Are we a bad trucking company?

What "really" is going to make a potential driver say I want to pay $1000 escrow account and not get paid weekly? They can go to any "mega" carrier and not pay for your truck...and heaven forbid they want to leave your company...they're not getting that money back, something that's no fault of their own will need replaced and the driver will pay for those repairs. No I would "never" apply or let anyone I remotely liked call or apply for something like this. Sorry that's my 2 cents and I'm done with this posting. Good day

 

I'll answer it and the answer is coming from someone on your side of the desk. Your company and ours are probably different in what we haul and the area we serve but there will be some commonalities too. We run twenty five power units and thirty some trailers of different kinds. We haul in the western 11 but most of our work is the Left Coast. The majority of our hauls are out and back the same day but we also have trucks that stay out all week. As a rule, everybody is home on the weekends.

First of all we require five years experience on equipment and hauls similar to ours. We learned a long time ago not to hire newbies fresh out of a truck driving school and we don't have the time or the inclination to train somebody from scratch.

We require a good driving record. It doesn't have to be spotless but if there are any DUIs, reckless driving, a pattern of speeding tickets, or anything that indicates the driver has issues with obeying the law we'll look for somebody else. A bad driving record shows a continual pattern of irresponsibility and we don't need that.

We don't have an escrow account. We think they're ridiculous. If we can't trust our drivers to take care of things properly why have them in the first place? If a driver curbs a tire or scratches a fender we'll chew on him a little but if it's a rare occurence that's all that happens. Again, if a pattern of equipment damage, cargo damage, or theft occurs we'll take a look at whether we need the guy or not. We haven't fired anybody...for anything...in six or seven years. If they're screwing up but they're a good hand it's easier to try to redirect their behavior than to look for another driver.

We've never had to use a newspaper or CL looking for drivers. Personal referral or walk- in applications....and we have a ton of them...give us our drivers. The last driver we hired was almost six years go. He replaced a man who retired. We'll be losing three drivers to retirement this year but their replacements are already picked out, cleared, and ready to go. Most of our drivers have been with us over ten years and will probably retire from here.

We're not union and hope never to be. We pay by the hour with OT after 40. We have BCBS for insurance. We also have dental and vision care. These are provided at no cost to the driver. His family is also covered for a small additional amount.

This isn't to say that this place is some kind of driver heaven. It's not. Our guys run hard, not illegally, but hard. They usually run their hours out every week and they get a lot done. They're outside a lot, loading and tieing, and there's a good deal of tarping and chaining up in the winter. They get cold, wet, dirty, and #### tired on a regular basis. They run a lot of back-country mountain roads where they're a long way from any kind of help. They deal with minor mechanical issues as part of the job.

We demand safety, good job performance, taking care of the customers needs, and treating the equipment right. We pay a lot for that in wages and benefits but it comes back to us in reliable drivers that we can trust.

Our office staff are all former drivers and the principal owner started with one old clunker that he drove himself. We've all been there. Anything the driver faces we've very probably faced ourselves. Until you've actually spent the time on the road I don't think it's possible to really understand what a driver goes through.

We'll probably never get any bigger than we are. We've talked about it and the opportunities are there but we're doing okay the way things are. We'd be having to hire people we didn't know, hire more office people and mechanics, getting the inevitable bad drivers...or maybe a string of them...and just generally dealing with more aggravation than we're willing to accept.

We don't want to be a mega, we just want to make a living. Our drivers, our mechanics, our office people. and our customers are the key to that.

 

You had to have read my last post and I asked this once before in your thread and have yet to get an answer from you Beyond Transport,are you upfront with the drivers before you hire them? or are you afraid to answer this?

 

Actually, BT, many of us do know the risks and choose not to go into fleet ownership.

The financial liquidity of your company is not up to your employees. It *is* up to you, the owner. If cash flow is an issue, don't force your employees to shoulder the cost of your lack of foresight and business acumen by not having enough in operating costs set aside before opening your business. Suck it up, buttercup. Cut your own pay, use a factoring company, add an investor, small business line of credit or other influx of cash.

As far as the escrow goes... It boggles my mind that you would let a person operate a piece of equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and not trust them enough to 'man up' and protect their license by paying for a minor repair or deductible out of pocket. As far as the abandonment goes, take that driver to small claims court and withhold his last paycheck. All we're really talking about is a plane ticket and perhaps late charges from your receiver.

That addresses both the "up to three weeks without pay" and the company's ability to cover it's own deductibles.

Of course no investors or banks are going to even look at you unless you get your safety issues under control. Neither will good drivers for that matter. Fix your equipment, get your HOS straight and bonus your drivers for a clean DOT inspection.

Attracting good talent is always an issue. Up your pay, offer better benefits (vacation, sick pay, vision, dental, health, 401k, ESOP, holiday pay, detention pay, etc. Be creative, create a calendar of holidays and let your drivers sign up for their preferred ones while keeping your loads covered.) Something. Anything. You are not going to turn around the quality of your staff without both the carrot and the stick. Enforce a 90 day probation period for new hires. Boot the dead weight. It will be a painful transition period for you and your drivers when you do things the right way for the right reasons the first time every time.

No excuses, BT. You wanted to know what we think and we told you. The rest is up to you. Good luck.

 

I will use myself as an example,
I was working for a small 30 truck outfit.I quit after 4 weeks!
Poor equipment,the shop would not fix what I needed and they lied about benefits,home time and pay.
Started out at 41cpm but spent half my days sitting at shippers or receivers then had to run hot on the logbook half the night to make my appointments.

The "Great Benefits" they told us about was actually getting Obama care and they would pay a small portion of that back on your check....BS!!!
Not even sure if that is legal!

Now I start a new job next Monday,
One day orientation,Paid mileage to drive 3 hours there plus an hourly pay for the day...I consider that fair.
Hotel was offered but I will just drive home that day anyway.

I had the choice of mileage or percentage...I will discuss that more with them Monday.
Great Insurance,Blue Cross. 401k, STD and LTD...and 25k life insurance paid by the company.
Vision,dental and all. Cost to just the driver is roughly 24 bucks a week.

Also they let me decide if I wanted local or regional.
I picked regional because it is Monday through Friday and home a night or so during the week.
80% drop and hook and 99% no touch.
They pay 75 bucks for every night you sleep in the truck plus a daily food allowance.....Rare these days!

The oldest truck is 4 years old and they are all getting replaced over this year.They have many of the new trucks in already.
5 bay shop and keep the trucks clean.

Things like these are what an experienced driver looks for,
This may not be the perfect job either but they have a good DOT rating and I know every scale is not going to pick on me.

This is just an example...I know every driver looks for different things but to get quality drivers the company has to offer quality jobs.

 

Beyond Transport, we want to wish you Good Luck on improving things at your employer. You seem to care. Very impressed that you were willing to come on here and get feedback. Hopefully the owner can be convinced that in order to have a successful company he must master the fundementals.

 

I am strongly opposed to the escrow, but regarding the insurance, most companies have at least a $10,000 deductible. $20,000 is not uncommon. So if you side swipe a car and cause $8000 worth of damage, they are not going to pay the deductible and use a claim, they are going to pay out of pocket.

Most companies insurance policies are designed to cover the type of accidents you see on evening news.

 

Trust me, I know how the cash flow works in this business. But it is the cost of doing business. You're basically asking your employees to loan you money to solve your own cash flow needs. A factoring company would charge you 3% for that -- why aren't your employees getting the same?

Again, cost of doing business. At will employees can quit without notice in the middle of nowhere. You can't take money they've already earned because you're pissed off.

Ah, so now your escrow is like a forced savings account?

1st company: First paid at the end of orientation, weekly thereafter. Health benefits after 3 months, retirement after 6 months. Best weeks: ~$1800. Worst weeks: ~$400

2nd company: First paid at the end of orientation, weekly thereafter. Health benefits after 6 months, retirement after 1 year. Best weeks: ~$1500. Worst weeks: ~$700