BEWARE!Universal Am-Can,Mason Dixon

i wouldnt mind hearuing about universal--so far they kinda sound like most companys

 

it sounded like you were saying universal is great etc,and now youre saying you quit...and its because of load board? whats wrong w/ it?

from what you were saying you were making a decent profit?

 

Some AGENTS are hard to deal with unless your part of their GROUP. Not all the GOOD $ loads get posted , lot of behind your back dealings get done. Loads get held or directed to other AGENTS trucks.

 

Also, some agents won't take another agent's load because they won't get the commission. They'd rather find a broker load so they get their 8%. The driver is the one getting screwed there since he won't get as much FSC.

 

Well to clarify what i mean about the loadboard and my situation is this.

I called Universal back in Aug of last year. I had told them I did not want to be ran as a company truck. I'm in no means bragging but my truck was paid for when I started with Universal and I wanted to pick and choose when and where I ran. I had different reasons at the time for wanting this. All were personal reasons. Regardless I was told by some posters on here and by a recuiter and several different agents for Universal that I could do this by running off of the load board. The recuiter I first spoke to was working for Mason Dixon.

I gave it a couple of months and then called again and spoke to a recuiter at Universal. I pretended to not know anything and again I asked about the loadboard and was told the same thing as the mason dixon recuiter told me. I agreed to start work for Universal and was told to go do a load before going to orientation. I was told that orientation would be set up for me at sometime in the future. I was placed with an agent out of Minnesota. Why this was done I have no idea. He had zero loads out of my area and he even told me it was going to be difficult for him to find me loads. I was told by corporate just to run what I was given until I could be set up with orientation. It was explained to me that everything would be explained in orientation and at that point I would be given a user name and password for the loadboard.

I live in Arkansas. I was told that I had to bobtail over 300 miles to a Central Transport terminal in Birmingham AL just to get an empty trailer. I was told this was the closest empty to where I was. I might add I was told by no less than 4 people that Universal had a dropyard in Memphis before I filled out the application. Memphis is about 50 miles from my house. It is truethere is a drop yard there but what they forgot to tell me is its a container ONLY yard for Mason Dixon Intermodal. Anyway I got to Birmingham and found the empty trailer there and in very poor condition (I must add) but I was told there was no load in Birmingham. I had to deadhead an additional 100 miles to get loaded in northern AL. I finally got loaded on a load going from Al to Ok City. It only paid me about $300 and delivered 3 days later in Ok. I got to Ok early but I was turned away at the gate because I had a set delivery date and time and I was told I could not be taken early. So I ended up sitting almost 24 hours in Ok City waiting for my delivery time. I finally got into the gate and proceeded to sit at the dock for the next 8 hours. Yes I sat in my truck at the dock for a whole 8 full hours waiting to be unloaded. Then I was told when I got unloaded that there would be a $350 lumper fee. It was 3am. I had no idea who to call for a comcheck and after calling 5 or 6 different numbers I was given an approval and was back to the truckstop waiting till dispatch came in to see where I was to go next.

The next morning...or should I say a couple of hours later I called into Dispatch/ My agent and was told the lumper fee had not been approved and I would have to eat it. Let me explain... The load just barely paid for my fuel and with all the bobtailing and deadhead I was already in the hole to begin with. With (eating) the lumper fee I was going to be in the red BIG TIME. I was pissed to say the least. Anyway the agent seemed sincere and said he would (try) to get the lumper approved and plus try to get me some detention pay and for me to keep moving. Anyway I turned down the next 10 loads he offered me. They were all multi stop brokerage loads and none had stop, unload pay or fuel surcharges attached. The last load he offered me was a load going from Dallas to Delaware with 13 stops and it only paid $1100. no fuel surcharge no stop pay no unload pay and no deadhead pay from Ok City to Dallas. It was mileage pay ONLY and it was less than a buck a mile. I said NO for the 11th time and refused to answer the phone again with that agent. I was so pissed I was outside standing the the rain and walking around kicking rocks trying to cool off. I was VERY PISSED.

I finally called corporate and told them what I was dealing with. I gave them the chance to get me into orientation and to get me a user name and password. I also told them that I would not be doing another load for the agent out of MN. They agreed to give me a user name and password and finally set me up with orientation. My orientation was going to be a few days later in Ft Smith Ar and I was going to have to deadhead from Ok City to Ft Smith on my own with no pay. I agreed so I could get the user name and password. I need to add I had been with Universal about a week at this point. I had no dot stickers no door signs and no ifta stickers on my truck. I had been sent a packet from universal when I got approved. It included paperwork with no instructions. a couple of logs and some mailbox type stickers for my truck number. Also there was a comdata fuel card included but it was useless. I had not been paid for any run so all the fuel was coming straight out of my personal bank account.

I got to orientation and was told that no one had told them about a username or password for the loadboad. BIG SUPRISE HUH???????????? Anyway I was told I would be placed on a dedicated account with an agent out of Little Rock and that I would be doing the same loads over and over and I would soon see that I would be making a HUGE profit. Of course this is NOT what I wanted or what I had signed onto Universal for but at this point I was running low on funds I had not made any money in over a month and was out a weeks worth of fuel with no pay from Universal so far.

Anyway I began to work the so called dedicated run out of Little Rock. It actually was not dedicated out of Little Rock at all. It ended up being a deal where I was working for the agent out of Little Rock and the FACT is they had only ONE customer and so they called it dedicated. The loads were coming out of Southeast MO going to the Dallas metro area with loads returning somewhat back to the Southeast MO area. To my suprise I actually enjoyed it for a while. It was laid back at first and I got to know the shipper and the tricks of getting in and out fast. But here is where the problems started.

My truck is an 04 and has over 800,000 miles. It was a former company truck and nothing has been replaced except for the tires and oil from what I can tell. The agent in Little Rock had in their mind that my truck was a tank and breakdowns were not acceptable. The first time I ran into this was when I was sitting in Dallas unloading at a reciever. My alternator belt popped and I started losing volts. I knew it was a matter of time before my batteries died so as soon as I unloaded I ran over to the TA and got in line to get it replaced. While I was there my Dispatch/Agent called and began to chew my butt for leaving the reciever. I explained that I was unloaded and that I had signed bills but he said I was to never leave a reciever until I called in. When I explained that my alternator belt broke and that I had to leave. I was told I could NOT get my truck repaired at this time and that I must leave immediately and go get my next load. A load that I had not accepted yet but was put on by my agent. I explained politely that this was my truck and not a company vehicle and the agent just said...Oh I'm sorry I didn't know you were an O/O i just assumed that you were a company driver because thats all we have here.....HUMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!! What happened to Universal being 100% O/O's?????????????????? This is when I found out that eventhough Universal is 100% O/O's, their agents can and do have COMPANY trucks and COMPANY DRIVERS. Eventhough they have the same stickers on the door and you cant tell the difference between the company trucks and the O/O trucks. INTERESTING HUH??????????

Anyway to make a long story longer. The reason i finally quit was about a month ago my clutch blew and i had to drop the trailer...At a shipper...but this did not sit well with the agent at Little Rock. I was told over and over to get loaded with 40,000 pounds of roll stock then I could take my truck to get the clutch replaced. I explained over and over that my truck could barely pull just bobtailing. After talking to the agent like a child and fully explaining my situation. I was ALLOWED to drop the trailer and bobtail home. At this point I was so pissed about the whole Universal crap that I took off a couple of weeks and began to think I had made a huge mistake. I started running numbers and saw that after fuel I was bringing home around .40 a mile. I had very little in the bank and the fuel surcharge had not increased since I began with them. On brokerage loads its not paid at all. On the one customer load that they were servicing It was told to me the fuel surcharge had topped out.

Anyway I returned to a pissed agent telling me to bobtail to Little Rock to get a loaded trailer. Then I was told there was no load at little rock and to get an empty and drive to Memphis to load. When I got to Memphis I was told there was no load there either and to run to South east Missouri to load. This was 250 miles from Memphis. The deadhead from home to little rock to memphis was an additional 300 miles. All of which came straight out of my pocket. I assumed this was to TEACH me not to take off to get my truck repaired. I kept my mouth shut and a couple of weeks later I dropped my trailer off at Missouri and bobtailed home for the last time.

My truck is sitting in the drive way at the moment with no Universal stickers and no DOT numbers. Oh and by the way. About the whole loadboard username and password.....I was given one finally a couple of weeks before my clutch went out. When I got home I was told it had been deleted for lack of use. HUMMMMMMM????? I requested another and it worked twice and was deleted as well. When I called requesting for a third one. I was told by a guy a corporate that i needed to stay with the agent I was with and that If I took a load from the loadboard I would not get a backhaul because backhauls are giving through agents and my agent wasnt going to work with me if I chose to run off of the loadboard...........

 

All in all Universal is not a bad company if you like to get paid quick and love to work for cheap pay. Their payroll is the best thing going for them. They do pay very very fast...if your bills are scanned in. This of course is a charge. $2.50 each time you scan and each load has to be scanned in separately. Plus they charge an additional $4 per week for the trip pac as well. From what I have learned you will average around a buck a mile pulling a dry van for Universal. They do not advance you money for truck repairs and are very against you taking off to get your truck repaired.

The trailers they pull are in very very very poor condition. Every Universal trailer I pulled had several issues. They do not have anyone hired to inspect the trailers. If YOU do not request issues to get fixed. Guess what???? They do not get fixed. I can't count how many trailers I have picked up with bad brakes, burned out lights, no paperwork, doors so rotten and rusted they are falling off, and most have huge air leaks. I once spent 5 hours in a TA shop bay gettting a Universal trailer repaired. It cost over $3000 and all I went in for was a PM and a DOT inspection. I'm sure it would not have been paid but the trailer was loaded and they needed to get the load delivered. I wish someone had told me how bad this company really was.

I must say sixdogs tried to but I just assumed he was just throwing a fit because they wouldnt pay to fix his truck. I'm here to tell you. If your thinking of going to work for Universal, Mason Dixon, or any of the other companies that is under the Universal umbrella, Then you should really think twice.

I was told the same as a lot of other drivers were on the numerous safety calls. If Universal doesnt lower their safety scores this company will go under. Don't believe me? Go check it for yourself. It's posted for everyone to see. It is horriable.

 

Sorry for the long posts but this is all I have to say. I am done with Universal and their agents. I'll leave it up to you and your opinions from here on. I started with Universal ONLY to run the loadboard and to pick and choose my own loads. I saw right away it wasn't what was going to happen. I didn't want to run dedicated or excessive brokerage freight. Regardless it was ok to work for Universal but not what I wanted. The agents are very agressive there. Too much so for my taste. I'm too laid back for the run 4000 miles a week for a buck a mile mentality they have. I would much rather run 2500 miles a week at $1.50 to $1.80 and thats what I was looking for when I started. I know now that Universal is not for me. I would much rather run smarter than run harder

 

thanx for the heads up dave

 

I used to work for Mason Dixon and Economy and I agree with what dave says. It's all true. Their pay is the ONLY thing they have going for them.

Their M.O. is to scoop up small trucking companies that are out of money, throw them a forgiveable loan and absorb their customers. That's all they do.

 

Wow! Since your truck is paid for , i would get my own trl and hit the load boards. i bought a '96 stoughton after doing the power only loads. Now, i can pick and choose to run and still make a profit. I would not, under no circumstance bobtail 250+ mi to get a trl. Man, i feel your pain.... Good heads up.