CRST Malone (Flatbed Division) SUCKS!

Welcome aboard! Like you, I was hesitant too, but once a friend who had been over here for a year sat me down and showed me they money he was clearing every week...I couldn't get over fast enough.

A few Great agents to use that always get great rates are Chuck Graham out of Dearborne, Mi. they get loads out of Mi., North Ohio and Chicago vicinity. The middletown Ohio office (Nick and Pat) most of there stuff pays $3.00 per mile.Tom Avampato out of Pa. (pittsburgh). Stay in there primary lanes and you can't go wrong. Good luck.

 

I have met two Malone drivers in last few weeks. Both seemed to be doing well. One had "Destination Heaven" on back of his tractor, and he seemed like a real nice fellow. Spoke to another driver in Brasselton, Ga and he had a black KW. He said he was doing ok also. Both were O/O's and stayed away from terminals. Haven't run into L/O's in awhile. Funny, he said his dispacher was keeping him busy--not the agents, and I somehow was surprised at this.
Temptinfates

 

I usually refer to them as my "dispatcher" also. I use 2 agents primarily. Bad habit! Tha agents runningman0661 mentioned are all very good. Nick and Pat are very easy to deal with. And Tom does have a ton of freight in his area. I use Ken out of Cleveland a lot. Very good guy, always gets me loaded and rolling exactly where I want to go.

 

you making any money working for them.

 

I heard that they were ok but purely from website ads and the like. I almost considered them at onetime long ago. Hopefully they get better in the near future however in the event they don't I will treat them like the regular trucking plagues (ya know the JB's, Swifts, PAM's).

 

Perhaps the ones to whom you have been talking don't know how to run a business. I have known owner operators with both Mercer and Landstar who have lost their shirts. I have also know others who have done well with all three. I have been leased to Landstar and CRST Malone and done well with both. All three carriers have cheap and good paying freight. If you want to run lanes that are unprofitable, run cheap freight, waste time playing video games or the slots, then you cannot expect to be successful. Stop blaming others for your failures. Just because you manage to get a truck doesn't mean that you know how to run a profitable business. I wonder how many of those to whom you are referring know what their actual costs are to break even? I wonder how many of them only want to run certain freight lanes without thinking about profitability or rates for those lanes? How many of them actually had a business plan before starting? How many had a reserve fund saved before buying their truck? How many of them were lease purchase rather than owners who were buying their truck and trailer?

Perhaps they would be better off selling their truck before the repo man comes to take it and find a good company driving position. There is nothing wrong with being a company driver. Not everyone has the ability to run a successful business.

 

For the record, I am was not the spouse of an agent, nor was I an agent for CRST Malone. I just know how to run my business.

 

If by 'average', you mean the lease-purchase trucks, yeah, I can agree insofar as that LP not offering the best equipment out there. However, not everyone leased to Malone is in one of those trucks. I don't know what the ratio of lease/purchase trucks to O/O trucks is at CRST Malone. I've gotten to meet a few O/Os and fleet owners. They bought whatever trucks they did for whatever reason they did, and would have those same trucks regardless of who they were leased to. I've seen really flashy and not-so-flashy trucks leased onto all the companies you mentioned. Tell me, what exactly am I looking for with the "average" truck in any of these companies? It being fresh out of the truck wash? Chrome? Chicken lights? What?