U.S. Xpress Strikes Again!!

I don't see where the surprise is. USX has always been team oriented and a driver mill.

 

It's called trimming the fat. It costs allot of money to employ a driver and maintain equipment. You will see allot of this in the coming months. Big outfits shutting down their driver schools and weeding out the dead wood and hiring O/Ops and experienced drivers.

There are allot of guys out here right now with many years experience not working and or looking for work. These big outfits are in the position to pick and choose. No more driver mills, watch the pay finally start to go up to get the old timers that know how to drive.

These big outfits are finally figuring out that it is much cheaper in the long run to hire and work a guy at the top wage and keep him happy. The alternative is a newbie with no track record that could, and can, wipe a company out with one fatality accident.

Who would you rather have? Steady Eddie at .50 a mile that gets the job done or Rambo who rolls over the mini van loaded with kid$$$$ because he was "busy" in the truckstop? Just my .02

And knock on wood for us all.

Mike

 

I think the plan is to get desperate experienced drivers at newbie wages. The way jobs are right now they will be able to do it too.

 

I don't think so.

I hate to say it, but I leased onto Schneider, parked my authority and went back to van freight.

What I was told in orientation was just what I stated above regarding experience and wages. The lawsuits and out of route miles along with poor driver skills are costing the big guys gobs of money they don't have right now. Can you say high fuel costs and shrinking rates?

It was also refreshing to hear what I already knew, having had a very small fleet of 5 trucks, money don't grow on trees. Schneider, and lump the other big outfits in, are seeing the light, at least for now. They want to make money! But due to current economic conditions, these big guys are finally coming to the realization that us guys that have been out here for awhile, like to make and save money just as much as they do. So, they pay us a bit more, and actually make a little bit more money than under the old .90 a mile plan. Imagine that?

Kinda like when you lower taxes, income flows into the government coffers from all of the new entrepreneurs that come onto the scene because they can now afford to make that idea work, if you get my drift.

Let's just hope this line of thinking continues through the next cycle.

Mike

 

There are lots of experienced drivers out of work right now who are are willing to work for lower wages just to have a job. These companies know this, and are willing to take every advantage of it.

Experienced drivers should be making 42-49 CPM, but how many big companies are paying this. The wages have gone down instead of up. I have seen where the starting pay of some companies has gone down in just the last month or so.

Tight job market = lower pay. I saw on a Werner (I think) thread where they dropped the starting pay for drivers.

Why would a company pay more for an experienced driver when that same driver will work for less to keep from loosing his house.

This is the situation we are in. The big companies know this, and are taking advantage of it to stay in business.

If freight was good, and drivers were in short supply, then things would still be just as they were. The only light these big drivers mills see is the savings of paying thousands of new drivers a sub-standard wage. They make more money paying out for a few accidents than paying extra for better drivers.

If this were not so the bean counters would have been paying better wages for better drivers all along. They are taking advantage of the fact that many good drivers are needing jobs badly.

In fact, I am going Friday to apply for a job that 3 months ago I would not have thought about. Times are bad, drivers do what they have to do, and companies do what they can to get that driver cheap.

 

That was my first thinking of this when I read it for the first time, So I sent a link to it to a friend of mine who does drive for USX. At first he was in denial but later called me back and said it was TRUE. Though he not been called in yet.

 

I agree with most of what you say, Waterloo. However, there is one statement you make that is counter to industry statistics; that of newbies having more fatal accidents. It is well-noted in industry research that the majority of fatal accidents are caused by the more experienced drivers. Newbies tend to drive more cautiously and are involved in more property damage accidents (running into trailers; backing into vehicles; cutting corners sharp and hitting posts, etc.) The main reason cited for a higher fatality rate among the more experienced drivers is complacency. The more experience we get in any job, the more unsafe we can actually become. We get the feeling we can handle things better than we used to and take greater risks. A newbie will normally not take the chances that an experienced driver will take and it is usually those chances that lead to the fatal accidents.

 

so how does this theory work fo COVENANT? they still are hiring droves of newbies. i just got into Chatt, the other night and they are out on the range testing out...
and orientations are still bringing in 75 to 100+ per week? and they bought a hotel here for orientation....i don't believe they will stop hiring newbies..
they are cheap labor to train,drain and discard later on.
plus experienced drivers like me do not bend and eat all the caca that they feed and force on newbies that really need to stay and get experienced.
so let me know how this "theory" will come to play here?, and COVENANT
is the sister company to usxpress....what a shame about them, many years ago i drove for them and they were good to work for.....
thanks for these interesting posts....but i don't beleive much will change here at Covenant, they are stuck in their ways to reap in profits by maintaing a cheap labor force.....and greed is a glue to keep them on this track........
best wishes
mcr&deb.

 

Thought I would come back to finish this "rumor" off. This peaked my intrest so I took it upon myself to make some calls and get to the bottom of this. Like I said I currently work at USX so this was easy to get to the bottom of.

First they are not forcing drivers to team, it depends on what state you live in. For example if you live in like florida say they have a hard time getting drivers home there since freight is so slow. So they do in fact ask you to team with another driver that lives in florida simply to make getting people home easier.

They do have a hiring freeze in certain states that have low freight rates as well. Its due to the same reason as the other getting drivers home, if there is not much freight going to that area how are they supposed to get drivers home? Times are tough for all companies so yes they are trying to save money, thats the very reason they dont want to have to deadhead a driver 200 miles or so to get them home to a state that they dont have any freight going too? Makes perfect sense to me I would do the same thing.

And well as for the students they are not hiring as many of them either, and its due to not having any trainers to train them mostly. There are studnets having to wait "weeks" for a trainer to become available. I think they are short on trainers for a few reasons. One they dont pay trainers enough, I was making 60 bux a day training at another company plus the miles the truck ran. USX only wants to pay 25 bux a day plus mileage....ummmm I dont think so! The second reason is that I think experienced drivers are finally begining to realize that training new drivers and them going on to first seat drivers at low cpm rates is hurting them in the long run. Think about this you have 2 drivers in the same area, a load comes up you can pay one driver .26cpm to run it or another .43cpm who do you think is gonna get the load?

As for Covanent they have nothing to do with USX other than Max Fuller (co owner of USX) and the owner of Covanent are brothers!!!! They are not "sister" companies

Keep On Trucking ##!!!

 

hey man before u left did u check out any of the solo accounts Like Reckitt Benkiser or call Ben at Ext 5678 and check for openings on Walmart if u live in TN theres the Boat account, i dont know your exact situation but had it been me i would have looked for Dedicated Accounts.. but thats just me