Contract Freighters, Inc. - Joplin, Mo.

Ok, I have just recently passed my one year mark with the company and as a driver. Heres what I have gone through in the last year.

My trainer - I have to say I've seen some horror stories as far as trainers are concerned, I lucked out and had a great trainer, he was very patient with me, I was his second driver, his first only lasted a week before he hit a pole. While training, We had alot of good runs and many miles, I had my 7500 miles after only 2 weeks verses the 3 weeks they mention. as for the original posters version of his trainer, I'm sure hes telling the truth, but we are only hearing the one side of the story.

Equipment - They advertised newer equipment, my truck had over 400k on it when I recieved it and over 500k on it now, no bunk heater or any of the luxuries some of the newer trucks have. Some drivers are given newer and/or brand new trucks, its more of the luck of the draw.

Miles - One of the reasons I chose Conway truckload/CFI to drive for was not because of the pay, the starting pay is less than other companies, but I was told by a relative driving for them that its not the pay that matters its the miles, a company can pay more per mile but if your not getting any miles then whats the use?.

my own experience has shown me that this company has no more miles than any other, alot of that is that alot of people were not leaving the company due to the economy and they continued hiring new drivers (as of recent I heard there was more than 100 drivers waiting for trucks).

My average load is usually around 400-500 miles and is usually 2 days, My last 2 weeks have been great however (about 6000 miles for both weeks) but all of the dispatches have been out of terminals vs out of Joplin.

Its true that with this company its who you know, some drivers are averaging 2500 to 3000 miles a week. But some are not so lucky, I was avergeing 1800-2000 per week for a while, thats with all the short runs, even my fm told me she was going to try for a 2200 mile week average., Ok, I know freight is down but come on. anyways I did finally change fm's and we'll see where this takes me.

Someone in an earlier post mentioned how bad their planners are, I do have to agree with them, They are bad and costing the company money to boot, At one time I had a 700 mile dead head to pick up a 200 mile load. (it was a holiday week end and I'm guessing they had to do it to cover and account.) one other driver told me he was in mid ohio and his friend was in mid michigan, he was dispatched to pick up a load about 30 miles from where his friend was and his friend was dispatched to get a load just down the street from him, he called his fm and was told the planners will not change it, to run with it, he did call someone else (higher up) and explained what was going on and they finally did make the change as it did make sense to do so.

Pay - other than the miles thing the pay is ok, as far as re-imbursements goes, they are really good at getting you re-imbursed for what they allow for re-imbursements. Theres one issue I'm still working on, also they tell you they will re-imburse business related cell phone charges - this is not true either.

Loads, there have been a few times I would get dispatched a good load to have it "get cancelled" in the middle of the night - this is the who you know factor coming in. and on at least 2 occasions I've showed up at a shipper to find another cfi truck picking up the load I was dispatched.
a few times I showed up and the customer requested pick up numbers which I was not supplied - the list goes on, about 60 percent of the time I can get to the customer and get out without haveing to call my fm and sit on hold for 20 min.

Road service - if you like sitting on hold (up to 2 hours once) than the road service is ok, I always have sat on hold with them on average for about 20 minutes. as for the service itself - about half the time they can help, I had a tire issue one and was told to find a michelon (sp) dealer to get it fixed - I do have internet so it was no problem but without that I would have been stuck reading billboards for who knows how many miles.

One person mentioned the dispatches and another mentions the time to make the runs, This company is horrible as far as the dispatches to pick up a load, one time I was forced to drive fast on a us route during a thunderstorm, Although I was doing the speed limit it still felt dangerous the way I was driving under the conditions, I made it to the customer with 2 minutes to spare., they dispatch you on every load assuming its all freeway between you and the customer but when us and state routes come into play then it gets tricky, I've had to call a few times to let them know I wouldn't make it by the dispatch time and a couple times was before I even left the parking spot.
(more on next post)

As far as the people in Joplin goes, my feelings are as follows, I feel they are there for the pay check and thats it, They try to tell you how they are a family and they look out for you etc... and I'm sure the old CFI was probably like that but not any more. At one time they used experienced drivers for fms and other jobs as well but now its mostly inexperienced people doing things, and if anything goes wrong its not their fault its yours, CYA is the name of the game now. BUT this is no different than any other company. They recently took pay cuts in joplin and some people were laid off, no drivers were laid off and no pay cuts for the drivers (yet)
so with the lay-offs you find less people doing the work for more people.

CFI is a great company to start for if your new, and even better if you can weasle your way into the who you know crowd. With todays economy the companies are free to do what they want. Our only choice is to deal with it or get the same from another company.

One person mentioned about how the teams are treated better than solo drivers, this is absolutly true and they will actually tell you that. I myself don't have a problem with it as a team truck shouldn't be sitting anyways. if your lucky enough to have a team driver you may make some decent money (again with the who you know) I have heard a few teams complaining about getting solo runs and solo miles. I personally know another team averaging 6k per week miles with an occasional bad week (1500 miles once). My self I don't think I can share my truck with another guy and my wife would probably get angry if I shared with another lady so I'm stuck as a solo driver for now.

I have discovered the only true way to make money as a truck driver is to have your own truck and do your own thing, by having your own truck I'm talking out right owning it with no payments. we all can't do that though as trucks are not cheap. I am looking into the lease thing but I am researching it fully before making any changes - I know - alot of people will say stick with what your doing and don't do the lease thing but my one year with cfi is up and I know theres not alot of better companies out there but cfi has pretty much (to me) fallen into the same catagory as swift, pam and many others you read about in these forums.

There was more that I wanted to say but have lost track of what I was saying, will post more later.

On a closing note I want to say that conway truckload isn't bad to work for but at the same time its not the best either. as far as the original poster, I think just about everything he said may be true, I still don't understand why he couldn't deliver the load he had (a hill?) I've delivered loads in alot of tight odd places some not even designed for big trucks. but you do what you must.

 

Miles - One of the reasons I chose Conway truckload/CFI to drive for was not because of the pay, the starting pay is less than other companies, but I was told by a relative driving for them that its not the pay that matters its the miles, a company can pay more per mile but if your not getting any miles then whats the use?.

But what if your not getting any miles and are getting paid less per mile?

The correlation between less miles because of the higher mileage pay is usually a inter company phenomenon. To say you will get less miles at another company that pays better is a assumption, not a fact and usually a excuse used by company's with lower pay rates.

You will also learn that when you pick up a load is usually far less important to the company then when you deliver it. I have asked for a load early in the am and finally got the load at noon and it showed a 0800 pickup with a 75 mile dh. Some load planners suck, some dispatchers have the load but don't send it to the truck, other drivers get dp on the load but can't cover it for whatever reason and you get it late.

 

hehe that seems to be the case lately although the last couple weeks have been good for me but I know it'll fall back to normal. but I'm not really complaining as its the case with all companies lately, everyones complaining about miles and averaging about 2k per week.

Actually at that time they were running pretty good, but since they have lost a few accounts and plus the economy is requiring less freight being shipped things have certainly changed.

I had to laugh at this, I made a delivery once (can't remember where - Midwest) - my next load was sent to me, it was 1hr 15minutes away with a pick up time that was 40 minutes away, I called and asked if there was a window on it and my fm said no, I explained that I would never make it by the pu time, he said hold on and went to check with csr, he came back and said that they wouldn't reschedule the pick up, try to get there as fast as you can and that they get mad when drivers are late. He said just be friendly and nice and bear with it. When I got there everything seemed ok, I apologized for being late and they said, park in the street and we'll let you know when a dock becomes open. I thought ok, everything seems cool - hehe - 6 hours later a dock worker comes out and asked where I was going and I told him I was waiting for a dock (I figured he was wondering why I was sitting there all day) but he meant where with the load - I told him and he said put it in door 12 - which this door had been empty all day because it happened to be one of the tightest docks to get into because of a telephone pole right in front of it, I managed to get it in with no problem tho. they loaded me and I was on my way. I did get paid for detention for it but wow I was surprised, I was punished for something I had no control over - well at least they didn't reschedule the load till the next day or something.

I do get alot of dispatches that the pu time has already passed which then forces me each time to call and find out about the window which there usually is.

The worst part for me is Canada, When you pick up a load in Canada they will dispatch you to the border (normal dispatch) at the same time you are required to fax Taylor the paper work and request an e-clearance to cross the border with the load, it takes 2 hours (normally) to get the e-clearance, so most of the time I have to call to get my dispatch time to the border changed because of this, one time I arrived at the truck stop 45 minutes from the border at 11pm - called and eclearance wasn't ready, called again at 1am and was told that he will change the border crossing dispatch until 3pm the next day as the load had plenty of time on it and he had too many trucks in the Taylor yard that he had to get loads for, so basically I had to sit for nearly 12 hours. I have a couple thoughts on this but will keep those to myself - the worst part is it seems alot of the time there is always a problem with loads in Canada, I have to call them on my cell phone which is on roaming and like .60 per minute, you get put on hold etc... worst part is they will not re-imburse those calls (although in orientation they explained how to get reimbursed for those, but I have a re-imbursment denial sitting at home for these calls. but I don't worry too much as they are tax deductable so I'll recover some of it and I now use the 1800 number at the truck stops when possible. If they put me on hold then (which they normally always do - then its their dime).

 

That's the beauty of a cell phone these days, they record video and audio, I would have been secretly recording as much as I could have, phone on video and sitting in my lap, the only thing the finisher would be finishing would be his job as a trucker, as for the company, oh yeah I would have raised hell against them too

 

COMPLETELY right on the mark about 'IFC'! I personally witnessed the same experiences too. And instead of paying me the Detention Pay they advertised they dispatched me ten (10) miles to a truck stop to wait more hours for a load to get from a driver after waiting till just two (2) hours when I was due the pay! And there was a regular turnaround load out of Laredo Tx. to the middle of Ohio and back to Laredo. Sounds good huh? That's what I thought too but the best route is right thru Joplin, Mo. Once the load was picked up in Ohio the plan is to go right thru Joplin, Mo (the headquarters of "IFC") where to get fuel and a truck wash etc. only to be told in the Inspection Bay to "turn in your paperwork at the Dispatch Window to get another load" So "IFC" would steal the miles left from Joplin, Mo. to Laredo, Tx. to give to another driver who waited a average of two (2) to three (3) days already there because there was never enough loads for the company drivers. The Owner-Operators could pick and choose loads at will (only right) but being a company driver if you were a non-Hispanic/Mexican driver either at Laredo, Tx. or El Paso, Tx you got terrible loads as the "IFC" terminal staff gave the good to great mileage loads to their Latin/Mexican amigos and amigas. And soon as they came in they were called to the office for a 'phone call' but instead to be given paperwork for the best loads.and headed right back out. I personally witnessed a company driver be arrested for taking a swing at his dispatcher after being pushed to the breaking point by the corrupt AND idiot "IFC" staff (to bad he didn't connect!!!). STAY AWAY FROM "IFC"!!! And DON'T call, email, fax etc. them for you employment, to carry your freight etc.. Thanks

 

I've never seen another profession with the amount of negative attitudes, whining, lying, finger pointing, and general self disrespect as in trucking. It's not the companies thats the problem to me it's the drivers. If it ain't constant garbage talking on the radio its the constant talking behind someone's or some company's back, and the ringer is that each and everyone of us has made every choice to get us where we are, yet I hear no one complaining about themselves.

 

What I've learned over the years is there are two sides to every sad story and somewhere in the middle you may find the truth...