volunteered to train, but ultimately said no when kllm wouldn’t agree to my terms. They quit sending me “be a trainer” offers after that; more money doesn’t motivate me… running super solo and never being late does.

I’ve not seen another (mega?) company with a hometime comparable to kllm. You do have to park on yard and clean-out trk if taking more than 7 days; if you live too close to a yard, you have to park on yard anyway, and if there’s a trailer shortage, you might not be able to take a trailer home at all. Last hometime, I had to drop a trl in Chicago (to keep it in circulation) and got to bobtail 300mi home; but it’s sounding like I might be forced to park at a yard next hometime instead of even being allowed to bobtail.

On my old acct; I just dropped a trl at the customer nearest to my home (2.5hrs), bobtailed 15min to where I had vehicle storage, and then drove my car home… everything worked great for me under that system, so I’m not exactly happy about this recent change. If I can’t go back atm, I might as well see what other accts are like in the meanwhile.

edit: I’ve also not heard of another company yet that has as liberal of a PC policy as we do; I’ve pc’d over an hour to find a safe location (LA traffic, Cincinnati) and been able to drive 30-40min out of route for showers. Teams probably won’t be able to take advantage unless on a 34, but pretty useful to solo drivers when forced to leave or on 10s.

 

Yes, I was looking at the expedited team.

I think I know what you mean by geo-locked. How flexible are they about putting you on one that's outside your "home" area? We're not tied to any one area, and would just take hometime wherever we happen to end up. Especially with that liberal PC policy. It would be easy to get to a decent airbnb for hometime R&R.

What was the dealbreaker with being a trainer? They wanted you to run the training as a team? I don't understand that. Supposedly going through a training period is for safety reasons, but then you have both drivers tired with a new one unsupervised behind the wheel probably driving graveyard shift. Just sounds like a recipe for disaster.

How do you find the information about their different accounts? I didn't notice anything on their website.

 

No idea, I’ve volunteered for outside my area, but no bites; I’ve not been too insistent though. My solution is to just move. “Moving” is easy, I just offer to rent a “bedroom” from a friend or family in another state, draw up a lease agreement, and then bam, I qualify for the acct.

Why don’t I change companies? I’ve not found one with a comparable quality of life… plus when I get week off, driving 6-8 hours to where I actually want to be for “hometime” doesn’t bother me. Once I finish my pilot’s license, it’ll bother me even less.

Agreeing to just park at the corresponding nearest yard should qualify one for every account imo. I don’t think kllm is really setup that way; they tout the 2 weeks out, 4 days off as the most common arrangement. So when someone wants to do something different, it might take persistence.

My dealbreaker for trainer was forced to run as a “team”… no additional money could make me agree to “rest” while a newbie drives.

The website doesn’t really name the accts, but if it’s geo-locked that’s a good sign; also if it has a different pay-scale than otr. Talk to other drivers; planning to quit has worked for some. There’s also a person you can call to ask/express interest for getting on a dedicated fleet.

 

teaming during training. boooo. no go. boooo.

Do you have a template for your lease agreement idea? I was actually thinking about doing that with my sister's address since that will be an issue that pops up when getting my hazmat endorsement.

 

Unfortunately, that’s the way kllm does training; no company is perfect. I wish that offering myself could change things.

We just googled one; I can post the one I drew up with sis in a few weeks. The lease agreement plus bank statement was all it took to prove residency at the bmv; some states might require 2 bills.

 

Yes please. You can pm it to me.

 

I dont know how FFE is now, but back in the mid to late 90's they were not the best. I used to work for Lisa/MTC out of FT worth. (anyone remember them) they were owned by FFE, but ran a separate operation. No the highest paying company at the time, but for my first trucking company they were good. I stayed for 2 years. They always treated me right. It was sad to hear about them closing up shop.

 

When you trained was it team driving 100% of the time or did they at least run it as a super solo operation for the first couple weeks?