Taylor truck lines in northfield mn

can you go back?

 

Sounds like a recruiter doing damage control. No drivers car at Portland drivers cars at Northfield are death traps no brakes etc the washer dryers are not free (coin operated) 90% of their trucks are wore out filthy junk bought used from Crete Werner and J B Hunt. Shop is a joke, Dm's are incompatant. the driver is always wrong. Pay mediocre at best. A 32" tv is not a big screen Bed rooms with filthy nasty wore out mattersses that half the world has slept in are not the comforts of home.The house is the owners old house they didn't bother tearing down. Hometime is every 2 weeks only if you fight for it and only 34 hours most of the time. Load planners spend more time outside smoking and gossiping than planning loads. That's real nice when your 14 is ticking away. If this is the best job you ever had I wouldn't want to know where else you drove for. Taylor was the worst place I ever drove in 25 years.

 

Is the driving test easy are they really a bad company to drive for my husband is trying it out

 

angelgirl did your husband find out anything besides talking to recruiters.

 

I started with Taylor about a month ago, and i love the company. You may have had a bad experience, but i will tell you this is one of the better companies i have worked for. I Have loads waiting before i am empty. i am in a 2011 Kenworth T700. The loaner cars in question are older but safe. And a lot of the other companies i have drove for, don't offer any loaner cars. And no i am not a recruiter .

 

Never late always behind.. is very truthful.. I love this part especially... "Load planners spend more time outside smoking and gossiping than planning loads." this is also true of the dispatchers when I was there. at least every hr or more..

Maybe they restructured and are better.. but.. here's my experience..

I worked for Taylor (Me in the office , hubby drove for them for 8 yrs).. I know ALOT about ALL divisions.. what it was like in 2006 and what it was like when I left in 2010.. In that 4 years I can tell you the good and the bad.. drivers, office and shop areas.. Back in 2006 it was a great company to work for and everything was in good shape treated everyone great. owner knew everyone by name.. then they added "George" and things when downhill.. they went from 150 trucks to over 300 in less than a year, it was all about numbers to him.. he said to me when he first came on.. 'drivers are a dime a dozen, it's the people in here that make the money' Didn't like him from then on, to me he was two-faced, says one thing to your face.. one thing behind your back (he came from Gainey Transportation).. I believe it's the drivers who make or break the company.. then the recession hit and everyone had to take paycuts.. and staff and drivers started to leave.. (the good ones left, well most all of them.. only had 5 drivers who had been there over 10 years when I left, most drivers only had 1-3 years there.. when I started they had over 20.)

If you dispatcher LIKES you and you kiss ### you will get treated very well .. but there is always some everywhere who are "favorites".. if they don't like you or you piss the dispatcher off.. you get #### loads, and last to be loaded all the time. most of the them in dispatch have never driven a semi truck or even worked in transportation till they hired on.

There has also been a dispatcher (think she's still there) who would tell the driver to "unplug" his/her QUALCOMM so they could drive over hrs, this was before they HAD to run ELOGS.. (can't do that anymore) she didn't remember that the trailer was also being tracked and we could see a trailer moving and the truck "disappeared".. and YES>> SOME DISPATCHERS HAVE TOLD DRIVERS TO RUN OVER HOURS against the Safety dept knowledge... (I had several drivers tell me they were told to do it, esp when they ran paper logs, hence the compliance review and ELOGS in all trucks now.) Even now.. some runs are SOOO tight.. I still know a driver who is there.. and cheats on ELOGS.. it is possible to get more time.. this driver can get an extra hr every day and if they don't they can't do the dedicated run they are on! (yes.. I KNOW WHY THEY WERE FORCED TO PUT ELOGS IN THEIR TRUCKS, it wasn't their choice!) The Safety Dept will be on your side (usually) if you have issues with your dispatcher or feel forced to do something..

Some trucks are crap.. some are decent.. some are great. usually the longer you are there the better the truck you get.. also depends on if they have recently updated the fleet. the only way to make sure you have a good truck.. bring your own.. I had seen the trucks and heard shop guys say things like 'just drive it like that, it still runs'.. had them tell a driver call ahead.. only to have the driver show up at scheduled time and have to wait for a day to get in.. then have the WRONG thing fixed.. if the shop guys like you and you kiss ### they will get you in right away.. (mostly if you are a "local hired guy") if they don't.. or you are just a newbie.. they take their time.. and don't fix everything all the time. my friend can tell you lots of time they had to call the safety dept (they, esp Todd, were great and treated drivers good, Ken was an ###, but only cuz George told him to be, heard Ken has now retired.) because the shop or dispatcher told them to drive a truck that was unsafe. I've also heard recruiters tell some drivers whatever to get them in the door.. they pretend to but really don't care.. they have to have SO many numbers each month.. turn over was very little when I started.. when I left it was almost 100%.

MY take.. CHECK their SMS scores, this give you a good idea of things wrong and how often they are pulled in and inspected (actually any company you are looking at).. and stay away if you are a GOOD driver with a good DAC and CSA score... you can do better than this company.. if you have a not so good score and can't get hired anywhere else or need experience, it's ok to start here and get some experience.. but don't expect them to treat you like family, you are a number... and the owner is usually golfing and schmoozing clients or in FL at their house. hard to actually see him in the office (at least it was when I left)... and well he hired "George" to run the company and deal with drivers.. they are NOT as family orientated as before .. unless you have a car.. good luck trying to visit with the office people now.. they aren't located on the same site as the trucks and shop are. (keeps drivers from coming in). Watch your paychecks and know the laws on what you have to pay for and what they can charge you.. ... I had them take money for fuel tax twice when hubby quit from his last check and from his escrow acct (owner operator).. good thing I was watching his settlements.. I got that money paid back to us.!!

Take your chances.. places change just like seasons.. not everyone will have the same experience.. but research and please.. Get their DOT number and LOOK AT THE SMS scores of any company you consider.. it really does tell you a lot about the company..

 

I went to work for these guys about a month ago. So far so good. Elogs are always a pain, lol. Im in the heavy haul side and one can tell they are fairly new at it. They have one area in the csa scores that are out of line, they were at 77% , the thresshold is 65%. They do have a driver liaison deptartment now and have had several personnel changes so ive been told. Time will tell

 

Anyone have any current relevant information about this company?

 

I've been on this site just looking through and it sounds like there are no good companies to drive for or is there I'm getting ready to start a refresher course on my cdl I'm just curious if there are any deason companies out there.