Extortion Alert!!! Red Tazz Express Delivery Company

Well we also give bonuses if they do go without getting any warnings during an inspection. We out the fines in policies after the suggestions from FMCSA after an audit. Trust me, when your insurance goes up to $300k from $100k the $150 fine for getting a warning does not help. When you can't find an insurance company to insure you because of your CSA scores for logs, then you get pretty pissed at the drivers for putting you in that position. We test them before we hire them, they know what to do and are just not doing it. No excuse.

 

Well, like my Grandfather told me a long time ago, if you pay PEANUTS, the only people that will work for you are MONKEYS!!!

Amazing!!! All this company owners want to piss and moan about poor quality drivers, but NONE OF THEM WANT TO PAY BETTER TO ATTRACT/KEEP GOOD QUALITY DRIVERS!!!

 

You are right! Until companies start PAYING BETTER, the good drivers are going to move on or get out of the business. And the only people left to drive are those that get into the profession as a last resort. What kid in his right mind WANTS to deal with all the BS that trucking entails for the pathetic wages that are being offered???

 

We have a hire on bonus for our company drivers and a guarantee per week if they do their part. We are willing to pay. We also have a six month vacation paid for those who do their part. So, do your research before commenting on our pay. We pay very well. Again ask the drivers who have been with us for years. We have them. We do have a rotation of drivers who do not want to be real, professional drivers and pull their weight. They talk the talk but don't walk the walk.

 

you have to want to drive. Not drive because you have no other choice. Not many REAL TRUCK DRIVERS do it for the money. They drive because they WANT TO and are good at it

 

And i do agree. I would not want to be a driver these days but it is a necessity in our world. If the customers would pay more, we would be doing better as a company. We know drivers deserve the pay to be away from their families though so that is why we pay well. My husband was a driver before we opened. We know what drivers deal with. He knows personally. So he pays them what he would want to be paid. You can't pay the ones well who do not do their part to help the company. We like to think of our company as our extended family. Without drivers we have no company. We love our drivers.

 

Your company might be the exception to my statement, But most trucking companies notoriously underpay their drivers.

It seems to me that companies will spend more money in advertising, recruiting, screening, hiring, and training a new, untested, and unknown driver BEFORE THEY SPEND ONE NICKEL ON DRIVERS THAT ARE ALREADY ON THE JOB, PROVEN, HARD-WORKING, PROFESSIONALS.

SEEMS MESSED UP TO ME!!!

 

Trust me. We would rather have an experienced driver. But they usually are not looking for jobs. We have learned reputation and word of mouth and good drivers are better than advertising. I think it helps that we know what it is like to be a truck driver family and that helps on what to expect for a driver and what they are worth as a driver. When they are acting like a real driver. And not lolly gagging and taking 5 days to go to Louisiana and back from Houston. Or taking 4 days longer to get to a drop that most of your fleet is doing and already unloaded and reloaded. We pay attention. We run the miles. And if you are taking too long you will not get the guarantee. We know things happen. But if it is a constant repeat then that proves you are not a real driver. Some just have diesel running through their veins and some think it is easy and complain when they learn what it is really like.

 

They are actually both right but bickering and finger pointing won't solve the issue here. The recruiting bar must be raised. I won't preach how though, everyone already knows the answer and sticking your head in the sand won't make it go away. Dubious bonus offers won't make it go away either. Raising the hiring bar with quality hands and rewarding them well for hard work ( not competitive wages or more miles, but well ) There are plenty of qualified drivers out there and available if the Walmart number is correct.

In this competitive market where more drivers leave everyday and virtually none come in a carrier must be pro active and see his drivers as a valuable team member, not as some tool in the box that can be easily replaced. Until carrier management learns this then the dog will continue to chase his tail.

In this case she says the driver quit....anyone bother to find out why with an exit interview? Bother to investigate any potential claims of wrong doing by the staff? She says it's a L/P deal yet she claims he owed her thousands....... what did you do Ms. Carrier? Unload your problems on him under buyer beware? Structure the deal so tight that he has to roll 8/70 just to make the payment? I don't know for sure, haven't seen the deal but there is a reason for failure. The carrier did claim bad money management....well that goes back to the hiring bar. If you took a rookie or even a 5 year guy and tossed him in a L/P deal then you got what you bought and you set him up to fail.

The carrier complained about her insurance premiums going up from bad drivers ....sure , it's supposed too. Goes back to the hiring bar being so low. She will probably see her major shippers leave too over bad CSA scores. Looks like the CSA is doing it's job to me.

Q: How come Walmart doesn't have these problems? Or my former private chemical fleet? Do you suppose it's because they're not racing to the bottom of the rate pile and take good care of their people? Naw, can't be that, right? So what, luck maybe?

JMO

 

CSA has made it so tough that even when we do our job as a carrier we get punished. As mentioned, we can hire a seasoned driver with no history or anything on his record. Then he forgets his new physical card. We have a copy on file. We have done our part to make sure he is qualified. He's been with us almost a year with no issue. Boom. We are punished. Larger fleets gets more miles to go against their issues making the percentages lower. We are more regional. Harder to do logs. (Before we went elog.) when a driver gets in the truck and may pick up and drop off several times a day then they have more room for error. This is why we do a log test before hiring. To make sure they can handle it. Then they just don't do it. Because they were going down the road and thought they would take the chance to wait on the log. We are flatbed. They have to make sure their stuff is strapped down or chained down properly. It is more work. It is harder on them. This driver on the OP got in debt quick. He just got lazy and had expenses. If he would have actually ran then he would not have gotten in debt. But one regional a load a week filled with excuses as to why it took so long won't cut it. He was a decent driver before he became an owner op. He had a good chance at making it and ruined it quickly with his laziness. We have others who started the owner op deal the same time as him who are bringing home nice pay checks after their fuel, truck note, and insurance comes out. They run. Not hard, but they run. We have a hard hiring process. But if the companies do not put their bad work history on their Dac records then we don't know and we find out once they do bad to us. We check previous employers and run backgrounds. We can only go with the information that is out there. I know we are not alone because we have spoken with enough others to know. There are many that come through the door that after pulling their reports we don't even blink at.