Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

Someone answer a question for me, again, I consider myself highly educated, both via books/schooling, and by street growing up in the big mean city of NY. I constantly hear drivers coming on here voicing there displeasure of how much per mile we make and not liking the answer, because this company pays .50 p/m, this one starts at .40 p/m, cameras, the northeast, and what ever else is being advertised out there.

For those of you that aren't employed here, or anywhere else right now, take it from some of the posters on THIS particular thread, we don't make .50 p/m we do have cameras, both forward, and rear facing, we do run the northeast on a regular basis, and we are NOT forced to be gone for weeks on end.

Now, some insightful information that I deem very useful if you are visiting this particular thread. This thread has been up and running since the beginning of April, 2013, started by me and continually added to on a daily basis. We have talked about what we make, where we run, and hometime, we've also biotched, ranted and raved about the company, fellow drivers and each other.

I started this thread, I still actively add to it, there are others on here that have also added to this the last 3+ years, we also have new drivers here that just came over from other companies and others who came over into our training. We also have, for the size of the company, 425+ trucks, the most experienced group with 5,10, 15, years and up. Everyday I run across one of our drivers that is here a lot longer then myself with 3.5 years.

Our fleet is second to none, it's traded off every three years, with new trucks coming in at 100 per year. In the time I've been here, I am now in my third brand new truck. Our fleet of trailers is constantly upgraded, both dry and reefer.

About our freight, we run light about 65% of the time, under 50K pounds. Our freight is top shelf. How many times have I run from Richmond to the west coast with 5K in the trailer? More that I can count. In the 38 years I've been out here, this is the only company I've ever worked for that I never have a worry about getting empty on a Friday afternoon in Podunk Idaho and being dispatched to run over the weekend.

My point to all this? Look at the complete package. Cameras? no issue for me. My CPM? More then what is advertised and discussed here, suffice to say, my first year here was April to December 31st, 2013, I made $47K here and $14K at my previous job that I was at for 4.5 years. My second year hear I made $62K, last year I made $67K, This year I'm on track to make $77K. I do train a little, so those numbers include my training pay. If you take out last years training pay I made $63K solo, this year without training pay I'll make $65 solo. What's better than making the money I do? My hometime. I could be home every 10 days if I wanted to, I stay out 2-3 weeks at a time and never have to beg to go home.

I'm not willing to give up what I make, loose out on my excellent hometime, drive the equipment I do, and have the benefits I do, just to go someplace and try to make .50/.40 per mile. I'll put up with the cameras, the northeast 2 times a year, and my CPM that I negotiated based solely on my performance and record.

In ending I will say this, I have the experience and the record to work anyplace, I choose to work here, I make what I need to make, I get home when I want to. I wish I would have found this job a little earlier, but this much is for sure, I'm retiring in 3.5 years, if Abilene doesn't run me off, this is my last job.

 

Recruiting tells new prospects to go on TTR and read what we post. I've sat down with Alan, Kurtis and Scott and discussed this forum. They all said the same thing at different times, it's a positive light for the company, they like what they read and they tell new drivers about it. I just hope a new driver doesn't decide to read something on a day I go off on a rant.