decker truck lines ft dodge iowa

Outside of DAC, I think the only thing that companies are allowed to tell each other, other than Drug/alcohol test results, are:

1. Verifying dates of employment

2. Did the driver give notice?

3. Is driver eligible for rehire?

4. accidents/incidents

When deregulation happened, when I was just a lad, That is when I am assuming a lot of the scum was let into the industry as companies became large, and recruiting became a full time job at large companies just to fill seats.

When when these companies finally figured out you get what you pay for, they started DAC, among lobbying for other things, (**cough, cough**, ELOGS) to try and cover their own dirty tracks.

When your reputation becomes tarnished as bad as Western Express, Werner or C.R. England, the strategy switches from suckereing in the mis-informed or un-informed to suckering in those who are simply desperate.

Well, You still get what you pay for, and its too bad the entire industry continues to suffer because of the continued bad decisions and hiring practices of some of the larger fleets.

I still say 90% of the time a work record speaks for itself.

 

Loose leafs is pretty much dead on. I am not a trucker, and I know that this is a truckers forum, but maybe I can add a different perspective with upsetting the entire board. I am a truck company owner. We have 61 trucks. I started reading these posts when someone started bashing us, and I did handle it wrong, but it is what it is at this point. Now I just like to see what drivers are thinking and this is a good place to do that. As far as DACs and pre employment verification I can add some input that may help some of you. Loose Leaf is correct, by and large we give out, and receive back, only drug testing, accidents and verify dates. Anything more can infringe upon your rights. We can ask anything we want, but we are only required to answer certain parts. At least for me, the DAC tells me only one thing, the list of companies that a driver has worked for. If it does not match what is listed on the application, it goes in the trash. What I look for more than anything else is how many jobs has a prospective driver had. If they worked for a company for this company 5 days and that company 3 months, or had had 3 jobs in a year or 9 jobs in 9 years, or whatever, there is a reason for it. Yes the individual has certainly had some bad employers, but there are always 2 sides to a separation. If 9 other companies have not met the needs of this person, there is no reason for me to think that my company is their answer either. I have had drivers hire, drug screen, come in for orientation and then fail to work their first dispatch the next day. Not looking for a boo hoo here, just the way it is. Yes this was put on his DAC, he hired, signed payroll forms, took his dispatch with him, keys to the truck, fuel card... did everything but come to work. As best you can, give notice and try not to job hop. That is really your best bet for getting into a good company. Am I a good company? Kind of depends on who you ask. If I can meet the needs of a driver, then at least to that one we were a good company. If we could not meet the needs, then I guess we were not as good.

One thing to remember with the smaller companies, we can be good and bad. Little more personal attention, maybe not as good pay and benenfit selection, but we are more apt to talk with each other about drivers who have worked for us. Example if Decker calls me, they are big and will get a minimum of information. If a guy I know and respect calls me and asks about a driver who ran for me, he will get some details of if I think the driver will work out for him and maybe try to figure out why a driver did not stay with us. There are good companies out there, just like there are good drivers. This board might be better suited if we could figure out how to work together a bit to fix common problems together. It takes all of us.

 

What company do you own if you don't mind me asking?

You are 100% spot on.

And in fairness, just like DAC, any swinging richard can come on here and say whatever they want about any company, so it can be very one sided. It is hard to find any information on some of the medium or smaller outfits that might be good, and all it can take is one driver not getting his way to come on here and complain about it.

My best advice to anyone seeking a driving job at any company is to talk to as many drivers from that company as possible. If you only talk to one, or worse none at all, you are playing the lottery. You may get the guy who has it in for his company and is ready to abandon the truck, or you may get the resident suck-up who has made more from recruiting than he has from actually working.

I will say it again, I see drivers from Werner and Swift that are safe and sometimes very professional, and sometimes I see owner operators and independents that are reckless, hot-headed and aggressive, that I wouldn't trust driving a 4-wheeler.

There is a lot more responsibility working for a smaller outfit, yet for me it is a lot more rewarding, and least in the long run. For me it took a little getting used to at first, not having somebody holding my hand with every move I make. Some people simply can't handle making decisions for themselves, for me ironically one of the problems was getting used to the fact that my boss actually cared about my opinion and that it matters.

I am responsible for setting up all routine service or maintenance on whatever equipment I am driving or hooked to. When I break down, there is no reason to wake the boss or on-call dispatcher up at 230AM while a load of ice cream is already in danger of melting. I will worry about a t-check later and update the shipper/receiver myself if I will miss a delivery or be late.

I pick my own routes, try to buy fuel where it is cheap and convenient for the company and stay out of trouble without a keyboard beeping, flashing and barking at me. As long as I stay over the road I won't have it any other way.

 

I am BD transportation based in Piqua Ohio. Do a search on us and you will find me in the "Bad Carrier forum" on a 2012 post. Like I said, I handled it very poorly, maybe as bad as anyone, but my side, I built the company with the help of a lot of good people. I lost an account over rates, and the rest is history. It is hard seeing one disgruntled driver lambast you. I guess overreaction is my middle name..... We do mostly dedicated, round trip type of work. Works well most of the time. Is spite of the post, we have a long history of long time employees. I would be a fool to say that everyone is happy but I do the best we can. We need to start another forum where companies and drivers can use to actually help each other. Seems the nature of our business to tear each other down. Actually not just our business our society today. It is so easy to be nasty and negative if nobody knows who you are (or you THINK nobody knows who you are). Hey you know what it is like to have something wrong put on your DAC, same thing with a disgruntled driver blasting a company just because he could not get what he thinks he wanted.

 

well said sir!

 

I did work for Decker. Only 2 months from 11-10 thru 01-11. Overall, the company was not a bad one. I was told I could run Midwest regional. When I got to orientation I learned regional was only flatbed. My dispatcher tried to keep me in the Midwest and I tried to run more areas for her. But in the end it didn't work out. She couldn't perform miracles all the time. I gave my 2 week notice. I was on a run to Jersey on my last week. She found a swap and routed me back to Ft. Dodge. Security asked me to come in at the gate. Called a fleet supervisor at 9 pm. (had to take my break before arrival) I talked to him and he asked why I was leaving. I told him. We wished each other well. No pay was withheld. I was paid on time every cent I was owed.
In the 90's you could walk away like the OP did. A company then tried that to me. I called DAC and they found out the truth and removed the report. I had left with no warning and no notice and left the truck at their yard. Decker was not a bad place to work. Every E-Log company promises more miles than you run. Even non E-Log companies promise that. But with Decker I've been there. I know what they said. I know it was not bad overall. They did try to work with me, I'll say that

 

Great post Mr Douglas and I agree on smaller companies. That is what I look for as a veteran driver is the smaller more personal companies.Heck your company is not bad, like you said it is what a driver needs. Some love to drive to the limit and others, especially with us vets who have spent years away from home, want/need to be home more. The smaller companies almost always offer this over the larger cheap freight companies.

 

Thank you. I really appreciate the kind words.

 

You are most welcome

 

That's what we try to do. We're a small outfit...very small compared to some of the companies here...with twenty five power units.
Most of our drivers are out and back the same day with very occasional overnight trips. Our drivers tend to be older and more experienced than most and they like sleeping in their own bed every night. It works well for them and it works well for us. They make money and we make money.
On the other hand we have a couple of guys who like traveling and staying out for a week or two at a time. We haul enough of a variety of freight to make that possible for them. After they leave the yard they're pretty much on their own. They do a good job and the only time we hear from them is when they need another load. Again, we're all making money.
We've talked about getting bigger but the way we're doing things now seems to be a good fit. Are we getting rich? No. But we're making a good living and so are the drivers. The company has been in business over twenty years.

The "new guy" in our company was hired five years ago and the other drivers will probably stay until they retire. Over the years we've occasionally had to let a driver go but people don't seem to leave otherwise. That's good for us, we know our people and they've been around enough to appreciate what they have.
LOL...do they complain? Sure they do. They're human and they get tired and grouchy just like anybody else. But what they complain about is the usual stuff, traffic, paperwork, scales, chaining up, bad places to load or unload, and working outside in bad weather. When I drove I complained about the same things.
Do they screw up occasionally? Yes they do. Just like I did and like everybody did once in awhile. If they're straight about what happened it's live and learn. If they lie or cop an attitude then we have to consider something else.
The office staff are all former drivers and when the guys out on the road talk we tend to listen. It just seems to work out better for everybody that way.

I've never worked for a mega carrier and I don't think I'd want to. Bigger isn't always better and I keep hearing the same horror stories from different people about the way they treat their people.
A small company, run right, can give a driver a much better job and a much better life. That goes for the owners, too.