company inquiry,,,,and also an offer of a decent place to work as well.

I have not heard that Kreilkamp is a good place to work.
Last I heard they care about their equipment and not at all about the driver.
But that could have just been a couple of unhappy drivers.
If I was an experienced driver looking for a reefer job in that region I would look at Cheeseman as a possibility.

 

I did too, but, that changed after working for them.

Back then, they had KW T2000s. I never ever refused or bickered on a load. When asked which load I wanted (when offered choices), I always told them whichever works best for the weekend. Ontime for every load-at the consignee on Sunday PM for every Monday delivery. They have a truckwash, but, it didn't work very well. I paid for Blue Beacon out of my pocket. Tires were gelled, interior was furniture polished, and Armor-All on the floor. The truck and myself were kept immaculate.

I was dispatched to a drop lot on a Saturday. The spotter loaded a trailer with a flat. The sidewall had been ripped out on something. I called the operations supervisor. He sent me to a local tire shop. Got the tire changed. Supervisor said to bring the casing back to the shop. I had a sealed load, so it couldn't go into the trailer. I tried to secure it to the exhaust support behind the cab, but, the corner of the trailer was hitting it when I turned. No tire rack on the trailer. I had no choice but to leave it at the tire shop. A few weeks later, while at the terminal, the supervisor asked me about the casing. I explained to him the situation I faced and that it would've been unsafe to try and drive with the tire behind the cab. He fired me on the spot. I appealed to Gordon, but, he said whatever Mike says. His daughter wouldn't help either. There was a definite air of disbelief among the driver managers, especially mine. "Whatever" was my thought. One of the other DMs was nice enough to give me a ride to the airport to get a rental car.

Now, I don't consider myself the greatest driver to ever roam the earth. However, you don't just fire a driver who's never had an accident, clean MVR (nothing on it at all), ontime every time, and whose personal appearance is second to none.

Their pay wasn't great. The mileage wasn't great. Now, they have crappy little Freightliner Columbias with sit-in bunks. Back then, the T2000 made up for the pay. They mostly haul starch out of their whse in Cedar Rapids, or a mfr in Muscatine, and haul some kind of broker load back to Cedar Rapids (usually recyclable cardboard). I don't see any real attraction to work for them, today.

Do a search on them. They are local to me and I'd never consider working there. If you want to see what the septic tank of trucking looks like, ignore my warning.

 

maybe if you would have called to say you couldn't take the casing with you instead of deciding on your own it was unsafe you wouldn't have gotten fired. Second, I don't just look at what type of tractor a company has as a factor in working for them. If they pay well, treat you well and get you home when you want you can put up with freightliners. Just my two cents.

 

I worked for them when they were changing out of the t2's. Back when Gordon was in charge, they were almost almost a dream to work for, but yeah they were super strict about some things to the point where only 1 infraction of any of those things would get a driver fired.