Reliable Carriers/Canton, Mi

I hired on at Reliable Carriers 6/4/12. I should have researched things a little more carefully. Reliable has always had a reputation for drivers(car haulers) making the best money in the business. Drivers there told me that at one time, if you weren't taking home $3000 a week, you were doing something wrong. The downside to those paychecks was being married to them and minimal home time. I made a decision to to give up home time and make those lucrative paychecks. The other thing I had known about them was the large bunks on their trucks. I'm talking a shower, toilet, sink, cabinets, large closet, table and your bed. I applied for a position in their enclosed trailer division. I was told that they had put a freeze on hiring enclosed drivers and that they had 2 open trailer positions to fill. I asked them if I could make say $80K to $90K a year. They told me that would not be an issue and that they were looking for drivers that wanted to get on board and retire from there. At that point I should have been a little skeptical.

When I arrived, I was given a very rusty beat up old 2004 Pete with a Cuttrell High Rail with over 800,000 miles. It was a mess. It had many problems that had not been dealt with and it was filthy and worn on the inside. During the 3 1/2 months on board, I set foot in my house once for 14 hrs and I probably had 4 paychecks that were over $1000. the rest were well below. When I told other drivers that I was hoping to make a transition to enclosed, they told me not to hold my breath because Reliable has a hard time keeping drivers in the open division and would need me to stay there for an indefinate period of time.

The maintenance department were very nice guys and try hard but they are way overloaded and good luck getting things fixed there. More often than not it's safety items only. There were a few nice people in the office but I noticed from day one how much tension was in the air. Nothing like I had ever seen before. I don't think I ever had one kind word from the Manager(Steve) the whole time I was there. I was sitting in Chandler, AZ getting repairs on my truck and an alignment. I arrived Sun eve and was finished Wed afternoon. I was dispatched a load from Vegas back to Michigan but it was canceled due to cars had already been loaded and gone. We are allotted 2 hotel rooms per month. When I texted the other Mgr(Dave) and asked him if he could fix this problem for me of being here for so long and going broke, his exact words were " If you are using your hotel card more than the 2 you are alotted each month, I will charge them back to you." I then realized that these people are ruthless and that I had made a very big mistake.

They also haul a lot of test vehicles, some of which are extremely heavy and belong on a low boy. When you try to tell them that you can't get it loaded, they frown. I was asked to load 6 Mercedes SUV's (Q6?)once. Not knowing how heavy they were. I loaded them in Santa Fe, NM and when I scaled the load in Santa Rosa, I was 80,300 at 1/4 tank of fuel and 13' 9". They delivered in the Detroit area. 13'6" is the rule in that area. I had to go around all the scales and choose an alternate route with no extra pay. I can tell you many stories like this that happened while I was there.

That was my experience at Reliable Carriers.