Quickway

Some new information on Quickway Terminal #52.

A few months ago, we changed dispatchers. Our terminal in Conroe Tx should have the majority of Houston Routes but for some reason I am stuck going far south of Houston...a 600 mile round trip. The older Macks that are set at 59 MPH and one of them is mine.

I am looking for another job. In my year at Quickway, I have watched as the driver quality has diminished. If you are good at hauling milk, you will be going to the extreme delivery areas and what you can't do in a 59 MPH truck, you will be expected to make up for in being faster at the stores. If you dump pallets of milk all over the dock, you will be rewarded with some easy job like driving to Kansas.

I don't know how it is elsewhere, but this is the way it is in Fort Worth. What needs to happen is the dispatchers need to ride on some of these routes they dispatch. The worst thing a driver can do is to actually do these long distance routes because they will expect you to do another one next week with another 20 miles added to it. If you could actually GET to Houston before rush hour it might help. But when the route starts at 1 PM in Fort Worth, this is going to put you right at the peak of rush hour in Houston.

I cannot recommend this job to anyone. It takes an OTR commitment to what is supposed to be a local job. A 17 hour route with only 15 hours to do it. I know I will be sitting on the side of the road tonight, waiting out my time so I can get back home. This is with no stopping for anything. An employee owned company where the employee has absolutely no say on how the place is operated. Never the same route, always different. Can't get the store to let you in as the dock closes at 12 noon and after that they are in no hurry.

All this at 59 MPH, no set days off, never the same stores.

 

what about an update hubcap? hows it goin? did you leave quickway yet??

 

Not quite yet...I know that this could be one bad to the bone job! It could be the kind of job that drivers stand in line to get. And like I say, it may be a different story elsewhere and it may be because of the miles involved hauling in Texas. Most Kroger stores here in Texas and Louisiana will not answer the back door, so you have to walk around the store adding to the time involved to unload.

We started a new service for America's Beverage Corp (Kroger) and in the three weeks I have been assigned to it, I have actually hauled twice. We are leasing 6 trailers for a job that actually is iffy at best. It pays good when it goes but the day shift guy is slowly being starved to death.

The senior drivers (the vested ones) pretty well choose what they do. We have one that drives the nicest Pete in the yard. Walk in sleeper and all the bells and whistles but he never does a route that he has to sleep in it. What a waste. These are the group of drivers that came over with DLH trucking when Quickway took it over. Sometimes it is best to start fresh instead of keeping what made the former company lose the account in the first place.

That is why my former company, Farm Fresh Dairy and Bakery Products is no longer in business. They refused to change the way treated the drivers, always a lot of turnover and resentment. Farm Fresh had a driver die in crash when I was with them. 980 miles, 22 stops and about 26 hours straight with one driver. Their answer? They hired a safety consultant made up of ex-highway patrolmen to tell the DRIVERS that they were at fault! That almost got the Teamsters voted in!

Typical trucking company, blame the driver for everything wrong about their own company.

 

Today, June 30 is my last day at Quickway. I have a left foot that had been put back together twice and ever since they found that out, they have made it a clear that they are going to force me to haul nothing but milk until I quit. So, I am giving them what they want.

All they are hiring now in Fort Worth is Ben E Keith rejects, most of them have their noses stuck in their cell phones and don't pay attention to what they are doing. Most will not pick up their empties and all that does is make more work for those of us who do. I have been told that it is not like this at the other Quickway terminals, it may be time to clean house at terminal 52. We have the former head of DLH and his daughter running it now.

More later when I have time. I have a 600 mile route to haul in Houston today with a 59 MHP truck.

 

Ok guys. Understand I worked out of the Fort Worth terminal. This is terminal 52.

Vandervoort dairy once has a transportation division named DLH. When Kroger bought out Vandervoorts, they got DLH with it.....the trouble is that the kept the DLH head and others when it became Quickway. DLH ran as a family owned business for years, in many ways they were the competition for my old company Farm Fresh Dairy and Bakery Products.

Now that it is Quickway, they are still trying to run it like a family business. They like who they like and the DLH employees seem to have it made. Some drivers do a 5 hour Dallas route and go home. I got the 600 mile Houston routes in a truck that had a top speed of 59 MPH with five stops in rush hour. So you have the 50+ year old milk haulers killing off what is left of their knees and shoulders pulling milk and the 30 year old drivers getting the easy routes.

Now, I know the entire company is not like terminal 52 but Quickway needs to go in there and rid itself of DLH once and for all. If not, they will never keep anything but a handful of prima-donna drivers who have been brought into Quickway by DLH. Right now they are hiring anything they can get their hands on....Most of the newest drivers can't back!

 

Hi, I talked to them in Anderson, SC. They took over some Kroger bread runs, mostly in Atlanta. The recruiter Dave or something kept bragging and saying "we hire ya to retire ya", but I dont think he got the memo that they cant keep anyone LOL. They pay miles and stops peddling bread around Atlanta.

 

Dave is the man that I worked for at Interstate Driver Training...and it was a good school. He is now the HR and driver retention over all of Quickway. Dave knows nothing of these issues I speak of when it comes to term. 52 as he is corporate. I have found out today that the clinic that we use is now going to start forcing a friend of mine to take a sleep study. So if you are overweight, you are going to have to pay for this sleep study your self. If you are an older driver that might have a few bumps and bruises on you, you will be doing the hardest work they have while those in their 30's pretty well get to sit on their rear ends.

It looks to me that after you have served one year of the five that it takes to become fully vested, they start looking to send you down the road. This is called discrimination. When I saw there was no chance of me spending my full five years there, I started looking for another job. Pretty rich for a company who claims to be "%100 employee owned"!

So let the youngsters have it! The coveted prize of lasting 5 years is out of my reach. I am old and have served my time as a young driver trying to prove myself. It is a shame that today the young driver doesn't have to go through what I did when I was young, but I suppose that is why the world is in the shape it is in today. If you are in your 20's or 30's....go for it! They will like you, if you are over 40, watch your back. Your days of being an asset only lasts until they discover you might actually work out, then you are a liability to their personal share price.

 

Understand, Quickway COULD BE one bad to the bone outfit! There are some very good things about the company, I mean they give you two weeks of vacation after two years. Just not Fort Worth Texas. It is run like a family business here and it doesn't have to be like this.

 

Gross or net?