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

Let’s see the new color and graphics these green trucks will be turning into.

 

The sad day actually happened in March of ‘18

 

I had it all planned to be done by this past Christmas. But life took a dramatic turn. The beginning of last year, I had a major medical episode. Had a benign tumor removed from inside this concrete block on my shoulders. It was a 13 hour surgery with 2 neurologists done at the Mayo Clinic. It turned out to be a complete success, I was off from work for 4 months. During that time of recuperation and reflection, my wife and I decided that I would keep working until the end of this year. Not for money, even though the $3300 a week I get paid is nice, but because I still want to work. My boss keeps throwing money and time off at me which is nice. I get to travel, we just got back from a 3 week jaunt around Thailand, and the job is easy.

Your remarks about Abilene are spot on. In fact, they screwed me out of my full last years of 401K match, which, has been settled by a class action lawsuit that I was a party to. I’ll be getting about 65% of what is owed to me. Abilene is no more. They have finally been put under the Swift umbrella and all their terminals have been shuttered. Because of the way they did me, I wish nothing but financial difficulties for the parent company. Like my 91 year old mom has always said, God don’t like ugly.

I don’t know what Swift pays, but I did hear that one of the selling points from Abilene was whatever a driver was making will be honored. Sounds great, but I also heard Swift pays more. Abilene also dangled a $2000 transfer bonus to stay on, paid over one year, so if you quit, you don’t get all of it. Trucking really has turned into a poop industry. At the end of January it was announced that Werner bought out First Fleet out of Murfreesboro Tn for $285 million. In cash. Someone’s making money, and it’s not the drivers.

 

Just in case any ex employees of Abilene are wondering how the parent company is disposing of your pertinent information like SS #’s, addresses, personal data and all employees records, here you go. This was taken today at the old Richmond headquarters.