JB Hunt - Lowell, Ar.

You can make money at JB, its not that hard. But I do have to agree about the orientation. Many do get rejected before finishing orientation. Some for some really lame reasons. Its against JB company policy to make u-turns, period. I do it when needed and in my opinion safe to do so. But I know if I'm violating company policy when I do it. If I get canned for it, well that's life. It was my choice.

 

I read through this thread a little because it's been a while and I had said I would quit 6 months ago, but am still here. It's not bad, but you really have to humor the driver managers and other people you encounter because they only care what the numbers say. Don't say "that is crap, liar" just simply humor them and be glad to have a job to get you by until something else comes up.
JB Hunt pulls freight from the same docks, true. But know that they will wait (and make you wait) until the shipper is desperate or already knows they need to pay more to have someone hall the freight. Then that should tell you what kind of stress you might deal with (JIT loads, hazmat, metro to metro, etc).
But on a good note, they are totally cool if you can find a safe or legal reason why you should not do the load or make the times. They will try to change the times or take it off you. You will still get subtle pressure, but don't give in because they will thank you now and then ask you why you logged illegal, drove over hrs, later.
It's a good learning experience, I don't plan to stay here forever but I recommend them if you are good at knowing how long stuff takes and not trying to do every preplan that comes along and just winging your way through everything. You can do that your first month, but then you will get hounded about your log letter for months (man I think I had to call every week for 3 months to hear about it and could no longer split sleep for any reason).

 

You are so right, LostTruckDriver! 5 1/2 yrs ago was on level 4 probation for logs, level 5 is goodbye, do not pass go, just go home, you have no job. I switched to the lease program for a temp job while I looked for another job. (Switching to LP is like brand new driver, start over. No log violations!! I've constantly said I'm just driving for JBH for time being. I'm finding different job next week! Yeah, right. Thought I'd finally figured out a backdoor on log issues, went 3-4 months without a log letter,whoo-hoo. Then they decided to manually audit my logs! Not good news. Different probation system lvl 1 letter, 2- 3 days off, 3- you're gone. I was 2 yrs into lease then, no way I was gonna lose truck because of logs. Decided at that point, screw 'em, if I couldn't do it legally, it wouldn't be done by me.
Now it's been around 3 yrs since I've had a log letter. That's quite an accomplisment for me and the way I've always done things.
Apparently, they grow on you with time.

 

from lyion-hay running a bad log is history .run complicity legal .i was told go pick the load up drive 600 miles and then deliver at another location another 300 miles on the 2 stop .i did this crap for a while and didn't make any money didn't wont to get caught by dot so i used a second some times even a third log book and when i turned in my logs .i got a call from safety saying i had been in cal and 2 days later i was in north carolina i had driven close to 3,000 miles in less than 3 days and i had to fix my logs are i would be put on suspension . i told that safety women .look at the bills i turned in and then tell me how to log them and i will re do them and send them in to day . she said i had to go back for the last 30 days and redo all my logs .i said how . i don't care how you do it just fix them or i might be terminated . i went back and looked i couldn't figure where i was to save my life .got on the phone with my personal dispatcher and told her that i was going to be terminated unless she fixed this problem with safety . she called me back the next day and told me if i didn't fix it i wood be fired so she woodnt help me so i told her id haft to take a few day s off to fix them so i did but when i got back with her i told her from now on i was running legal and that i kept the copy of logs so i had something over her and she new it .i got my way for a while till the load wouldn't pay my truck loan and quite .i wont run more than i can log with me being the one who has to pay dot even say 2 years later if dot comes in to a compy fids past logs bad they can come aftewr you and charge you after the fact .i bet no one tells you that even safty departmens .check it out , ive even heard of the irs going after truckers that get have bad logs when the irs checks them logs .

 

guess i should have read this post before i went to louisville ky to orientation for who else,,JfkinB,,50 in class,,might be 3 left by now and they will be setting all week waiting on a lease purchase,,haha,,kinda glad they booted me now! let me say this one more time as if noone else has said it,,dont waste your time,,DONT do IT!they suck,,o yea,,one more thing,the recruiter told me it was a 1.70 a mile on lease purchase and guarunteed 3k miles a week,turns out it was 85cpm,and he stays far away from orientation,,good idea,,bad for his health! i deserve this for not doing my homework,but from what i gather they are all bad these days,,im still looking

 

Hell son, I could have told you it wasn't 1.70 a mile!

The big thing they get you on in the LP is that number....What most of those recruiters will do is add up the Maximum numbers and then play it off like it were the regular thing.

85 CPM, if I remember right, was the base. Then they tack on Fuel Surcharge, Fuel saving bonus, on times, and all the little nit-picky things that (at least we were told) they offered. Then you would hear "Oh yea, it's $1.70 a mile." They're recruiters. and 1 more butt in the seat translates to 1 more hire commission on the check. I'd take anything that any recruiter says anywhere with a grain of salt.

 

I can't say it enough,

JB HUNT is a horrible company to even consider.

Waste of time even trying with them.

There are plenty of mom and pop outfits that will give you a better start once you have your one year.

 

Question:Why does the IRS even want to look at your logs?? I have been driving for 7 years and I will guarantee that the IRS has never looked at my logs, ever! In fact I dont know any driver that has ever had the IRS look at their logs, so Im not sure where you are getting that. The IRS is only interested in taxes, not log books. The only people that can LEGALLY analyze your logbook is an officer that is ceritified by the DOT to do so, in fact if a cop stops you and asks for your log, all he can do is look at it, if he needs to critique it, he will have to be either DOT certified or call for a backup who is. Also, the DOT can only hold the last 7 days logs against you, they cannot charge you after the fact, so whoever told you that doesnt know what they are talking about. Your employer is only required to keep your logs for 6 months, some keep them longer, but not many. They can charge the company for any violations within the 6 months, but as far as the driver, they cannot charge you for any violations that are more than 7 days ago.

This is just another example of a driver who beleives what the other drivers are telling them, instead of really investigating what the facts are. You know if you actually read that FMCSA manual(which BTW, you are required to do)you will see that all this is explained pretty well for you. If you are actually beleiving this stuff that drivers have told you, then this proves that you have been driving for what, about 6 months? NEVER beleive a driver's story of stuff like this, most of the time, it is not even their story it is another driver's story and it has been quite embelished before he got it. Kind of like the stories you hear about triple-digit trucks, and drivers telling DOT how it is and so forth, all bull, my freind. All Bull!

You should know better than all this with your supposed 16 years of experience>

 

Hey, Long time no talk on here....Figured i'd dump this little post off for you guys to read...

David is my ex-Boss. He managed the DCS (dedicated) recruiters, including yours truly....Hope he counter-sues the S@## out of em. Castleberry was a recruiter.

Link is here: http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2008/11/13/news/111308bzhuntsuit.txt

 

My husband went to JB and drove for several months before I came on. He had complained about several things about the maintenance of his truck, the health insurance not being as good as they had told us, and being knock out of layover pay. When I took their driving test..the woman recruiter was very nice but the tester gave me a fit. Giving me directions and then changing them at the last minute. There was another driver riding that was supposed to test next. He told them to take their job and shove it after he saw the way I was treated. I had been hauling produce out of CA for 1 1/2 yrs with no accidents or tickets. The woman JB recruiter let me know that it was because of my husband that they 'fixed' my test to get rid of him. We were hired the next day by a another company and I had NO trouble being tested. We hauled for them for seven years before buying our own truck.