JB Hunt - Lowell, Ar.

Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by WiseOne, Feb 26, 2004.

Would You Work For A Company That Won't Pay You For 48 Hours?

  1. *

    Yes

    9.4%
  2. *

    No

    90.9%
  1. jbug

    jbug Bobtail Member

    4
    0
    Dec 8, 2007
    york,pa
    0
    I was with Jb Hunt for a year and they were the best otr company I worked for. The reason I quit was because of miles. Other than that I had no complaints. I had a brand new truck and a great dispatcher. Sometimes I wouldnt get many miles and he would bump it up to 2000 for that week to help me out but even though he did that for me 2000 miles still is not enough. After a year of not getting many miles (mainley because they kept me in the north east and most of the runs were like 300 miles) I gave em 2 weeks notice and cleaned the truck realy good and dropped the truck off at the baltimore terminal. My last paycheck was a big surprise because I got paid for a weeks vacation when I was only there for 51 weeks and not 52 and plus I quit and most companies wont pay out once you quit. I'd go back in a heart beat if I was guarenteed 3000 miles. An A+ company in my regard although others had a worse experience on here I cant help but think alot of it was there own fault. Id recommend this company to anyone but like I said they dont have the miles and thats the biggest complaint I heard from other jb drivers.
     
  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. RoamingGnome

    RoamingGnome Medium Load Member

    454
    16
    Dec 1, 2007
    Pennsylavania
    0
    they don't have the miles cause they have so many drivers running the same freight as you. nothing wrong with jb, they have really good insurance and take care of there trucks.
     
  4. bigblue19

    bigblue19 Road Train Member

    2,421
    1,735
    Mar 30, 2007
    Midland WA
    0
    Well since most of the freight they have going that far in a week is on a rail car I doubt you will be going back.

    What good is any company's attitude toward their employees if the workers are sent to the poor house due to working for them?

    I never had much contact with OTR carriers unless I had to go to the shop or trade qualcomm msgs. The less contact I had with a carrier the more miles and money I was making was my experience driving OTR.

    You where getting 2000 miles a week and you considered your dp'r great?
    I would fire any dp'r getting me less then 2500 a week.

    I'll take the meanest SOB out there as long as they are working my truck to a early grave.

    When I am driving OTR away from friends and family I have but one need and one purpose. Money, and lots of it. Anyone who keeps me from that goal justified or not, is worthless to me.
     
  5. Stormcroe

    Stormcroe Light Load Member

    90
    13
    Nov 17, 2006
    Hubbard, OH
    0
    If you wanted to keep the Brand New Truck you couldn't take more than 4 days off.

    They couldn't give you more miles because all the good miles went on to the train. Your just supposed to suck up all the CRAP the they cant put on the rail. Then play the sit and wait game trying to get loaded or unloaded. Sure they have a pre-plan for you, but its most likely another crap load. When you get on your fleet manager about it , well he/she can't do anything about it because that came down from the "LOAD PLANNER". Then of course there is no way you can call the load planner on the carpet. Your not allowed to talk to the load planner. Bla Bla Bla Bla.

    Wasn't that mighty nice of them? Of those 51 weeks that you worked for them, how many weekends did you sit and not get paid? I will bet you it was more than 7 days.

    I'm sure you are right, some of the people on here that had a bad time with them did it to themselves. I NEVER had a service failure, NEVER had an accident, NEVER was even disrespectful with anyone in management including my fleet manager. The only mistake I made was I got hurt, and spent months without an income. Thank you very little JB Hunt.

    I wouldn't be so quick to [FONT=&quot]ruin [/FONT]your good name, if I were you. Not for a scumbag outfit like J.B. Hunt.
     
  6. Chiricahua

    Chiricahua Light Load Member

    240
    114
    May 21, 2007
    Great State of California
    0
    Wow! Even the Drivers that liked JB Hunt quit. That says a lot for a company like JB Hunt.

    Do yourselves a favor, go drive for someone else.

    I said it before, JB Hunt SUX. There's no way around it.

    Just my opinion.
     
  7. TrooperRat

    TrooperRat Medium Load Member

    460
    93
    Dec 29, 2007
    Phoenix, AZ
    0
    I worked for JB Hunt about 3 years ago for about 6 months. It was a local, dedicated job haulilng roofing tile from a manufacturer to job construction sites all over Phoenix.

    I was probably the idiot in this deal, alarms should have raised when I found out I had to take a Greyhound bus clear to California to go through their orientation. As one other driver stated, you are not guaranteed a job until you get to orientation, fill out a bunch of paperwork and go through their background checks, which they don't even start until you get there. Plus the medical and driving test which disqualifies a lot of drivers for various reasons. They keey you there for 5 or more days, and pay you $150 for your time. You are put up in a hotel and have to share a room with another potential driver.

    I insisted they do ALL background checks BEFORE I ever left for California - it was part of my conditions or I wasn't even going to leave town. Yes, I was hired, and then returned to Phoenix.

    There was a good crew of very experienced drivers working this particular division. We all worked our butts off for 12 plus hours a day - but they were paying us well. The trucks we were driving were all old, junk pieces of garbage, the newest tractor was something like 6 years old. They had them governed at 62 MPH. The engines were glorified squirrel cages - 0 to 60 in ten miles. Regardless, if I'm making good money, I can put up with a lot of "stuff" from a company.

    But, after about 5 months, middle management came in and said we were making too much money. They immediately cut our pay between $300 to $400 per WEEK. JB Hunt had invested quite a lot of money into this contract in buying all these special forklifts that mount to the rear of the trailer. In fact, the entire endeavor was pretty darn expensive for them. When we found out we were losing our pay, the entire crew - unbeknownst to management at least at first - decided that we were all going to quit after we found new jobs. In 3 weeks time, they lost almost the entire crew of drivers. It wasn't long after that that JB Hunt lost the contract, the roofing company bought their own fleet of trucks and that was that.

    I have nothing but BAD to say about the company. What kind of management thinks it's going to keep drivers by coming in and cutting out THAT much money off your paychecks?

    I also had great issues with their maintenance/repair shop. I was driving a tractor with dry-rotted tires. I continued to complain about them, I knew they would blow, and several of them did during the hot summer months. Getting anything fixed was an arm-twisting session. Whatever it was, for whatever reason, that particular repair facility in Phoenix, AZ is NOT kind to it's drivers.

    I have to say after having driven for this and other large companies that I am a big fan of hourly pay - whether over-the-road or not. Drivers are expected to sit somewhere, making nothing, while the company tries to come up with a load for them to haul somewhere? How long do you figure you'd sit if you were getting paid by the hour regardless of whether you are hauling a load or not?

    I'm not sure - my top 2 worst companies are J.B. Hunt and Werner - I guess I think they are equally terrible companies in terms of how drivers are treated.
    bb
     
  8. Tip

    Tip Tipster

    2,294
    290
    Mar 18, 2006
    ON STRIKE
    0
    Nice post, Troop. I remember back in the late 90s when JB was boasting its pay was the highest in the industry. And it was, for a little while. That was before drivers were forced to give back their gains, just like you're talking about what happened to you.

    Drivers sitting around not getting paid is one big problem, but there is also the good ol' Rand-McNally map miles scheme. Drivers should get paid HUB miles in the age of QualComm. Outfits that use satellite tracking can use their systems to pay you what you drive. They know how far your wheels turn on any and all loads, but will still take a ding out of your pay. I drove many a Qual-Comm-equipped rig, but never got paid hub. The closest I ever came was 98%, and that was on a couple of loads I drove for Crete. Most of the time I took about an 8% hit. Hell, I remember vividly, 12 1/2 years later, taking SwiftQuit runs that paid me only about 70% of the miles I drove. Sitting around at docks is a problem, but Randy miles is another.

    Hourly pay would be great, and after the railroads rise like a phoenix from the ashes of history (and Reaganomics), the drivers who are lucky enough to still have driving jobs may get paid by the hour.
     
  9. Chiricahua

    Chiricahua Light Load Member

    240
    114
    May 21, 2007
    Great State of California
    0
    That's what it takes!

    If you don't like the Company you're at, then switch.

    I drove for 5 Companies to get one years experience so that I could get on with Landstar.
    No late pickups or Deliveries. No tickets or Accidents. Neither Misdemeanors nor Felonies. Never turned down a load.

    Every time I switched Companies I had not one single problem.

    Don't like the Bus, ask for an airline ticket to orientation.
    Don't like the miles, go somewhere else.
    Don't like the equipment, Go somewhere else.
    Don't like the Company, then go somewhere else.

    If each and every driver did this, we'd be driving in a whole diferent world.


    I know it's hard with bills and all that comes due, but in the long run we all as drivers would benefit.
     
  10. TrooperRat

    TrooperRat Medium Load Member

    460
    93
    Dec 29, 2007
    Phoenix, AZ
    0
    It's been so long since I've been paid by the mile - except that 6 month stint at J.B.Hunt - I don't remember how they used to do it. I do remember in the early 90's, while driving for Werner, the dispatcher wanted his drivers to ask him for routing instructions on how to get from point A to point B. Problem was, he would get back to you - like 24 hours after you already had the load on your truck and you were a thousand miles down the road (or however far - we used to drive unbelievable miles and hours in the "good ole days"). I remember one time this guy sent me instructions to get from some place in New York to Pheonix - there must have been 50 turnoffs to make. Hell, I had already decided what I was taking, which wasn't NEAR as many turnoffs as he was telling me.

    As far as Rand McNally games, never really considered it. Of course you figure some geek sitting in an office somewhere is ALWAYS trying to come up with ways to save their company money - and isn't it always true the first people in a company that come to mind are the DRIVERS.

    As far as hourly, well, we all know the trucking companies well never go for it. They'll lose too much money. There is no pressure on them to get a load on any particular truck - excepting of course to try to keep the driver happy. I know from pretty recent experience that changing jobs can be quite tumultuous on the financial situation. I did it 5 times before finding the company I am with now in a period of about 2 and a half years. A couple of pretty lean Christmases and some bills getting behind, but now I am ever-so-glad that I stuck with my plan and finally found "The Job". At 50k, my pay may not be the greatest, but the benefits and the total absence of PRESSURE is well worth it.

    Sure, they want me to get the deliveries out, and get as many out in a day as I can, but I am not being hounded like a dog on the trail of a rabbit. There is no global positioning software in the trucks, we are not brought before management for "violations" in idling or excessive speed, the company just hires drivers, hopes that out of every 6 or 7 they find a good one. They give incentives to reduce fuel consumption or stay out of accidents. I am getting a full week's pay this coming month as a bonus for staying out of accidents in 2007 and not getting any tickets. I also get bonuses for which I have nothing to do with. Corporate gives out bonus incentives - for a store to do x amount of whatever in a certain period of time. However much of whatever X is in percentage is then awarded to EACH employee - irrelevant of their title - in that store.

    That's how I got 5 bonuses this year adding up to over $3,000.

    My only real point in all of that is that these trucking companies COULD be doing a LOT better in the way they treat and pay their company drivers - but they don't. They don't because - well let's face reality - you and I let them get away with it. Not YOU personally, drivers in general. I decided after 20 plus years of driving that I was going to find the best job I could find, no matter how many companies I had to go through to get it. My perfect job might not be the same for someone else - but I definitely LOVE not having to spend my entire LIFE out on the road.
    bb
     
  11. Tip

    Tip Tipster

    2,294
    290
    Mar 18, 2006
    ON STRIKE
    0
    Trooper, that's a good post. I've often wondered if drivers will ever be able to file some sort of civil claim, en-masse, against companies that pay them up to 10% (or more) of what they actually drive. With satellite systems in rigs, maybe a jury somewhere could be convinced the Rand McNally scheme amounts to stealing, as the companies know better. I still have my old log books lying around somewhere from 11 years ago, just in case the IRS comes calling or I get the chance to try to get those lost miles back.
     
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.