Knight Transportation is a ship of fools!

ROFLMAO! That guy in the shop? He probably IS a Knight cousin. . .

When you say you never had to much issues with pay, I have to ask you this. Did you keep a close eye on what they were paying you? If you did not, you had pay issues. If you did keep an eye on it, how often did you have to call payroll to get stuff paid for that should have been included in your paycheck?

I didn't really have an issue with miles. Particularly when I could work with my own dispatcher. But that crap of having to do local loads at ten bucks an hour before they would give you a decent load just sucked.

And that crap of running all over the place looking for non-existent trailers, or trailers that were having to be shopped before they could be used, was just too #### much. Particularly since the would not pay you for either your time, or your mileage.

I quit them in 2004, so this has been going on for a while!

 

Yea that was just part of the job. Hitting "payroll" on the speed dial and calling payroll. Those "with no pay issues" at Knight are getting ripped off because they just assume Knight would never ream them in the rear. Well think again, they will and they do. Would you expect any less from a company that doesn't but APU's and then penalize a driver for idling? If you wouldn't expect less then you should fit right in at Knight.

 

After driving for 3 years OTR now I have to say I'm under no dissolusionment as to how the average trucking company operates or treats it's drivers. . . I have had many dissapointments. . .

Knight is unique when it comes to empty trailers. I have'nt seen anything like this anywhere else I have worked.
However, the trailers do have GPS tracking devices installed. When they send me some place to pick up an empty, which is mostly a pain in the rearend, I can usually find one pretty fast.

What they pay you is empty miles. That is one reason why they are particular about you putting your e-logs on line 5.
Off Duty = No Pay

Besides that the line 5 option is flakey anyway. My e-logs have defaulted to line 5 without my knowledge a couple of times. This makes people in Phoneix and your terminal very unhappy. It's best not to mess with line 5 in this version of e-logs that I have installed on my truck.

Sometimes they will tell you that they will make it up to you on the next trips empty miles if you have to drive around looking for an empty trailer. So you have to keep a close eye on that.

My biggest complaint with this company is the difficulty I have experienced with getting home time when I need it. This last stint I was out for 11 weeks. It took me a good 6 weeks and a serious discussion with my terminal manager to get 5 days off.

The first month with Knight was slow. I only racked up 9,000 paid miles.
10,000 the month after that. 11,000 for this past month.

Working is better then not working or taking 34 hour resets sitting around in truck stops not getting paid. For the most part Knight has kept me busy.

I have to say with Knight I have been able to start saving money again. Much better then with Stevens or Crete. So where do you draw the lines?

I'd like to see a better balance between how many weeks I have to stay out on the road and getting more quality home time.

 

It's whatever works for you Jerry. At least you don't sound like you are real unhappy with them! And you don't sound like you are one of their "Cheerleaders." Those folks stand out like a sore thumb, and they might as well preface their posts with "The following is total bull poop."

Now you were talking about "empty miles." That was something they didn't have when I was there. You were paid the same, empty or loaded.

But you were NOT paid at all to run around and look for trailers. I've been sent 50 miles to pick up a non-existent trailer up in the Sacto area. With no pay.

And I've been sent to pick up loads that were already taken and gone. . .Their right hand really had no idea what their left hand was doing. Safety and dispatch certainly were on different pages.

Anyway, if it is working out for you, wonderful!

 

Exactly that guy in the shop!

What do you mean your tires are not legal tread? Its summer you're not gonna be driving in rain or snow what do you need traction for?

OR

I don't get why you're calling me, you've got one busted airbag and Tulare is only 900 miles away. What's the problem?


And you're right again, truckings unoffical sport created by Knight Transportation.......MT Hunting! Who can outwit and outhunt their fellow trucker to find an MT trailer for a load that was supposed to be picked up 2 days ago and you got it on your Qcomm 20 min ago. BUT, before you get to pick up load that is already 2 days late you gotta spend another half day (If you're lucky) to find an MT or deliver a local thats gonna 4+ hours to unload at a Safeway.......Decisions, decisions......But wait! There's more!!!! After all that BS you just went through you finally get a MT and you're on your way relived to pick up your already now pushing 3 days late load dispatch calls and says, "cancel that last load and come back to the yard. We gotta sweet repower sitting here waiting for ya."

 

To be clear Knight pays the same weather you are empty or loaded. So that has not changed since you were there.

I think the problems come in when people start using line 5 in the e-logs. Technically you are not paid when you bobtail on line 5 or if you have a trailer attached.

As I'm sure you are aware people will use line 5 to save on their 11/14 HOS. But when they do this it will conflict with weather they are paid for those miles or not.

I recieved a qual-com message from my terminal manager that they want the drivers to call them first before using the line 5 option.

I can see their point since, for whatever reason, the line 5 option is unpredictable and flakey. The e-log system I have has put me on line 5 when it should have put me on line 3. I did not catch it until the next day when I approved my logs.

This raises a question. In the event of a DOT audit. How much lee-way will I get for any mistakes, errors or violations that are found?

Not sure if I'm digging myself into a pretty deep hole or not. Compliance has not contacted me with any errors in logging.

 

What you guys are saying is pretty much verbatim versions of what I heard from my friends... that's why I found the KnghtDvr dude's posts so suspicious.

 

I just ran 9800 miles.......in 20 days. It can be a whole lot better than it is at Knight.

 

None, states are broke, revenue generation is priority one right now.

 

That's what I'm afraid off. I'll be in Phoenix tomorrow afternoon.
Maybe I should stop in on the Logs dept for a little chat just to see what they have to say