Covenant Transportation OR Western Express?? That is my question.

What is your diving history like? A lot of violations or time out of a truck?
Applying to 37 different companies and only having 2 consider you is not a good sign, it usually indicates some kind of a red flag by companies.
Some more insight on your situation would help!

As for the companies in question, i have worked for both before and neither one is a picnic and I am in no way endorsing either company.

Covenant has a 32.4% vehicle maintenance, 56.8% Unsafe driving, 39.9% Driver Fatigue(HOS), 9.7% Controlled substance, 34.9% Driver fitness.

[TABLE]
[TR]
[TH="align: left"]Total Crashes:[/TH]
[TD="align: center"]234[/TD]
[TD="align: center"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]Tow-aways:[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]223[/TD]
[TD="align: center"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]Injuries/Fatalities:[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]125[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

​

Western Express has a 64.5% Maintenance, 86.9% unsafe driving, 66.5% driver fatigue (HOS), 59.1% Controlled substance, 94.5% fitness.

​

​

[TABLE]
[TR]
[TH="align: left"]Total Crashes:[/TH]
[TD="align: center"]425[/TD]
[TD="align: center"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]Tow-aways:[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]399[/TD]
[TD="align: center"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]Injuries/Fatalities:[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]163[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

I don't know anything about Western Express, but in my experience Covenant takes CSA pretty seriously. If 10 was the best, I'd give them an 8 or 9.

The tractors are as new as you'll ever find at a big fleet (2009+), and they are routinely inspected at the Hutchins & Chattanooga terminals (monthly). The Chattanooga repair shop really goes above & beyond -- I was amazed when they fixed an interior cubby door latch and tightened an armrest on my truck.

The trailers are fair. Again they are all relatively new (2001+), and are inspected regularly at Chatt & Hutchins (every 2 months). Some of the oldest trailers are showing their age (ones numbered in the 38000s in partciular) but they are gradually being phased out with new trailers in the 42900s... You will still find marker lights out, low & flat tires, missing registrations, etc, but Covenant fixes it almost as soon as you call it in. The only bad part, is that you may be asked to drive 50-100 miles to the closest approved repair shop -- and this could potentially jeopardize your CSA score if an officer was in a foul mood. I generally run it and havent had an issue, but I'll insist on a roadside repair if I feel there is an actual threat to safety (tire's bead off the rim and ready to throw gator...) The main problem is the repair process usually takes 2-3 (unpaid) hours, so a great many drivers choose to ignore the problem and leave it for someone else (assuming they pretripped and even saw the issue). So many time low tires that might have been repairable have heat rings from extended driving and need to be replaced (which requires a separate corporate authorization & adds at least another hour). I'm anal about my equipment, so I probably do the shop thing as much as anybody and I'd estimate 1 in 10 trailers has a minor issue that could result in a citation. Sometimes that means you'll go 2 weeks without a bad trailer - sometimes you'll get 2 bad trailers in 1 day. Over the long run I think 1/10 is about right...

As for HOS stuff, you'll probably be on elogs and never asked to exceed hours so if you have issues its probably because you're doing something wrong.

As for weight, most of my loads are 15,000-30,000 and not even worth scaling (company policy is scale everything over 30,000 - they reinburse you as many times as you need to rescale). Once a month or so you'll get a 40,000-45,000 lb load and need to scale (& probably slide tandems). Very rarely (3 times in my 9months) you'll get a load that wont legally scale because you'll violate one or more state's bridge law. A lot of people just run it with legal axle/illegal bridge anyway, but I always go back to the shipper and have them rework the product distribution (covenant not only doesnt mind, they tell you to after you send in the overweight macro listing the axle weights & legal bridge). You'll almost never exceed gross -- one time I had to stop every 200-350 miles for fuel because we had to run 75 gallons or less (including reserve) to make gross, but that's rare and the dispatch message will usually warn you to arrive at shipper near empty...

The company offers prepass which usually keeps you out of the coops. But every now and then there will be a week or two where you get red lights to come in at every scale.

Most of the CSA points I've heard from other drivers have come about only after they do something to get law enforcement's attention (talk on handheld cell phone, speed, go down streets with "no truck" signs, roll through stop signs, etc)

So for CSA stuff they're not perfect, but (without having worked at any other outdit) I'd say they are probably much better than average - especially for a training company.

 

Double yellow,

Super input and well detailed. I am strongly considering Covenant and your review is very helpful.

 

I am pre hired at Covenant... is it true you are FORCED to team?

 

If you are a student from trucking school, yes they have you train with a certified trainer for 6-8wks then they have you team with another student for an unspecified amount of time. That is why I didn't go to Covenant right after school. Did not like the idea of teaming with someone for more time right after school and training for a brief period with someone who has the same amount of experience as me.

 

Last time I checked, Covenant was pushing the whole team thing in an attempt to become a full team outfit (like CRST).

Of the two, my vote would be for Western Express, with the caveat of working on the flatbed side of operations. The difference I saw between van and flatbed was like night and day. Western Express, last I saw, was not jumping on the team bandwagon.