Blue Diamond Freight LLC, Saginaw, MI

KBlue Diamond Freight llc is a small mom and pop company based out of Saginaw, Michigan. This is by no means a good company to work for, partially due to their inexperience as owner operators, but mostly due to stubborness and arrogance. Their inability to dispatch their drivers in a safe and legal timeframe, and a complete lack of communication with their drivers is what leads to a majority of their problems.

From day one I was seeing red flags that this may not be a good idea to work for this company. In the two weeks that I have worked for them they have shown me very little respect, if any. The day I called about their ad on craigslist was interesting. Usually before I even think about working for a company I ask 1000 different questions about their operations, pay, pet/rider policy, etc. I called up the owner, Nancy K. Her actions that day truly defined her as a person and a boss. All of my questions were blown off and any time I would try to speak, she would talk over me and control the conversation. By the end of that conversation I had been able to ask zero questions, and she asked me several questions including when could I come in for a road test. This was a major red flag for me, but I had been out of work for a month and had $10 to my name, so against my better judgement, I took the road test and drug test (that I had to pay for) and eventually accepted employment.

I left out on a Monday morning on my first load to Minnesota. There was definately a learning curve since none of the required paperwork that I had to complete was ever really explained to me. Penske trip reports, trip settlement sheets, IFTA fuel milages, etc. After a while I figured it out on my own but that kind of stuff needs to be explained in an orientation setting. I did have an orientation but it was a paperwork session and nothing was ever explained.

So anyways I complete that run and get dispatched on a tight but do-able load to Virginia. I minimize my off time and maximize my logbook and get the load there on time. This is where the fun starts. Because of the lack of communication / explanations and poor wording on orientation paperwork I was under the assumption that we could call and negotiate prices on loads with Cheap and heavy robinson. So while I'm waiting for 5 hours for Walmart to unload my trailer, I call up ChR to see what's available on the load boards. I find this load running from Wytheville, VA to Dallas, Texas. Load was offered at 1400. I told them I needed 2,400 to make a profit. They thought I was on drugs, Im sure. But when they wouldnt take that deal, I told them thanks for your time and hung up. Apparently that didn't sit well with Nancy and she called me up and told me off. Her equipment, her loads. Whatever, I get it. Maybe she should explain that to prospective drivers? Hmm...

The best part was that ChR called me back and said that they were willing to pay me what I offered, but I smiled when I told them that my boss had already booked me a load and that I had to decline. My new load was going to El Paso for 2100 flat to the company when I had an offer for 2400 for around 600 miles less than it was to El Paso. Poor business decision in my opinion, but what do I know? I just drive a truck.

The problem with this El Paso load was it's delivery schedule. They wanted it delivered almost 1900 miles in less than 3 days. This leads me to another point. When you call your dispatcher to let them know that your current load schedule is too tight and the delivery needs to be scheduled for the next day, you would think that they would understand the issue and at least work with you to fix it. My calls to Nancy and her secretaries were not responded to, and when they did answer their phone it was always to question my ability to trip plan or to tell me that they would take care of it, and then act surprised when their load isnt there to make the original appointment.

This same issue continued into the next two loads that I ran. Scheduling issues would come up 1-4 days before delivery that were communicated via text message or voicemail when my phone calls were blown off but when the load was late, It was always my fault for some reason.

Another side note, Nancy is a hairdresser and her husband Tom is a farmer. Aside from almost zero understanding of the trucking industry, Nancy's actions and words were very immature for a 50 something year old business owner. Text messages such as "what the f" or "why arent you txting me to tell me what is going on" really shed light on her true character. Especially when shes ignoring your phone calls and you respond to that last one with "I'm driving and this is a $3000 ticket if I get caught texting and driving" and she sends a message stating "I demand you tell me and btw, nobody txts and drvs in my trks". So thats what a migrane feels like.

The equipment was crap. My vorad was malfunctioning, gauges were resetting and lights would go out and come back on on a whim. Their response was to take it to Penske to fix it. On thanksgiving... right. I dont know about you, but I don't drive at night when my headlights dont work. This was another contributing factor to my 4th load being late, but Nancy couldnt grasp the concept.

So I finally get a load going home out of Cincinatti to Detroit. Picks up at 10pm. Delivers at 7am the next day. I started driving at 8am that day. Hours of service issue perhaps? I told her this the day I got the dispatch, which was 2 days before it even picked up. I communicate the issue, again. She doesnt care, again. I managed to get the load picked up early and got an hour into ohio before I was completely out of hours. She wakes me up 9 hours into my 10 hour break and asks if the load got there on time. Naturally she gets upset when I tell her no, despite the fact that I told her exactly how that schedule was going to work out 3 days ago. Of course.

So I finally get back to the farm. My instructions were to leave the credit cards in the truck so another driver could use them. I get a call today that the credit cards arent where they were supposed to be. After her husband absolutely blows up at me when he can't find the credit cards, I drive to the farm to look for them myself. I find that the driver who's truck I was substituting in had returned for his cb radio and must have grabbed the credit cards in the process, which I later found out that he did. Anyways, Nancy comes out to the truck and says to me "where's the keys". I hand them to her, she grabs them out of my hand and says "you're fired". When I asked about my check I get a nice big "f*** you!"

So now I'm out $800 unless I take it to small claims court. This is now just a huge cluster that could have been avoided with some basic business sense, a little more communication, and a lot more common sense. These people have too many irons in the fire to run a successful o.t.r. trucking company. I hope that anyone wishing to work for this company reads this post and decides to look elsewhere. They aren't worth the headache.

 

Exactly. Unfortunately times are tough, people are desparate, and I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I got burned but hopefully nobody ever will after reading this.