Epes transport ,a great place for me

i worked for EPES and was very pleased with the company overall.Some good points to the company are,,,
1:They have a GREAT driver dispatcher relations
2:Great well maintained equipment,,(even if your a nit picker ,Tommy @ the Greensboro garage will go out of his way to make you happy)
3:Great home time
4:every year they have a company safety meeting(a big shindig where you AND family get together for a dinner,,drawings for alot of prizes and no not some cheap things,,things such as refrigerators, washer dryers,ect.)heck I won a refrig and was only there 2 months
5:if your a trainee, you get paid for the miles the truck moves, not your trainer
6:If you should have a complaint, the terminal manager is one step from you, or Britt Colley ( president) is only a call away and issues are resolved quickly.
7:most of the drivers have been there for more than 10yrs(that should tell you something)
8:EPES is pretty much setup to make the drivers as comfortable and as happy as possible
9:You can have inverters installed in your truck
10:My list could go on and on and on and on for the good points ,,so I'll stop and let you read the bad points.

bad points
1:e-logs on most of the new trucks
2:safety are idiots ( but as are with most companies), just stay out of the safety idiots eye sight and your ok,,lol
3:hmmm,, trying to think of more bad points ,but they just elude me.

I only quit because I decided to buy my own truck.

Bottom line:
If your looking for a GREAT company to hire onto as a driver and live in the hiring area,, "run", don't walk to the phone and call recruiting. Also they have a sister company for you midwest area , "Texas Star"

 

As for the Family dollar dedicated
I used to do this for EPES and loved it.

If your a physical person,, you would also
I made $1000 to $1100 a week easily and was home 2 nights a week PLUS my weekends.

EPES does have a high turn over in this area due to some drivers not being the physical type and get burned out with 100% driver unloads ( just pace yourself you'll be fine) the rewards are great

 

I know that some are against the elogs but I switched back and forth between elogs and paper throughout my driving career. I started out with the Xata with Ryder in the mid '90s then to paper with a different companies afterward, then back to elogs on and on.
I worked for one company that used a gps with the qualcomm but you used paper. When they start to get in trouble with the DOT for log violations, they started to audit paperlogs with the GPS. With alot of companies dont matter if you are elogs or paper. I just see the elogs as insurance for keeping out of trouble with safety department and the law. But I have to admit, the only eloging I have done was on "dedicated" accounts. I dont know how it works OTR driving.
As far as with Epes "good points" you are completely right.

 

yeah i've been pretty happy with them too but do find the miles to be hit or miss from week to week......ran hard last two week, not so much two weeks before and then got 1800 thru thursday this week and now sitting 14 hours in valdosta to get a load that picks up 13 miles away and is a 230 mile run. there will be days like that but compared to what I hear from alot of drivers out here, our days like that are fewer than most.

as far as the elogs otr.....they suck. trip planning takes on a whole new importance and i've been screwed on it by live loads/unloads and dock guys that get paid by the hour and don't care my clock is running and I get paid by the mile. what are you going to do? run hard and get creative with parking that's about all you can do lol

still, it's alot better than alot of the companies people post about on here and can't say i've found THAT much to complain about. just wish the miles were more consistent. it averages out by the end of the month but i'd like a little more consistencythan running the #### out of me 2 weeks and boring me to death 2 weeks out of the month and that seems to be the only consistency there is there

but am I happy? yeah. I could have done alot worse that's for sure

 

i just was told by a recurtier after filling out a app that central fl was just out of there hiring area i sure was wanting to drive for them be hearing its a good place

 

could you tell i was a little irritated in that last post? lol something about running 2 hours, having 9 full hours left and then having to sit 14 hours for a pos load like that will do that to you lol......but i know it happens and fortunately not often. just sucks when it does. in contrast, i was preplanned every day this week before i even got finished on the load i was on and they were good ones up until this morning.

and then, get an almost impossible preplan but one that is doable if you hold off on your pickup until the last minute. so, sit 16 hours instead of 14. to run 230. to run another 50 and then out of hours at the shipper when you get there because the appointment time (firm) is right on hour 13.5 of your 14..... but, will get you home, albiet saturday night instead of saturday morning. just one of those weeks.

don't get me wrong, i like it here. these kinds of days are rare....but i'll also tell the bad along with the good......and i do have to wonder why and how the guy that delivered after me got a load right out and i'm sitting here 16 hours. the way my trainer explained it it's first in first out of available drivers in the area.....and i was out a good 30 minutes before he was and he pulled up beside me after unloading and 15 minutes later was rolling......and i know there are alot of variables involved.....his load may have been going towards home where it would have kept me out until sunday.....lucky him he gets in and i stay out another day.....just frustrating and makes you sit back and go hmmmm......lol......maybe the only thing they could get me home with was what i got.....who knows? given the rest of the week was good i'll give them the benefit of the doubt on it but i've gotten two good weeks in so it's about time to twiddle my thumbs for a week or two just based on history

yeah Bob is pretty cool....I've talked to some guys that don't like hiim but I think it's more his position than anything else....anytime I've had dealings with him he's always been straight up and straightforward and that's all I ask of anybody.