Life at American Central Transport (ACT)

Hello Sir, can I ask with your large family and all, why such a far away start to orientation? Thank you and have a wonderful day!

 

Low Budget,
Thank you for the information. My husband just wants to make a living, not a million. He is a steady, reliable driver. I will text you tomorrow with Blaine's number so you will know who he is when he calls you. Thanks for your honesty.



In addition, would anyone have the lease for ACT available in electronic form and be willing to share it with us. Seems most don't want you to have a copy to look at before you sign.

Thanks,
Blechko/Liz

 

ACT will e-mail you a copy of the lease. It did take a week or so, but at the time, life happened, and as a person who life happens to on a regular basis, we can understand. I sent you a PM.

 

DragonTamer Brat,
Thanks for the pm. I almost have enough posts that I can send pm's myself, LOL. I will take you up on contacting you. We really think ACT is the way to go, but they want him to do a week with a trainer and 90 days as a company driver. That will be a significant cut in pay, so we may have to delay his move until I start actually getting disability. That is another story. Between the two, we could swing the cut for the 90 days and then he could get into the L/O program.

Thanks
blechko/liz

 

Why do they want him to go with a trainer? And then company driver?

 

He used to drive up until 2006. He went through a refresher course with Crst at the beginning of the summer and has been driving then. But from what I understand they want 18 months recent driving experience and he doesn't have that yet. Thus, trainer and 90 days.

 

BK can speak for himself, but I have been following his post from his not being accepted at JCT, his adventures at Risenger, and now ACT. Yes some of his accomplishments seem hard to attain, but I have watched his pickup and deliveries, and he is not one to mess around. He picks up and gets there fast, night or day, wherever the load goes, short or long. He seems to be looking at the big picture of sometimes you have to take some short stuff that don't pay the most, considering the time used to complete, but is rewarded with good paying loads later on.

What I have noticed as to what keeps him moving, is that he knows where the freight is, who does D/H as compared to live loads, who ships quick or delivers early, and takes those loads no matter the length of haul. I noticed a few last week that I thought were very short haul, but he either immediately picked up or did a D/H, and was on his way, which I suppose is why he took a load most drivers would have turned down. That is how you make money as a L/O, O/O, you know your lanes and shippers/receivers. If I still owned trucks, I would be proud to have BK drive for me. He has a grasp on freight very few know.

I have never talked to BK, he does not know me, nor me him. I have just noticed this pattern of his over the past couple of years. I watched to see if he would fail, was a blow hard, or was a hard runner that knew his stuff. I may be proved wrong, but he appears to be a very hard runner that knows his stuff. He is making it as a L/O when the vast majority of people doing so fail.

 

How did he get on with Jct then? They're all lease purchase I thought and only hire experienced drivers? Good luck though!

 

JCT only requires 4 months current experience, which he had. They also gave him credit for past experience because they were able to verify it with DOT and companies he worked for. It is all Lease/purchase, but they do absolutely no maintenance on the trucks they choose from. The drivers have 15 min to write down any problems they see that need to be addressed and the drivers are not even allowed to test drive the trucks. Blaine got stuck with an automatic which has had nonstop mechanical problems since he started. It is a nightmare! The company couldn't care less. They rarely respond to messages, rarely answer questions, rip into the drivers if they do anything wrong, give them loads without time to deliver them. He has to run at least 10 - 10 1/2 hours every day to get loads delivered. He is a hard worker and runs hard, but there is never any word of appreciation. They also do a lot of deliveries in the NW, but won't allow the drivers to use I90. He was delivering from Yakima, WA to Iowa. There was a major storm on I 84 and 80 so he decided to go I 90 to avoid it. They called him 4 hours into the trip and told him he had to go back and take I 84 and 80 or they wouldn't pay him. So he had to retrace his steps and drop down into the storm where he could only travel about 20mph. and was told he could not stop.
We just want to get with a company who cares about the drivers and treats them like humans. He will work his tail off to deliver early, if he can find a company that will appreciate his efforts.