T-Force/What's It Like Starting Out Here?

If you're talking about T-Force, it depends on where you're at. In Salt Lake City, they're offering $28/hr with .65cpm to start for line haul drivers. OT is anytime after 8 hrs in a day/ 40 hrs in a week. Health insurance after 90 days, 401k after a year as well as pension. They're still under UPS contract until 2023 and Im not sure whats gonna happen then.

 

TForce is up in the air right now. New owner, but same management. Our support is being provided for the next 2 years for transitional purposes. Big Brown is still handling our HR, our ELD management, Central dispatching and all supervisors and management.

We are also on a "Trim the Fat" purge. Our sales force has just been drastically reduced. They are transitioning to virtual/web sales. Or, the burden is being placed on Terminal Managers/Service Center Managers.

Oh yea, HR, safety, hiring and even cleaning/sanitation is being dumped on the TM's/CSM's.

Our new owners are trying to improve our fleet condition and reduce repair expenses by leasing new equipment with maintenance plans. But that fell short due to the semi-conducter chip shortage. The 2,000 plus new trucks that we were suppose to take by now, has been dropped to just 500. The backlog is about a year out.

The union and our contract..... When TFI bought us, they voluntarily honored our current Union Master Agreement that is set to expire in August of 2023(5 year contract). They are union friendly, but not 100% union.

We have already seen what trimming the fat is doing. Our current medical benefits are protected by our contract, until 8/2023. However, our elective coverage's have already been increased. Long term disability, life insurance, etc. RUMOR has it, this will happen to our primary health/dental in the next contract negotiations. I've already heard we will go from no cost to sharing 50-80% of the premium. Yes, a RUMOR... but not far fetched for all the fat trimming.

Day shift is OT after 8 in a day and after 40 total.
Night shift is the same, but since we are paid mileage, that stops the hourly clock. Seldom does a night driver accumulate enough non-driving hours to ever see OT, unless they are local/shuttle drivers. Anything under 62 miles(I believe) pays hourly.

The good part about TForce, is all your time is paid the minute you clock in. Either by hourly(all duties not driving) or mileage. Except your mandatory lunch break(30 minutes).

The bad part is, the current 4 year progression to get to the good pay. No one wants to spend the 4 years it takes to make top scale when everyone else is hiring at top wage, and even with a bonus. We are at least 6 months to a year behind, in offering incentives to hire new people. And even then, we are NOT offering top scale!

Our senior drivers have already started retiring. Others (like me) are waiting to see how we come out of the transition in the next 2 years. I'm holding my breath to see the good in having a freight company run like a freight company. We are, and always have been UPS's red-headed adopted step-child. We were a selling point for package services (if you send your packages with us, we'll cut you a ludicrous deal on ground freight). In the 14ish years that Big Brown owned us, our Operating Ratio was always 98-99%. Two years, we were in the red. You can't survive on a 1-2% OR profit.

In just the first 3 months TFI owned us, our OR dropped to 90.1%. Almost a 10% increase in profit, just because we stopped shipping FREE or nearly free freight. The truckers motto has always been "Stop hauling cheap freight"! Well, we have.

Unfortunately, along with the purchase by TFI, was an agreement for a 5 year support contract with UPS.

The colors of our uniforms and the name has changed, but if you work here, nothing has changed......

 

guys talking about central transport,right now where I live those guys are starting out @ 27 to 29 dollars an hour… you can go to sleep on them if you want… I’m thinking about getting off the road and holla at them…they’re 3 miles from my house…

 

It's good money until you realize what is possible in the LTL sector. And I'm not even saying you shouldn't get your feet wet there. I would just ask you your opinion of them two years in, once you know some things.

Central is an LTL job. There are LTL careers. That's all.

 

3miles from the house is good for any job.

This is the same reason I’m stuck at aaa cooper.

they’re not the highest paying, but not the lowest either - but I tell all my local PD buddies I live literally across the river from them. On a bad day I’m a 15min drive.

Where as some guys travel an hour to the sefl terminal. South eastern built their terminal in an even more rural area I get it more land for less money, but almost no one lives there and who’s gonna want to drive an hour in the morning and an hour back home after working 10-14 hours.

I think the only reason I haven’t quit cooper is because of my commute time.

 

This is a happy accident with the house we bought. It's 10 minutes from my terminal, but I didn't work there when we bought the house. Lol

 

Agree. Commute is a big factor towards choosing and keeping a job.

Anyways, i would advise anyone thinking about T-force to hold off for a few weeks until the new contract comes through. Then you'll have a better picture about what's ahead.

Right now, and again it could be terminal dependent, but it seems like staffing is being cut. i've been doing 10,11,12,13,14 hours days for a long time and it seems to be the new norm? There's no time to do anything when you do get off. Last friday, i came home and laid down in bed intending to relax and just look at the phone for a few mins. i fell asleep until saturday morning. i'm just letting you know that there is NO TIME to do anything else M-F except work LTL.

So, i would hold off for a few more weeks.

 

UPDATE 7/2:
Please allow me to update my thoughts concerning when/if you should apply to ABForce, er, i mean T-force:

Because i strongly suspect there may be a mass ship jumping in a few days, from a company with a lot of orange trucks, i think you MAY want to APPLY now.

If, after the contract is finalized, and it turns out not to look favorable to you, and/or T-force isn't what you were looking for, then you can always decline.

If, however, you want until contract finalization, then there may already be a long line of applicants ahead of you and you then may not be able to get on.

Thank you.