EPES TRANSPORT-Greensboro, NC

Hope you feel better.

 

thanks guys. so far it's settled down a little but every now and then I get a twinge that lets me know it's still there. surgery is scheduled for sometime late june/early july so i'll be done with it then. what a mission just to get released to get back in the truck. not good enough to be released by my doctor I had to go to the company doctor as well and get not only released but a new medical. I kinda figured as much but I think when the surgery comes due i'll just take vacation and get it done lol.

still staying busy. 2700 last week and out of the gate strong this week till today. curt called sunday and cancelled the trip i was on and got Jackson for this morning........since it was late getting the load I couldn't run down in time for the 10 and then break there so had to run Monday, break and then get there with the clock running and of course sit for a 4.5hr unload, then 60 miles to talorsville on 1170 to Pittston for friday...... but can't deliver early so not really doing much good to get 1170 with 3.5 days to run it.

have the wife out with me this week so that's a nice change though.....

stopped in meridian last night on the way down and saw a Volvo get his front end taken off. he got in late and made his own spot out on the end of the line and someone tagged him cutting the corner. left side bumper laying on the ground, lights and most of the fender gone. parts and pieces laying all over the ground. wife said she understood why I try my best not to park on the end spots and why I choose my spots carefully lol

then got the absolute worst service I've ever gotten anywhere in the restaurant at the TA in Tuscaloosa tonight. I was awful. in there for over an hour and a half and didn't even get everything I ordered......but the worst was the wife not getting her coffee refills lol they didn't know just how serious that was lol.....but seriously it was terrible service. waitress more or less ignored us, took forever and then an hour later, after we finally ordered and sat waiting for food she only brings half mine and said the were out of the rest of my order. really? I mean that's something you should know after you make someone wait over and hour for their food. 5 other people who had been there both longer than us and came in after us just got up and left. mark that one as one not to stop at again. wife is still on the phone with their regional guy lol maybe i'll get a freebie out of it. they were pretty good about fixing my problems when I reserved a spot once and then got there and they'd sold them all out from under me even though I had a reservation......I will say that about them anytime I've had an issue they've made it right and then some.....but the point is they shouldn't have to make it right. it should just be right to start with.

supposed to have a student starting next week.

in the meantime guess we'll just take our time and have a nice 2 day ride up to Pittston......even though I could be there a day early.

 

we will see if he calls back since he didn't get my number. Yes I know caller id but I am sure that he would like to forget about that phone call. I didn't get anymore coffee or water which stinks I was enjoying my coffee and don't get it much when out with my wonderful husband. Did I mention he is wonderful? I am just ill...DONT MESS WITH MY COFFEE FIX!!!!!

 

thank you every one for the info. very helpful

 

Its memorial day and this thread is HUGE so maybe someone that works for Epes can answer my questions faster than I can sift through 225 pages.

I have about a year of experience under my belt (even more but it was from more than 7 years ago). I recently drove for Maverick out of Little Rock. Great company, I think I was getting 36cpm or so which kinda sucks for flatbed but I was just coming back into the industry. Drove for them for 7 months. Currently driving a CDL & Tanker required hydroseeding truck and ive been doing that for a couple months. Not really satisfied with it and there have been a lot of false promises.

So I am considering going back OTR and Epes is one of the few on my list but I have questions before I talk to a recruiter.

1 - I live in Blue Ridge, GA (tennessee line, middle of the state), I would like to get home on the weekends, or most weekends. I understand at times, things happen but for the majority I would like to be home because I have a wife and two kids at home. What are the chances of this?

2 -What trucks are they? Manual or Automatic? APU? Bunk Climate control? I like to be comfortable in my truck, especially when sleeping. I can not stand those companies that don't have AC in the bunk but wont let you idle to stay cool either. Pouring sweat while trying to get some sleep to be safe is not a good thing. I dont run a lot of electronics (Laptop only for the most part) so its not an issue of power consumption, its a matter of staying comfortable

3 - What is the pay? I am sure it varies but what do you (on average) bring home per week? A company could pay 76cpm but if you are only getting 500 miles a week, that still sucks which is why I wanna know what your actual checks are

4 - Do they plan every step of your route for you or do you get from point A to point B pretty much on your own?

5 - Same question with fuel stops, do you have to stop at the fuel locations they give you or are you allowed to stop at any "Insert truckstop company here".

6 - Ezpass, Prepass, and tolls? I had everything at maverick so I am not sure how tolls and such would work if you dont have tags like the pike pass, Ipass, Txtag, and such

7 - Load times. One of the benefits of flatbed was that I pretty much had traditional business hours appointment times. I didn't have any 2AM pickups which was nice because I am the type that likes to get up around 4AM. That way, worst case scenario, I work till the end of my 14 which is 6PM. Still early enough to find a parking place without having to go to 3 different stops. Never understood those guys who come into the stop at 10PM thinking there are spots available everywhere.


Id appreciate the info. Maverick was a good company. The only downside to them was that I was only getting home every other weekend because of where I lived. I will return there if I cant find something better. I dont mind the flatbed work. I am not lazy by any means, but it would be nice to drive without getting filthy and sweaty every single day!

Thanks guys. Feel free to Private Message me if you dont wanna post in public. Id like the honest truth. If you guys get any kind of referral bonus, I may get your name if I decide to go this route.

 

1) should have no problems getting home almost every weekend where you live. we run the 75 corridor quite a bit so that's not far off base from where you are

2) 95% cascadias . a few Volvo 780's. through 2014 the cascadia fleet is primarily 10 speed sttick the Volvos are 12 speed autos.. the 2015's coming online now we got 159 and 129 are autos. not a good thing from where I sit. governed at 63 with QUALCOMM elogs. no idle restrictions during summer but the newer trucks don't like it. at least once a week I get woke up with the thing doing a #### regen. when the weather gets cool we have outstanding bunk heaters that will run you out of the truck. inverters allowed up to 1500w

3) pay runs .34-.41 depending on experience. .10 bonus on all loaded miles north of dc. if you pick up down south and run up into the ne a ways it's a good bump on the load but still not a bad bonus to run up there even for the shorter ones. I just ran one from taylorsville, ms to westfield, ma right at 1300 loaded miles that was an extra 130+/- a little on the load. felt that in the check. it's not that bad with a little planning. $75 hazmat bonus per load but we don't do a lot of it. $125 bonus to go into NYC but we don't do a lot of it either and just not enough to deal with that bs. no forced nyc. we do enough around the outskirts in jersey might as well go in anyway lol I did 43K and some change first year. progressing at a good rate into year 3. not bad money for a van gig. I average 2500 miles +/- a little a week........some weeks I run close to 3000 but it just depends on what lane I'm in for the week. no problems getting detention, stop pay, layover on some short runs that is built into the billing, mostly ikea stuff going into the northeast.

4/5) you'll get a 'route suggestion' based on your fuel stops. as long as you don't have 7-10%+ out of route we're free to self route as long as you hit your fuel stops. you're expected to fuel where told they work out discounts based on those stops. generally it's along the best routing anyway but there are trips I run my route and not the route suggestion. the main thing is stay off the more expensive toll roads unless absolutely necessary. NJTPK from exit 1-7 is a stated no go unless otherwise approved for example...... they route us 295 then from there it's route suggestion or whatever you want to run to get there. I do a cost/benefit on most trips up that way and generally it's cheaper and less wear on the truck to run 295-1-287 around going up into the ne than to run 295-195-turnpike-gw-crossbronx. some trips you have no choice due to where they are in jersey but then you're routed up the turnpike from 195. time of day factors into it as well. anywhere other than the northeast I just look at what's the best route based on the fuel solution. the computer generated route they give you is based on zip to zip shortest. it isn't always the best. nobody has every said anything to me about running my route whenever I do.

6) ezpass/prepass plus (includes nc which is nice). tolls in ok and pints west are out of pocket but immediately reimbursed as long as you submit the receipts by cutoff for the trip. my dm tells me they're working on getting the pikepass and others since we're starting to run out there more but hasn't happened yet.

7) load times lol. I'm doing 50% average d/h on one or both ends. some customers you know you're in and out. some take forever. you learn them quickly. 50/50 between a loading window and an appointment time. we have many long established customers so if you get an appointment usually it's not too bad with the few exceptions. average for a live load/unload is around 1.5-2hrs. the good end of some of the worst ones is many of them provide overnight parking so you plan your trip to get there, take your 10, and then you aren't stuck there with the clock running. there a those few that you'll cringe when you get the load assignment cause you know what's coming. a day of hurry up and wait. but they are the few. most aren't too bad. if you do end up somewhere you didn't want to be with the clock running no problems getting the detention. takes some of the sting out of it.

 

Wow I appreciate all the replies.

We had cascadias at maverick so I am used to them aside from them being all autos. I thought I would hate autos at first, but it grew on me after my first few weeks. I can pull out of a truck stop and get on the interstate while eating a morning biscuit lol. Lower gear going down hill was simple too, so it wasn't a problem to drop to 7th or 8th going over monteagle and make it stay there with the jakes helping. I drove for Covenant transport for a year back in like 2000 and it was a super 10, so I do know how to drive a stick, it just may take a day or two to shake the rust off.

I have never driven a rig through NYC but its good to know that it isn't forced. Id try it once just so I could have the experience. I have been through Jersy a few times and some of the places I delivered in Newark would have you wondering how a 2 door car can even get in there, but I just rolled windows up, turned radio on to drown out the honking ######## who you are blocking, and get it done safely.


The load time question was misleading I guess. I do not mind waiting at a shipper or a receiver for a period of time. I have spent 6-8 hours waiting to load before at some Steel plants. It sucks but it comes with the job at times. I was just wondering about WHEN our appointment times were. Since I like to run my 14 hour clock between 4AM-6PM, if it is frequent to have an appointment time at midnight or 2AM it may throw a wrench into the way I do things. Ill adapt, but it drives me NUTS fighting for a parking space at night when its time to stop and thats why I try to start my clock at 4AM. If most of your clients have overnight parking, its not bad since I dont need a truck stop (I actually prefer rest areas), but I do everything I can to prevent myself from sleeping on a ramp....

 

Ikea and lowes store loads come to mind immediately. Ikea is live unload anywhere between 0100-0630 most location. But most of them you get there the night before and sleep till they get you up. Those are not very restful nights. Get there take a nap. Get up to break the seal. Try to nap while they unload. Get up to get your paperwork. Try to nap till you get the next load. You usually sleep very good the next break lol

Lowes store loads are usually 0400-0500 d/h. Only a couple live unloads and/or daytime appointments.

Most others we get a daytime into evening or midnight to midnight window. You will get the odd late night early morning appointment but that's just part of it. 60-70% of the hours are manageable on your schedule

 

Awesome, this sounds like a real possiblity Do you guys get a referal bonus or anything? If so, send me your name and ill put it on the app when I fill it out. Will probably be about 2 more weeks before I do that still.

 

So guys is epes I good starter company for students and what is the starting pay