JB Hunt - Lowell, Ar.

Oh man this sucks we gotta log in to vote!

 

Thats why you do what I do, you go in there and aggrevate the recuiters.
I will ask stupid questions, ask them if they have the co-rider crack ##### insurance policy? Do the trucks do atleast 90mph?
Can I work for the abandonded truck division?

 

I can take your idea, and go one step better. Instead of annoying the recruiters, act as though you want to drive for them. Let them waste a lot of time on you, then tell them to go pound sand. I did one thing a while back to J.B.Hunt. I drove for them for 6 months back in 1989. They had me in Chicago for the whole day, telling me that there were no loads going to Philly. I spun the dispatcher's monitor around, and saw no less than 20 trailers going to Philly. I went into the terminal, and grabbed about a two foot stack on envelopes for mailing your logs in. Then I went out, and signed up to borrow the company car. When I got the car a few hours later, I put all my stuff in it, and drove it back to Philadelphia. What a blast. Then, when I was home, I started mailing them boxes of bricks, using the envelopes as shipping labels. What I did was took a medium sized box, and put one red brick inside. Then I packed a bunch of paper in, to keep the brick from moving around. Then i went to the post office, and asked if the "label" on the box was all I needed to ship the box. They said yes, but asked me what was inside. I told them it was a part from my truck that had to be returned for warrantee purposes. The envelope clearly states" addressee guarantees postage" on the envelope. It also says "penalty for non-official use is $3000 and/or jail"
J.B. representative calls about a week later. I thought the poor guy was going to blow a gasket right there on the phone. He kept screaming at me that he was going to have me charged for un-official use of their postage metering. I toold them that I was using the label for official use....I was officially mailing them a brick. Period. Now i'm not telling you to do what I did, or anything like it. All I am telling you is that I had one heck of a good time screwing with OL' J.B., and never got in any trouble for it. Don't get mad, get even. If a truck's red air line going to the trailer gets cut, and the whole line, as well as the glad hand is taken, that truck is going nowhere till they get it fixed. This costs money to fix, and makes the load late. I don't condone such acts, unless they happen to a JB hunt truck.

 

I have attended their orientation 3 times.The first 2 times I saw several drivers come there with the impression that they were going on either a dedicated acct. or a regional run only to find out halfway through orientation that they were not going to get them. Their only option was to go otr with a minimum of 2 weeks out or go home without a job.The last I was there this happened to me. I quit them back on Nov. 22 2004. Since then I recieved no less than 2 calls a week from their recruiters asking me to come back. On June 15 2005 I was offered a controlled regional run out of Memphis,Tn. The money was right so I went. Upon completion of orientation I was informed this run was full and I could get on a waiting list but in the mean time I would have to go otr. I told them to stick it and went home.This company will flat out lie to you to get you in the door and then offer you something totally different. The first 2 times I was there it was okay but I sure got burned the last. I will never go there again. Also they do not verify your info until you are in class. All 3 times I was their I saw half the class sent home halfway through orientation. Beware of their physical, it is as bad as my army boot camp days.

 

Glad to hear this, I put my application in with JB more then 5 years ago and am still getting calls from them. The last call I told them that I was just dedicated to an account they were kicked out of (GP Toledo Oregon) and that was the last I heard from them...

 

I wish I had a ten dollar bill for every time that I have heard this happening to a driver that goes through orientation with them. This is apparently something that J.B. Hunt does on a regular basis. I have a friend in St. Louis that was recruited in the same manner, and was told the same thing. He walked.

What do they think they gain by being so dishonest? It's not a good way to do business.

Most carriers will not begin the actual application process until the driver is physically in their presence, and has signed an original application and release for information forms. Legally, that is the way it is supposed to be done.

The medical criteria is also under amendment, and has been tightened, so drivers can look forward to a more stringent exam, if they haven't already discovered it already.

 

I thought about where to post this, and finally decided to post it in this section, because in spite of all their attempts to improve this company, they still have problems.

America's Trucking Network runs nightly ads by Craig Harper, the COO of JB Hunt, and I have to laugh at his silly ads. I'm sure they draw attention, and result in phone calls, and what a shame that truly is. His claim in the most currently running ad, that hiring on with them will result in a "$15,000 pay raise" is blatently false. A well qualified driver will hire on at .36 cents per mile, and get a pay raise of one penny 60 days after hire. It will then take a driver hired in today, 12 years to reach the top rate of pay of .43 cents per mile. By the time a driver has reached this goal, his pay will likely be outdated and STILL be below par.

For over two decades, JB Hunt has suffered one consistent problem. They aren't consistent. They are constantly changing their requirements, their standards, and their working conditions. Let's not forget that they have played the market like a fiddle, changing pay rates repeatedly. Another common complaint about them, is their propensity to utilize the "bait and switch" method of luring drivers into the spider web with enticing offers, and then pouncing on them with some rather shameful acts of deceit.

Years ago, they had grooming, clothing, and facial hair standards. They dropped that when interest waned. Then they placed advertisements, dubbed the "Cabovers Are Easy To Manuever" campaign. It was a cute idea, but the 9700 and the 9800 was phased out by International, so they were forced to purchase hoods. They went from the yellowish equipment to all white. They slip seated drivers with no shame. Now they claim to allow drivers who live in certain areas to be allowed to take their trucks home. They raised their pay rates to attract experienced drivers, admittedly raising the bar for the industry, but it was short lived, and now they have reverted to hiring at sub-standard rates again.

Drivers testify that they spent a long and lengthy process to get approved for hire, with promises of being put on dedicated or regional positions, and find out after withstanding several more days of orientation, that the position promised doesn't exist. They are of course, then offered positions on the national fleet, running everywhere and for weeks at a time, with little time off. There's no excuse for this type of deception.

If this was not bad enough, their "new policy that allows a driver to take his truck home", comes with a very big catch. If you decide to take more than a day off, you will be forced to give up your "assigned truck" and slip seating rears it's ugly head. Oh...they'll "bank" the time off you have coming for future use, but the bottom line is, if you ever decide to take that banked time off, you're going to give up your truck. When you return to work, the chances are rather high in many areas that you will be put on a "list", and endure a wait of what has been reported to be as high as a week at a time, before you are "assigned" another truck. You'll most likely have to spend a couple of hours cleaning up behind the previous driver and moving your stuff back into another truck. Now I ask you...who would put up with that kind of crap each and every time they desired to spend some quality time with their families? I know I wouldn't.

They offer a claim that their drivers average "more than 2500 miles per week", with no guarantees. That's not a very hard week, and because the claim is so low, I tend to think that the average is not routinely over 2,600 miles either. Okay, 2,550 miles brings you just short of a grand a week in gross pay, but take a couple of days off, and your average declines rapidly. Wait on a truck for a couple of more days, and it's reduced further. They are very non-descriptive about their benefit costs, which leads me to believe that the employee is coughing up above-average suppliments for their benefits. What does this do to a family man? He's falling swiftly into netting about half of his gross pay....real quick.

And lastly, JB Hunt has become trendy and now offers a lease/purchase program, and Mr. Harper's ads are a comedy routine, making Larry, the Cable Guy look sad, to say the least. "In this tough economic climate, owning a truck can now be a reality", he boasts.

The details are skimpy, but in his radio ads, the claim is that they offer "low payments" on a "well maintained" Freightliner. Sources report that the payments are around $1,600 a month for 36 months, with a balloon at the end that is equal to the market net worth of the truck. That's a pathetically poor deal, considering that a driver will have poured in over $57,000 dollars into a well used truck, plus some sizeable amounts in sales taxes and interest, and then the driver will likely have to fork over an estimated $35,000 or more to get the title to the truck. What a bargain!!

The radio ads offer lease/purchaser's a "base of over .85 cents per mile", plus "fuel surcharges and fuel cost savings, that will make him over a dollar per mile". A dollar per mile is currently, with the fuel prices where they are as of my writing this, about 10 cents per mile below the national average in the marketplace for lessors. Without breaking it all down, the bottom line is that a driver will most certainly not make any more as a contractor with JB Hunt, and will likely make less net income. You're taking on all the costs of operating that truck, risking the elimination of what was previously a steady income, and putting all your eggs in their Easter basket.

But...you'll get to take your truck home, and will not have to give it up when you take a little time off....so I guess there is an advantage to going that route after all....right?

Nah...bypass them altogether, and look for a nice company job, complete with benefits, and a steady, spendable paycheck, deposited into your bank account each and every week. Slip seating is all but non-existent with most companies these days. JB Hunt sure is nostalgic.

The opportunities are out there. All it takes is a minimal effort and a little time to find them.

And to the management of JB Hunt, I have a few words for you too. Why not quit playing games, sit down and creat a set of standards, requirements, and working conditions that will truly attract experienced drivers, and by golly...STICK to them. I only listen to, or read the ads, but I'm dizzy from having to figure out just what the heck you people are trying to do, at any given point and time.

Thanks for the entertainment, but you could save thousands per week in advertising costs by simply cleaning up your act and stabilizing your work force. Why not offer jobs worth seeking? It wouldn't hurt for you to clean house in your recruiting department, and stop the deceptive tactics being taken to attempt to keep the seats filled.

 

I've seen some of their banner headlines and the claim that you can make "10-15,000 more per year driving for JB, picking up the same freight from the same docks you do now". I find it hard to believe that claim, and if it was even slightly true, they would have almost every driver in the nation beating down their doors.

But the glory of America is that they can make their claims and get away with it. I would think that they would focus that advertising on the new drivers coming into the industry, rather than targeting that type of ad to people that know better. The placees they put the ads, and the stations that are playing them, tend to cater to people already in the business, and they aren't going to fall for the J.B. Hunt crapola. It's like getting an ad for an England lease ownership package mailed to you. No responsible driver is going to fall for it, and the rest won't be there long.

 

I would have to agree with all the post describing the deceitfulness of this company......
I worked for this company for six months and actually made some really good money on there Wal Mart centerpoint account and gave them some of the best service I have ever given a company .....
I had not had one serivce failure or accident in the six months i was with them and they consistantly showed me disrespect and lack of professionalisim..
Im not not just another upset worker bashing a company
I actually enjoyed working for JB Hunt but they seem to think as turbo has stated they would rather pour there money into decieving ads to lure truckers into the company get few months out of them then send them packing if they dont quit first....
it's a real shame i think this company has the great potential of being great if they were to have a major management shake down and get some decent morals or ethics under there belt.....

Mike

Rome NY