Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

Exit 61...Golden Acorn Casino with big truck parking. Slept there a few times.

Exit 115....Super Stop Truck stop. Big parking lot. Slept there also.

 

Ok, seems as how I have some free time, I thought I'd write a review of this past year here at Abilene. Based solely on what I accomplished, been through, and my thoughts about the company.

I ran a total of 197,455 miles. My truck that I have now was assigned to me on February 23 with 31 miles on the clock. I now have 186,266 miles on it. This is also my third brand new truck since I've been employed at Abilene.

I took 3 weeks vacation last year, 1 was paid, 1 was not. My wife and I used 2 weeks to go on 2 separate cruises, the third one was just to get a break from last winter. I am very happy with my time off, albeit at times it does get screwed up. I am never bothered by the amount of home time I get. I have said that I count hometime as nights I sleep in my bed, and it averaged 4 nights every 2-3 weeks.

I'm going to write out my earnings, not to brag, but to let people see that if they find a home here, you can make good money. I averaged, with all my drop pay, 40.5 CPM. That alone comes to $79,960. I also had 4 referrals paid at $300 each which added another $1200. My total earnings came to $81,160. My vacation pay was $1537. My second week will be on this year due to the fact my hire date is April 13th.

Now, my earnings are also based on me training, which I did for only 6 months of 2016. If I trained full time, I would have earned north of $100k. I can't nor want to train full time, we have people that do, I won't. If you take out the training from my earning, then it comes out to $63,000.

My point to this? I work, they pay. If you run solo and work, you'll make money. I'm quite sure Abilene knows that when I leave my house, I will run anywhere they tell me too, no questions asked. All I expect is to be utilized to run freight, not babysit freight, not wait, not layover. We have issues here, I'm not immune to it, but I keep an open mind and look at the big picture. For instance, this pay period that ends tonight. I ran 7950 miles with 4 extra stop offs, because I'll be home Monday night thru Thursday, my next pay period will end with about 5100 miles. No big thing, just add the 2 pay periods up and they average out to 6500 miles, which comes out to a little over 3250 per week. As a solo driver, that's about what I average per pay period, as a trainer, it's about 12,400 per pay period.

Now let's talk about what I went through this past year. It's not perfect here, but, after what will be 39 years doing this job in February, Abilene as a whole is a great fit for me. I'm not going to be out here much longer, like I tell anyone that wants to listen, that light at the end of the tunnel? It's not a train, for me it's the end of the tunnel. I turn 61 on February 13, 3 more years and then I'll go sell real estate with my wife. My wife and I have been very fortunate over the last 22 years of marriage, we've saved for our retirement. If Abilene doesn't run me off, I'll finish driving here.

My biggest complaint here is the lack of communication, and the lack of preplanning. Abilene is no different than any other company I've worked for. They have 2 books, one that has on the cover those that can and will, and the other book that has on its cover, those that can't and won't. I'm pretty confident I know which book I'm in. It didn't happen over night, it took my first 2 years here for them to realize how I work. I've always said, a fleet manager is one of two people, a baby sitter, or a personal secretary, I know exactly where Kimberly is as my immediate supervisor. I don't need a wake up call every day, telling me I need to get rolling because I took 12 hours sleep of a 10 hour break.

We aren't, or should I say, I'm not micromanaged. I fuel when and where I want too, I route myself, if I have to deviate from the normal route I let dispatch know and why. I follow all the policies and procedures exactly as they are written. If I don't like them, agree with them or want to do it my way, all I'll need to do is start my own trucking company. On the same hand, if I follow everything like the company has written out, I expect the company to do likewise.

What I would like to see? Every operations personnel to ride with a trainer for 2 weeks. Sometimes I wonder if they have any sort of clue what we go through out here on the other end of that QC, out in every part of this country. I'm very fortunate here, my FM happens to be one that is in charge of all the FM's and the one that oks certain monies to be paid. I went this whole year of 2016 without a single mistake on my check, and every dime I was owed was paid to me.

My wish list for 2017? Better communication, less issues getting routed to the right area for hometime, and one thing that I am very passionate about, a drivers round table with operations/owner to discuss certain issues that arise amongst the drivers. Am I a company cheerleader? Not hardly, but if they treat me good, I have no problem telling anyone that will listen, treat me wrong, and it works that way also. As it is right now, I've had 2 issues that really pissed me off, and I had no problem telling it to anyone who would listen, both had to do with hometime. All in all, Abilene has done very well by me, I'm happy here and am proud to say I drive for them. I'll help anyone that drives here, my phone never stops ringing, my trainees that I had on my truck are very important to me, they succeed and I look good....lol.

In ending, I'll say this, they have earned a B+, I base that on what I have experienced this past year, and what I've heard from other drivers. I look forward to 2017, if it's anything like 2016, I'll be very happy. Thanks for reading all, be safe and profitable this year!

 

Yes. It runs from your hire date. Mine is April, this vacation I have coming up in February is #2 for my year. After April 13th I get my next 2. Which will be used at the end of august.