Stay awa from koch trucking!

Funny I find this here. I just got fired from Koch. Why? I committed an unforgivable sin. After over a decade with no tickets or accidents, I had a 10mph rear-end collision in Macon, GA while part of one of their dedicated fleets. I was in the lease purchase program, and making money while getting home regular. I had no complaints.

However, after a pedestrian jumped in front of a woman turning into McDonald's on hwy 49 at the start of the ramp for I-16, she slammed on the brakes and I did likewise. Sadly, I slid right into her since I barely had 6k in the wagon and was going too slow for ABS to do anything. No tickets were issued. Minimal damage to both vehicles, and they kept me rolling along for over 2 weeks. My dispatcher then told me that he had to cut back on the regional fleet running out of Nashville, and that I'd be in the National dedicated fleet instead. Ok, no biggie. He got me through the house to load up more stuff for being on the road longer. I deliver my load in IL, reload in St. Louis, head to N. Sioux City, SD... unload and sit at the truckstop for a bit. Then I'm told to drop my empty in Milford, IA, grab and empty van and head to the yard in Minneapolis. Cool... I needed work done to my rig anyway.

I was also told to see the guys in safety about my accident a few weeks ago. I was then informed that the policy is, any rear end collision = termination. No ifs, ands or buts. So here I was with tons of extra crap in my truck and no way to get it all home to GA. Fortunately a friend in the dedicated fleet was there and heading to his home in Nashville so I hitched a ride and paid a buddy from home to come get me in Nashville.

They said I'd be eligible for rehire in 6 months. Then I'm told en route by my buddy that they have a woman driving for Koch that was involved in a fatality. Wow. So I should have killed the poor woman I slid into and kept my job? WTH. Now of course my DAC will show an accident and most companies won't look past that.

Wish me luck.....

 

Based on your description, I assume the accident was in the car? I do know that companies look at those accidents as well, but it is ridiculous that one where there was minimal damage and under those circumstances that the company you are WORKING for already would do such a thing. My cousin and I wish you the best in finding employment. We both know how difficult it can be...

 

See the portion of his post that I quoted and you will realize that the accident happened while driving his big truck, not a car.

 

Koch used to be good but not anymore, same thing with Halvor Lines out of Superior, WI. Ditto for Filmor out of Cannon Falls. There are a lot of options in the Winona, MN area, unfortunately almost none of them are good options. Quallcomm is bad enough, electronic logs will ruin your life. And if one or both of the above are ever mandated by the feds myself and most of the remaining real truckers will finally say the hell with it and seek a different job path.

 

If the economy ever picks up again, I hope people start giving these medium and large companies the finger and the empty driver's seats they deserve.

 

Supervisory staff has always had a lot of arrogance and disregard for the drivers at Koch, also a high turnover rate which they denied constantly for years. When you have new drivers of 12-13 people in orientation every week, there is a problem.

DO NOT TRUST THEM. They talk out of both sides of their collective mouths.

 

I was on the Polaris board, and I loved it. My dispatcher "Lefty" was a great guy, and Chris C., the driver liason, was always a great help. I tore the rotator cuff in my right shoulder, and couldn't lift the ramps, so that did it for the Polaris board. I then went on the otr board, and got the miles I wanted and got home when I wanted. When the economy tanked in '09, the miles took a nose dive;but that was NOT Koch's fault. They gave me what they could, but I felt that I had to leave. BAD CHOICE! Not a day goes by that I don't regret it-I really should have hung in and stuck it out. They put not eligible for re-hire on my dac, because that was the second time that I worked for them. I blame myself, not them. I feel that they are a great company, I just made bad choices.

 

Question why will electronic logs ruin your life. afraid you'll have to run legal instead of pullin pages lolol it was the norm yrs ago and i'll admit i did it too but that said. don't blame everything on dot. trucking companies bear some of the blame for hiring drivers that aren't qualified, drivers drivin tired, so electronic logs were a way to TRY and slow that down. been on them for awhile still get my miles although i could go without the speed alerts lolol

 

i worked for koch in 96 and 97 and thought they were great but i was on a dedicated run that had me home daily ...went back in 2012 as an otr driver and ran 13k mi in 2 mos ...even my dispatcher told me he didnt blame me when i came into the mpls terminal and said goodbye .
the 08 pro star they put me in that i picked up at their lawerence ks term was a disgrace also .
i thought i was treated well and my paycheck was there every friday .....never did figure what the problem was but i couldnt live on 6500 mi a month .

 

koch is a great company to work for .. been with them over a yr now .. have zero complaints . been with much worse companies for longer .. everyones experience is different . glad some cancers don't stick around long ..