JBS Carriers Greeley Colorado

Not sure even if I would have stayed on if they would of let me go or not. I was at .40cpm i lived in Jonesboro, Ar at the time, and the closest place (I know of) was the Pilgrim's Pride in Batesville, Ar. which is just right up the road. That is not a packing house though and I never once went there, so I'm not even sure that would have counted. Only other packing house I can think of was in Russellville, Al. which is 235 miles away.

It appears no companies are exempt on the web from complaints. I suppose the only difference is what cons can the driver deal with. I've been doing Heavy duty towing and recovery out of Lakeland, Fl since I left there. I have officially had a gutfull of that now. I have been making $750 a week salary plus commission after hours, so I have been averaging around $1,000 to $1,100 a week gross. What sucks about towing is there are no benefits whatsoever. Even the biggest tow companies are just larger Mom and Pop operations, so the throw a check at you every week and tell you to smile whether it's good or not.

I've decided to give swinging doors a try again, so I'm going to Heartland Express now. I'll be doing the Southeast Regional out of Jacksonville. They say I'll only be running Fl, Al, Ga and SC. If they make me run further, no big deal. Push comes to shove and I hate it, Jacksonville is only 3 hours from Lakeland and I'll have the wife come get me. That will obviously eliminate me being stranded. I'm getting top regional pay, so I'm staying optimistic.

Honestly after driving for all these years, nothing would surprise me. I've been with Marten, JVJ (Lake Wales, Fl), Sunland (Formerly Haines City, Fl), Burlington Motor Carriers (now out of business), United Van lines and off and on to Iraq and Afghanistan to train the military to recover semi's as well as execute the missions. There are also a few tow companies inbetween.

Orientation this week at Heartland, wish me luck.

 

Heartland? Dude, you have been driving way to long to work for Heartland. I've talked to more then a few of their drivers over the years, doesn't sound like a good place to be. If half of what I'm told is true about them, I'd rather be at JBS, and that says a lot.

 

JBS Swift has money, JBS Carriers is a separate company. That being true, as the owner of JBS Swift, how long do you continue to dump money into a black hole? It's a business and if it doesn't make money, it will be sold off or shut down, that's how it works.
Really? Do you actually have to be told this?

 

Actually, I did, lol, thanks for the correction.

 

Yes, so I've heard, as well about Heartland and every other company out there. Right now I need the benefits though, badly. Heartland advertises the highest cpm and contrary to what everyone says, the benefits look pretty darn good. $50 a week for the driver (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) and $94 a week for the family (dental included). They have a $750 deductible, which is tough to beat. Many companies have expensive insurance and ridiculous deductibles.

They don't have FSA though and I was a little bummed about that. They also have a 401k with 100% matching, but those retirement plans (to me) are like gambling. If they invest it the wrong way, I could easily loose what little I've invested. Maybe another day.

Regional runs and home every 1 to 2 weeks. It's better than being out a month or more and getting 4 days off. At 5 weeks I slowly start to loose my sanity and get real grouchy. We'll see if they stick to that plan. I've heard all the complaints about low miles and high pay, but if this company doesn't run my butt off, it'll be the first company in 20 years. Even Frey-Miller, who (I HATED, HATED, HATED and still hate) ran my butt off, but I made a rookie mistake of doing their lease purchase on a 379 Pete. I don't think I would have liked it any better there had I been a company driver. Good lesson to never lease a truck from the company you work for.

This industry (sadly) is set up to make the driver fail. I have the same attitude as the companies. Drivers may be a dime a dozen, but so are companies to work for. I see a lot of foreigners coming into the US from Europe, Scandanavia, India and the Middle East, so that tells me they either cannot afford to hire enough Americans, don't want to pay Americans because foreigners are cheaper, or not enough Americans want to do it. Maybe all of the above.

I saw that same nonsense in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. They would hire 2 Americans to manage and oversee 12 Indians and Pakistani's (I know cause I was one of them). They paid us 12k tax free a month to each American and exactly 1,000 a month to the Indians and Paki's. 12 foreigners pay for every one American and to them 1k a week was awesome money. For those 12 foreigners, I would rather have had 1 more good American. Especially when only 1 out of 12 knew how to back up a Tractor Trailer. Unbelievable

I'll give this a fair try and see how it goes. If I don't like it or they screw me in a way I find uncomfortable, I'll be on the next thing smoking home.

 

BTW, I already spoke to JBS recruiters and they said they will not hire out of Arkansas or Florida.

 

Amtrucker let me know how you like heartland. I live about 20 miles from the flying j exit 285 off of I-75. I thought about going with heartland just don't like what I've heard about inverters and idle policy. Maybe you can update me with some info once you start the new gig. Also I'm not sure if epes is higher in Florida at the moment but it sounds like a decent gig that you may want to check out.

 

Please keep us posted Hubby is in orientation next wed. for Heartland as CFulmer didn't work out

 

A friend of mine from 20+ years ago contacted me from nowhere, just to look me up, haven't talked to him in over 20 years. He tells me he's working driving tankers in the oil fields of North Dakota. I told him I was a truck driver as well and started to ask him how the job was, and here is some basics what he told me.
14 hours days, 6 days a week. Work 6 weeks, get a week off. Company provided housing but they charge you $600 a week. Now, sit down for this one, he says his take home is $2500-$3000 a WEEK...
He got me hooked up and I'm going up there in about a month. If your still thinking about it, I can get you the info you need to get on after I get up there.

 

Yes please send me a PM or just tell me where your going I want to make $$ and I know how to work.