JB HUNT Bait & switch

I used to hire employees that I needed ASAP to handle the daily workload for my accounting area. These people were needed quickly, but they had to give proper notice to their employers. When they arrived at work, they were always given the work they were hired for. I expect the same professional treatment from any employer.

 

I agree a recruiter should tell the driver that if he doesnt come in immediately, the job most likely wont be there. The successful recruiters do, the not so successful dont. The recruiter gets paid only when the driver gets in the truck and drives. So the recruiter that this driver had lost out. I good recruiter will qualify the driver and know exactly what he wants. An unemployed driver is one thing. The guy needs work. Perosnally, I would tell the unemployed driver this. "look Im going to set you up for this local job. If we can get you in quickly there is a good chance you can get it. But you need to have something to fall back on. How about a regional position or even OTR for awhile if it doesnt go through" Ive found that is the best way to go about it and has always been the way I recruited. I would never tell a driver to quit a job for a local job knowing that there is a good chance he wont get it. But some drivers quit anyway.
Again, to show the side of the recruiters. The pressure in that office is to fill that position is insane. The job opens then you have 100 recruiters all trying to fill the position. Its a mad house. This does create a problem. Some recruiters start taking short cuts trying to get their drivers in and not explaining everything. I dont think a lot of drivers realize how hard the job of recruiting is and how stressful it is. Very few people can do it well. And some who cant do it well, start lying to do it. Lying might work for a few week, but eventually it catches up to you and you fail miserably.
But with that said, those local jobs over at JB do exist and drivers from off the street are hired for them everyday. Just every once in awhile, one driver quits his job, the local job gets filled and he thinks he was lied to. Believe me, the recruiters over at JB hate it as much as the driver. When all is said and done, if the driver didnt get the job, the recruiter didnt get paid.

 

I understand what you are saying, but freight doesnt work that way. If a job is open on a dedicated run, that means there is a empty truck and a customer that is most likely not happy that its freight isnt moving as fast as they like. Unhappy customers change truck driving companies just like unhappy drivers do. And just like any business the customer comes first.
I have seen it first hand. I have had jobs on my desk that we just couldnt fill. We would have insane meetings about it with a lot of yelling. Telling us that if we dont fill those trucks we would lose the account. Then a few days later, the account was gone. Now the drivers who were already on that account got screwed. They will most likely have to go back to OTR.

 

You think it was any different in a very large accounting firm? Competition is just a fierce. If the work is not done today, they left today.
Give me a break.
The recruiter knows it. They can promise it, fill it with a temporary and then complete the promise. It is ethical, professional and would do wonders for the image.

 

Good question. I was only presented what I thought they should do to improve their image.

Will they do it? No.
Could they do it? Yes.

 

Ok just to play devils advocate here. Sure JB hunt might be able to do some things to improve their image with drivers. JB hunt has one of the best images around with customers. And some of the things that drivers want, customers might not want. They are one of the most successful trucking companies out there, so I would have to say those in charge at the top know exactly what they are doing. A company with all happy drivers and no customers wouldnt last long. Again, believe me, Im not trying to be a JB Hunt cheerleader here, If I still liked working there, I would still be there. I didnt like some of the things that were happening in the recruiting dept and I found my paychecks getting smaller. However, do I think I was getting screwed? No, I just think the changes that the ALL mighty people above me were making to the company, were changing my job too much for my tastes. I was just an employee, I know nothing of how to run a successful mega trucking company. And although sometimes its fun to monday morning quarterback how things are run at a successful billion dollar company. None of us really know a better way to run things. If we did we would be running one.

 

The truth comes out.

A happy trucker means no customers?

A successful company? It is only because they don't pay drivers correctly for all of the time they must wait for loads. (This is not just for JBHunt, they all do it).

You can call it what you want. It still appears to a truck driver to be a bait and switch. The image of JBHunt has declined to this level. Ten years ago they used to be a great company. Now they are like a puppy mill.

 

Lol, classic. You attack me and I have not attacked you. I was just trying to explain what happened to you. You say you talked to a good recruiter? I disagree. A good recruiter would have told you that there is a chance that you might not get the job and would have told you that those jobs are a first there first gets the job type situation. I came on this board to actually try to help drivers like you. By telling you that there are good local jobs at JB, and I was explaining how it works so more drivers wont make the same mistake you did. Look, here is what Im explaining, try your best to understand. If a recruiter at JB calls you about a local job, there really is a local job open. If they have you fill out an app, there is a local job open. Its impossible, because of the way the computer system is set up over there to set up a driver for a job that isnt open. In fact the recruiter wont even see jobs that arent open on his computer. Plus if a recruiter is trying to sell a made up job and someone higher up is listening, he would be fired instantly. Now, pay attention, here is the important part. Just because you are set up for a job, doesnt mean you will get it. Ask the recruiter how many people they need, he knows. If he says one or two, know that right now there are 100 other recruiters trying to fill that position right now, and one or two of them are going to find an unemployed driver that can come in immediately. If you cant come in immediately, dont quit your job or expect to maybe have to do something else.
Really no reason to attack me here, I was trying to help people like you.

Now sir, let me explain something else to you which is going to happen. I dont know what job you were thinking about doing over at JB, but most likely that job will open up again in a few weeks. Sure enough that same recruiter will call you again and tell you it opened back up. If you truly want that job. There are things you can do to make it happen. Mainly things you can ask your recruiter to do. Or you could just hang up on him. Either way, I dont care. I was actually trying to help you. But really, I no longer work there and I really dont care if they get drivers or not.
Man, you try to help someone and you get attacked. Jesus.