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

Owned by Knight/Swift and no freight? Yikes.

 

I was told I wasn’t the only one sitting though sometimes Im paranoid thinking they are trying to run me off/make me quit. If anything Id rather go local if had to leave here.

 

I’m near Columbus, OH tonight. There is a Knight Refrigerated a few spots over from me, of course Knight has a yard nearby, so does Swift I believe.

 

Yep. I've been to both.

As for freight, feels like we do a lot less in the way of broker loads these days. When I started with Abilene, and for a good while after, they'd send me out of the yard with a contract load, then bounce me around a bit with brokers, maybe get me close to another contract customer. I could go out from Richmond and stay out until it was time for hometime 3 weeks later.

These days, feels like most of what we do is contract stuff, no brokers. Just direct customers, either from us or from Knight-Swift. And if there's no loads involving a direct customer, we wind up twiddling our thumbs. And it's a lot more of the out-and-back drives. Leave Richmond, deliver, come back to Richmond. Leave Richmond, deliver, come back to Richmond.

 

It ain't just you.

I was up in Wisconsin a week ago. They let me stew for a bit but eventually gave me a pick up in Kenosha, to be delivered to the WalMart warehouse a mile from the Swift yard in Columbus.

 

Ive noticed that myself, they absolutely refuse to use brokers it seems anymore just to keep a driver moving. Cheaper to leave a driver sit. In a way I can understand not wanting to run at a loss but screws the driver which eventually will leave for a place that will keep them moving.

 

Broker loads suck! Most of the time heavy crap loads, horrible facilities you have to pickup & deliver to, be happy with Customer freight. A Company that has steady Customers is way better believe me. We as drivers lose so much time & money by jumping from Company to Company

 

Another driver I Know at Abilene is sitting a lot as well, sometimes a couple days waiting on a load. You aren’t the only one.

 

And word on the street says that we've hired 30 new drivers over the past few weeks. Our driver retention rate must be abysmal.