I'm so confused, you have a good linehual gig paying an appropriate rate and you want to get a truck a deal with all the madness. Have you lost your mind????????
AMEN!! If someone offered me a 65cpm gig with benefits, I'd drop this truck back in Green Bay tomorrow lol
Like anything else in life, there are pros and cons to anything. First of all, if you cant get a linehaul gig, it would only be because your safety record wont allow you to. Cant think of too many LTL carriers that arent hiring. I made over 100k (before taxes) my 2nd year at Estes. But I was also hooking and breaking 5 sets a day (5 hooks and 5 breaks is 20 trailers up and down and doing that every day is killing my shoulder). Not to mention hooking pups is a dirty greasy affair. Secondly, I run the open board. That means I am a slave to central dispatch. Being from Minnesota that means where ever the weather is the crappiest, thats where you will find me because they know I can handle it. It also means I have no control over where I go and when. 6 months ago Im in Columbus Oh on a thursday and they send me to Atlanta. So Im in Atlanta on a friday. Needless to say I get home on sunday afternoon, and I head back out on monday. Which is why I am looking at LS and Choice. So I have control over where and when I go. When I am not driving my truck someone else is. Usually they dont bother cleaning up after themselves and quite often if I leave something in the truck, it grows legs. Also means my truck spends a fair amount of time in the shop because some city guy doesnt know what a clutch break is or clips a wall trying to get in a hole somewhere so I have to drive some hunk of junk loaner for a week or 2 while mine is being worked on. And while Im on the mechanics, they often leave a lot to be desired. I ran a truck back and forth over the mountains in Tenn and Ky for 3 weeks with a blown injector. Im in a yard with a shop every single day and for 3 weeks no one even bothered to look at it. Finally I roll into Mpls on morning, drove straight to the shop, grabbed a grease monkey, dragged him out to my spitting and sputtering truck and asked him point blank what I had to write in the f--king book to get it fixed. Didnt see my truck again for 3 months. Dove junk for 3 months.
This isn't the first time I've heard this type of bs about Estes, one ltl I'd never work for. Its also sounds like their version of line haul has a lot to be desired. Matter of fact doesn't sound like it to me, seriously having to break 5 sets a day? Breaking 5 a day ain't line haul. I used to run wild for a company called Motor Cargo back around 96. Trips/ doubles So I understand about being the one that always gets a worst storms route. Unfortunately I got hung out to dry when they got swallowed up by UPS. Went back otr. I'm curious though is it normal at Estes to be there as long as you and still not be able to get a bid route?
I have a perfect safety record, just don't want to deal with a lot of the BS that you mentioned, so I guess I see your point lol. My biggest prob with LTL companies is the politics and ######## that is involved with most of them, not to mention eating #### no matter how good you are because some dick bag has seniority over you, even if he's useless. I worked as a Federal employee for 7 1/2 years with the DoD before I started driving, so I've had my lifetime share of politics, nepotism and everything that goes along with it. I'm no SNI fanboy, nor have I ever leased onto Landstar, or any other carrier for that matter. That being said, I think you get a little more covered here at SNI than you do running for Landstar, at pretty much the same percentage(most tolls paid, use of company facilities, ridiculously cheap maintenance/repair at company OCs(at least for Freightliners), etc). From the research I've done on Landstar, it also seems like they nickel and dime you for everything, which I don't deal with here. That's my take...hopefully someone from the Landstar forum can give you a little more info to compare...good luck either way!
Depends on where you are running to and from. Out of Minny towards the end they had me running to Chicago (McCook) quite often, and then they would bounce me up to Elgin, and then back to McCook (frankly, thats why I quit - it would take over 4 hours to do McCook - Elgin - McCook counting the hooks and breaks and its only like 60 some miles). But running KC to Denver for example, yeah, you would hook it in KC, but Denver you dont break or hook, and back to KC you dont break them, so over 2 days, 1200 miles, 1 hook total. But even at that, they pay $7.50 per break and hook, and since it takes 6 minutes to hook a set, and 3 mins to break one. I could get into Lincolnshire, break em, park em, hook em, get my paperwork and out the gate in 15 mins for $15.00 - thats $60 an hour - not too bad really once you get the flow of it. East coast I hear is a nightmare, but the furthest east I ever got (in 3 years) was Harrisburg PA once. Furthest west Salt Lake City. If I could get on the western route, I would go Minny to KC to Denver to KC to Denver to KC to Minny about 3400 miles, 3 hooks no breaks - over $2200 for the week. And I did that fairly regular there for a while. Frankly, I think Estes was probably the best trucking company I have ever worked for. They always treated me like a person, and I didnt have to fight with payroll every week to get what I was supposed to be getting.
Fuel charge is nice but it's not that high right now. $2.14 per mile avg is $1.60 a mile to you. I think you're might be a little high but what you want to do isn't impossible. I'm sure they're guys at LS that have been around for many years that are probably hitting the numbers you want, maybe even more. I just wouldn't expect it right at the start. There is a pretty big learning curve at LS, not quite as big on the choice program. I think most guys struggle with trip planning & knowing their actual cost to run the truck & that's what gets them in trouble. Living in MN you'll be able to get in & out of the house but there's not a lot of good freight that I've seen going in & out. I wish you the best.
Trip planning isnt an issue for me. I used to be a computer programmer for 9 years back in the 70s and 80s and 4 of those years was writing truck dispatching software. And I owned a print shop for 9 years as well, so I do know how to handle a business. Like I said, I have poked around their board a fair amount and Im fairly confident I can make a go of it there. I just have to wait until maybe March of next year because of that 1 stupid ticket (what I did was legal in about half the states I run in and I did it because I THOUGHT it was legal in Mn - lesson learned). So the only question is do I stay put until then, or try Choice. If I could get a look at their board I could decide that for myself. But dealing with the Pumpkins has always scared me and no way will I go to them blind.
They'll send you a screen shot of the board if you request it through a recruiter. I got one of my local area when I was trying to decide between LS and SNI. I was accepted into both.
