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

Question. A friend of a friend (yes really-I’m happy doing what I’m doing) is relatively new to trucking. He has a year and a half in. His wife is expecting their first baby and he wants to switch from OTR to regional or local. He applied with a very small outfit out of Greensboro NC (yellow trucks) and seemed to like what they offered (60 cpm, avg 2400 mpw, home every weekend, they pay for parking on home time, $4k sign on bonus paid in increments, new truck equipped w/fridge, microwave and tv (dang!). So he decided to make a jump. Took the drug test locally and was set to go. Then he talked to the driver that was to pick him up. Found out that the safety dept and the owner of the company frequently turn on the driver facing camera to watch their drivers, (So not cool on so many levels, IMO), that rarely do you get more than 2k mpw on the dedicated run he was offered, and that they would rather you sit in traffic rather than take a little longer route. He delayed the pick up until he could digest that information. I guess he was telling our mutual friends about it and the wife asked me if I would talk to him. He asked me if he was able to back out of working for this company without it damaging his career. I have only really worked for Abilene, so I have no idea what to tell this guy. I told him I would ask around and let him know what I find out. I did search for them on the web and on here, but found very little. Nothing terribly bad, nothing that would raise a red flag to me and certainly nothing about the camera situation that their driver mentioned. I almost want to tell him it might just be better to just go work for them for a month or two and then bounce instead of backing out. But, I figured I’d turn to the folks on here. A lot of y’all have more knowledge than I have so I’m hopeful someone will have some advice for this guy.

 

There are some drivers it's best not to talk to.

 

If the occasional camera is the only red flag, I’d ask the company about it etc might not be an issue. If everything else looks good, especially with the growth in family, it might be good to have something solid that meets most of his requirements than jumping around now. One can always be keeping an eye out for the next bounce. Stability over Perfection.

 

I guess I’m looking at it from a female perspective. If I found out that the camera could be, or was being turned on, at any time just to watch me, that would be a huge red flag for me. Sexual harassment and all.

He mentioned when I questioned him further in the wee hours this morning that he may have found a local job better suited to him also. He said it had been posted after he had taken steps for this regional one. He applied and was immediately asked to come in for an interview with an offer contingent on passing a drug test and dot.

Other items were that a major customer for the regional one was a cabinet company where he would have to tailgate floor loaded cabinets (not told by recruiter), that the insurance options were only high deductible plans (info given by recruiter), and that the running lanes weren’t what the recruiter told him. We all know recruiting tells you what you want to hear, but those things combined, I dunno.

Im pretty sure he just wants to not work for the regional one, but doesn’t want a black mark on his record.

 

There’s no real black mark to be had. Just didn’t go to work for someone. As long as he already has the other job, I wouldn’t worry about it. Wouldn’t even put the regional company on another job application in the future since he didn’t work for them.

 

I had to back out of an offer last year. Everything was great till I talked to one of the drivers (they only had 3 total) and took a tour of the facility (it was private fleet). Found out that I would be working in the plant to cover for the local/plant driver. Some of that involved mixing of products out of rail cars. I want to drive, not be a production employee. Also they were somehow cheating elogs…let’s say turning them off to complete runs. And the pay wasn’t matching up to what I was told. The recruiter was pissed. Oh well buddy. He was third party and didn’t know how they operated. Had I known everything up front I wouldn’t have gone any further with the process.

Your friend will be fine if he backs out. Now is better than taking the job and being disappointed. IMO, don’t try to make things work if you know they are less than what you are told.

 

Wow, hvac crew actually showed up at 0800 when I was told to show up for the hill phoenix I delivered in MI this morning. Sent me to core tech. in Columbus for reload to Radford. I hate this place. No room to maneuver here. They told me to back in door three except there is a truck in door 3 that couldn't get out due to them telling a truck to back in door 2, no room for the truck in door 3 to get out without ripping the hood off of the truck in door 2. Truck in door three went out the wrong way to get out. He got out, great but I can't back into door 3 with the truck in door two. I call shipping to see if they can move the truck from doir 2 to door 3 so I can get into two. They scoff at it and try to tell me sleeper trucks do it sll the time. Frigging idiots.....Im waiting for someone to come out so I can show them I can't back into 3 around the truck in door 2 due to all the crap stacked by the fence....guess noone coming out so as my 14 counting down Im waiting for door 2 to get loaded and out the way so I can get into 3....yeah, Im supposed to back around that truck with everything in the way....drivers do it all the time.....hahaha....yeah right....

 

Just blindside it in there.

 

I have never been to that place and NOT gotten detention. Last time I was there I got 1.5 hours of detention, which is the shortest amount of detention I've ever gotten there. Usually it's upwards of 3 hours. Once it was 6 and then I had to spend the night in their parking lot.

And yeah, navigating around the place is a pain in the keister. Last time I was there they wanted me to back in around a truck to get in the dock, same as you. Except that the truck was about 10 feet away from the dock due to some mechanical issue I could not ascertain from my vantage point. So even less room to maneuver than usual. They kept waving their arms at me motioning me to come bump my dock, and I just kept shaking my head and pointing at the other dude's truck.

Eventually the dude got himself sorted and left, and I was able to back in without issue.

 

They had show up between 1400-1600 to load on the qualcomm and appt was actually for 1500. Had to park in the gravel lot and they called me at 1500 to back in which what ai explained before happened. Finally got backed in 1630 after door 2 finally left. Now my 14 is at 0....Shipping ppl have no clue but at least they apologized but they will prob do it again to some other poor driver.