FFE Your thoughts!!!

Keep updating as I am headed there next month. I am greatful for any pointers.

 

New Questions: How well are the company trucks maintained? Do they allow you to idle or do the trucks have APUs? Are you assigned your truck or is there a lot of swapping? I read an earlier post about having to pay plates and lumpers and other misc fees is that just for O/O or do company drivers have to pay all that to? How are lumpers paid? With FFE is there a high percentage of no touch freight and drop and hook? I dont drive trucks yet but am looking into it for a career change as a company driver for someone and feel like I have narrowed it down to FFE, Stevens, or Swift. This thread seems to have some FFE drivers that know what they are talking about and not just comapny bashing.

 

They get PM's every 30,000 miles. From what I have seen and heard, they are well-maintained, and FFE will fix anything that needs to be fixed (as long as it's legitimate).

It varies by truck. Units with APU's don't idle when the outside temperature is within a certain range.

You get your own truck.

Company drivers do not pay for plates or lumpers. I don't know how it works for O/O.

If you get a proper receipt with the lumper's address and EIN, they are paid with a TCH check. If you don't get a proper receipt, it comes out of your check.

If you are a LTL driver, you can expect to touch freight. If you are an OTR driver, it would not be expected. I have talked to drivers who have many years worth of OTR experience who never touched freight with FFE.

DISCLAIMER - Most of the above information is what I was told in orientation this week or what I have seen in the past three weeks.

 

If you're on a dedicated account, you may be paid to unload. Their maintenance seems good to me, and mostly seems to be '10 and newer. We just sent back all our '09 trucks, I'm driving a '10 right now waiting on my '13 Cascadia in the next month or so. As for lumpers, they'll pay if you get a receipt but I unload wherever possible with whatever equipment available. Breaks up the monotony and makes driving a reefer less boring (I'm a flat/tank/dump guy).

 

Drove dedicated for them for 2 yrs, to put it mildly, the right hand has NO idea what the left hand is doing in this company. It's a decent place to get started but I'd definitely move on after getting your 6 months in, 12 months for sure if you can put up w/ their disorganization that long and have the patience. Believe me, it won't get any better the longer you stay there...unless they completely clean house and sweep out the current management. How they make a buck is a mystery the way they run the operation down there. Like previous posters on different threads have said, it used to be a good company to work for back in the day. No longer true that's for sure. Been there done that moved on down the road.