Knight has a History of 'unrealistic' Driver Policies

Thank you--I am never too proud to accept good luck. I am attempting to perform as much fact gathering as so I can be better informed as to what to expect.

Yeah, I am chanting the line in the Doobie Brothers Takin' It to the Streets tune: "I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see." pertaining to Knight and other bottom feeders.

Well, frankly, I was hoping for much better than 'treading water', but alas, my shattered dreams of diamonds have now turned to sand.

I talked with a recruiter after lunch. For the record:

A T-Call is when a load is dropped off at a terminal and not at the receiver--the penalty, none really; one gets paid the miles from the shipper to the terminal and nothing less.

As to my question if retribution will be taken on a driver who refuses a load, the answer is YES Indeed! Quote the recruiter: "DMs work hard to get loads for you. If you refuse more than two loads in a row, you will probably sit more." I will also be forced to go anywhere while on at Squire and probably Knight also until I have experience with the company.

----------------------------------------

I am now doubling-down on my efforts to get on with a Ma & Pa or LTL outfit.

 

I know its not like the way you describe it here. It sounds like you have NO idea. Where you even around the trucking industry back in the 70s and 80s? Do you have a clue on how things used to run? I was. People made lots of money doing this back then. The industry is undergoing some kind of a change right now, with the EPA, FMCSA and other federal agencies. We (most) all know how trucking was, is, and will be. The economy tanked. Driver pay, shipper rates and the equipment have only changed very little. But from what I know on what gramps and my old man have taught me is.....


Trucking and (real) truckers aren't going anywhere.

 

MMark my words. Watch, wait and see what happens as soon as the economy picks up momentum. With Americas pockets full of money, do you think truck drivers and trucking companies are gonna keep getting a hard time from everyone ??? Yea right! Then baby, its back to the old school! Just like Smokey saying "hey is that bandit hauling ace over there" Nahhhh it couldnt of been.

I know its coming back.

That's when everybody will leave this industry to do the things they REALLY want to do. Then driver demand will be up.

Not the kind of shortage there is now. I mean a real shortage. As in qualified available trucks and drivers.

 

Yes, the T-call would seem to be a nice 'Ace in the hole', but if a DM has no load for one after the T-call, where is that one? Regarding poor schmucks, that is just a nic-name for anyone in the Fontana yard seemingly. This may be why one has to deliver a local before they are allowed to possess an empty in Southern Mexifornia--to reduce the inventory of T-calls. Would not Express drivers handle these though in a better business model?

Wow, $35k first year? I gave up those visions of grandeur seven months ago. I would take this annual gross income six ways 'til Sunday. Admittedly, if this were for a job where I needed to pay rent and utilities and have a good car, this would be 'treading water'. However, for a first year in OTR trucking--SOLD! However, from what I have read in the Knight threads and other threads (Swift, Werner, CR England, etc.), and given the wash-out rate of newbies, I am skeptical that the annual $35k figure can be reached while at a bottom feeder.

Specifically to Knight: just the fact that you may have to kill some fifteen hours per week hunting down empty trailers has to put the cap on the annual gross income. Personally, for me, I ain't a haulin' a trailer with no brakes or lights or tires and risk getting DOT tickets or worse. Consequently, I would have to kill even MORE time sitting trying to have the trailer fixed or by attempting to fix it myself. I will pay a higher price than the drivers that don't give a flying hockey puck and just hook up and go regardless--and yes I read that on a Knight thread as to exactly what one driver claimed to do.

Again, I reference the Smaggs thread--he intimated that he rarely took home time and essentially took every load down the pike. Depite this, the best he did, as given in his Marten thread, is $18.5k in 12.15 months while at Knight, I believe he speculated that kicking per diem to the curb was perhaps one of the reasons why--miles dropped significantly as I recall.

 

I understand and agree to this--$35k/yr in my area has not been much money since 1992. However, what we are experiencing in America is a Chinafication of the mass of American Citizen workers--and I will leave it at this so that I do not violate political restraints of TTR.

Most every industry has taken a hit since 2001 and another hit during the past five years. I am middle aged also, therefore you should know that age discrimination out there is rampant. I was getting 'dissed' in my thirties with recruiters point blank telling me over the telephone 'we are kinda looking for college aged applicants'.

My ten days of OTR was as a team driver. I rarely got REM sleep in those ten days, so perhaps this is what may have suppressed my appetite. I agree that eating cold sandwiches gets old. However, cereal for breakfast is all I have every done most of my life--bacon and eggs are great, but if I am not going through physical exertion, I don't miss them except for my taste buds. The co-driver had more shower credits on his card than both of us could use.

I am fairly confidant that I can survive if I can gross $375-500 most weeks. I understand that the more one spins the revolver....or the more miles a driver logs, the more susceptible that driver is to getting a violation. Congrats on only one citation in ten years--I hope I get three years with that many let alone ten.

There are not too many jobs period regardless of age, but being aged is a detriment. I have been in recession for over one decade. Apparently, I will be for one more year further too since I probably will only make $15k/yr if I am at a bottom feeder. I cannot really predict my future, but if by this time next year I am not making at least 42 cents/mile driving a truck OTR, then I will just have to re-assess my situation at that time--meanwhile, I have to start the experience clock so that I can get out of 'less than one year's experience' purgatory. I got a few more applications sent to some Ma & Pa's...we shall see if one of them saves me from getting slayed by the Knight....