Bad company or good, are you ready?

Either that, or if I happen to be the guy who calls you the 3rd day after doomsday to come to Lowell for Orientation...you get to be the guy who'll cuss me out, while I try to keep you from having a heart attack so I can get your number removed from the calling list.

 

I somehow got on JB's calling list about ten years ago(maybe a little less). I still get calls at least once a week even though I have supposedly been removed from the list three times now. Nowadays, I just have a lot of fun with the recruiters without getting profane or mad.

 

Are you the guy who asks if our trucks go underwater? If so, I may have spoke to you last week...Every once in a while, the phone directs me to a number with someone who'll poke fun or cuss or ask a silly question...

 

Nope wasn't me, but I've been known to make a few of you guys choke on your coffee.lol
Sometimes if I get a real persistant recruiter, I'll just let his persistance get the better of him. I'll let him go through his entire song and dance and ask some relevant questions. Usually after about 30 minutes of this conversation I will simply say "Well thank you so much for calling to enertain me, Have a wonderful day." and then simply hang up.

 

So far, I have not encountered one of them, but i think i know who you spoke to last week. He stood up and yelled F***!!!

He's no longer working at JBHT....he quit after that.

 

You know what, I do empathize with you. I know you guys are just doing a job and by me tying you up for 30 minutes is costing you potential comission dollars. However, when one can't take the hint that he's being brushed off nicely and continues to persist, well then, he got what he deserved. I have a company to run myself, so my time is just as valuable as yours in my opinion. The real problem is, you guys have my company cell number(the one I do all of my day to day business on) in your database. I hnestly think what happened was; a few years back I had to fire a driver. I think he filled out an app in my name on one of the online websites as a payback of sorts. A few weeks after I let him go,I started getting recruiting calls from every company under the sun. Most of them gave up and quit calling years ago. All except JB of course.

 

I haven't called you yet. and If i call i usually leave a message, and if you call me back, then i may persist. otherwise if you delete the message and leave well enough alone, fine by me. I don't get anything out of calling a number 5 times only to be brushed off. I guess some of the other guys do...

And what else is, it seems what i asked for last week is coming to fruition. A lot of the guys whom I overhear telling half-truths and blatant lies most of the day (such as, "Oh yea, 3000 Miles/week to start and 4000 by 2nd week" or "Hello, this is DRIVER SERVICES" as if you guys/gals didn't already know it was us.) are being "Reviewed for Performance" meaning that a manager is going to listen in on them as they talk to drivers and recruit/schedule them. THANK GOD. Maybe some fresh faces, and we can actually get a bit more sincere in the department, instead of listening to recruiters spew bull.

I haven't a reason to lie to people. Getting someone hired from unemployment is one thing. However, if a guy is looking to go local after being OTR (and making a decent living) we need people who have to feel that it will be changing someone's life for better or worse. Not people who lie to get the numbers. I don't know about the rest of the flock of recruiters on the 3rd floor, but I have a conscience.

There has been only 1 time that my conscience has reared itself on me, and that was when I hired a driver who "was on the brink of bankruptcy" to drive. and he left firstly due to family issues (Grandson's birth complications, Wife threatening breakup, Doing house/yardwork) Came back about 1 mo. later, and to relate to some of the 117 pages on the other thread, says he's not getting miles, which is funny, because we're instructed that "yea, these guys will get their miles". about 2 weeks later, I wrote an apology on behalf of myself (if I had to write apologies on behalf of JBHT, i wouldn't stop till i was dead) and sent him the commissions that I earned in a check. He returned it with VOID on the back of the check with a letter saying "I have a feeling...I know it wasn't your fault." If I had a scanner, i'd gladly post it.

Since then, I have made it a bit of a personal mission to get drivers into other areas, such as dedicated, regional, or intermodal, because i don't want a sleepless night on behalf of the company again.