ESTES Express (5 Year Review)

LtlAnonymous · Apr 19, 2023

KaoMinerva said: ↑

Check the first post. Too much to type lol
Click to expand...

Because what could change in five years? Lol

wulfman75 · Apr 20, 2023

LtlAnonymous said: ↑

Because what could change in five years? Lol
Click to expand...

well he did update it about a month ago lol

LtlAnonymous · Apr 20, 2023

wulfman75 said: ↑

well he did update it about a month ago lol
Click to expand...

Oh. Well ####. Lol

KaoMinerva · Apr 20, 2023

LtlAnonymous said: ↑

Oh. Well ####. Lol
Click to expand...

See you don't read lol

LtlAnonymous · Apr 20, 2023

KaoMinerva said: ↑

See you don't read lol
Click to expand...

Not unless I have to. Only recently learned how.

KaoMinerva · Apr 20, 2023

LtlAnonymous said: ↑

Not unless I have to. Only recently learned how.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you have no problem reading those fat ups checks

LtlAnonymous · Apr 20, 2023

KaoMinerva said: ↑

I'm sure you have no problem reading those fat ups checks
Click to expand...

My banker tells me I'm doing very well when I ask if I can afford chewing gum.

like clay… +++ · Apr 20, 2023

KaoMinerva said: ↑

Revised 1/24/2023

Welcome to the revision of the original 1 year review thread. Many things have changed in 5 years from pay, tp equipment, and so on. I hope you stay long and read every bit. I'm always here to answer any questions from the readers. Lets begin with the pros and cons of the company. Some of you may remember a few of these, but lets go.

So here are the pros...

1. PAY
2. HOMETIME OPTIONS
3. WorkPlace Environment
4. Good Benefits
5. 401K/ROTH 401K

CONS

1. SLIP SEAT!!!!!!!
2. Equipment
3. Terminals

PROS

Lets start with everyone's favorite topic... PAY! Pay at Estes has gone up SIGNIFICANTLY! When I started back then on the extra board... Pay was .5625. It's definitely way more than that now. Here's a slight breakdown of what you can expect pay wise TOPPED OUT at Estes. I have no experience as a local driver but topped out hourly pay is $31 I believe. Also note, I think Estes has overtime AFTER 52 HOURS! Again, here's the maxed out pay for the linehaul side. (TOP OUT AFTER 3 YEARS)

Schedule Linehaul... .77/mile
Extraboard... .81/mile
Team... .85/mile (I THINK)
Team Extraboard... .90/mile (I THINK)

I don't run the road anymore, but for anyone that's interested in REGIONAL options with Estes, it's like a mega a little. You go out all week, TERMINAL TO TERMINAL, moving freight. You do not load any trailers and you do not unload any trailers. At bigger terminals, you just drop them and hook another set/grab a van. At smaller terminals, you may have to break the set down and put them in doors. It varies from terminal to terminal. You are paid $8.50 to hook a set and $8.50 to break a set. Trust me, it adds up. As for scheduled run guys like myself, most of them are HOME DAILY setups. You have a set time to be gone from the terminal and a projected time to be back. At bigger terminals, it's very lax. A rule of thumb is always get to the meet point as fast and safely as possible so your meet guy won't be waiting on you. The last thing you want is a bad relationship with your meet guy. You also have runs called laydown runs. It's a scheduled run where you go out and stay, but come back the next day. These runs sometimes work on a 6 day work week and a follow up 4 day work week. They also sometimes have a regular meet day, usually on a Monday or Friday, and then you lay down the rest. If you ask me on the thread I'll explain, but it's really simple.

Workplace Enviornment can very from terminal to terminal. Each terminal has it's own life so one experience may not be the same due to region and terminal. Bigger terminals have more trucks, more opportunity, and usually better equipment. Smaller terminals are more close nit and controlled compared to larger ones. Both have pros and cons within themselves. One black eye for smaller terminals is, it's harder to move up because seniority. At a bigger terminal, you may never have to do regional linehaul because there are so many opportunities.

The benefits are good in my opinion. We use Cigna for health, Delta Dental VA for dental insurance, Davis Vision for vision insurance, we have long term disability, short term disability, accidental death insurance, life insurance AND they give us a free $30 a month for phone bill reimbursement. In total, I pay $29/week for these benefits. I am not married and have no kids.

Estes does retirement with Fidelity. Estes matches up to 7% in 401k. I don't know for sure, but I believe they also match 7% for the new ROTH 401K option. The 401k option is obviously PRETAX and the ROTH 401K option is POST TAX!

CONS

SLIP SEAT SUCKS! I hate it. Day time drivers will steal your truck and sometimes mess up your week by you needing another truck. It really pisses me off. Some dudes stink and are slobs. I don't know why we have assigned trucks if they can just take ours. Very frustrating.

The equipment HAS GOTTEN BETTER! The company has been trying to do better on trucks and trailers over the years. There has been an influx of new cascadias and International automatics come through. They are buying newer trailers. Still, overall, the equipment is bad. There are still very old manual trucks in the fleet and trailers that could be sold off. Estes buys their equipment rather than leasing it so they tend to try to fix things vs rotating things out on a lease like ODFL.

Estes has 210 terminals nationwide. Terminal life varies from location to location. The terminal you are out of technically decides how your experience will go. I'm out of a big terminal. Many runs, many bids, many trucks, and huge shop. A terminal like tucson is much much MUCH smaller and you'll start with no seniority. That means you may get a crap run and most certainly crap truck. It all depend. From what I've seen, smaller terminals have the unwanted equipment also. Very dated compared to what I'm used to from Marten and even my auto Volvo. (This is still true to this day LOL. 5 years later!!!)

Conclusion

Estes overall IS A GOOD LTL OUTFIT. I honestly plan to retire here unless I start my own business and can't. Estes has honestly been the best business decision I've made in all my life. You will make alot of money here if you can adjust to the system. Estes has negatives like any other company but the positives are too good not to be here. Thank you for reading. Hopefully I'm here to give you a 10 year review. I'll answer any questions!

Is that 401K 100% match up to 7%? When can you contribute to this 401K.

======================================

Original post from 2018:

Ok guys, welcome again to another 1 year+ review. This time on Estes Express. I'll try to make this short and sweet like my Marten Transport review.

So here are the pros...

1. PAY
2. HOMETIME OPTIONS
3. WorkPlace Environment
4. Good Benefits

CONS

1. SLIP SEAT!!!!!!!
2. Equipment
3. Terminals

PROS

Ok lets discuss pay first. Pay is TOP NOTCH. Estes in definitely one of the better LTL outfits compared to others. Linehaul starts at .5725 as of now. (.565 when I started) Local I believe starts at $23 something. (OT after 55 HOURS WTF) You will get paid here and they will feed you miles. You sleep in hotels every night. Xtra board makes a penny more than scheduled drivers. Up to this point, I've made 68K!

The hometime options are typical for extra board which is out all week home for 34+ hours. I'm usually off upwards of 50+. Scheduled runs go out at night, meet, and come back so you're basically home daily. There are LAY DOWN runs that go out, sleep in hotel, and come home next day!

Workplace Environment is very good at my terminal, BUT it varies from terminal to terminal. My terminal manager is really cool and gets me time off or arranges things to where I can do what I need to at home if need be. No complaints. I am out of a big terminal tho.

The benefits are good. I pay $26/wk for vision, dental, medical, long term and short disability.

CONS

SLIP SEAT SUCKS! I hate it. Day time drivers will steal your truck and sometimes mess up your week by you needing another truck. It really pisses me off. Some dudes stink and are slobs. I don't know why we have assigned trucks if they can just take ours. Very frustrating.

The equipment, as far as trucks go, is very poor. Mostly international trucks that are straight garbage. I have no clue why they went with internationals, but man they are so bad and can't pull for nothing! Road guys like me have automatic volvos with d15 if I'm not mistaken. They are so cheap on trucks that you have to manually roll down the windows. No auto window rollers or mirror adjusters. Team trucks are usually t680 or freight cascadias and they aren't bad honestly.

Estes has 210 terminals nationwide. Terminal life varies from location to location. The terminal you are out of technically decides how your experience will go. I'm out of a big terminal. Many runs, many bids, many trucks, and huge shop. A terminal like tucson is much much MUCH smaller and you'll start with no seniority. That means you may get a crap run and most certainly crap truck. It all depend. From what I've seen, smaller terminals have the unwanted equipment also. Very dated compared to what I'm used to from Marten and even my auto Volvo.

Conclusion

Estes overall IS A GOOD LTL OUTFIT. I've enjoyed my time here and have made a ton of cash! I would recommend them to any person trying to get on. It will be an adjustment compared to typical regional/OTR outfits but it's definitely better long term. You have bad days, just like any company, but long term, it's worth it. I'm here to answer any questions. Thanks for reading everyone.
Click to expand...

like clay… +++ · Apr 20, 2023

KaoMinerva said: ↑

Revised 1/24/2023

Welcome to the revision of the original 1 year review thread. Many things have changed in 5 years from pay, tp equipment, and so on. I hope you stay long and read every bit. I'm always here to answer any questions from the readers. Lets begin with the pros and cons of the company. Some of you may remember a few of these, but lets go.

So here are the pros...

1. PAY
2. HOMETIME OPTIONS
3. WorkPlace Environment
4. Good Benefits
5. 401K/ROTH 401K

CONS

1. SLIP SEAT!!!!!!!
2. Equipment
3. Terminals

PROS

Lets start with everyone's favorite topic... PAY! Pay at Estes has gone up SIGNIFICANTLY! When I started back then on the extra board... Pay was .5625. It's definitely way more than that now. Here's a slight breakdown of what you can expect pay wise TOPPED OUT at Estes. I have no experience as a local driver but topped out hourly pay is $31 I believe. Also note, I think Estes has overtime AFTER 52 HOURS! Again, here's the maxed out pay for the linehaul side. (TOP OUT AFTER 3 YEARS)

Schedule Linehaul... .77/mile
Extraboard... .81/mile
Team... .85/mile (I THINK)
Team Extraboard... .90/mile (I THINK)

I don't run the road anymore, but for anyone that's interested in REGIONAL options with Estes, it's like a mega a little. You go out all week, TERMINAL TO TERMINAL, moving freight. You do not load any trailers and you do not unload any trailers. At bigger terminals, you just drop them and hook another set/grab a van. At smaller terminals, you may have to break the set down and put them in doors. It varies from terminal to terminal. You are paid $8.50 to hook a set and $8.50 to break a set. Trust me, it adds up. As for scheduled run guys like myself, most of them are HOME DAILY setups. You have a set time to be gone from the terminal and a projected time to be back. At bigger terminals, it's very lax. A rule of thumb is always get to the meet point as fast and safely as possible so your meet guy won't be waiting on you. The last thing you want is a bad relationship with your meet guy. You also have runs called laydown runs. It's a scheduled run where you go out and stay, but come back the next day. These runs sometimes work on a 6 day work week and a follow up 4 day work week. They also sometimes have a regular meet day, usually on a Monday or Friday, and then you lay down the rest. If you ask me on the thread I'll explain, but it's really simple.

Workplace Enviornment can very from terminal to terminal. Each terminal has it's own life so one experience may not be the same due to region and terminal. Bigger terminals have more trucks, more opportunity, and usually better equipment. Smaller terminals are more close nit and controlled compared to larger ones. Both have pros and cons within themselves. One black eye for smaller terminals is, it's harder to move up because seniority. At a bigger terminal, you may never have to do regional linehaul because there are so many opportunities.

The benefits are good in my opinion. We use Cigna for health, Delta Dental VA for dental insurance, Davis Vision for vision insurance, we have long term disability, short term disability, accidental death insurance, life insurance AND they give us a free $30 a month for phone bill reimbursement. In total, I pay $29/week for these benefits. I am not married and have no kids.

Estes does retirement with Fidelity. Estes matches up to 7% in 401k. I don't know for sure, but I believe they also match 7% for the new ROTH 401K option. The 401k option is obviously PRETAX and the ROTH 401K option is POST TAX!

CONS

SLIP SEAT SUCKS! I hate it. Day time drivers will steal your truck and sometimes mess up your week by you needing another truck. It really pisses me off. Some dudes stink and are slobs. I don't know why we have assigned trucks if they can just take ours. Very frustrating.

The equipment HAS GOTTEN BETTER! The company has been trying to do better on trucks and trailers over the years. There has been an influx of new cascadias and International automatics come through. They are buying newer trailers. Still, overall, the equipment is bad. There are still very old manual trucks in the fleet and trailers that could be sold off. Estes buys their equipment rather than leasing it so they tend to try to fix things vs rotating things out on a lease like ODFL.

Estes has 210 terminals nationwide. Terminal life varies from location to location. The terminal you are out of technically decides how your experience will go. I'm out of a big terminal. Many runs, many bids, many trucks, and huge shop. A terminal like tucson is much much MUCH smaller and you'll start with no seniority. That means you may get a crap run and most certainly crap truck. It all depend. From what I've seen, smaller terminals have the unwanted equipment also. Very dated compared to what I'm used to from Marten and even my auto Volvo. (This is still true to this day LOL. 5 years later!!!)

Conclusion

Estes overall IS A GOOD LTL OUTFIT. I honestly plan to retire here unless I start my own business and can't. Estes has honestly been the best business decision I've made in all my life. You will make alot of money here if you can adjust to the system. Estes has negatives like any other company but the positives are too good not to be here. Thank you for reading. Hopefully I'm here to give you a 10 year review. I'll answer any questions!

======================================

Original post from 2018:

Ok guys, welcome again to another 1 year+ review. This time on Estes Express. I'll try to make this short and sweet like my Marten Transport review.

So here are the pros...

1. PAY
2. HOMETIME OPTIONS
3. WorkPlace Environment
4. Good Benefits

CONS

1. SLIP SEAT!!!!!!!
2. Equipment
3. Terminals

PROS

Ok lets discuss pay first. Pay is TOP NOTCH. Estes in definitely one of the better LTL outfits compared to others. Linehaul starts at .5725 as of now. (.565 when I started) Local I believe starts at $23 something. (OT after 55 HOURS WTF) You will get paid here and they will feed you miles. You sleep in hotels every night. Xtra board makes a penny more than scheduled drivers. Up to this point, I've made 68K!

The hometime options are typical for extra board which is out all week home for 34+ hours. I'm usually off upwards of 50+. Scheduled runs go out at night, meet, and come back so you're basically home daily. There are LAY DOWN runs that go out, sleep in hotel, and come home next day!

Workplace Environment is very good at my terminal, BUT it varies from terminal to terminal. My terminal manager is really cool and gets me time off or arranges things to where I can do what I need to at home if need be. No complaints. I am out of a big terminal tho.

The benefits are good. I pay $26/wk for vision, dental, medical, long term and short disability.

CONS

SLIP SEAT SUCKS! I hate it. Day time drivers will steal your truck and sometimes mess up your week by you needing another truck. It really pisses me off. Some dudes stink and are slobs. I don't know why we have assigned trucks if they can just take ours. Very frustrating.

The equipment, as far as trucks go, is very poor. Mostly international trucks that are straight garbage. I have no clue why they went with internationals, but man they are so bad and can't pull for nothing! Road guys like me have automatic volvos with d15 if I'm not mistaken. They are so cheap on trucks that you have to manually roll down the windows. No auto window rollers or mirror adjusters. Team trucks are usually t680 or freight cascadias and they aren't bad honestly.

Estes has 210 terminals nationwide. Terminal life varies from location to location. The terminal you are out of technically decides how your experience will go. I'm out of a big terminal. Many runs, many bids, many trucks, and huge shop. A terminal like tucson is much much MUCH smaller and you'll start with no seniority. That means you may get a crap run and most certainly crap truck. It all depend. From what I've seen, smaller terminals have the unwanted equipment also. Very dated compared to what I'm used to from Marten and even my auto Volvo.

Conclusion

Estes overall IS A GOOD LTL OUTFIT. I've enjoyed my time here and have made a ton of cash! I would recommend them to any person trying to get on. It will be an adjustment compared to typical regional/OTR outfits but it's definitely better long term. You have bad days, just like any company, but long term, it's worth it. I'm here to answer any questions. Thanks for reading everyone.
Click to expand...

401K 100% match up to 7%?
When can you contribute to this 401K?

like clay… +++ · Apr 20, 2023

KaoMinerva said: ↑

Also everyone... I can confirm for fact extra board pay is .8050 AND the pay for dropping and hooking is actually $9.25 now. It's more for Estes West? @jtaran06
Click to expand...

This rate you posted is top out?

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