OTR out of Denver/CO

Stay away! Stay far away! I worked for them from 11/11 - 2/12 and it was one of the worst places I ever worked.

Yes, I'm an ex-employee, but I will tell you the truth about Shepherd Ent.

How many log books can you maintain at the same time. This is a necessary skill when working at Shepherd Enterprises. It's LTL work hauling frozen or fresh lamb, bacon, bison ect. There are some swinging loads as well.

They only start at .34 cpm, but you can lump your own loads and make some good money that way. My paychecks were actually pretty good. I was making over $1200 per week usually.

All dispatches are out of Denver and return to Denver. Usually about 6 - 9 days out at a time and maybe 34 hours reset turn around.

Here is an example of what you will be doing.

You tell the dispatcher you are ready to go at 0700 in the morning on Thursday. You wait all day for a call to give you your dispatch info. At 1500 you get a call saying that your load is ready at 1600 and your first of 10 stops is in Lincoln, NE at 0500 the next morning.

OK, so you will be driving all night after being up all day waiting for a call that sucks, but it can be done.

You get to the terminal to pickup your trailer at 1600 so you can get started towards Lincoln, but you aren't going anywhere. The trailer hasn't even been started to get loaded. They are waiting for product from different shippers that isn't even at the terminal yet.

By 2000 your trailer is finally ready so you hook it and head to Lincoln.

You get to Lincoln through the snow and ice right at 0500. A nice 8 hour drive or so. you get a dock and earn some extra cash pulling a pallet of bacon off the trailer and separating the product types on different pallets. Easy $60. You are out of there in 30 min.

Ok, so now you would think you would have some time to rest. I mean you have been awake since 0700 yesterday. Nope! You have to start a second log book because you have a 0800 appointment in Omaha, a 1100 appointment in Omaha, and a 1300 appointment in Omaha. Sleep, who needs that!

Think you are done? Nope, you are only getting started! After your 1300 appointment you head north to Lemars, IA for a 1500 appointment. Then another 1600 appointment about 20 miles away.

Now must be the time to rest, right? No way! You have a 0500 appointment in Belvidere, IL. That's near Rockford, IL. Get to driving! You don't need any sleep!

You catch a 2 hour nap and make your 0500 appointment in Belvidere. You are there for five hours waiting for them to unload you.

Next you have two appointment in Chicago. That is fun on 2 hours sleep in the past 2 days! Sleep? Nah, you don't need any of that!

At 1500 you finally have your Chicago appointments done and you head north through afternoon traffic for a morning appointment at 0500 in LaCross, WI. Get to driving! Don't worry. Tonight you will get a five hour nap. Five hours sounds real nice!

At 0500 you deliver in LaCross and now you are empty. Head to Green Bay for your back haul. You get loaded in Green Bay at 1300 and head to Milwaukee for your second pickup for the back haul. By 1800 you are loaded and buried in snow, but you have to drive because they want the load back in Denver by the following evening!

Sleep? No, you don't need any of that! Legal logs? Don't worry about those!

That was my experience at Shepherd Enterprises. Every week was pretty much the same. I went to the east coast alot and to NYC. That was just as crazy. 2 days to get to NJ and then deliveries in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Hunts Point in the Bronx. Then rush back to Denver. Crazy!

I did make good money, but it wasn't worth it at all!

 

I live in Denver and looked at Sheperd, but I wasnt thrilled with them...The trucks and trailers looked pretty old, why havent they been looked at by DOT? Thier
safety rating is pretty bad!!!!!

 

Why you ask,because companies can go yrs without being looked at.Now trk drivers that's a different story.This is why I feel the rules and regulations is nothing but a racket and all about revenue.If FMCSA was really all about safety they would be doing inspections and audits with companies more then once every 6 months and they would'nrt be giving the companies a 2 months notice when thry're coming.It's like do some house cleaning so we won't have to shut you down.Trk drivers get put OOS immediately and alot of the reason is because of the companies but that's ok they can do whatever they well please.

 

To me that does not sound like good money for how you had to work to make that kind of paycheck, imho

 

they only pay .30 a mile.
just had a friend start with them.
I guess since they have some of the nicest trucks on the road, they probley think .30 a mile is worth the privledge
to drive those nice blue trucks

 

Great post and very timely as well, they have been posting on Craigslist and I was curious. Thanks.

 

Well - this will be my last post on Shepherd Enterprises (and the last time I ever work for them). Long, more or less bi'''y post, but for those inquiring, here goes.

Drivers, it's worse at S.E. than it's ever been. Dan's son is taking over, and between the two of them, I literally, in 16 years can't remember being lied to, cheated on my paycheck, and screwed over, more than I have for this company (and I've known them for years). Here's what you can expect, if you decide to work for them.

1) The trucks are now governed at 68 mph, while the routes are still setup for 75-80mph trucks. If you stop for fuel, you will be late. If you take a 30 minute DOT break, you will be late. If you run in to traffic, you will be late. If you do an actual pre-trip/post-trip, you will be late. In fact, most of the loads are already late before they even call you. They give you -zero- time on their loads, and they will expect you to log off duty (electronic logs), and keep rolling to make up the time. You -will- be exhausted, and in no shape to drive, almost nonstop. You can and will sit on their yard all day (without pay) waiting for your trailer to be loaded (or repaired in the shop), and then be expected to drive all night, and half of the next day before you even get a nap. When you say "I'm out of hours", they will say "well, we do this run every week - your elogs are malfunctioning - switch to paper, and keep rolling".

2) They changed their drop pay from a decent sliding scale (up to $40 per drop after like the 7th stop), to a flat rate of $30, when the standard rate for LTL drops today, is $40-$50. This can add up to hundreds of dollars per week that they're now taking out of the driver's pocket. Also, they made this major payroll change in the middle of the week, without saying anything to their drivers who'd been working for years under the old terms. They just sent out a letter one day and said "here's what we're doing - you will now make less money".

3) They will not pay you detention pay, even though you repeatedly go and sit on the same yards (like U.S. Foods) for 2, 3, sometimes 5-6 hours. And Shepherd knows this, because they will schedule your next appointment (even though it's only 10 minutes away), for 3-4 hours later. They know how long you're going to sit there. Almost any other company will pay $15+ an hour after 1.5 - 2 hours. Some of these receivers however, have actually told me that they pay detention to Shepherd - while Shepherd lies, and withholds the detention pay from their drivers (and that makes sense; detention is also an "expense reimbursement", so it, like per diem, is not taxed).

4) Nearly 30% of your paycheck is per diem, which Shepherd will not give you the option of opting out of. You might "think" you're making $50,000 per year, but you're making closer to $35,000. Trust me, it might look good paycheck to paycheck, but they are taking the maximum allowable expense pay per day, right out of your pocket, claiming it as an expense at the end of the year for the company, while your tax refund, benefits, retirement, disability, unemployment, and loan qualifications get crucified. Do your homework, it's a scam that will cost you in the end.

5) Lumpers at the drop locations won't even get in the back of those trailers for less than $80. Yet Shepherd doesn't think a driver who does the work for half of that amount, should be paid even half. They will have you unloading freight at customer locations with no ramp, no dock, a pallet jack (and in some cases, box by box), and expect you to do it for free. I spent an entire week transferring freight in and out of trucks that broke down, quit, or the driver called in sick (4 to be precise). Nearly 15 pallets, breaking down, restacking, and transferring between trailers (all while off duty so that we wouldn't be late). Dan Shepherd laughed when I requested $40 a pallet. Ultimately, he didn't pay me one penny for it. All I got was my reg mileage pay, and 3 drops (@ $30). So yeah, we used to make good money lumping our own loads, but today you do it for free. I have pictures saved for three different drops in one week, where I unloaded freight for 50% of what the on-sight lumpers would charge, and Shepherd refused to pay me anything.

6) Don't believe the 1-3, 3-5, 5-7 day out ads they're placing on Craiglist. Once they figure out you know how to drive, you won't see home again until you threaten to quit. They won't give you 34hr refreshers, and will keep you up against your 70hrs nonstop. They remedy this by giving you backhaul pieces to be picked up the next day, driving you further and further away from home, working you just enough to not pay you layover, while they maximize on LTL profits. You have never known true trickery and deceit, until you are staring it down and realize what it is you've been sucked into. I was doing the math, and several times, realized I was actually spending more on the road than I was making. It's really cool to clear $1000 on a paycheck, until you realize you've worked 8 days for it, put in well over 110 hours, and spent about $300 more on food, water, and laundry than you originally planned, because you THOUGHT you were going straight to Salt Lake City and back

7) Their safety rating is so low, that they've been unable to use prepass. You will have the comfort of knowing that pretty much every state and scale house as an itch for Shepherd trucks. Shepherd uses cheap tires, neglected trucks, and old refer trailers (that have been falling to pieces for over a decade). The DOT smiles when they see Shepherd, because it's $$$ time, and at the expense of -your- CDL.

It almost seems comical to look back at it all now, until you realize that the only way Shepherd could possibly be staying in business, is if they are making SO much money by screwing over their drivers. They have a yard full of empty trucks, while they have an office full of dispatchers/staff workers. Almost seems like a money laundering outfit.

I strongly urge any honest, law-abiding, hardworking driver to go elsewhere. This company will chew you up, and spit you out.

Good luck, and be safe out there.

 

Denver is a consumption destination. They want all the goods but do a little shipping from the east side. Commerce Ave if I recall.

I always had work in and out of denver. So that as a good thing. Be very careful hiring on to anyone in Denver. Because you have 5 mountain passes west of you (Duh... as if...) that will kill you if you have a ####ty truck.

 

Truer words were never spoken sir!

 

I've been with shepherd for ten years myself and never have I been asked to run multiple logs or have I been lied to. Yeah you bust your arse and if you have legit receipts and paperwork in order you get your pay. Bad drivers create lots of problems for companies and then blame the company when they get called on it. Thirty years out here and I've stayed because l like where I work, meet reasonable demands and continue to make good money.