Calex Express....My New Home!

Wow... I will miss you and the debates. You caused a lot of positive changes at Calex and I am sorry you will not be around to enjoy them. I thank you for all 400 pages of info and for metaphorically holding my hand when I started here. I wish you safe and happy travels.

 

Personally, I would have been tempted to take the $53 a week raise. That's over $2700 a year, which for me is about a month's pay. Hmmm......maybe I should go talk to the boss, too.....

However, there's more to an employee/employer relationship than just money. If you're not happy, you're not happy and no amount of money is likely to change that much. Sometimes you have to do what's right for yourself, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. And if in the aftermath, it makes things better for yourself (and with the bonus program, the rest of us) then I say "Mission accomplished!".

JohnBoy, you will be missed but I can't say I blame you one bit under the circumstances.

 

What a loss over 2-4 cents, a bunch of fools!!!! I dont haul freight but I've read your posts from the beginning and I see your truck at the Lake Worth Service Plaza weekly when I leave Wellington headed to Chicago. Best of luck to you in your new venture! You dont need it but it never hurts.

 

While I think every driver in this country should be paid more after ten years plus of a wage freeze and I am truly sorry to see Johnboy leave Calex, there is another side of this discussion regarding the 2-4 cents raise Calex didn't grant Johnboy. What I am about to say will probably not be popular but it needs to be said, so here goes.

As most of you know, the trucking industry is extremely competitive and shipping rates are extremely low. All of you owner/operators can attest to the fact that making a living in trucking is tough. Being truly successful in trucking is even tougher. Calex is a relatively small company in this highly competitive industry. As with most companies, they are far from perfect but they are definitely not the worst company around either. One other item: Any CEO has to keep the stockholders and owners of the company happy or he is out of a job.

So, Johnboy asks for the raise. Why not give it to him from a company perspective? He is certainly an excellent driver with an excellent service record. The raise would be well justified and well worth while to keep such an excellent driver. So, why not?

Here is a POSSIBLE line of thought. These are my own ideas, not what Calex may or may not have thought. It can be assumed that should Johnboy get the raise, he would write about it here and other places as well. Within a week, just about every driver in Calex would know about the raise. Most, if not all, of the drivers would descend on the CEO's office wanting a raise as well. As I said previously, other drivers in this company deserve raises too. The situation could get very ugly very quickly. Should the CEO refuse, drivers may leave Calex in large numbers which might threaten Calexes ability to survive or certainly create a situation that would take years to overcome. The owners will not be happy about this and probably fire the current CEO.

Even if the CEO gave every driver in Calex a raise, I am not certain that the owners would go along with that idea. The CEO would probably still get fired. I am also not sure that Calex would be able to financially support such a raise in this industry, under these circumstances.

As I see it, Calex had no choice but to deny the raise. Had Johnboy not been writing on this site. Had Johnboy been the quiet reserved type of driver who talked to no one about his personal life. Then they might have chanced it but I doubt it. The potential consequences, in my opinion, would have been too great.

As I said, this is NOT necessarily what Calex thinks. This is simply another line of thought for your consideration. Let the firestorm commence.

Best regards,

Don

 

I would have opted to paying the suggested RAISE than to the contiuously spend $ of putting NEW drivers into the trucks and the learning curve they go through.

 

Because of JonBoy's writing in here Calex has reaped many benifits such as quite a few quality drivers and tons of free exposure to the trucking market. I also think if he would have gotten satifaction in his meeting we would not have known that a meeting even took place. JohnBoy has been at this a long time and is no dummy.

 

Agreed, this isn't brain surgery. The cost to recruit, screen, hire, train, and employ a driver to take Johnboy's place will far outweigh the raise. The issue is SYMPTOMATIC of the industry's short sighted pholosophy regarding driver retention. This is the reason we have the current faux "driver shortage'.

 

I agree. If you let somebody safe and reliable go, you're going to go through 10+ people to replace them. That'll get you fired too. Well maybe not in the trucking business..... Idiots.

 

Wait a minute. If that were the reason, then why would they have a LINK in their add on this site looking for drivers?
John never once mentioned anything about any of this until AFTER he left.
I don't think that's the reason. I think it's his age.
Which, if I'm correct, is a pretty scummy reason not to give a guy a $2,500 raise.
As a side note, when I was directed to this thread through Calex's add, I was poking around thinking of getting another job.
As a result of all of this, I'll never apply for one at Calex.