US Xpress Review OTR Perspective

Summary:

Drove for US Xpress for 18 months following acquisition of Arnold. At first they seemed like a company that had their act together. Great miles, new lanes, decent pay increase. Slowly things changed. Eventually they started constantly sending me to Hagerstown MD for Tractor Supply loads and then it was straight up north to MA/VT. This continued for about 6 months, where I was running mostly OH and PA and then right back to Hagerstown. Occasionally they'd get me to TX, KS, OK but that's as far south and west as I ever got, then it was right back to Hagerstown. This is an OTR company? NOT!

So I switched terminals, hoping to get away from MD. Things improved for several months, and the Hagerstown loads stopped. Then the other "magnet" started. Now instead of staying in the MD region, not straying far from the shipper, they started keeping me close to Tunkhannock PA to serve P & G. Over and over and over again. And this is why I spent an entire 6 weeks going no further west than OH, no further south than SC, east was MD, and north was upstate NY. Again I found myself locked into a region. I live in NC, and never did find out whether it's because of the state I live in, or they do this to all their OTR drivers.

Impressions:

- As an OTR driver, you will not do all 48. You will be kept in a region for the most part, and you WILL spend a great deal of time in the northeast (yes, even the FL drivers I knew did), where they have the most important customers, and you will be fighting traffic, have decreased miles, few truck stops, all for no extra pay. And you will stay in the northeast until you are blue in the face.

- Good luck finding trailers. The majority they have are over 10 years old and rust buckets, falling apart. New ones coming in, but they waited too long to buy new trailers. Too little, too late. At least they finally started fixing the old trailers after so many were leaking they started losing customers. So when it comes to trailers they are reactive, not proactive.

- If you run hard, and have a decent FM, you can usually get decent to good miles, 2500-3000 a week, although they are very inconsistent. And get used to losing as much as 10-12 % on loads because of them using Household Movers pay. So on an 800 mile load, know you'll probably be driving 880-900 miles.

- Too many short loads. Seems this company specializes in loads 400-525 miles. Occasionally you will see a load where you actually will need 2 overnights to deliver, but that is the exception.

- Trucks are well maintained, although a PIA to get out of the terminal in less than 5 days since they are closing terminals to save money. And if you like automatics, this is the company for you!

- I get the impression that this company really doesn't give a rats ### about it's drivers. They are big on training newbies, and getting 10K from Uncle Sam for every meat in the seat that they place. So with the high turnover, they have a constant revolving door and you can easily be replaced, having the newbie burn out on the northeast until that driver decides to quit as well. Sure, they pretend a good game with lip service about how much they care, but when you look at all their actual polices you'll see that is not the case. They care about themselves, and the almighty dollar at the expense of retaining good drivers.

- You will get the "srap" loads if you are OTR. This company is big on Dedicated, Teams, Training, Owner Operators. Step to the back of the line if you are OTR for your loads. Believe it. It seems like they use OTR drivers just to support the other operations. This is probably why they have so many short loads.

- Hometime policy is just plain cruel. 1 day off for 6 out, which is standard, but if you don't use them, you lose the days you've earned. And you're allowed 5 days max, otherwise you have to clean out your truck for some other meat in the seat needing your truck. So forget trying to make plans (like attending a wedding) with this "reset" policy. It's near impossible, needing to be planned out months ahead of time.

- This company looks for ways NOT to pay you! They give you a bonus of an extra 3 cents for every mile you run after 30 days out. That's good. BUT, they don't tell you that if you run within 50 miles of your home, your FM needs to so some magic on his end to fix the computer from saying that you were HOME. And of course if the computer thinks you went home, you went home, and you'll forfeit your bonus pay. All this is easily fixed, but the point is, WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE TO? Because they are looking for ways to not pay the driver, that's why. And they are always looking for more ways to take pay out of the drivers pocket. When I first started, they made you wait 24 hours before you're whopping $50 breakdown pay kicked in. Then they changed it to 36 hours. So any pay incentives/bonuses they have now will probably change and it won't be for your benefit, believe me.

- Good luck idling in hot and cold weather. Time was, I could idle my truck at 72 and above, 27 and below. Well that all changed when I took my truck in for a BPM at the terminal. Other drivers in Springfield also were complaining about the fact that they could no longer idle. Seems US Xpress did what they always do, and that's change the rules of the game without notifying the drivers, because it suits them and their greedy pockets.

- Weekend dispatch is a joke. They like to watch football on all their big screen TV's hanging around Chattanooga, and they really don't care about getting you a good load. You will probably do 500 miles for the weekend if you don't get something on Friday from your FM. Yet they seem to not like you to do your 34 instead.

- Breakdown. What a nightmare. "Yes, we know, but Breakdown is understaffed." Been hearing this for over 3 years. They don't care to fix it. So you typically wait 35-50 minutes before they pick up the phone. You can send a macro through your EOBR, but that takes a lot of time as well. So considering how difficult it is to reach them, then wait to find out where to go or have roadside come out to you, it's no wonder that the trailers you hook to are in need of some repair. It's too much hassle for the driver to be fixing their trailers for free (maybe you might get some cpm for the 30 minute drive to the repair shop, maybe). And with them closing terminals right and left, you can bet they can't keep up with all the needed repairs.

Summary:

What a mess. They are unorganized, don't communicate well, don't seem to care about their OTR drivers. If you are a beginner driver, you can do a lot worse, they are not that bad. But why any seasoned driver would go/stay with them is beyond me. If you want dedicated, or team, you may just like this company. They take care of them. All I can say about O/O's is that I know they get better miles than OTR, and they can refuse loads. But I'm not sure how well they are making out.

Overall, they are safety conscious and their equipment for the most part is well maintained. What they fail to realize however, is that keeping drivers in the northeast for 6 weeks straight stresses a driver out, and when a driver is stressed out it doesn't help with safety. As a seasoned OTR driver, you can do a lot better than driving for US Xpress.

 

Here's a little story that happened just last weekend that will make even the most experienced drivers gasp... it's a real horror.

I D&H to a 7 series trailer at a customer, and I notice it's got 8 brand new tires, and the hubs were new too. Great. Do my pre trip on the trailer and drive 9 miles to the J, no load sent to me yet. I sit. Hours go by. Finally I start sending my FM messages that I want my load sent, I got an MT. He says "It's in shop status, got an air leak." I said no, did pull test, didn't hear any leaks, drove fine for 9 miles. However, I'll do a drum leak test and and airline leak test. I do so, no loss of air pressure within 3 minutes. So I call this time, but he's now gone for the night.

Now I call breakdown. BD says "There's 8 flat spots on all the tires." I say no, there's brand new rubber, it still takes them a few hours to take the trailer out of shop status so I can be sent my load.

Notice how the driver has to do their jobs for them? Great support, huh?

This was just the beginning. Next day I pick up a load of 45K of beer. While driving 65 mph down the interstate, 2 WHEELS come off the L-R hub and start following me down the interstate. I felt the trailer shudder when it happened. The only reason why I didn't jackknife/rollover is because the beer was packed up towards the nose, not over the tandems. Oh, it gets better.

So I limp into a rest area going 20 mph, thankfully it was .25 mile from where the wheels missed all the cars while rolling northbound and then cutting across southbound traffic. I called BD and they transferred me to "tires". "Tires" sent somebody from Loves to bring 2 new wheels, but the hub was damaged. This is where Breakdown BROKEDOWN. They never picked up the ball again to get me help. So I sat from 1030 Saturday morning until 0200 Monday morning at a rest area, crippled.

And now, drumroll please, the best part. At 0200 a service truck comes knocking and wakes me up. He just chained the axel and told me I was to follow him to the repair shop 22 miles away. That's right, US Xpress did not send out a wrecker to have the trailer towed. They wanted their driver to drive this 6 wheeled trailer, with 45K of beer, to the repair shop. Why? Why do you think... TO SAVE MONEY! And guess how much I got paid for driving this trailer? $0.00. But at least I drove it safely, going 20 mph on the highway and 1 mph around turns. I drove it that way, knowing that if I had not, I may not have made it home for Christmas this year, time-wise that is.

Apparently whoever put the new wheels on the trailer forgot to torque the lug nuts on the one wheel. That part was not the fault of US Xpress. Still, they made me wait, and you would think they may give me some bonus money for almost getting killed/pulling their crippled trailer? No, because they are cheap and look for ways to not pay their drivers.

 

It seems like many OTR drivers have come to the same realization. Here's some quotes from various driver reviews of US Xpress from Indeed:

All these drivers, plus you and myself, TruckDuo, cannot be wrong US Xpress is not a good company for solo OTR drivers.