Trans Am or KLLM

I know Trans Am pulls reefers & I guess you are thinking about the reefer side of KLLM.There is a lot more headaches and respondsibilities with pulling a chicken wagon. Long waits to load & unload,standing in the freezing cold to count the freight (It's hard to count cases and stock numbers thur shrink wrap that has moisture on the inside),buying pallets,selling pallets,dealing with lumpers,lots of the loads are close to 80,000,it's hard to load it correctly because even if you loaded the same stuff last week,it may not weight the same this week. Keeping an eye on the reefer temp,even if you take a load home or you are on a 34hr break,the people who load you can screw around, go on break, take their on sweet time,but after it loaded,your dispatcher says" Driver you got to go,put it in the wind,we already got an appt. set for you" People that unload you will damage stuff and then say it was like that when you loaded it,putting it back on you and your company.Some receivers (Wal-Mart for sure ) will steal freight and then tell you that the load was "short".
I went to a dry van and it is A LOT easier work. Ask around, good luck

 

Sounds like a bit of an exaggeration to me. I drove for TransAm and never had any of the problems you talk about. Long wait to unload, sure but never had to wait long to load. Most loads were drop and hook so no counting frieght. Never ever had to buy or sell pallets. Never heard of such a thing. Whats hard about dealing with lumpers? Get the price quote from the lumper, then get the approval from dispatch and write them a Comcheck. Not that hard. Your dispatch will approve it. Yeah reefer loads are heavy and not difficult to load at all. The companies that load on reefers have been doing it for awhile so they know how much to put on to make it legal. Monitoring the reefer temp, I mean come on, how hard is it to glance at the temp when you stop. A 75 gallon reefer tank will run for 3 days before you need to refuel it. If stuff is damaged big deal. Don't leave the dock until you report it to your company, they'll handle it from there or go stand on the dock while they unload it. Most distribution centers will let you unload it yourself or hire a lumper so yes you can be on the docks while your trailer is unloaded. Walmart (for sure) does NOT steal frieght. I drove on a Walmart grocery account for two years. Thats the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Walmart doesn't need to steal frieght. They're a multi-billion dollar company, they can afford it. Sounds to me that you're just looking for the easy way out. Get paid the maximum amount of money for doing the least amount of work. Want your cake and eat it to huh? There isn't one thing hard about pulling a reefer. Kind of sounds like you're a bit of a whiner and sweat the small stuff. I mean you're complaing about moisture being on the inside of shrink wrap!! Is moisture that much of a dilema to you that you can't perform your job? It's moisture on shrink wrap around boxes in the back of semi-trailer!!! You're not trying to cure cancer, you're delivering frozen frieght to a customer!!! My goodness..the trivial things people whine about and wonder why they get nowhere in life. Why are you driving a truck?

 

Boy nice post. About to join KLLM and was worried until I read your post. This isn't rocket science just good old hard work.

Cant wait to start just can't make my mind up KLLM or WS

 

Glad to hear that reefers aren't that bad , I am currently in school and was thinking of going with KLLM when I graduate,I will be running out of So Cal.

 

Does anyone know what happened to Nightcrawler? he had a website with a webcam and it was interesting to follow his journeys.He ran with KLLM so it was a good indicator on how this company runs.

 

I actually prefer reefers over dry van. Dry van frieght slows down quicker than reefer frieght. People gotta eat. The only consistant headache really is waiting to get the live unload complete. They'll have that trailer empty in 20 minutes sure, but spend the next 4 to 5 hours counting it. So if you can, while that's going on, go off duty or or go up to sleeper berth and try to get a 10 hour break in. It is possible sometimes. At least go to off duty while you're sitting in your truck. Check the oil once a day in the reefer, check the fuel and if your reefer starts having problems get in touch with dispatch and they'll guide you to a Thermoking to get it fixed. It's really not difficult pulling a reefer. You just have a noisy refridgerator when you're sleeping but you'll get use to it.

 

OK I currently work for Trans Am. #1 Almost all loads are live load/unload*except at the meat house* #2 Only the F.A.C Fleet has to buy and sell pallets #3 I will not stand on the dock or count freight it's sealed when I get the trailer and it's sealed when I get there or keep a continous(sp?) seal record #4 I don't care how THEY LOAD the trailer as long as it scales out legal