Volpe Express Harrisburg, Phoenixville, Pa

This is my summary of Volpe Express I was hired out of the Harrisburg terminal at the end of Feb 2016 the company i previously drove for went bankrupt and being that this is a union deal i thought it would be a good fit similar to an ABF or UPS, I was to be a line haul driver until the Russian i was hired with admitted he couldn't back a truck up so off to P&D i went. When you work for Volpe you don't actually work for Volpe you are hired through Fox Logistics and Staffing which is a Volpe owned company, Fox logistics then rents you to Volpe. Your union contract entitles you to 20.49/hr with .40 raises every year and you pay 25% of your healthcare. O/T after 9 daily.

Hiring process bait and switch
I was brought in on 2/29/16 and hired, over the next month i was called off 7 of 25 working days so they could run their "lease driver" instead of me. Not much i could really do as seniority is after 120 working days. The kicker is when i was called off i was on call that morning and would get strung around for 3-4 hours until they finally told me halfway through the day that theirs not enough work. During this period the Russian i was hired with was not called off a single day. I want you all to know i have nothing against Russians I just dont want to use his name because i cant spell it properly and for privacy of him, so I am just referring to him as the Russian.

Terminal manager
Our terminal manager was later fired after corporate found out 9 of the 9 drivers were actively seeking employment elsewhere. The night manager became the Terminal Manager (real good fit), and the crackhead dock worker became the night manager (probably just a fill in until they can find someone half respectable). The Russian later left and I was moved to the linehaul that iI wanted. Linehaul consisted of runs between Harrisburg and pheonixville or Harrisburg and jersey city nj.

Federal Inspections
This is where Volpes true colors started to show. Keep in mind some union companies will discipline you if you haul an out of inspection trailer Volpe doesn't, but when your on your 120 day probation period they could easily use it as a reason to terminate you even though its standard procedure. 8/10 trailers are overdue on their federal inspection. The first one i got I took to the shop they were a little pissy but they fixed it. The next one they refused to inspect as it needed brakes and dispatch told me it had to go. (sealed temperature controlled load of pharmaceuticals). I told them i would gladly take it when the trailer is inspected or the load is in an inspected trailer. About 20 mins later I was fired by the big boss (jeff) for not pulling the load. 15 mins after that I was reinstated by the business agent for the union and told to just haul an empty back. The tradition at Volpe is to just pull it and Volpe pays the fine when the driver gets it. I have 2 problems with that the first being I don't want a mark on my record as i am a professional truck driver and didn't see myself as a good fit here. Secondly what if the tires blew out and hit a motorcyclist or killed a driver? Would Volpe pay the fine? Probably not,this would now be a criminal negligence case against myself i speculate, and the company would gladly toss me under the trailer to avoid the legal problems.

Night Manager
If any of you have ever played grand theft auto 5 the night manager is about as close to Trevor Phillips as your gonna get. I'm sure this guy has something in life hes good at (maybe snorting a line of coke while he smokes a crack pipe), but being a terminal manager just aint the job for him, allow me to explain why.

Back when we had the uninspected trailer issue at our 6 dock warehouse where they 2 dock workers and 1 night manager take a smoke break every hour I suggested possibly just looking at the inspection stickers before they loaded it, this way they don't have to unload and reload it when i refuse to pull I got a snappy that's not my job answer out of him I'm a night manager i don't want nothing to do with trucks or trailers. Keep in mind I am an unsocial 23 year old so there's really no attitude or combativeness coming from my end.

I would randomly get text messages from him asking where I'm at come on step on it we need our freight, to which i replied where i was at sorry this POS only does 65mph get me 505hp at 85mph and we'll have it taken care of lol, another time i texted back and said take your time loading my next one the longer your take the more i make then i got back and he didn't have any open doors so i texted him and said come on man your dropping the ball. To which he came out and had a crack head moment and started freaking out. Hey man you engaged the text messages when you sent them I'm just passing the ball back.

Hours of service:
Being that no manager at Volpe holds a CDL they know nothing about the hours of service my final day for the company i hauled a Sherwin Williams trip 2.5ish hours then a Jersey City 7.5ish roundtrip with a meal? From there i was back at harrisburg with 3.15 drive time left and 4.5 total hours remaining. I told them i could not do my next run as I did not have enough drive hours and they said its 14, I said no its 11 drive 3 duty you ran me too many driving, a 14 hour day would work if i had 3 hours of sitting, then I was told use a 16 hour big day, to which i stated that is illegal as that is only for when there is an unforeseen circumstance such as a 50 car pileup or a freak storm, bridge collapse ect. The crackhead goes off the handle and explodes #####ing to me that i could take a Maryland load in my remaining time because google maps says its 1hr 29 min each way. This now turns into a screaming match at which I told him his problem is hes never driven a F___ING truck before it takes 3 hours each way to do a jersey that states 2.5 on maps a car goes slower than a truck but you wouldnt know that because you want nothing to do with trucks. Plus there's Baltimore beltway traffic i will hit on the way down and way back that Maps isnt considering. His response now is the new manager cheap card of "are you refusing to do work". I said absolutely not I legally cannot pull this load, I will gladly pull the load after 10 hours of being off duty. Never once was i offered a Hotel, or drive down switch out pull back and pull over and a driver will meet you to driver the truck back. Keep in mind this is also during the DOT blitz week.

Volpe Express has the following equipment is their tractors
Electronic Logs
Drive Cameras
GPS tracking
65mph governors

Would Volpe really have claimed responsibly had i pulled that Maryland and have gotten caught? The above equipment sorta suggests they have their ### covered to say it was the drivers choice.


During my 4 months there i filled out job applications every day i was called off I followed up with people knocked on company doors, got my doubles endorsement, and really put myself out there I am a 1.5 year driver that's driven most of the eastern US I never had an accident, log violation, or speeding ticket in a company vehicle and i planned on keeping it that way, I estimate I've driven about 120k miles in a little over a year.

I received 3 job offers during my last week of employment and gladly jumped the hell off the Volpe Express. Its just too low of a wage with no future and too much ######## to deal with. I predict they will go the way of Hall's Motor Freight or YRC in the next few years.

 

First off I'm glad your concerned about the texting while driving, let me explain how it can be done without ever looking at or touching the phone.

I use a blue parrot headset, I hear a chime when I get a text, I press the button on the headset and say siri read my text message, siri then reads it, she then says would you like to reply, I say yes then I speak my message after a 3 second pause in my voice a chime goes off and siri reads it back and asks if I am ready to send. To which I say yes or say cancel if Siri has it totally wrong because of text to speech. Never text and drive, a few years ago a NEMF driver in carlisle pa killed 2 people doing so. He got jail time out of the deal. Hope that explains it a little better.

The new company I drive for never uses the 16 unless there's an unforeseen circumstance, the rule is pull over and we'll come get you ( yes I've already had it happen once 2 supervisors came out and I rode jumper seat for the 20 min ride back) Another rule is never pull an uninspected trailer or we will fire you (fine by me). Another nice thing my new dispatchers do is they never text you, knowing hand held texting while driving in a CMV is illegal they atleast have the decency to do that.

In many cases the 16 hour rule at Volpe was not applicable for linehaul drivers as you usually burnt the 11 drive before the 3 duty were also gone.