Calex Express....My New Home!

Johnboy,
Put in an app with Calex yesterday, today out of the blue my old saleswoman from freightliner called with a job offer for a quy who was buying a truck but didint have a driver.....talked with him for 3 hours. He has a good bussiness and wants to transport his own product. he will let me pick out truck ( with his guidence) and pay sounds good 43-46 cpm. We will talk again tommorw.

Hopae all is still good with you, Take good care,

Larry

 

Hey Larry,

That's great, congrats. I hope things work out for you with this new opportunity, but if not, Calex is a great way to go too. They fixed my truck beautifully last week and I'm running back up from Florida to Lancaster PA for a Thursday delivery. I got to spend the better part of 3 days at home (except for an early Monday delivery in Orlando), and left out on Tuesday morning. It's really cool how you can get home weekly, still make good money and drive nice equipment (Volvo 770s). Everyone's been so nice too, and they treat you like family. I hope to be at Calex a long time. But since they are not a huge company (150 or so trucks), it's not a "driver mill" as Johnboy likes to say - so their hiring practices are more limited. But once you're in, you're in, and you can practically plan your weeks as to when you'd be working, and be at home. That's nice in this day and age. No more 3-5 weeks out at a time. Those days are past.

So if your new job works out, great. If not, keep Calex in mind. In these tough economic times, it's nice to know some companies are still doing things right.

Take care and if I can be of any help, don't hesitate to ask.

 

Greetings to all - and a big thanks to JohnBoy for starting this thread and getting the word out about Calex. I have been reading this forum and researching various companies for several months now, but this is my first post.

My husband has been OTR for almost two years now, and he has been fortunate that the last year and half has been with one of the bigger companies that actually has a little respect for their drivers (Con-way). They supply all the goodies, holiday pay, detention, xtra stops, reimbursements, etc. only complaint is miles have been pretty light - but then again, what major shipper isn't suffering right now? Overall, good company with a good reputation.

The biggest problem he has is that in order to make any kind of money with the light miles, he has to stay out 4-7 weeks at a time. And ladies and gentleman, let me just state, for the record, that I am MISERABLE without my man! (yes, we've been married over twenty years, but we keep forgetting that and act like we're in high school) So we are pretty desperate to find him a position with a quality company that will appreciate diligence, hard work and a mature attitude, provide a secure future, and get him home a little more often!

Let me add here that the long time spent away from home comes as no surprise to us. We knew going into this career that to get hired on with no experience he would have to start with low pay (happened) that after 6 mos he would be qualified to get on with a better company (happened) and that he would have to have about 2 years experience running all 48 to be considered for a "choice" position with good home time. So this has all been a plan and a path, and now that we are approaching the 2 year mark we are looking for that right opportunity with a company to call home,that hopefully will be his last, permanent career move.

So, read, read, research, google, phone calls, read, research some more, and come across Calex! When I read that they hire out of California I practically leapt for joy! (How obvious that a woman is posting this, as if the smiley faces don't give me away) I have already spoken to Mort, they don't have anything this moment but he said that could change in a few weeks. One thing I have learned being a truckers wife is patience! IF Calex can really live up to it's reputation on this forum, we would wait weeks, or longer, as this seems like a dream job to us.

Sooo, here's where you guys come in - I do have several questions I didn't want to bother Mort with (he was very kind and answered alot of my questions - I just have about a million!) and hopefully one of you Calex guys can help:

1. I'm a little confused about how a California run would work - I understand that the coasts are the ends of your shipping lanes - does that mean he would p/u in CA and run it straight through to the East, and then back, or would he be bunny - hopping cross country, p/u and drop off state to state, the way he's doing now? If that's the case don't you run into the same old issues of waiting at shippers, loads canceling etc and if so how would he really be out and back in about 14 days consistently? Is that realistic?

2. Relating to item #1 - he would have to take a 3 cent cut in pay if he was offered a position with Calex - now all you pros know, and we have had to learn, that good cpm means nothing if your not getting the miles. Mort mentioned that the Ca runs average 3000 miles a week. If he could do that consistently, oh! happy day! Even with the lower cpm, he would still be making more than what he is now running 2000 or less. Not to mention the money he'd save in food and laundry (I understand the Volvos have refrig/freezers - is that on all of them?) Is that really doable on a consistent basis for a solo? Not to sound like a skeptic, but, well, you know, this is after all the trucking business we're talking about. Of course, there's never any guarantees, but anyone have or know of first hand experience with miles on the CA runs?

3. The Volvos are beautiful trucks and I'm sure a pleasure to drive, but he has heard they have more than their share of mechanical issues, esp. electrical. Does Calex pay breakdown pay? Have any of you had any mechanical issues you would consider out of the ordinary, and how are they about getting you fixed and back on the road?

4. Finally, (not last, but this post is getting rather lengthy!) we can certainly appreciate all the positives about hiring on with a small company that knows you by name, however; with all the recent turmoil in this economy and the effect it's had on this industry, the financial stability of any potential employer must be a consideration. Do they generally seem pretty solid and stable - do you expect them to be in this for the duration?

As previously mentioned, he has been overall very happy with the treatment from current employer, and he does not want to leave a company of Con-way's caliber without being as certain as he can of moving to a company as good or better. Any info you can provide us with would be so much appreciated, as is all the time and effort already put into this thread. Thank - you truckers!

Stay safe and God Bless!

 

lovemytrucker

Not trying to threadjack here, but Conway used to advertise that after a year or so with them that you could transfer over to Conway Freight retaining all accrued time for benefits and such. If your husband could do that he would be home almost daily and making alot more money. I don't know if they still offer that, but it might be something to check into.

Best of Luck,
Johnnyr33

 

Hey Johnnyr33 - thanks for the response - he tried to get on with the local CFreight terminal, but no openings. CTruckload is rolling out regional runs, but for now they are all pretty much in the midwest. No plans for CA just yet. It doesn't seem like they have all that much freight in this area, so who knows? Actually, he really enjoys running OTR, if he could get home every 2 weeks or so it would be perfect. Thanks for the tip though - this is such a great forum for info, and I really get that sense of community that is the trucker's world. Thanks!

 

Hi again-

Hope you guys don't mind me hogging up this thread, but I just gotta vent! I think I was too kind to Con-way in previous post. So last week, after being out for a month and waiting 2 days for truck to get out of the shop, my husband finally put in for home time on 1/30. At the time he was in Joplin, MO. Now Conway's "policy" is to highlite you once you put in and get you home in 8 days or less. He figured, from Joplin to CA 4-5 days, no problem, and 8 days for sure. Well, without going into all the gory details about loads canceling, running without stopping to eat only to be left sitting for 2 days, etc (I'm sure most of you are only oh, too familiar!), here it Sat, he is still 1000 miles from home, and they don't have him on a load that gets him to CA till WED! That's 11 days to go from MO to CA, 12 if you count the day he put in, for a grand total of 2900 miles in almost 2 weeks, with a co. that's got 2500 trucks criss-crossing the country. COME ON! Hello, anyone out there at Conway ever heard of load planning?

Now, he's not one to whine and complain, and I try not to for his sake, but this is ridiculous! And to top it all off, I think somethings wrong with my hot water heater, and no husband in sight! Guess I'll be calling Joe the plumber, on Superbowl weekend. Thanks Conway!

Well, thanks for letting me rant - and forget about all that stuff in my previous post. The bottom line is, IF Calex would consider him for a position, and they can get him miles and get him home, he would jump at the chance to represent them. They sound like a fantastic company from what's been written about them here - their motto "Say what you can do and do what you say" speaks volumes. Isn't that the way everyone wants to be treated - with honesty and respect?

Thanks truckers - stay safe out there!