Covenant Transport - Chattanooga, Tn.

Sadly enough, Covenant don't care about keeping drivers because they have fresh driving school grads beating on their door who will drive at the at the minimum pay scale.

 

I just couldn't resist posting something here about Covenant.

My husband was with Covenant in 2003-2004. He went into trucking as he was laid off from the job he was at. He went with Covenant as he has a relative working there. (Sorry won't give names as he is actually a good guy there). He went through Covenant's then training program as it was the only way then to have him trained as a driver and not pay a fortune for going through a school.

He went through the program and was told it would take 3 weeks. Wrong. It was 6 weeks. Then he went with a trainer. He got lucky in that he had a really good trainer. The money wasn't bad then. Afterwards, he went solo. Then it was just downhill from then. His income just kept going downwards. After about a year, he left as he just had enough of all the problems with them.

He was then unemployed for 6 months and Covenant called him back. His relative was a dispatcher then and said that Covenant was starting a new run in Florida. Well, we thought it would be better than OTR as being within state he could be home more often. His home time before really sucked. Well, this lasted about 4 months. He had to come off the road as he developed a leg infection that landed him in the hospital. So that ended his driving career. What really griped me was when he turned in his truck. I live in Jacksonville and the terminal he turned it in to was in Orlando. It wasn't soon after he turned it in a driver came in and said that he got word that a truck got turned in and he was to take it. His truck had a leak problem in the skylight and Covenant wanted him to take it back to TN. I started talking to this driver and he LIKED Covenant as he got great home time. He did say he may be able to get a better pay but the trade off was the home time. That got me as my hubby didn't get home most of the time even though this was a dedicated run. He got stuck in NC over July 4th one time as the dispatcher didn't have a load lined up to bring him back.

So over all, I'm not too impressed with Covenant either. However, I am considering a drastic change in career. I presently work in a crime laboratory and considering trucking. I know I will most likely hear from those I must be absolutely crazy to do this. This would mean leaving a state job with benefits but the benefits aren't all they are cracked up to. The reason I'm looking into this is I am taking a course to get a BS in Occupational Safety and Health and have taken an interest in Fleet Safety. I wold most likely go into this as a company driver as an independent is just too shaky for me. Also, I will go to a school fro drivers versus a company school. The company schools just might skimp too much in the training. I'm looking at National and there is a school near me and I have been gathering information about them. The reason I'm looking into this as it won't be too many years in which I can retire. The amount of retirement I will get from the State will actually stink as it is based on your last 5 years of employment. I'm not making that high of a salary but figure I might be able to do better in trucking. I look into safety with the prospect of going to the office sector of the industry and promoting fleet safety. This might be a pipe dream but it might be better than were I'm at now. I have always had a fascination with trucks and remember as a kid stopping at truckstops during by family's vacation times.
I have seen some of the ugly sides of trucking on this web site and a few others but it seems just about any place any more has an ugly side. It does depend on what attitude you have going into it. So, if I am to go into trucking, so be it!

 

I used to work for covenant as well, everything started a little bumping because teh first trainer I had. We were having problems togetor because we were fighting sometimes about the the stupidy things. We had to go over where he lives because his wife was in the hospital and he had to go over there for two days and I was stuck in the truck (in the heat in Texas) and there was like only two small stores there. Before he left to see his wife, he told me not to idle the truck and clean the truck while he was gone. Well I didn't do much cleaning to the truck while he was gone, but I was burning up and I finally call the dispatch and he said go ahead and run the truck. Anyway that was not just that, it was other things too with the trainer, he was a old guy and was not very into training anymore and was not really showing me anything. I was stuck with that trainer for about 4 weeks and finally I got a new trainer and a new truck because the other trainer got so mad at the truck and broke the tranmission by forcing the gears in. Anyway things went well with the new trainer. I have some minor accidents like, I turn into a road because the other roads had no truck signs. I got about a mile down the road and started to slow down with my hazzard lights and hit some trees and a car was driving too close. Anyway I though I saw the tree lime landed on the sholder. The next thing I knew was that the car that was behind me fly off. She called Covenant and said that it hit her windshield. She didn't try to stop me or anything, she just left and I had no prove. I found out later that they didn't pay nothing to her and I still got a preveable accident. Well I got fired this June for having a rollover accident when the shipper didn't secure the load and the trailer was sealed, when I left the pliot truck stop. They didn't also pay for some of my toll money back when I had recipts and went their route. I lost alot of money with them. I worked for Covenant for 1 year and 4 months.

 

I worked for Covenant and can relate to everyone elses frustration with them. I worked for them for 6 months and had trouble getting paid just like some of you. It would seem like an eternity before I got another load but would always be just shy of getting layover pay. I had a bad experience with them putting an accident on my dac that shouldn't even be an accident. I got directions on my qualcomm that I could barely understand and ended up having to turn a corner that was pretty tight, so I rode the curb to keep my trailer from hitting a sign and ended up gouging the steer tire and having to get it replaced. They put in my dac that it was an accident and I hit a stationary object causing property damage. On top of everything else they called my wife a few days ago and said that they wanted the money for the steer tire or they would pull my license . On behalf of everyone that Covenant messed over I'm going to give David Parker a big [SCREW] YOU!!!!!!!!!!

 

Would be interesting why they talked to your wife about the tire insteead of you directly. Off hand I do not know of anyway they can yank your CDL without a crime being commited, the only crime I see here is ignorance on the part of covenant.

 

Technically, it could be considered an accident. Morally, it's a cheap shot, and an illustration of how Covenant vindictively bites drivers on their butts when they leave the company.

As a person who has paid to replace many tires that were curbed by drivers in tight spots, I always understood that this is a cost of doing business, and that it's one of those things that happens from time to time.

As many people have stated, many times, when one looks at their trailers, which have bible quotes on them, or did, one might tend to think that the founders are religious, and espouse Christain values as a core prinicipal in conducting business. For all I know, the Parkers may grace the doors of the church of their choice, every moment they are open, but those Corporate offices are filled with people that are anything BUT people that hold such values, and I wouldn't want people working for me that made me look that bad, and...Covenant has a terrible image problem among many drivers.

I live less than five miles from those Corporate offices, and I wouldn't give them the time of day, for I KNOW what that company is like, and I've hired several drivers that left them in disgust.

The thing that amazes me, is that between Covenant and their sister company, US Xpress, they have managed to amass a fine collection of class "A" jerks that are in positions of supervision and management. Quite frankly, they MUST be importing them, because we sure don't grow 'em locally down here.

I'm taking you at your word, and because I have heard horror stories that are right on par with this testimony, I have no reason whatsoever to doubt your claim. I would like to add that it's a high possibility that a threat of this nature is the act of someone that really doesn't realize just how far over the line they have stepped.

It's an idle threat, or for the sake of Covenant and their investors, it had better be, because if for some reason this comes to pass, please contact me and I will put you in touch with all the right people that will bring this to an embarrassing and expensive conclusion for that pig of a company, and for any official with a state agency that would dare honor such a request, and suspend a CDL license in this manner.

When I read things like this, and reflect upon the experiences I have had with a couple of the scummy carriers I have had association with in my past, I feel gifted to not have had something like this happen to me.

On the other hand, if I had ever BEEN threatened in this manner, I'm a sneaky so and so. I'd be returning the call with recording equipment attached to the telephone, and do my level best to catch this person with their pants around their ankles, and get them to repeat the threat, then mail David Parker a copy of the tape and a nice, but pointed letter explaining the finer points of the law and just how easily it would be to forward this to someone that might be interested enough to investigate whether or not this is a routine practice of Covenant Transport, and then follow that up a few days later with a call to verify whether or not this person is still employed there. My bet is that you wouldn't have to place that second call. He'd be calling you with an apology.

Considering the fine job that The Tennessean, Nashville's local newspaper did in exposing a line of corruption within the THP, and the resulting fallout that has occured in the past week , who knows whether or not this may have actually happened to a driver?

(if anyone is not aware of what I am referring to, do a simple google on "Tennessee Highway Patrol" and you will read numerous articles that outlines it all) or;

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10350334/

That aside, let's see if you have any challenge to offer USIS on this "accident".

Was there a report filed by any law enforcement entity on this "accident"? Were you brought in to the safety department for a formal review, and asked to sign any acknowledgement that was written, where you took responsibility in any manner for the tire damage? Did you sign ANYTHING that was written up by an official of the company in regard to the incident, and informed at the time that it would be placed in your employment file?

If the answer to these three questions is a resounding...NO!!, then you have every right to file a rebuttal to the claim of an accident being entered in your USIS report, and I would immediately begin the process of challenging the entry.

Please read the following articles I have written on how to go about the process of filing a challenge:

[links outdated]


If I did not mention it in the articles, send copies of all correspondence that you send USIS, to Covenant by certified mail, attention to the Safety Department, because it may be possible that they will back off the claim faster, if they see that you are on top of the situation. Penalties are stiff for carriers that are found to offer false information, under current law.

The worst case scenario, is that this could be reduced to an "incident", an entry that will be non-descriptive on the report. "Incidents" do not have to be justified with documentation, or recognized in writing by the driver. For "Accidents" to be entered, documentation, either in the form of an accident report or a company review signed by you, must be on file with the carrier to justify the entry.

If you have any questions on the process, please feel free to ask all of them. Your experience and our discussion of it, helps others when they are faced with similar problems like this.

 

On this part make sure you pay for the package to be certified along with a return signature. It would be so easy for the package to be "lost".

About seven years ago I had trouble with a tower I bought, turned out to be junk and not worth the premium price I paid for it, and had to send it to the manufacterer. They would not verify that the package was recieved for over a week after I recieved the return slip with the signature. After the first week of the denial I confronted the CSR and said this person had signed for the package over 10 days ago and insisted that I have a progress report on the repair on the tower. Needless to say I found out that the person that signed the receipt was terminated and about a year later the company folded and filled for chapter 7.

I did get the Tower back in good order and the required repairs were made. A short time later there was another failure in which case I went out and bought a diferent tower of a brand name (compaq) that lasted for close to seven years untill the hard drive gave out last year.

 

the reason they contacted my wife was because I was on the road at the time, when she got off the phone and called me about it. I already assured her it was almost impossible to pull my license for it. As for turbo trucker I am going to do what you said, I never had a police report or any formal review and they never even sent me for a drug test. Thank you for your input, I'm going to get working on it.

 

Does Conenant own U.S.Express?

 

No...David Parker started Covenant Transport, Inc.. Max Fuller started US Xpress, Inc.. Unless I am mistaken, they are brother-in-laws, with David Parker being married to Max Fuller's sister. It was always rumored that Max Fuller's father, Clyde Fuller, funded both of the companies initially. I remember when they were little companies in the late 80's, and were in small terminals here in the Chattanooga area.

They are both publicly held companies now, and neither really controls all aspects of either company.