Taylor Truck Line Northfield, MN

Thanks for the info, nice of them to pay your way home.

 

yeah it was nice of them,if the truck wasnt in such bad shape,I would be pulling loads for them now...Oh well.

 

I hear you, that sucks. Where to now, any ideas?

 

If you want a decent local/regional job see if you can get into j.b hunt intermodal. The bn in st paul has tons of freight for them. I almost worked for them but I bought another truck instead.

 

I found another job,a company in Nebraska.I'll let you know how that one turns out.

 

I will be adding a thread on here about my time at Taylor. I am a flatbedder and only know a little of their van operations. I have been here a while now, and I can say. After being a owner op for years, I really like it here. I am a company driver now. The biggest thing for me to get used to was elogs but its easy as pie and I can still get 3000 + miles a week. And there are quite a bit more than a couple new trucks. The fleet is full of cascadias and t700s that I have seen.

But yeah like I said ill be making up a thread I just wanted to do a little inputting here quick as typing sucks on my phone.

 

Im also looking at a company in Nebraska, lol.

Good luck bro, hope that works out for you.

 

These are the facts regarding Taylor Truck Line out of Northfield MN:

Company Van Drivers- will run primarily north central ( Minneapolis, Chicago, Columbus ). Running trips averaging 400 to 500 miles per day.
Most drivers, after completing orientation will have to ride along with a shuttle driver to the Portland Tennessee yard to pick up a truck that has been dumped by a previous driver, as dirty and as nasty as you can imagine. Company drivers will average about 2200 miles per week.

Company Pad Wrap Drivers- will by far make the most money. You get $100 blanket pay for folding blankets per load. Sure, it may be 110 degrees outside, and 120 degrees in the trailer while folding, but it is an extra $100. If you dont mind dripping sweat folding 150 plus furniture blankets, you will probably be ok. The pad wrap division, is the only van division that drives all 48 states.

Company Flatbed Drivers- I do not know enough about this division to leave a comment.

Lease Purchase Drivers- Just know that Taylor Truck Line subsidiary leases the trucks, and therefor will do all it can to make money. If you lease a truck from Taylor, you will not be allowed to make any modifications to the truck that would benefit you, (APU, Bunkheater, Oil recycler, Etc. ) as the prospective owner/operator, in any way. Some trucks have 800,000 miles, some have less. Depending on the year of the equipment, determines the weekly payment. A 2008 Volvo 670 for example, will cost you $435 a week, or $1740 a Month. Mind you, this is only the lease purchase cost, not insurance and every other escrow they can come up with at the time. There will also be a $2500 down payment required by you. You can either pay by check when signing contract, or pay weekly until down payment is completed. Everything is deducted in percentages, therefor the more you make, the more they take.

Taylor at times, because it is beneficial to them, will not pay you for all of your bills, but will only pay you for bills that cover fuel and the truck payments ( Lease, Insurance, and Escrows ). Do not think this is morally injust, this is Taylor's primary objective for lease purchase drivers.

If you decide that Taylor's lease purchase program has put you in the poor house, and you can no longer continue receiving $15 a week paychecks, do not fear. Taylor will also make sure they consume all other escrow account funds for cleaning, and other miscellaneous costs.

Taylor's lease purchase program will have you swimming in debt before you dip your toe in the waters of "Owner Freedom", but fear not. You will play a major role in the ability for Taylor to make exponential profits.

Orientation- This should last about three days. The usual schedule. Day 1 is drug test and physical. Day 2 is company policy and road test. Day 3 is get a truck and fuel card. They will reimburse you for travelling expenses up to the Northfield MN yard from your home town. They will rent a car for whomever lives furthest away, and pick you up as they go. Know this: if there is any reason why you may not be hired, they will not reimburse you, nor will they give you a ride home.

Hope this helps clear up some questions. If a company is not a good fit for you, you may have to reconsider what it is you are looking for. Perhaps your expectations are too high?

 

I worked for Taylor in 2010 and they kept me with good miles and good home time. When I was having problems at home they made sure I was home to deal with them. I unfortunately quit them two months after I started because of my now hag of an ex-wife cried because we couldn't work on our failing marriage which was a huge mistake. A couple months ago Taylor called me and asked me if I was interested in coming back to work for them which I jumped on that chance. Taylor is a good company to work for, the people are great and I've never been happier to work for Taylor. For seeing our trailers on the train we have a great dedicated account that I was given the opportunity to run on. Like I said this is the first company I truely am happy working for.

 

Crazycrickett and sylvie say it like it is. I was there 2 months worst most incompetant place I ever drove for. As far as nice trucks that might be 10% of the fleet they rest are wore out junk from Crete,Werner, JB Hunt and England. Maintainance is a joke zip ties are the aswer to everything. You have to fight for your hometime as they try to weasel out of giving it to you then count on only 34 hours. If you like a clean truck forget it they don't even have a wash bay. I could go on for pages but I won't. To sum it up 340 or so trucks and 2 orientations a week speaks for itself.