trans am

I used to work for this loser company. I have posted about him several times. It's now been 9 years ago but a leopard never changes his spots.....

A trucking recruiter is nothing more than a POS out of work used car sales person. What more would you expect from one?
How do you think they get anyone into the seat?
NOT with "oh on average you'll get 2100 a week!"
At what? Less than $1.00 CPM then the FSC? Or maybe $1.10 CPM? That's a laugh a joke and a disgrace and Johnnie and his BF actually can sleep at night after bending people over like that as rookies straight out of any school have no clue! Now those who have experience and fall for an L/P deserve what they stepped in!

I honestly think that the rates those mills charge to just pass a 25 question test which all the test questions are in the book at the end of the chapters and aren't a mystery to find the answers to, or the driving test should add a few hours long class on why a lease purchase at less than 80% of the freight rate is financial suicide! OR what really is going to happen in real life owning a truck. NO! REALLY! Get gooberment involved and put a few rules into the requirements of these schools. An ownership class of a few hours should be mandatory and then these BFI megas with an L/P program as their MAIN source of income will become nothing but big parking lots for used trucks! Rookies will have the information they need to PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS unless they go back to the company driver company program!

That company is NOT really doing anything for you when you pay all their bills for THEM! You are NOTHING but a company driver paying to drive their truck! How many times does it have to be said? Only a handful actually make it through the program because they are the chosen that they need as their "see it can be done" picture opportunity! Why is the failure rate so high in the L/P program when extremely experienced drivers can't even force most of these programs to work?

A hint to all of you rookies who are still in training or just coming out of either a mill or a company training and about to start your actual ride with the trainer part of the job:

Keep records as if that truck is yours. As soon as you get into that truck write the mileage down how much fuel is in the tanks and then every time that truck does something keep the records just as you would as the "owner" every penny that the trainer spends you write down. BUT you need to do it as a solo driver NOT as a team operation which you can do or actually be doing anyway because you are TRAINING, NOT A TEAM YET BECAUSE YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT DRIVING! You should NEVER be sleeping or neither should the trainer while the truck is moving for the first month of your training or until you actually know what that 30,000+- pound MT motorized piece of machinery can and will do!

That month will show you that, that pathetic crap pay of anything LESS than $2.00 a mile for hauling trash is not worth going bankrupt for some ripoff BFI company owner! If it was an honest pay, drive by a few of those "honest" companies and look at those monuments to "Trucking" they sit in they,then drive by their homes. Yeah, you're getting paid an honest days pay! NOT! But wait, the cheerleaders (those "chosen" I mentioned,) They will come in behind this post and swear it is all true that they are making it work! You just have to follow "the rules!" And that the THOUSANDS that can't get a lease/fleece work just aren't doing something right. Yeah they aren't! They leased a truck and are NOT an owner operator OR running THEIR OWN company because when you lease a truck 1.00% of the time it MIGHT do over the speed limit for a few states that are 60 MPH, you MIGHT get to get loads at a better rate from another broker and NOT from that company you fleeced from that might have cut the rates more than they will show with a sleigh of hand inhouse resale of the load, OR drive the route you want, Can't idle when you sleep because it's company policy or you're running the hours up to much (BUT, BUT, BUT it's YOUR truck or should we say BUSINESS so what company policy? Where did I/you write than into my/your company policy? HMMM?), or fuel where you want:
Actually that is a bad idea IF the company is on a fuel program and gets a discount off their fuel cost, NOT the pump price, the fuel cost from the distributor. A fuel program WILL save you money if you don'tfollow them! Nothing is better than saving even pennies off the insane price of what should be cheap fuel! Looking at the Marquee at the truck stop across the street isn't how you buy fuel if you get a discount at one and not from the one across the street. This is one line item drivers lose so much money at.

Back to the program! We made it to fueling but the tags cost. Then the IFTA and the authority isn't that much then the big losses to you are in medical insurance not the truck or freight insurance. Many think nothing will ever happen to them! They sneak by with none not even for the family (ever seen a child that never got sick?? LOL)but all it takes is one time for you , the wife or child and you loose everything! And NO Workers Comp is NOT even a bad insurance but a terrible insurance because it's run by... ready?... the GOOBERMENT! It pays crap if you get hurt and all you get is what you are paying into taxes! Ask anyone who got workers comp after a work related incident! I've been there done that!

BEFORE truckers were ALLOWED to buy disability insurance. Yes, really! We were NOT ALLOWED to buy any kind of disability insurance! Do many of you know what I'm talking about? One of those Duck things. Yes the Duck kind! Truckers were NOT considered a "professional" trade!

My father was an insurance broker after years as a senior VP of a major insurance company and he and I almost came to blows over this one day in the mid 80's arguing that point the we WERE professional. I made him go get in the truck and try to drive it down the road and then back it up and then around the pasture around a few barrels! He couldn't anything like all of us until practicing before he could do anything and agreed with me that it was a legal professional trade!

BUT many L/P and even O/O's will NOT even pay for a disability policy! They think they can't afford it and that company won't help you with any kind of group policy in either medical or disability. You have to go to people like my sister who will help. No. I'm NOT doing a sales pitch but there are now companies that are putting "group" policy type of programs together to have a freaking job that do work and are affordable for the worker.

Back to medical insurance. Take this as for real as can happen to you! This is on record in my profile if you want the whole story follow the link! I was a company driver. My last full years W2 was $78,000 with a nice savings account. I had insurance but did NOT think I needed to put $49 a month into a disability policy. Early 2008 I was told I had cancer. Came off the road for really expensive treatments that if I did not have regular medical insurance which I paid $189.00 a week for out of my pay check I would be dead now! BUT if i had that disability policy many of my bills would have been paid and I would not have had to file bankpursy and be on disability now due to complications from the radiation needed to save my life causing a few more problems.

I was like 90% of you guys. If I'm not bleeding from every pore of my body I am not going to a doctor, BUT because I DID have at least medical insurance my family and I are not living in a tent somewhere! If I had had that duck dancing in the back yard I would still have my P/U, my bike and most of my tools and other things! That little $49 would have saved me most of what I worked for all my life! GET IT! It IS worth it! Being cheap like I almost was and losing everything is not! Besides when you pay for insurance by check it's tax deductible but not when your company takes it out of your pay check! Company drivers think about that for a bit and look into it!

You get the point? That pathetic anything less than $2.00 a mile pay which is usually less than $1.00 until you add that FSC and it's still a joke and a ripoff which if the Gooberment were to actually look at these L/P programs would have all of the owners in prison on violation of the RICO laws! These rates are nothing but the end of the rope you'll be tying around your neck! I've posted one gooberment website for the USDA (it's in here do some more research !!) that keeps brokers and those in the know updated on produce loads and it's updated every week. It shows the rates and those show that everyone of you are getting BENT! BFI is soaking you to pay their expenses while making you think you're getting a good deal on buying a POS truck!

In today's internet and social networking sites the new saying for Lease Programs is...

FAIL!​

 

Johnny and his BF!!! your killing me ROLL,,,,What makes you think they sleep at night !!! LMFAO !!! All drivers deserve everything they get coming. I for one, would move out of the way if I see tragedy about to hit me !!

 

Good advice Rollover I hope you are feeling better nowadays, I skipped that lease pitch and Im glad I did right now im a company driver and they treat me really good here Im so lucky...but I skipped my medical insurance and got dental and vision cause I needed some work done but im reactivating the health ins come around Jan...you never know right? Take care Roll.

 

Bigdogpile I'm guessing is not that easy to quit something you have signed and the integrity of a man pushes him to make it work or at least do everything in his power to make it work but I do understand where you come from...get out while your still breathing right?

 

It's probably not easy to get out of it once you sign..Before you sign you must do a risk vs reward analysis.If the ONLY way it works is with 3000 miles per week it fails my test.. Also a signed {by both parties} exit strategy would be good... L/P O/O L/O these are just gimmicks played on drivers... Integrity or starve? integrity goes first.

 

Companies such as this prey on the stupid. Unfortunately, there are many stupid people in (and headed into) this industry.

 

There's nothing wrong with Trans Am. Im 23 years old , lease a truck with them. I avg. 1100.00 a week, No i dont always get 3000 miles. its not possible, between shippers and recievers, late getting loaded etc. on a good week (3200) I take home $1500, on a ok week (2200-2500) I can take home $700.00-$850.00. You have to learn how to run a business before you can make money. Alot of people way older then me cant do it, they have no idea what a business is. Theres nothing wrong with trans am at all.

 

Hey...Weren't you JUST on the "Hendrickson" thread telling everybody (to use YOUR words "what a dumb---" they were because only YOU know how to "run a business" ??????

 

Can you say "All hat and NO cattle" ? Perhaps we should give Mr. Supertrucker a dictionary ?