Benton Express, Inc. - Jacksonville, Fla.

I drove for Benton Express for six months. Overall I could not ask for a better terminal manager. But trying to get equipment fixed was like asking for the moon. He tried to get approval for sending trucks to the shop but mostly they only repaired something if it broke. I would constantly write up trucks for repair. Hardly anything was ever done. I could copy the write up from the day before because it was usually the same. There were times I drove the truck against my better judgement when I knew it was unsafe because there were no spares to drive. It was drive it or go home. I had heard of a previous employee that asked a DOT officer to check out his truck and his write ups and they deadlined the truck on the spot. It had to be towed. Less than a week they found a reason to fire the driver that reported it. The final straw with me was a truck fire that could have been prevented if they had fixed some things I had written up. Instead, I rode back to the terminal in a wrecker pulling a fire damaged truck and trailer. I do not understand how they have been getting by so long with DOT but I hope it doesn't take a huge accident and someone losing their life to remedy this. My advise is to steer clear of Benton

 

i am also unfortunately employed by Benton Express. What this driver says is 100% accurate. i am trapped here at the moment, but will soon be gone from this shade tree company. 23 years experience, and burned out on Benton Express. (We screw it up right the first time) is the company motto

 

LOL!!! Couldn't find a Benton thread on this board before. I worked for Benton nearly 4 years around 20 years ago in Florida. Wow! Just Wow! Educational for sure. At that time, the operation was a magnet for newly arrived Northerners with 'employment issues'; a Southerner like myself was clearly 'second tier'.

Everything went well enough for the first couple of years; first rate terminal manager and well run local operation. This excellent man (from NY) constantly sparred with the owner operators who did the peddle runs - they wanted to cherry pick their accounts and the manager would have none of it.

Benton tried OOs on line haul and that failed. A few years previously, the IBT attempted to organize the home terminal in Atlanta. Not only did this fail, the Corderos created a 'thug squad' to get rid of the 'trouble makers'. As far as I could tell, every single one of these 'thugs' came from a non trucking background; it was almost funny watching these guys wreck equipment and accounts. One in particular openly carried a Glock auto pistol, presumably to intimidate those who didn't acquiense. Mr. 'pistol's' dad was a legend, moreso than his son, although he departed before my arrival in the late 80s.

I would most likely never let Benton bump a dock I managed.

 

I am still working (unfortunately) for benton. this is the latest. i was driving my truck the other day, on a day run, and the fuel tank was contaminated. thus this plugged up my fuel line and shut the truck offf. the mechanic-i use the term loosely, came out and got the vehicle going again. of course it was a patch up job, just get it to run! the benton motto, and of course the we #### it up right the first time motto. anyway, after picking up more freight, and getting it back to the yard and parking the truck it was not worked on. the next morning after the fuel man had come and topped off the dirty tank with the fuel lines undone the fuel began dumping. my terminal mgr called the mechanic and he suggested shoving a green stick into the fuel lines. TYPICAL, what a joke!

 

i worked for benton for 11.5 years at first it was a decent company but then after the kids took over it started to go down hill. the only raises we got were once a year and only 1 or 1/2 cent not saying much since there are the worse paying ltl carrier. but here since the economy has gotten bad they seem to hang in there by cutting pay on all employees. im glad i left them 4 years ago before thing got bad. they will never go under since they lease all there equipment from the top dogs in the company.