Van Wyk Inc.

Been stuck east the last couple weeks, usually i pick up near the house, run down to va or md, and go west. Lately instead i hear from josh, "we're short on trucks for rdc", of course they're easy loads, but i've had to do 8/2 splits on sleeper birth the whole week except for last nite, delivered into syracuse this morning, told josh i had very little hours and need a bit of time on the next load....told to head to arcade and deliver in the morning. Wtf...is it that hard for josh to understand that you cant expect a driver to stay awake all night, all next day and all night again?getting more than a little fed up with him not understanding what a drivers is saying and not even looking at hours left before just throwing a load onto the truck. Speaking of the truck, found one of the small marker bulbs next to the headlight out, and when i went to replace it, found the socket corroded, whoever last had this thing before i came on board here really left this truck a sorry mess, i cant wait until they trade this POS in....headed to arcade to grab this load, then do the old red-eye to md, then I'll battle with waynesboro in the morning, I'll see if i can get another load through the house, run mainly east out of rdc so i can get home the next weekend after that so i can get the dot physical done at my doc's office. That's enough griping for a while lol. Things have been good up until last week, seems like things are getting sloppy with va dispatch lately.

 

Lately? LOL One year ago I told dispatch over a week in advance that I needed to get home for an appointment (gave them the date before the actual appointment), ended up having to pass me off to VA, I called Josh the morning of the day I would be at RDC, with hours to spare, telling him that I needed to get home ASAP (i.e. You need to give me Jersey City, today, or come up with something creative.) I arrive and call in, and am informed there's nothing left today and I'll have to sit tight for tomorrow. Then the next day he comes up with a Halfmoon..."It's the first one loaded so make sure you get up there first to get the empty." Thanks Josh...I need to be in Philly dressed and pressed with my wife the following morning for an immigration interview, and you want me to race up to Halfmoon (it's around 11:00 AM), grab an empty (God forbid he gave me the courtesy of telling the other drivers going to Halfmoon, "Hey I got a driver that needs to get home today don't take that empty.") and go home, which is over 700 miles. That's the most Josh and VW has ever pissed me off. I resolved when I left that I didn't give a flying f*** what the Qualcomm, or anyone said, I was getting home that night, and I did. I forget how much over I was...Wait here's my original post:

site:thetruckersreport.com is one of my favorite Google searches! if you type that before or after your keywords, it's amazing what you can recall! Works for any website of course.

 

Sitting at the hotel in Sheldon relaxing. Found out today as of March 1 we will no longer be using the holiday inn but instead the super8. What a disappointment the super 8 is a dump,even though I only stay in a room out here maybe once every 3 months I always looked forward to the holiday inn and I paid for my own room.I will be picking up in Le mars tomorrow going to McDonough,Ga,so look out Ga I'm sure I will bring snow with me. In other news I rolled into the yard today and wrote up a drive tire that had the tread cut out in a section about 2 inches wide and 12 inches long and about an inch deep,tire guy came and got me said Andy said roll on. What a conversation we're gonna have if it blows out. Have a good weekend everyone.

 

Is this the Super8 thats right in downtown? you see signs for it as youre coming into terminal, aww man this sucks from the outside it doesnt look all that nice I dont how is the inside I never stayed there.
As far as the Holiday Inn goes yeah its a really nice place, Ive stayed there only once back in August 2012 when I got hired for my orientation. I was talking pictures and posting them on FB like an idiot lol !!

 

The same happen for me, I don't know whats going on with Va dispatch but things are going down hill it looks like. Last month I told everyone I have to be home this weekend because on the 25th MOnday I have doctors appt. Last week I get offered a load either to Plympton or back to midwest I ask Josh If I go to Plympton for Monday morning and take my 34 reset at the house will you be able to get me back home on time because 25th I have to have to be home he says yea sure I dont see a reason why we couldn't.

So this past Tuesday Im emty in Jessup MD and I get a load from Edinburg Va to Wisconsin I said to my self wtf !! there is no way in hell I will get back home on time I ask Josh so I guess Im not gona be able to get home on time then ? so he said..... call up Shelton tomorrow and see if they can swap this load with someone, and thats what I did I talked to Sheri she said it too she doesn't have a clue why I was assigned this load, she said give me few hours and Ill figure something out and sure enough in afternoon I swapped loads with another driver, I delivered his load to Front Royal and picked up another load to Plympton for monday earl early morning and Ill be ok to make my doctors apt.

Heres the other thing On Friday When I talked to Josh he asks me so will you be able to pick up a load right after youre emty in Plympton and ready to roll? I said to him do you remember why I had to swap that Wisconsin load in the first place ? remember I have a doctors apt thats why I need to go home, once Im done with him Ill be able to go back out on Tuesday!!

 

Wow you guys really making me rethink my decision to come aboard next week. Not sure i want to pick up a truck in Waynesboro now lol. I was promised "we can get you home every weekend where you live". Nice hotel for orientation also. oh boy.

 

Montana sorry I've been meaning to make a thoughtful reply to your PM and I know the timing is kind of urgent for you. However I've been busy running my tail off pulling ########## JB's rail containers around in circles 12-14 hours a day and putting up with all their BS on top of it! My wife has been really pissing me off the end of this week too. With all this in mind, when I was waiting to get loaded Friday and saw a Western Star Transport T660 with a studio sleeper and Carson, CA and Somewhere, MN painted on the side, and I got on their website and saw they were about the same size as VW but go 70 MPH!, I was ready to tell my boss and the old lady where to stick it and go back to chasing my super trucker dreams! I spent most of today reading a long thread on here about WST and it made me appreciate VW more in the end. It seems like 1 bad egg can really sour a small carrier, and they have one way worse than Josh I believe. And on top of it they do LTL reefer, only pay 36 CPM for it, don't allow big inverters, typical OTR home time, and are forced dispatch. I can save you the trouble and say unless you live in the SW or near Carson you're better off at VW. OK there's my minimum quota of one mostly pointless ramble per post in the first paragraph! Moving on...

To backtrack and answer your questions, in public if you don't mind (for everyone's benefit and critique of current VW drivers.) I reluctantly left VW on good terms in May of 2012 for a "great" local job with, against my better judgement, JB Hunt. Now I will first say for as much as I b**** about JB I am on track to make only about $5,000 less than I left VW making, and saving all kinds of money eating 1 meal a day on the road instead of 3. I am home EVERY Saturday AND Sunday. And my schedule doesn't ever get inverted mid week...or beginning the week, like you'll have running a reefer on elogs.


However a little history about me: I'm a 1 week wonder product of Central Refrigerated's driving school. I left a well paying (though really not much better paying than a good trucking gig) IT job (and career, all with smallish businesses) to go to driving school. I couldn't bear the stress, office fever, or my idiot boss any longer. In hindsight I'm still not sure if its the smartest or the dumbest thing I've ever done. Trucking gives you a whole new appreciation for the 40 hour week! I put my year in with Central (2,000 trucks), to the month, before I GTFOed for the greener pastures of Van Wyk (200 trucks). Night and day to be at a carrier where I'm a name not a number, they keep me busy, they get me home too, I drive a nice truck with owner op specs, and they pay me!!! I really enjoyed my year and a half at VW and wish I could have stayed but Mike (the VP) actually knew I would be leaving for a local job before I did. He called it that I would be leaving within a year for a local gig when he learned I was a newlywed. I outlasted his prediction but he was ultimately right. I gave him notice in person and his expression didn't change as if he knew what I was going to say! (Pointless ramble #2?) Then I get talked into coming to JB Hunt (15,000 trucks ) Intermodal based on the recruiter's lies about pay schemes and hours worked, turned down an hourly job at Hatfield, and moved to Allentown, for JB, thinking, "Yeah it's a mega carrier, but it's a 30 driver fleet of experienced drivers, how bad could it be?" As I said in the beginning, yeah I'm not starving and I'm home every night and weekend. But the endless BS you have to put up with from JB, on top of mega shippers, receivers, and local traffic, it's unreal.


Where in PA do you live? Are they planning to run you out of Waynesboro? That high dollar gravy freight going north and staying close to home to get that 34 every weekend is great, but putting up with the BS loading to go south and getting jerked around again getting unloaded (that reefer on elogs thing), and dealing with wonder boy on top of it, I don't think you'll ever see me doing it. God forbid I hate to bad mouth someone on here, but I would challenge you guys to start holding him accountable to Cory and Mike about his mega carrier style incompetence and inattention to your communications. I think it's becoming apparent that he is souring a good outfit. I'm from PA too and I ran out of Sheldon for Angie. She's a tough cookie and with a dry sense of humor can come across short, but she'll keep you rollin', bankin', and if you need to get home for something, she'll get you there. She will run you harder than you really wanted and you'll usually get home later than you really wanted, but she'll get you there. Running out of Sheldon from the east coast is kinda a PITA though if you're like me and would rather get home for the weekend or not at all. You'll have a "perfect week" a few times and get spoiled because its rare that you can pull it off, again...with a reefer on elogs.


Perfect week: Load Monday in PA or Jersey, deliver and reload Wednesday or Thursday near or in Iowa, deliver and be home Friday or Saturday, repeat on Monday.


I prefer running out of Sheldon because of a competent dispatch team, competent shop in Sheldon, the cooler weather and less traffic of the I-80 corridor, and only have to juggle 2-3 loads a week instead of 5+? What I'm saying Montana is depending on where you are and where you've been, I think there's a good chance you'll be happy to call Van Wyk home, though I'm weary of running out of Waynesboro. Would I go back is a question I always ponder to myself, with your experience you have even more options than me. I'd like my next carrier to have less trucks than Van Wyk. Generally the smaller the outfit the more you can make and the better you'll be treated, in my opinion. The problem is the smaller the outfit the harder to find a job opening!


In closing I've also been wanting to shout out to Larry. Sorry to see you go but glad you've found greener pastures I hope. Are you sure you want to haul containers?! We must be gluttons for punishment. I'd like to chat with you sometime about your new gig and can hauling in general. I think everyone will join me in thanking Larry for starting this thread and leading me and others to VW!

 

I live above Scranton, Tim stated that i would be running the midwest and then run something over to Front Royal get a load up north and be home for the weekend,. Tim seems like a straight shooter but its trucking man. My Fiance lives in Bethlehem,PA teaches school in Bethlehem and tim said he can get me thru near Allentown and bethlehem and can also get me home above Scranton with ease. Ill get a ride sometime next week and head to Waynesboro for drug screen and pick upo truck and head to sheldon. IM definelty going to go with Van Wyk simply because ive seen alot out there and i want a great truck if i am going to be in it for 5 days a week. Also like the fact about changing scenery. Ive run Northeast regional for years ive done the 5 boroughs(not as bad as people make it). but the flat land in the midwest is going to be good for me to run for a bit. I just want a decent job with good trucks and decent pay and very minimal stress........ too much to ask?

 

Oh yes i forgot to add Larry called me we talked for over an hour. Thanks Larry you gave me alot of great info.

 

Your right Angie does have a dry sense of humor...but I am used to it cause I see the sheldon team weekly...(because i live near there)..my dispatcher is Dale...hes pretty decent..and works hard for me....i really have no major complaints...just the normal ####### and moans all drivers seem to have...