My experience with Knight Refrigerated

Thars what I was goona say there anj8488..
I know it's a long thread...But to get the feel of it you need to start form the beginning..Not just speed to the end & say well how fo you like you coffee....

 

I doubled spaced this so it would be easier to read & catch to where you are while reading this.

I would also like to think that they were on my short list.

But ..NO! I don't like the home time thing they have been doing with you Smaggs... I will probably go back to who I was with before my medical incident back in Febuary.

I thought I was having a heart attack in the truck after unloading @ my first stop of the day.. Comes out to be heart burn or to that point.

Well long story short is I took off longer than the obligitory 30 days of medical to get some tests run...Nuclear Stress test, PFT(Pulmanary Funtion Test).. & the 2 or 3 follow ups to my own Doc.
So I went about 2 weeks ago to go back & had to do the whole orientaion back over..Man did that suck big time!... So, I took my UA the 1st day & went on through the class... Well, next thing I know everyone but me & another guy got cleared from the UA...

I know what mine was from, me taking my Loratabs ofr my neck pain.... Although I have a script for them & even told & showed. I still had to wait. So, on the 4 th day I got pissed & left.

Drove the 140 mile back home $150 bucks more broke than I was the previous Sunday when I left. Well the next day(Friday) the guy from the orientation call & leaves a Vm saying I am good to go.

Hey by then I am seeing red do to the total screw-up from the testing facility.

Now I did one of those rapid aps form the web(you know the ones).& low & behold my old dis patcher calls me up Tuesday & asks whats going on.. I can honestly say I do like the company.

While not real good via the posts form here on TTR. But I did make some good $ the first 48 days out for them running dedicated to a set of stores...
($8500 to say so).

Yes, they pay less when you cross the Missisippi River. 3cpm for me. But I am getting the miles under my belt. So, to me that makes up for it. Although some would question why I woukd even think about that. But to each his own there.

But I knew that my only runs were of like 3 or 4 routes. I got $20 for every stop after my 1st(which is the norm.)$90 to empty the trl(Not bad) & I enjoy the workout.

Kept me sweating during the winter because the stores had the heaters on while I was shoving the boxes out. So I didn't mind it.One thing though is that there is 2 or 3 other companies that do the same.

But real crappy detinations(Atleast to me) I do not like traveling Ohio(Cleveland,Toledo),Michigan(Detroit area) & Chicago Area either. I have done my share of those hell holes & am happy doing to Denver area,OKC,or South Dakota(Which is beutiful to me).. Plus those runs were a minimun of 800 to a 1000 mile one ways for me! & some were DH right back to do the same.

Plus the DC is in the same city I live in so ++ I can sit @ home for 13-14 hours when I get back in w/o taking any home time until I get 5 days built up(1 for every 6 out)...

So now that I have vented on SMagg's thread I do hope that you are doing well heading back home to see your girl there Smaggs. Take some well deserved time off & see where you want to go from here...

I would like you to keep posting on this thread though & I hope others would agree to which other company or choice you make from here.

You have made this site better for what you have done & makes it like we all know you as a driver & a real human...No matter what a company might think(Usually by the truck #)....

SO good luck & keep up the posts the S

 

With all this talk about home time, I just have to give my experience. In the dry van division, but I can't believe it's that different than refrigerated.

I usually get home every 3 weeks or so, but that is only because I don't ask to get home more often. When I first hired on 4 years ago, I got home every 7-10 days until it started to slip to 2 weeks, and now 3 weeks or so. BUT that is because I DON'T ASK TO COME HOME MORE OFTEN.

7-10 days will still usually work and be OK, as long as you are running the miles. Like most companies, Knight (dry, at least) will let you stay out 365 days a year if you don't tell them to get you home. They LOVE drivers who never want to go home, but they can't afford to fire drivers who want to be home more often. Ya just gotta ask.

From what smaggs has been saying (great thread, btw) about the way he runs, he is in the catbird seat. They are going to give him anything reasonable, including waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more home time, if he asks for it. (And maybe makes sure they know he means it.)

Think they, KR or KDV, aren't desperate for drivers? Just got a Qcomm message today that they are now paying $1000 referral bonus, after the referral delivers the FIRST load. No 6 months, no 3 months, no 2 weeks. First load.

 

smaggs wait till you get your year and you find a local/another OTR company, and take 2 weeks off inbetween the jobs. I just quit OTR for a Local job and did just that, 15 whole days off felt great, no matter which way you go local or stay OTR give yourself a little vaca to wash the Knight off ya





American Trucker

 

don't forget those seven days of paid vacation!!!!! hell yeah!!!!!

 

Use that 7 days paid vacation to job hunt locally

 

So let me get this straight:
June 5th, no one will talk to you???
June 6th, the entire industry will be beating a path to your door to hire you???

Good luck with that!
If only it really worked that way.

Why do all the newbies fall for this line of Bravo Sierra???

 

Also look at your local beverage companies for local work. After 1 month with Werner, I was hired on at Coca Cola. Home every night, weekends off.