National Carriers "The elite fleet"

Well, I've been with NCI about 2 months, They are mostly running KW T770's, which would have put them on my "no" list if I had known. I had expected cascadias. I hired on as West Coast Regional, but when I got there was put all 48. Miles are fair, 12,691 first 30 days with no time off (my choice, I was even offered a load thru or a load with miles, I took miles). I'm used to about 13,500 short miles. They pay practical, only 3.8% unpaid miles in that first 30 days. Besides having the only dispatcher I've ever disliked, they seem descent. They are forced dispatch on the company side, and that means no matter how much it doesn't make sense, your doing it. They don't seem to care if you are late because of dispatch.

Freight lanes have been mostly stay in Liberal at the hotel for about 2 days, run hard to the first stop, spend 2 days unloading, get worked back to do it again. They run e-logs with no leniency ...less than one minute over and I got a phone call. Company trucks do 65, have 2500 watt inverters and good batteries so you can have power with the truck off.

As to the comments about condition of the trucks when they are issued....bring trash bags, a pet brush to clean dog hair, and some degreaser to clean the prints off the cabinets, gloves to remove all the food, dog bones and toys, and some items that you can't tell if they were for the dog or driver. Women will be impressed the trucks come with tampons, guys, you get to remove them, the shop won't. My truck even came with the large paper air bags to put in between pallets. I was lucky, some others had multiple large bags of trash to remove.

Mechanically, the shop is kind enough to leave you with all of the previous driver's write ups, so you can know what is wrong, and how many times it's been ignored. This is useful, because I knew when I left the yard and the check engine light came on that it was the turbo, and quickly discovered the lack of power and useless jakes. Ready to get to work, and if they had cared they would have fixed it, off I went. I reported it after the first load, but still haven't seen a shop.

They use Transflow, and you can use an Iphone or Android app to scan in paperwork which is nice. They have forced routing and fuel stops, which is programmed to have you close to empty at the end of each dispatch. This would be useful for the lease guys, but annoying as a company driver watching the gauge bounce off of E or stay there for the last 100+ miles.

Overall, if I could get a different dispatcher, and run out of the Brawley plant with the concept of run a load wherever and work my way back, I couldn't think of a better place to be.

 

I am thinking about NCI and a couple other companies so thanks for the info.

 

Why the heck do you need to know that? If you aren't doing drugs, the test means nothing... no matter what kind of a test it is! If you ARE doing drugs... get OFF the road!!!!

 

Wow , were you incarcerated before going the NCI ? Couldn't thing of a better place to be...LOL

 

you missed the part of IF they actually ran me out of the brawley plant, and worked me back or did anything they said they would do, and gave me a dispatcher I could trust. As it is after 13 weeks being out, my bluetooth on my phone not working since september, and the power port on it breaking and going 2 weeks with no phone. I had already made it back to CA, and was told Monday evening I would be kept out west, first thing tuesday, I'm not allowed to turn down a load to PA. What changed? nothing, my driver manager doesn't believe honesty is a useful concept. I was offered a load to Maryland.... first time I have every pulled the "If you want me to go to maryland, consider this my 2 weeks notcice". Literally 10 minutes later I had a way to get home.

They are trying to make up for their errors, I will give them one more month to change their tune. 99% of it is my dm.

 

QUESTION:
When you arrived at orientation, you believed you were being hired to run California West Coast region, correct? Then they told you you were on 48?
Were there any options beside go home or run 48?
QUESTION:
Their pay is advertised at $.38cpm loaded and $.34cpm empty/approved.
Then you get the itinirary schedule and it discloses a sliding scale.
0-600 miles @ $.38cpm 601-and over $.34cpm. Empty $.34cpm.
Is this true?

As quickly as possible would be greatly appreciated.

 

I just spewed tea all over the place while laughing and ready the utterly hilarious post LOL

 

hey there. im from california myself too and i was looking at the lease purchase that national carriers offers. how does it work out for only driving in the western side?

 

They have been advertising on sacramento CL quite a bit for western reg. same pay as someone posted earlier. Was thinking about them or TWT but might have a FedEx ground job instead

 

Did you go to work for NAtional Carriers? Interested to know how it turned out.