Triple Crown Services Co, - Fort Wayne, In.?

We do but you stated that sign on bonuses are a red flag to you. So I just pointed out that PAM offers them as well and knowing how you feel about them I just wanted to know why you made that statement.

 

Also in nursing they give sign on bonuses. They are broken into 3 payments to insure that one will stay for at least one year. That is generally the rule in many companies who offer bonuses. If they just gave one chunk payment they would be out of business in a hurry. What would stop someone from becoming an employee, get the bonus and then quit?

 

I agree. They shouldn't give the whole bonus out on day one of hire and the example you gave of the nursing industry is the way it should be done. The company I worked for until this past summer had a similar sign on package. But, some companies will make you wait for at least 2 years to receive the entire bonus, and if you don't stay for those 2 years you will be required to pay back whatever you have gotten thus far...including the taxes that were taken out before you even got the first check. I learned this the hard way with PMTG/BMT. They were offering a $5000 bonus. When I got the check for the first half of that money, it was taxed at a rate of nearly 35%. I had already left the company, so I just mailed the check back to them. A few months later, their accounting firm sent me a letter stating that I owed them close to $900 for the taxes taken out of that check. I reviewed the contract that was signed when I first hired on and only at that time read the catch that I would in fact have to pay all of the money back even if it was taxed. Live and learn, I reckon.

 

A lot of them are offering sign on bonuses.I get$3000.for signing on with Roehl.It is paid in payments,with the final one due at 120000 miles.So far I have recieved $200.of it

 

My hubby got one too but I forget the amount. He received 2 payments so far and is due for another one this month.

 

Well, I'm not a fan of, nor am I inclined to trust companies to honor sign-on bonuses.

The one and only time I took a company up on an offer for a bonus, it was rescinded in orientation, for being, "an ad misprint". Their claim was that it had expired, and was not to have been inserted into the paper for that particular week.

Okay...I didn't make a big deal of it, even when I produced the dated advertisement, which totally contradicted what they were saying. The next few minutes consisted of some "er's" and "Uh's"...I dropped it.

That aside, in all the cases where a company offers sign-on bonuses, they come with terms and conditions, and you will not always know what they are up-front. I find these bonuses to be a tricky way to lure drivers, with the hope that the driver will forget about the bonus.

And lastly, these same companies that resort to offering bonuses, are not in the top tier of companies, and they all seem to consistently have retention issues.

A driver wrote me one time to inform me that he a company that promised him a sign-on bonus, refused to pay it to him, because he had a minor backing accident a week before he was supposed to receive the first installment of his bonus. They informed him that a preventable accident negated the bonus completely. The funny thing to him was, that this was never mentioned at any time, nor in printed form anywhere.

And what if a company defaults on the promise of a sign-on bonus? It becomes a civil manner. Remember, Interstate Commerce, and their employers are not regulated by the Fair Labor Standard Act, nor will a state agency likely intervene either.

Quite honestly, I skim over ads that offer sign-on bonuses. I've never met a company that offered one, that passed my evaluation criteria anyway.

 

I guess it comes down to don't jump for a company just for the sign on bonus. Look at the company as a whole. Roehl gave my husband a $1,000.00 bonus and he just got his third installment this month. But even without the bonus Roehl is a great company to work for. It's their basic operations and taking care of their drivers that works for us.

 

TC sent me the hiring package. There's a few things I didn't like. For one thing, it appears that one of their biggest customers is the Ford plant in Hapeville, GA which is about to shut down. That's a lot of hauling gone.

Money taken out of the settlement:

-$50 per week until $3000 is achieved to go into a "reserve fund"
-$15 per week for Qual Comm usage!
-$160 per year for "permits"
-$0.03 cpm for worker's comp

They will also provide insurance, plates, and pay your heavy vehicle use tax if you request:

-$76.14 per week for 22 weeks for Indiana 32 state IRP
-$50 per week phys. dam. ins.
-$8.75 per week bobtail ins.

Pay rates from Atlanta terminal:

-$1.25 per mile (0-15 miles)
-0.97 cpm (16-30 miles)
-0.94 cpm (31-125 miles)
-0.92 cpm (126-300 miles)
.086 cpm for over-the-road

-Pickups and deliveries are $30 per load

-No mention of fuel surcharge... but I think I saw it in their ad.

So if you average 2500 miles per week at the middle of the road of .94 cpm... minus the worker's comp of .03 = .91. I don't know how they pay the pickups and dropoffs, but I'm assuming you'll get 60 bucks for each trip.

Gross Earnings (on mileage alone): $2275

Pickups/Deliveries (based on a guess of 8 trips a week): $480

deduct for reserve fund, qualcomm, insurance, fuel, permits, plate fees, vehicle tax

I know this is flawed math, but I would need to talk to a driver there to see if it's worth it. I would think 8 trips a week is fairly average for the type of work they do. They also have detention pay, but that is not a given that you'll get it every week. With the Ford plant closing, there's no telling how that will affect their runs.

 

Understand that Triple Crown is very location driven. They function to move their trailers from rialheads to parts users, and back again.Because they keep their trucks in a relatively close area, they manage to offer the strong possibility of getting you home each night. and for many people, hometime is such a big thing that they will accept a lower rate of pay for doing a job with relatively stable hometime.

Their trailers are not of the best, as has been pointed out. FAter all, they get towed behind locomotives, and if you think a truck is tough on a trailewr, wait until a locomotive ghets hold of it. They are heavy, weighing about 4000 pounds more than average trailers.

Like any other business, you need to whip out a crystal ball and try to figure out what is going to happen to their customers in the future. With the changes in the auto industry, they aren;t a 100% safe bet, and a plant can be closed and business lost. And they may find themselves with more trucks and drivers than they need. It's not a sure thing anywhere.

Most triple crown guys I have met are pretty well grounded and know what they have. they don;t claim it to be the best thing since sliced bread, but many of them are doing ddecently, and they are certainly a step above the other guys hauling regular containers out of the railyards.

 

I understand about being home every night. That's what I'm looking for. My main concern is whether it's better than what I have now. Are the miles going to be there? How many trips a day? The usuals.

I would hate to make the jump, and then see that I'm only getting a hundred miles a day...

When I think about the $3000 sign on, it could be because a lot of drivers jumped ship since their biggest client is closing. I don't see these guys on the road often, so being able to talk to a driver has been difficult.