? for Knight Refrigerated drivers - what are your thoughts on Kooltrans?

Yup. Knight is definitely running the show. I billed Knight reefer loads and Kool loads. All of the "behind the scenes work" is done at Knight corporate in Phx, AZ. It's considered a separate company like Knight dry, Knight Reefer, and Knight Brokerage. From what I heard, Knight was helping a guy start a new company. They Invested money, trucks, and knights admins to help. They will help him grow and of course help them selves. And yes, they are mormon. Alot of their friends and family work there who are mormon as well.

 

Just started with Kooltrans about a month ago and I am happy with it, the equipment is excellent and the office staff is very helpful. The company is 52 percent Knight owned and the rest is Jon Issacson, former CEO of Central, this is what I was told at orientation. Trucks are powered with the Dd15 with the Dt12 auto, which I had my reservations about, I have no complaints as it pulls nice and the transmission is very nice to drive. First time in an auto. You do keep the same trailer. But I did my first drop and hook at Hershey in SLC Wednesday night. They encourage us to keep the trucks clean, pay for washes, not weekly, but still want the trucks looking nice. Have not waited for a load more than five hours after being empty, that was the only time I was not pre-planned before the drop. Dealing with the Knight yard and the Knight drivers is a little much, I drove for Swift so I have seen what disfunction looks like, I'll just leave that there. The Knight drivers for the most part are cool, but one did call me the enemy at the TA in Boise last week. I responded by telling him if he and his boys could take care of business we wouldn't have to, he didn't have much to say after that! Knight does have a nice app for your phone that makes real easy. I was also told we would be away from Knight by the middle of next year, guess we'll have to wait and see about that. You could do a lot worse.

 

You do realize all your loads come out of a Knight office right ? You are planned by our planners then relayed to your dispatcher. I defiantly don't consister you or KoolTrans my enemy or even competition. We all are planned off the same board and have more then enough to go around, KoolTrans brings in loads all on there own also so its not like you are "Stealing" loads or anything from us. The whole rivalry thing is just stupid.

I will agree with you on the shops tho, very few of them do I go to for work.

Again, As I stated in a few posts I really hope KoolTrans stays strong, They have a good staff and decent drivers (For the most part) and any of them I have ran into have been awesome to sit down a chat with. There is plenty of loads for us both and the ones that you here complaining are the truck stop warriors that turn down loads then complain they are not getting the miles.

 

I understand and agree with all that, just wanted to weigh in on the subject, some truck stop hero is on here making claims about ownership that aren't completely accurate, and that clown last week in Boise kinda pissed me off.

 

I've been offered a job at Kool. Starting me at .41 with 7yrs experience. Still thinking about it. Only thing is there out of slc. I know Knights running the show. I could be at knight refrigerated in Columbus in 3 hours. So idk what to do

 

They will fly you out to SLC, you'll have a room to yourself and there are 20 brand new tractors in the yard, there were three weeks ago anyway, last time I was there. Tell Mario K1032 sent ya,

 

They running you good? I talked to Mario on the phone. 3 weeks out min doesn't sound that great. I think knight refrigerated could get me home quicker than that, but that doesn't knock them out yet.

 

the only difference between Knight refrigerated and kool trans is this... The color of the equipment and the logos that's it

 

Do they haul Kool cigarettes?

 

Actually Kool trans offered me more per mile than Knight did. But I still haven't decided. I talked to a Knight driver (dry van) two days ago and was saying his truck only runs 61mph because he idled this summer? That would suck. I mean 65 is slow enough but anything below that and I'd feel like I was back at prime again. My current company has all of us set at 68. I don't want to be punished if I idle because it's hot and as long as they have a bunk heater I wouldn't idle if it was cold. Those things work great