Stevens Transport Aviary . . cont'

I drove a flatbed for ayear so I know where your coming from. I had to call the PD quite often so I could get a vehicle loaded on the side of the road. I enjoyed OTR much better than the tow truck! Not near as dangerous.

 

I've run flatbed for just about a year and its a love hate relationship for me. Personally thinking of going tanker

 

i have a question about alliance that i am hoping those of you who are or have been through it can answer. i have heard that if you go alliance, and for whatever reason you find yourself under water on it, you can go back to company, and only lose your 500.00 deposit. my question is, if you are under water on the lease, are you going to have to pay what you are under on as well?

 

You can go back to company any time you want, for any reason you want. Officially you lose the $500, but if you stay with Stevens and just don't quit, they will often forgive that.
As for being underwater? Almost impossible to do that. You may not make any money, but the truck payments, etc are usually covered. If you start reaching anywhere close to being truely under water, they normally start working with you ahead of time to keep you (barely) above.
Attitude has a lot to do with it. If they see you trying, but it just not working, they want to keep you as a driver, rather than lose you all together.

 

Emul, then there is something very wrong here because my guy is seriously under water on his lease, and not only is he not getting help for it, but his repeated attempts to either replace his dm or just go back company have not worked. His DM tells him to talk to his business manager, his business manager tells him to talk to his counselor, his counselor tells him to talk to his DM and no one is giving him any answers.
Of course, Stevens gets their money, but he cant live on less than 100.00 a week. I am a trainee and I am making more than him.
He is getting loads that have few miles, and many days, and cant deliver early. He sits in major freight lanes for days with minimal response from dispatch or his DM, his support system is seriously flawed, and I can only sit by and watch because its not mine to fix.

I AM A FIXER DANGIT!

 

There is more to this than meets the eye. I can't imagine a trainer not getting at least 3000 miles per week. We have many that get over 4500. Something's fishy here.

 

He isnt a trainer. I just mentioned that as a trainee, I am making more than he is. He is getting between 1100 and 1300 miles per week, which is less than half of what he was getting when he was in grad fleet.

 

I drove for a while for the Circle A brand. All things considered, I had an ok experience, though I didn't make a killing. There are several reasons for that, some were within my control, some weren't. I got into a tight spot monetarily, and never really dug out, but I did get help to stay afloat... barely.
An earlier response nailed it. We don't know the full story. There's probably a lot of behind-the-scenes.
I do know it all comes down to attitude. Spout off and cop an attitude with the wrong person and you can kiss any help you had coming good-bye.
Call me hopeless, but I don't buy the crap that just because a company's owner drives a fancy car, he's greedy and out to screw his employees. I don't know of one entrepreneur that sets out to start a business with the goal of being average and middle class. Business has lots of risks, and one simply doesn't face that much adversity to drive a Kia.
Alliance drivers take some of the capital load off of Stevens. One has to believe that they'd help take care of those drivers to keep that fleet as full as possible.
Even when I decided I had jumped the gun with my lease and quit, Cat and Bonnie were still bending over backwards to keep me.
Is Alliance perfect? No. Hell no.
But what's perfect?

So I'm gonna guess -from my experiences- that the issue lies with the driver. He's either doing it wrong, or he's pissed the wrong person (people) off.

And they can't force him to stay Alliance. He has a contract with a back door. He's free to leave whenever. HOWEVER, upon leaving, anything past due is still due. So if he is behind on the truck, he will still have to pay up. If he remains with Stevens, they will finance the balance. If he thinks he can dodge the bullet and bounce, they will send him to collections for the balance.
Also, upon turning in a lease, don't count on getting the maintenance account back. They will do a PM, and prorate the use of tires and brakes, as well as repair any damages that weren't included on the lease start walkaround and any mechanical issues. They will charge for this. It all comes from your escrow accounts. Maintenance first. Then hometime, etc. You get back whatever's left, if any. And if the escrow didn't cover it all, they will finance that as well.
Yes, the lease is open ended, but no, you don't walk away for free. You just don't pay any penalties, and it shouldn't affect your credit (didn't touch mine. I recently had my report pulled, and I ended my lease 8-9 months ago).
So that's quitting 101, brought to you by Professor Disco, professional quitter...

Time to roll! Catch y'all on the flipside.

 

More to the story....somewhere

Many new alliance drivers get it in their head that they can refuse loads... bad idea, gets a new driver a bad reputation, and they end up setting in freight lanes with days to deliver, and NOBODY will help, because he will no listen.

 

I believe they were discussing tow trucks.