England Furniture, Tennessee

There are two sides to the company. Lazboy and England. The Lazboy furniture is all boxed. The England furniture is wrapped in heavy commercial grade bubble wrap. There are straps throughout the trailer to keep the load from shifting to much. Shifting isn’t really a problem, the furniture is packed in good.

Every week they release a new pick sheet. Usually on Wednesdays, and they start the picking on Thursday and it goes into Friday. Picks are based on seniority. Whatever you pick is what you will run the following week. The picks are divided into two categories: first round and second round, which just means beginning of the week and end of the week. For the most part you will need to pick two loads each week.

No mandatory dispatch. Trucks are assigned, not shared.

We run all over the US and some Canada also. I posted a pick sheet earlier in this thread so you can see what it looks like.

Take care out there. Good luck!

 

I feel our Backhauls break down similar to:

25% return empty
25% supplies to make furniture
50% general freight

you never know when you might go back empty. right now I’m heading back to the yard empty from Kansas City. it’s very random.

supplies to make furniture come from various places but mainly: lumber in Moncure NC and southern Alabama; Foam from Conover NC and middle KY; Springs from High Point NC

general freight could be anything but 99% delivers to local around the East Tn area (close to the England factory). Us OTR guys hardly ever deliver, we bring it to the yard and a local driver takes it from there. Sometimes they ask you to deliver it if it’s on your way in and not gonna delay you, this whole year I’ve delivered maybe 2 backhauls. If you drive out to Cali your Backhaul is more likely to be deliverable. They have one account that pulls hay from the NorthWest to a place in KY on our way back to the yard. If your up around Milwaukee we bring back empty cans for Bush Beans; Michigan it’s dog food for the co-op; Pennsylvania bricks for General Shale in Knoxville; Boston we bring back sterile gloves for De Royal right down from our factory; northern Indiana we pickup for Homesteader Trailers also right down from our factory. It’s all designed to get you back to the yard so you have time to do your next run. They don’t jerk you around, but most important you don’t wait around and waste your time. There is never going to be a situation where you have 9 hours left to drive on a Thursday morning and they ask you to sleep over and pick something up on Friday or Sat. That never happens. When your done with your last furniture stop you get your Backhaul pretty much immediately, put it in drive and go!

it’s $25 for every dock you bump and $12 for every hookup plus hub miles for everything you run.

hope that helps explain a bit.

 

aw man sorry for the late reply. I can’t really answer that question because I’m unsure. I don’t think there is a requirement but they will certainly ask and want to be sure you can make the deliveries and still be ok with your home time. if you live in New England or out west there is no guarantee that you will get by the house because loads are picked by seniority, so there may not be anything going by your house when it comes your turn to pick. I’ve heard we have a guy that lives in cali and he has an assigned cali run so it works for him. They may be able to get you an assigned load that you run all the time but it’s just a case by case basis. We do have yards all over so you should call and check it out. We have places in new Tazewell and Dayton tn, North Carolina, Neosho MO, and more.

 

congrats dextr0se and welcome aboard

My road test was 20 years ago. Idk what it’s like now. But my feeling is that it won’t be very difficult so don’t worry about it. Just have fun.

Let me give you some advice to make your life easy at England…
1. Notes on your stops. All the stores we go to are different. From enormous chains in big cities to mom and pop antique stores that look abandoned to actual residences in the countryside. Use an app on your phone to keep a long list with important details… name, dock or no dock, parking or no parking, specifics on unloading.. in street? Warehouse a block away? Food around?
Example:
Aurora CO - FurnMart, dock, parking, distribution warehouse go around back to door at dock 34
Urbandale IA - Homemakers, dock, parking, large warehouse, entrance on 106th street right after pepsi
You will get a manifest with every trip. If the guard doesn’t print you one, ask for one! It has all the important info for your trip… order number, load number, weight, and every stop you’re going too. Most of the time it has a phone number and some minor directions or instructions for your stops. BE CAREFUL because the info can be out of date! So…

2. Call your stops ahead of time. Usually about an hour out. This can be a life saver because even tho they get phone calls from their sales reps, these dealers forget all the time. It can be the difference of waiting 15 minutes for help to arrive or getting unloaded straight away. Also something may have changed or be different from manifest… like they got a new warehouse at a new address!

3. Be nice to everyone at work. If you cuss someone out in the office or shop, they will fire you. Just remember the people that work at England are not your enemy. It is a Christian family atmosphere there and they will help if they can.
If you need something from the shop, just go in to the shop office with a good attitude and let them know what you need installed. If your truck ain’t running right, let them know asap, they are good about fixing things.
There is no use arguing w the Backhaul guys or Dispatch girls or anyone really. Dispatch has been doing their thing for years, they know how to run it. Your schedule and free time is going to revolve around the runs you pick. Yeah, at the bottom of seniority list you won’t get exactly what you want every week. You’re gonna run a lot of the stuff nobody wants… east coast… SC, NC, PA, NJ, DE, up into the NE… Southington CT, Norton Mass. So what, we all did it. It’s not actually hard stops, it’s just crazy traffic in some areas. Mostly the problem is just that I95 corridor between Richmond VA up to Boston. Remember you don’t have to drive a specific route. It’s up to you what route you take to your first stop. For instance If you go to Baltimore, skip 66 and DC and just take 81 to 70. If you go into the NE take 81 to 84, forget what gps says is the shortest route. The difference is less than an hour and you avoid so much headache and traffic, you make a few extra bucks and office won’t say jack about small variations. I’m just saying you don’t always have to take the shortest fastest route. That also means leaving with plenty of time to get there though. I’m coming back from NE now actually. Shortest route was 91 to 95 to DC and 66 across to 81. Screw that headache! I took 84 to Scranton and drove 81 down and had a peaceful ride.
Don’t argue about Backhauls. 99% are easy and quick. Practically everything you pickup on the east coast goes straight back to yard. Just go get it and go home.

4. Run what you pick. They are understanding of emergencies and you can turn something in if you absolutely can’t run it for some reason. But they don’t like it. Instead, remember it’s not forced dispatch. If you have an appointment the next week then only pick one run and sacrifice a little pay. Or pick a local run, you’ll at least get a few bucks. Personally I don’t bother with anything under 400 miles. I’d rather just have the time off and make my Appointment with ease.
When your calculating your route and time, just always assume and factor in some extra hours on the way back for Backhaul. Don’t get your hopes up that you’re just gonna zoom straight back to the yard. And don’t get depressed when you’re in Massachusetts and you see a North Carolina BH… the difference is usually just 3-4 hours, you weren’t going to make it all the way back in one go anyway.

5. Never tell on yourself. If some damage happens to your truck, it was road debris or a tree branch. If you do some sort of obvious damage to your truck or trailer like destroy a fairing or put a baseball size hole in the trailer, call the shop and only the shop. Nobody else needs to know. A lot of times the shop will repair stuff and that’s the end of it. If it needs to be escalated, the shop will call your driver manager, and your driver manager will call you. The worst that will happen is you lose your quarterly bonus. You don’t have to have any kind of convoluted explanations for minor damage… the places we get into, stuff is always rubbing against our trucks. Road debris and tree branch damage is just accepted as common. Scratches are nothing. Never tell on yourself!

Obviously if you do major damage you have to stop and report it. If it’s to company property (i.e. rip the door off your trailer) just call Rick Poore and the shop. If it’s major to customer property (i.e. you hit one of their vehicles, or tore down their $30,000 fancy road sign) call Rick and of course you will have to exchange info with customer. If it’s to an individual or vehicle you need to follow company policy. Don’t ever try to run from major damage, that will get you canned. We’ve had guys do all this stuff, keep their heads and do the above, and you will probably still have a job.

Get a holder for your phone and don’t be holding it in your hand ever. Always wear the seatbelt. Those two tickets will get you fired!
Remember it’s E-Logs! You can’t get around it. Period. 11 hour drive, 30 min break every 8 hours, 10 hour rest period. The PC option can give you a tiny bit of wiggle room but they monitor it 24/7. You have to accept this: Leave with plenty of time to get to your first stop AND be able to get a 10 hour break and ready to go the next day by 9am. (9 is when most stops open, some may be earlier) If google says 9 hours to first stop, plan on 10! (30 min break and traffic)
McNally GPS is awesome and good investment and will get you to most stops with minimal headache.

Most of west and central PA is fairly simple. East PA around Philly isn’t bad but can be complicated. Reading PA (Boscov Warehouse) is an awesome 1 stop no assist run! Sleep at the Walmart right up the road.
Norton Mass is a good 1 stop run. 1800 miles there and back. Can end up being +/- 2000 w a NC Backhaul of wood or fiber.
Delaware is real easy, the problem is getting there. Ha! But all the stops in that state are simple and not much traffic in DE. Also you can come back over the long ### Chesapeake Bay Bridge, it takes EZ Pass.
New Jersey. I fkn hate NJ! Thank god I don’t go there anymore. The coast ain’t bad. But everything inland is a toss up. Get out and look twice my friend.
Fredericksburg VA and Charleston SC are two PITAs but the rest of those states aren’t bad, just a lot of small towns. But they usually have decent miles / stops and will get you home fast.
WV is mountainous and small towns. Usually okay though. Bridgeport WV gets a couple truckloads every week and is easy as pie.

Play around w the pick sheet and a calculator. Remember you don’t need 3000 miles every week to bring home the bacon. example: Pick 35 on this weeks pick sheet, PA NJ DE, >4 days run time, 1500 miles and 11 stops with 1 bh and 1 hookup will bring home $1000 and a few days off. 5 Nortons this week, >3 days run time, any one Norton with a Backhaul will get you at least $800 take home, with several days off. Combine with smaller runs to boost your paycheck. Mix and match. See what works for you.

Remember that EZ Pass works practically everywhere we go! If it has the word Pass in it, just count on it working. (Mackinac bridge in northern Michigan is the only place I’ve been recently that doesn’t accept it )
Well this is long enough. lol. Hope it helps some and gives a little perspective. Don’t worry to much man. Give yourself time.

 

Hello from England! In New Tazewell Tennessee.
Been awhile since my last update so I’ll put one here and try to make it short and sweet.

Work just got a batch of new trucks in. They are being assigned to new drivers now, and also veteran drivers whose trucks are approaching 500k. Shiny new Internationals and Volvos. I’m only halfway to 500k on this truck so I’ve got awhile to go before my new truck arrives. That’s okay, my Volvo auto still runs great. We still got some perks here: Shop onsite. Wash bay on site. Vacuum. Driver lounge. Free Showers. Assigned trucks. Assigned parking spots. They still wash, fuel and park your truck for you every time you come in. Same BCBS health insurance. Quarterly bonus based on mileage run. (Mine was $380+ a couple weeks ago)

I guess the big news is we got another raise. New rate is 0.60 cpm. Started last week of July. For me that’s an extra $200 a month and every little bit helps!

The road facing cameras are now in pretty much every truck and here to stay. Not really a big deal and tbh I do feel it makes me a better driver. The placebo effect of that camera is far better than any sensor beep on the truck IMO. And really it’s not a big deal at all, I’ve had my sensors go off a hundred times (a day ) and they never bother me about it. So, it is what it is.

England is now doing mandatory SMITH training classes every year for every driver. I mean every little bit of information helps right? Even if you heard it before. Oh well, it’s nice to get a paid day inside with donuts and coffee too.

Dispatch has had another change in personnel. From what I gather, that position in particular is stressful af! I wouldn’t want to do it! Those girls do a hard job and do it very well.
We got a new recruiter and trainer, his name is Paul, nice guy.
Backhaul is kinda wonky right now. I feel like they are under some pressure to do better / earn more. I know personally I’ve seen some weird stuff come across my computer. For instance… being six hours away from a Backhaul that picks up or closes in exactly six hours. Like wtf? lol. What you guys drinking over there? idk. It hasn’t been a big deal yet. But I’m just noticing that same particular thing happening several times in the past couple months. One of them I actually wasn’t able to get to in time, they just brought me home empty. I’m assuming it’s just a new guy problem or something. TBD

knock on wood. The furniture biz is still rocking and rolling. We are hiring. No problems with pay at all. Next week I’ve picked a 5000 mile run out west. I’ll be gone probably 10 days, get back and do some 1000 mile run to give me a 6000 mile two week total! It’s the fork and napkin days for me right now thank the lord!

keep it between the lines and
safe travels truckers!