Colonial Freight Systems,,CFS

safety scores reflect on the drivers not the company. if you give a driver a 75 mph truck with paper logs does that make you a bad company, if he get caught speeding and without a updated log book. I've been with colonial for 7 months and i do well here, some guys make more than me because they go all over. i pretty much go from nc to tx and i avg well over a grand a week, some guys say they aren't making any money here but i dnk what they are doing. maybe they are driving 75mph lol this company doesn't call you all day everyday all they ask is that you make a check call once before lunch and thats all you hear from them unless it's about your next load. p.m if you have any ?'s

 

yo! I have a few questions about Colonial but my post count is too low. Can you shoot me an email to tj [at] tjanddeanna [dot] com?

 

can u pm me i have some questions just about hometime and stuff thanks

 

.....driver how do know what these other drivers are doing?how do they know what you're doing ? why would they complain about not making money when they are on the job 24/7 for weeks at a time? ....oh by the way you have something brown on you're nose ....how did i know that ?

 

san45bar can now be reached at CRST.

 

You want current info. Here you are. I'm currently sitting in a 2013 Volvo VNL 780. Nice truck. Nicest I have ever driven, if I'm honest. Nice and expensive too. All totaled......... $850/week!!! When I was a Company driver, I felt fine to earn that amount in a pay week. But before you can pay that bill, Colonial will never forget to take 33% of all the revenue they CLAIM a particular load is paying. I have it on very good authority that they are skimming off the top, giving me some deflated revenue quote and then taking 33% of that deflated number. And that goes for the fuel surcharge too. I accepted a load on a Friday and told the dispatcher to send all the info to my Qualcomm, since i'm paying for it every week. He didn't. After 5 p.m. you can forget about getting any information. They have a so called "night crew". Basically, two people with no more skill and ability than a couple of high school rejects. So I had to call the company that brokered the load. Some loads they broker directly, some come from a third party broker. Called them up, got some kid on the phone, told me the computer said $700 for fuel would be required on this load. Now, I couldn't remember everything the dispatcher had said on the phone, but I knew he didn't say $700. Called him on Monday, $460 fsc.

I decided from the outset that I would give this l/p thing an honest effort as I had only ever been a company driver before. I set myself a goal to see it thru for a solid 6 months and at that point would make a decision whether or not to continue. I didn't know nothing and made a lot of mistakes at first. It's been 6 months and 2 weeks as of this writing. After six months I should know enough to at least start seeing some results from what I've learned, and by results I mean CASH! Nooooooope! It's still the same song and dance, "We have loads that pay $600 and $900 and $1100 and they all deliver 4-5 days from pick up. I did the math, the driver gets paid absolutely last no matter what. This truck MUST run over $4000 gross revenue per week if I wanna see a check over $800 and that's IF I don't have any additional maintenance bills to cover, which I almost always do. Because at the end of the day, the driver is only earning 19-20% of gross revenue. Any additional truck bills, like break downs, tows, tires etc., is gonna destroy that 19%.

I drive between 62-64 mph, average 8-9 mpg depending on weight and terrain. I can't control the weight, but I try like the devil to stay on I-10 if possible cause it's flat. I pull all the tricks I have learned out here trying to catch a break and it's impossible. They will keep you running, that is for sure, I can count on one hand the number of days I have been home in six months and that is no lie, but the loads don't pay worth a crap at all, long miles and long delivery windows burning up your week so you can't run enough loads to pay the bills and you are constantly and forever playing catch up. In 6 months I have cleared roughly $5000. Thank God I am single with no kids because I would've turned this truck in in about 2 weeks.

I have driver friends with this company that I talk to and they say they are making good money and blah blah blah. Then in the same conversation they are talking about leaving to go some place else. The truth is, people don't like to admit to anyone, including themselves, that they are being taken advantage of and getting hustled.

Apparently there was a time when the good money loads were plentiful, but those days are thru and I know that because many of the senior drivers that have been with the company 7 years or more are leaving........ in droves.

Caveat Emptor: Let the buyer beware.

 

I sure am glad that hubby and I avoided that company! Hope you can move on from those folks soon.

 

Very soon. I was so worried about trying to leave with no money in hand. Then that last load I wrote about happened and suddenly, the decision was made and all the pressure lifted off my shoulders. Instantly I realized that I'm gonna be just fine. Cheers.

 

Wish I would have found this yesterday. I'm getting on a bus to Nashville in 4 hours