Do not work for knight transportation!!!

Knight DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH TRAILERS! The greatest DM in the world will not fix that and if a drivers says he gets paid to drive around and look for one he is mistaken. The DM's goal is to save the company money. The drivers goal is to make money. They will "forget" accessory pay, you can bet on that. For this reason you must be on daily pay. It makes it much easier to get what is yours tomorrow instead of next week.

APU's are proven technology. Why does Knight not have them? That's their decision but too set the trucks top speed to adjust according to idle is stupid.

Why does Knight only run three batteries in their Volvos? Plug your laptop in and see if it will start. You live in that truck and if running a simple laptop is not doable well then have fun with that.

You are not paid for every mile driven. Despite what you are told all companies DO NOT short change drivers. I don't get paid hub miles and by using a few simple tools and not being told where to fuel and what routes to take I am able to beat the paid miles 25% of the time.

Have you ever actually BEGGED for a Wal-Mart drop number? No hurry there will be no empties anyways and your day is done.

People need to quit blaming the blasted #### driver and shut these mega junk carriers down. Otherwise nothing is going to improve. Grow a back bone stand up for yourself and quit contributing to the problem.

 

I totally agree that the three battery thing is lame as hell. I have my laptop plugged in and charging and the truck does hesitate (just barely) when starting.

Good question on the APU thing. I think it'd be interesting to know the reasons they haven't decided to embrace them.

Also agreed on the trailers. I haven't had a terrible experience trying to find empties but then again I haven't been around long enough to have a real big data set.

As far as the miles go the paid miles that come through on the QC have generally pretty close to the driven mileage for me, but only if you really pay attention to the way they route you because sometimes the routes are a little shortsighted. Again I don't have a huge amount of experience to go on here either.

 

So is it fair to say that with all things being equal, the DM basically has the power to make you a successful truck driver as long as you're on time with the delivery, not refusing loads, going along with the "plan", keeping positive, not questioning too many "things" that come up, etc??

That would make perfect sense to me as long as there wasn't a safely issue involved that could affect my DAC and ultimately, my carreer. You would think that in this business as with any other similiar business with a huge learning curve, a cost conscious employer would want to retain a productive driver thats makin them money versus having to spend lots of cash to keep retraining new people into "their" system over an over again.

Does that make sense?

 

Ignorance is bliss. Desperation is king.

Why stay broke when you can just allow yourself to be taken advantage of and work for lower wages as compared to the past? The problem with truck driving nowadays? Everyone is willing to work for close to nothing and the companies know it. They exploit this to their advantage by cutting the driver without their knowledge. They say that ignorance is bliss, and it is true. Corporate greed mixed with desperate drivers is the cancer that has been killing trucking over the past few years. Cancer is hard to get rid of, so I guess that the garbage that I've been witnessing in trucking is here to stay permanently. No one has any balls anymore. Feel free to disagree.

As a side note, go to any corporate terminal at any truck company and notice all of the $$$$$'ve cars parked outside.

 

I was told by a Shop Manager that Knight will never put apus in their trucks because 1 they cost to much. 2 drivers will start to run all their appliances of them.3-Their drivers dont stay with them long enougth to warrant one. 4. The shop mechanics dont know how to service them and the training will cost to much and its to expensive to out source their repairs. So whats the bottom line here? MONEY+COSTS, KNIGHT DOES NOT LIKE TO SPEND MONEY , If they did, they would have more trailers. Have you noticed that the low 60s 61 and 62 number trailers are so old the sides are buckling and the floors are rotting. Not to mention all the rust on the undercarriages, Knight does not and will not do regular maintence on any of their trailers. Drivers should be kept when they get experienced by KNight? thats what Im hearing here. Have you noticed that every single week in every single knight terminal a new class of students are being trained? every week. Whats that tell you? they lose drivers faster than they can hire them. Im not bellywagging here, I really could care less if you like knight or not. Im just telling it like it is. Time in the seat does count. You cant work for 2 or 3 companies in 3 years and think you know it all. When your new,especially someone who had to go to driving school and have never been in a big rig ever, your mesmerized and have this feeling your going to be the best driver ever and then you wake up oneday and say, hey, their screwing me out of money or making me work for nothing, then you speak up, like so many here have said to do and guess what? youve now become an outcast,like the rest or the seasoned drivers. So I wish you all the best and if you last another 45 to 50 years let me know, Ill be dead but Ill be watching.

 

That's exactly why I'm on this forum, "to get educated from reading these posts and only get screwed 10% of the time, versus NOT being on this forum, staying ignorant and getting screwed 90% of the time"

thetruckersreport.com - The classroom the Trucking School didn't tell you about.......

 

England is another of those *reel you in * companies and then take you for a horrible ride.

They put us in a run down rat infested hotel. The toilet broke and can you believe it. I woke up and there were four men in the room. at or about 4:30 am.

Total strangers. I demanded an apology. So they move us to a just barely step up from that.

I was beyond words to express the anger that the next day stories about me were spread throughout the classroom.

 

Yes, I would say that in my 3 short years of driving I may still be "wet behind the ears" in the areas of driving and handling the vehicle on all terrain and in all conditions. However, I have been an owner in the expedite industry prior to getting my CDL A and I have had my CDL B for the past 14 years. I drove as well as employed several drivers. I look at the industry and my employment as a business owner not just a driver. I can totally understand whay Knight and the big companies do the things they do with batteries and APU's and other little things so many complain about. Many drivers do not care about equipment and will run them into the ground without concern for the business expense. I had APU's on my trucks in the expedite business and my drivers neglected the service and many broke down and cost me thousands. If you are an owner operator you will not neglect your equipment because it is your payday. I rarely had issues when I drove my trucks, but every other day it was something from one of my drivers. A blown tire, they hit something, the truck won't start...etc. Many drivers do not care. There were many times with Knight I picked up a trailer that had just been emptied and 4 out of the 8 tires only had 10-20psi... It was evident that the last driver did not do his job.

Please understand, I am by no means saying that Knight is a graceland and has no flaws. There are many flaws, I spent hours looking for trailers, had to gently remind them for a PO, or call payroll twice a month for fixes. I agree with many of the complaints I have seen on this forum, but it is how you as an individual handle them when bad things happen. But it will happen with Knight, as well as in any business that size, there will be issues. My hats off to the 50 years veterans in this industry I commend you. I do find it discouraging that an individual of that age would respond with subtleties of insults and name calling though. My best to all.

 

Being around as long as I have in this business we learn to grow a skin and take insults and name calling. I think you should re-read your posts. You make it sound like everyone here is a loser and just doesnt know how to get along with others in this world. Its the others fault for not being polite to the dispatchers and the company people. Its not nice to get mad ., its not nice to call someone a name. Give me a break, There is another blog called LIST THE GOOD THINGS ABOUT KNIGHT, this is DONT GO TO WORK FOR KNIGHT, I nicely bring that to your attention. If you cant run with the big dogs stay on the porch. Your gonna get insulted and hollered back at in this blog. You want us to think its US, NOT KNIGHT OR ANY OF THE OTHER liars in this business. The trucking world has changed so much in the last 30 years, these guys where not even around, there where small mom and pop business, it was more like a family and you where treated as a family. Then wall st. the bankers, the politicians saw a fat cow to milk dry and thats what their doing. I dont apologize for my words, if you cant stand the heat get out of the kitchen. Grow a skin

 

In closing I wish to add this final response, I am pationate about the business I have been in for half a century, I fought along with my father and grandfather, to get some respect from trucking company owners in the 50s 60s 70s that thought they owned us and treated us like cattle. I stood many a picket line back east and fought hand to hand with many scab picket line crossers. I have 0 tolerance for those that say, CANT WE ALL JUST GET ALONG. This attitude is why we have the KNIGHTS SWIFTS SCHNEIDERS, ET AL. Most of the younger drivers are willing to give it all away to the company dogs, just to have a job, then, thank GOD, There are still some men out there that will never surrender to truckers becoming endentured servants to the government or the KNIGHTS OF THETRUCKING WORLD. To many newbies are just thrilled to have a job or it gives them some sense of power to be sitting so high off the ground or they come from jobs where kissing up is the norm and having a fighting back constitution does not fit them well. Then there are those that just dont plan give a darn about anyone or anything. Their attitude is whats in it for me. These drivers will cut your throat faster than any Knight would. Dont forget the backstabbers, that just cant wait to tell their DM of Terminal manager what you just said about them. I rest my case.