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

Well that sucks. Sorry about your bad luck brother. If it’s any consolation, knowing first hand how safety thinks, they will tell you that you didn’t plan properly.

 

Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you all are where you want to be. Let’s get on to this years end of year review.

I’m going to start out with two very important parts of this first. The first, and most important part is this has to do with me and only me. I cannot speak for anyone else, and quite honestly, what they go through, or have heard has nothing to do with this review. Second, I’m very fortunate to be 17 months from retirement, still have it in me to work, and have had my retirement in place for a number of years. So let’s get to it.

This year has been quite the stressful year. It has to do solely with operations and how the brain trust runs things. Now mind you, I know the name on the side of the truck says Abilene, not Johnboy, but I’ve earned the right to critique any and all of this company, based solely on my 10 years employed here.

What operations goes through, based on the quality that is hired, is worse than the revolving door of the driver pool. My biggest wish? They would hire people from the trucking pool. It’s apparent that what is hired doesn’t work. That won’t happen with a training company.

I have a good deal driving here. Out of hometime, I get back to Richmond at the end of the week, and have an LTL load waiting for me. I run the PNW all year long, the loads are 4-6 multi stops, big mile runs. I’m also accused of being a “pet” or a “favorite”. Actually, I thought it’s because I run out there all year long, and go into Canada with a passport. But that’s ok.

The part of operations that irritates the hell out of me? After having a load assigned to me for 5-7 days, I get empty after notifying dispatch that I won’t need a reset, then being told “they’re working on it” That right there fry’s my ###.

My hometime is a nonissue. I get home as planned, for a week at a time. I had 12 weeks off this year, I also had 3 weeks vacation on top of that. We didn’t go away this year because of a few medical issues, and then dealing with Mom’s cancer diagnosis. I have one week of vacation left that needs to be taken/cashed in before April 13th. We will be going on a cruise that week then going to the Greek Islands in August for 3 weeks.

My earnings are where it needs to be for me. Like I’ve said before, I have no idea what a new driver starts at, nor do I care. For what I earned this past year, which included all my bonuses, vacation and 401K contribution, I made $82K. Based on the miles I ran, 122,000, that comes to .67cpm. For 9 months work, I’m good.

I’m quite sure I can go somewhere else and earn more. But Why? I don’t need the stress of starting a new job with 17 months left. I run where I want to, go home for a week a month, get a new truck every 18 months, never have issues with my pay and usually get a phone call of where I want to go next.

Now let me explain to anyone that might ask, what my net pay is. It doesn't matter. Right off the top, I have 20% taken out for my 401K contribution. Then I have my medical premiums, which I might add is the top tier program we are offered, which, between both my wife and myself this year, we accumulated north of $100K in bills that only cost us our deductible of $3000.

Back in October, I started looking into a new company. I zeroed in on Indian River Transport (IRT) out of Lake Wales Florida. For living in South Florida, this seemed like the perfect place to finish out my career. Filled out all the paperwork. All the background checks were done, went and got my TWIC card and was all set to go. Then I sat down and based on my wife questioning me about if this would be a good move, we put everything on paper. It turned out to be a financial disaster. First off, I would loose out on 3 weeks of vacation at $1510 per week. They only paid $1000 per week after a year. Second, their medical, based on the same plan I have now, would cost me $122 per week more. Third, you can only have either Christmas or Thanksgiving off, not both, fourth, I would loose out on my 401K match which comes to $3000 per year. And finally, I’m not into learning a new system and having to prove myself for another company. Right before Thanksgiving, as I was preparing to leave Richmond for the PNW, I let HR know that I would be leaving after Christmas. Without going into detail, I was called in and talked about what it would take for me not to leave. It was all worked out, I was given a raise, and we talked about the issues that had me leaving, that I will say had nothing to do with money. In the end I decided to stay.

Abilene, is a starter company now. Any doubt, all one needs to do is look at the equipment, hear about all the service failures and hear about all the babysitting that goes on. None of that has anything to do with me. I’m a minority here, but I do my job, never turn down a load, and run everywhere I’m asked. What was the final reason for me to stay? The 17 months I have left. That’s it. People stop in and voice their opinion about this company, they aren’t telling me or anyone else anything new, but again, I’m not in that boat. Believe it or not, there’s a group of us here that have been here for 10 or more years, hell, my good friend has been here 23 years. We both have the same work ethic and have zero problems going to the number 1,2 or 3 in charge with issues or concerns, and they are addressed. I use to think I was spoiled here. But then I realized I’ve given this company 1.3 million safe miles in all parts of the North American continent and in all types of weather, have no problem chaining the truck and trailer and will, whenever asked, step up to help out.

In ending, I will say this. If you are looking to start out in trucking, this is the place. Doesn’t matter who owns us, this is a great place to start your career. For me? I got here long before it turned into a starter company. Like I wrote above, it will be just fine for 17 more months.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!