FFE

FFE said they don't hire now out of Louisiana say thats a bust

 

April 14 2011





Wow Chris3131:


I thought that they would give You a Bus ticket from anywhere.

They may be having financial difficultys.

Curtis and I started getting pulled over at the Scale Houses quite a bit within the past Month to Month and a half, so maybe their CSA Safety rating was going downhill.

I noticed that they wanted for us to show our CDL's and Medical Cards whenever we had to sign in somewhere, we did'nt but It was just one of those things. The company gave us an E-Mail that stated that we were helping them with their CSA Scores whenever we were supposed to do this.

 

I was really aggravated because hell there application was so long then when I finished and give them a call the next day and nothing. Now hoping KLLM will give ma a call in the morning if not then I guess just have to hope SWIFT will give me a shot for the 26 of this month or May 3. I gotta get to work before i forget what I have learned.

As aggravated as i have been with finding a job i feel hope with swift so far have been pretty nice, Hopeful;l i can get on with someone soon this is just freaking killing me. I left welding because it's pretty much dead around me and seems like driving is booming if you can just get in there and get the experience. Sorry for the rambling

Chris

 

I have been driving for FFE since Jan 2011.

First, I have to say that I got the same application info as Joe Harrington posted last fall on this thread. What really got my attention was the part about 'regional driving', specifically the southwest since I live in CA. That's one of the reasons I chose FFE.

I called to confirm, but they said that conversation was premature. All stuff "we would talk about later, after you were hired and after training." Well, okay.

So after training, I'm informed:

FFE DOES NOT OFFER REGIONAL DRIVING FOR NEW DRIVERS. I prefer to believe this misinformation was not FFE's fault, but suspect this might be recruiter-speak.

Also, forget about most of that time-home stuff in the pitch. You are out three weeks, after which you go home for three days. Period. Then you're out three weeks again, etc. There is no 'going by the house' or 'getting home more often.' You go where they tell you.

Area served is basically a big diagonal swath from SW to NE across the country. Not much FFE business in Washington/Oregon (although I have been up there) or Florida. Mostly midwest and east.

All that said, I have been treated with nothing but respect through the whole experience. Very nice people at all levels. I think the size of the company works against them at times ' left hand not knowing what the right is going, etc. But basically everyone I've dealt with has been great and most respectful. They are also quick on the trigger if you need service or tires out on the road.

Two things will combine to be deal breakers for me: the inflexibility of the three-weeks-out rule (it's just too long away from home with too little home time), and lay-days. This last week, I sat all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday before getting a load Tuesday. THAT load required that I drive about 50 miles, drop an empty and then wait 24 HOURS for a loaded trailer. I kid you not. My last two weekly paychecks were $280 and $190. One week I wasn't paid at all. I have only gotten paychecks over $500/week four times since January. I have yet to make more in a month with FFE than I made on unemployment.

In short, I'm just not getting miles, or loads, as often as I need to.

I don't know if any of this improves with seniority, but I probably won't be around long enough to find out. Once I get six months (next month), I'm probably going to shop around for something else.

 

April 25 2011





Hello Oddball:


I have heard my trainer tell me that they won't always pay really well, so he became a trainer to get paid for the team mileage and the extra $75.00 per week. Curtis also said that You really have to have a Good dispatcher in order to make substantial weekly mileages at FFE.

There are dispatchers for the beginners and dispatchers for the more experienced drivers.

We had a very nice Dispatcher: Sunny Herod, who treated us well, and made us the highest mileage team on her board. We used to get at least 2 or 3 600-700 Mile runs every week mixed in with long hauls between Dallas and California and New England.

There was never much downtime after she saw what we were capable of doing. I would always drive 600 + miles per day and Curtis would always drive 600 + miles per day after we were out about 2 weeks.

I have been told that You can request home time, or "drive bys" from Your dispatcher if You get permission and if You have a "Safe Harbor" for Your trailer nearby. Curtis and I used to Bobtail back to his house in Escondido from Los Angelos, quite a distance.

You're right though, There is never enough home time while doing OTR.

 

Good luck with FFE. Personally I had a bad experience, no it was worse than that it was nothing but hell and I do mean pure HELL. I also had a good experience with the recruiters and also had a good experience with orientation. The hotel is nice and they do feed you your meals while there in orientation. Then you go to the yard for the first time and everything seems fine. However things start changing. If you dont get a trainer right away they send you back to the hotel daily until they can get you one but you are cut to just getting breakfast. Other meals are on you. You will sit at the yard all day everyday until they can get you a trainer along with all the stuff you took with you. Thats right you must check out of the hotel daily and take all your stuff with you. Thats no big deal. The problem is that they dont have enough qualified trainers to get you started. It took me 3 days to get one, Then the following day he was suspended because the trainee he had before me got off his truck in Oklahoma and then reported him for things he had done. I sat for another day before they offered me a female trainer. I thought ok this will be interesting (I would have been another week of waiting otherwise) anyway we left for Tennessee and she told me to go to sleep so thatI could drive later. Ok, I had to sleep in the bottom bunk which was her bunk. No problem, but her bedding was in it. I asked what I should do with it and was told to put mine on top of hers. No I told her the rules said she had to remove her bedding and I didnt want to sleep on it. She had a drainage bag on her leg that was attached to her back by the Doctors. I didnt want to sleep with the possibility it might be leaking if you kow what I mean. Then I asked about the safety straps that are required by law that you wear while sleeping and it pissed her off saying "I have never had anyone demand to have them no one has ever used them" Our next run was to Mn. I was driving thru Illonois and needed to use the restroom so I told her I needed to stop. She advised me to wait as we would be stopping soon for the night and just to drive a little further and we would be there. A half an hour later I again told her I needed to stop ASAP and was again told to hold it a little further. I asked where this truck stop was she wanted to get to she said exit 99 and we were at mile marker 22. You can guess what happened from there. The next day we were driving thru downtown Minneapolis high noon 6 lanes of traffic 55 miles an hour. Im driving thru in the exit lane and need to get over so I check my mirrors and start to inch my way over, when I hear her saying Dont do it. ?? puzzling I recheck my mirrors, everything is clear so I inch over a little more when I hear her say DOnt do it. ??? still puzzled I check my mirrors again, look all the way around me and everything is clear so I inch over some more and again I hear hr say it again "DONT do it" ????? Ok now I know I am missing something so I check very very carefully and start moving again when I hear her say "DONT DO IT" and I am like dont do what I have to do something I am running out of a lane to be in. She said Oh its not you you are a good driver. 5 miles later still in the same traffc she yells to the top of her voice "HOLY ####" I hit the clutch and start applying the brakes saying what is it. (Thinking Im about to have a wreck but cant see something) she again says to me Oh its not you your a good driver. Why would anyone do this to someone in a semi that is in that kind of traffic for the first time in their life. I think she wanted me to wreck. Anyway we get to our destination and I am backing in. She is standing outside and I have the wheel cut all the way to the left to make my turn but I am off a little and I cant make it. She tells me to cut the wheel to the left some more and back it in. I informed her I already had the wheel cut all the way to the left and she says I dont care just cut it some more and back it in. I told her its turned all the way now it wont turn anymore. She said I told you to cut the wheel some more to the left and back it in and thats exactly what I want you to do. I again told her I have the wheel turned all the way to left it will not turn any further. Now she is mad again, starts cussing me and tells me if I dont cut the F----ing wheel some more to the left and back i in she will fail me. I pulled the air brakes, took the truck out of gear, got out and told her that if she thought she could cut the F----ing wheel any further that I could to be my guest. She tried 2 times from the same position but it would not go and had to pull all the way out and start over. When w got ready to leave she told me we just needed to face the fact that she couldnt train me. I told her that for once we finally agreed on something. She made a call and we headed back to Texas for another trainer. If anyone is actually rading this and would like to hear about my 3rd and 4th trainer. Post something about it here and I will respond. I just dont want to write all this if no one is reading or interested. But this is nothing comapred to the rest of my story and how I was treated while at FFE.

 

Oh I certainly want to hear more... Lets hear all you got. I just had an FFE recruiter leave me a message this morning. I just applied there. I'd like to hear more. BTW, my other choices right now are US Xpress and Prime. If anyone with first hand knowledge that can weigh in on all three, that would really be helpful as well.

 

May 18 2011





Hello Samiamnky and the Group:


I would be very interested in hearing whatever It is that You have to say about FFE in general. I Loved being there for most of my 8-9 Weeks.

I of course had a Trainer that I really liked and someone who could use me for the worklevel that I was capable of. I thought that Curtis was the best trainer that I could ever imagine, but then he started having his issues after awhile because his family was really bothering him and he was really attatched to him. It was Wintertime too so I know that It was frustrating for him to be so Good at Motorcross racing and Truck racing and racing in general, but I myself did not want to handle a rig in Winter conditions in this manner.

I just got him pissed off with all of my Video blogs that I put up of my trips around the Country, so I had to take most of them down. I still have them though, and I will probably just upload them to my Facebook page, and kill the Links from my Wall to them so that people will have to dig for them.

I am really sorry that You had such a hard time with FFE. I got surprised
in the end there, but It was one of the best times of my life. I Hope that You will find something better. I know that I am (finding) better jobs at this point
in time.

 

I will try to get more to the meat of the matter now since I lost my last post before posting it it was a long one too. To finish with this woman driver she didnt know the sound of the air govenor. Didnt know if the truck was equiped with fuses or circut breakers even after I took the cover off and showed her. And didnt know the in cab inspection.I asked for her version and she told me all she knew was that you turn on the key hold the brakes and it shouldnt lose more than 10 lbs of pressure and if you keep pushing the brakes with the air knobs pushed in that the yellow knob will pop out. OMG, and she has 28 years of experience!!! I don think so. After getting back to the yard in Lancaster I came to realize she had been talking behind my back to J.D. and told them I couldnt drive. I was singled out for a road test with Deb to check on my progress. I passed Debs driving and parking test and was assigned another trainer. By the way I am a poor boy and didnt have the mney to eat out all the time so I had bought some things at walmart to eat on. Somehow this woman managed to stop every 2 hours when she was driving to eat and when I was driving she ate most of the supplies I had gotten for myself to live on.

 

Ofer was the name of my next trainer. He approached me saying that I had a problem because he knew both of my last trainers and they were good ones. I knew right then I was in for trouble. He said that I would respect him and do as I was told or he would fail me and repeated saying this 5 or 6 times saying do you understand. This was the next day after I left her truck and I was put in the Hotel overnight I got a good nights sleep. He told me after about 3 hours that I needed to get some sleep because I was going to be driving first. I told him I had just got a good nights sleep but it didnt matter to him he made me go to bed anyway of coarse I just laid there for the first 3 or 4 hours before I finally dosed off. He woke me up 1/2 an hour later saying it was time to leave that I needed to get out of the top bunk. I asked where Iwas driving to and he told me that he was going to drive first that I needed to go back to bed and get some sleep because I would be driving later. I tried telling him that he could make me go to bed but he couldnt make me sleep anymore my body just wasnt ready. Didnt make any difference I had to lay down (Which I can kinda understand, but not too much) anyway his bunk was full, it had 4 duffle bags in it (one of them the size of an army bag) all of his wadded up bedding and 2 pillows. I asked what I was suppossed to do with them and he told me just to move them and lay down. So I moved all the bags out of the bunk in a storage space. I asked about thebedding he said to leave it alone, just put yours on top of it. Not wanting to argue I threw my sleeping bag over his bedding and thew his pillows on the top bunk. The next day I was told to never move his stuff again just to sleep with it. I tried to explain I couldnt and wouldnt because it was to uncomfortable to sleep with but it didnt matter.