I really like Knight Transportation

I drove at Knight for almost 3 years, and your numbers are pretty much on the mark--as far as the pay. But I got home every week for at least 2 days. And no, the "micro-management "accusation is not a bit far-fetched, it is right on the money. But all in all they werent that bad of people to work for. One of the few companies that you will find of any size that is not forced-dispatch also. They had there little quirks and problems but nothing real major. BTW, Knight only has about 4 trailers to every tractor, and that again was my biggest complaint also. The tracking system they put on the trailers while I was there, wound up actually making it worse. Wait till they send you on the 800 mile deadhead--Because the closest freight they cant move is that far away and you are the only truck that can go get it--WooHoo!

 

Yea your right about the "little things" dam.....focus ....but yes they will deadhead you if you keep after them. For me it was Denver to Kansas City empty to get a load. As a bonus it delivered 800 miles down the road in my home town.

You can't send a driver into a deadzone and expect them to twiddle their thumbs until "something comes up."

and Tstom, welcome to the forums. We currently have a nice cross section of Knight drivers represented here. From the mentally disturbed to the "EH whatever" guys all the way to the "I would DIE for Knight" crowd" Oh and then the guys that curse the beast go home on the weekend, drink a beer and think "their not that bad" only to have that attitude smashed yet again come Monday afternoon. I'm still trying to find where I fit in.

 

Every day they seem to be trying their best to crush my spirit!


This is how my day is going.

*BEEP*

: Did you deliever your load?

: The one due on the 8th?

: I dunno

: I think my Qualcomm is broken, I'll I'm getting is stupid messages

: What?

: The load that had to be reloaded 3 times because it wasn't loaded correctly? Yeah, I delievered that one. Got reloaded, now moving again.

: What?

: Did you eat paint chips as a child?

: Did you deliever that load?

: Which load?

: I dunno, the load?

Long story short. My last load was so over BOL gross it was a joke, unless someone can tell me how 42,000 pounds of dog food makes my weight 79,920 and yet 45,000 pounds of water I'm at 77,480. And you know as a Knight driver, you can't stuff 3000 pounds of fuel on board.

 

They either want you driving for them or they don't. I would not allow two wasted weeks in a row PERIOD. Okay freight is slow so you might have a bad week here and there. But two weeks in a row, you need to bypass the dispatcher and go to your terminal manager. If they want or need you they will make it right. If that doesn't work then adios Knight your wasting your time.

 

Long story short. My last load was so over BOL gross it was a joke, unless someone can tell me how 42,000 pounds of dog food makes my weight 79,920 and yet 45,000 pounds of water I'm at 77,480. And you know as a Knight driver, you can't stuff 3000 pounds of fuel on board.

So what did you want Knight to do about your overweight issue?

If your axle overweight you get it reworked. If every load had a legit weight and was loaded correctly, there would be no need for scales.

I have had overweight issues at every company I worked at and you just have to deal with it because it will happen from time to time.

 

Im not really sure why he even cares about the weights, both were under gross-as long as the axle weight was right-who cares. Rule of thumb--anything over 35,000 gets weighed anyhow, in fact, doesnt Knight have a rule like that for what must be weighed-I could have swore they did. Volvo, in case he has not figured it out yet, is a heavy front end truck(due to its cab-forward design), I was always 11,200 or better on my steers, and I was over 10,600 empty. In case he hasnt figured it out, his Volvo tractor weighs almost 20000 itself full of fuel and his trailer would weigh around 13,000(depending on the age of it)--therefore he could stuff about 47,000 in it and if it was loaded correctly, he could have done it with no problems. Weight issues are his, not Knight's.

I used to have a load of paper rolls coming out of Port Elizabeth, NJ going to RR Donnelley in Warsaw, IN almost every Fri(that was the usual load to get me home) and those loads were BOL at 46,200 for like 7 rolls, the truck scaled fine every time-in fact after being there about twice and weighing it both times and figuring that they knew what they were doing, I never weighed the truck after that, and I bet that I have done that load probally 35-50 times. I was usually 79,650 gross, I could actually guarantee that number with in 200 either way without even weighing it--(average weights 11,900, 33950, 33800) When I first got my Volvo, I took it down and weighed it with an empty trailer and paid the $8.00 myself, and wrote down the 3 weights and kept them right in my notebook for reference. I would never sign the bill, untill I was allowed on the dock to look at the load and decide if it looked loaded right to me. They dont like that, too bad--its my truck not theirs(the shipper)

 

Many, if not most, company drivers probably don't give a hoot about a shipper slipping a few extra thousand pounds on a trailer. Even if the load was brokered for a lighter weight. By loading more weight, it becomes that CHEAP FREIGHT that is helping to bring the truckin' industry standards down for every driver.

But, the same company drivers who don't care about shipper rip-off, are probably the same drivers who don't think twice about wasting fuel, either.

See above.

Now, ...... that right thar is good advice.

 

I see what you are saying--but most of the time the weights were off anyhow, since the company loading you is going by an average based on what the product is supposed to weigh, not what it actually does. I remember one time Knight sending me on a load that said it was 40,000 but it wound up being about 4700 lbs worth of pillows going to WalMart in Hope Mills, NC. Most of the freight that we pulled at Knight was pre-paid freight anyhow, so the customer was not gonna change the bill if it was wrong. What Im saying though is why would he be complaining about the water lbs versus the dogfood lbs--he was still under weight either way. His complaint was about the weight, not about how much that Knight was making per ton-mile. Which, knowing something about Knight and the way that they bill, they were probally well-covered as far as their costs on the load went. About 90% of the freight(or more) that we pulled at Knight was from and to Fortune 500 companies--there was very little "junk" freight(as they called it).

 

That's 120% of what I mean right there. Not the BS that comes across the Qualcomm, I'm talking the paperwork that gets slapped in your hand. There is only so much you can do to a truck and trailer in CA for weight shifting, but yeah, if the trailer wasn't over BOL gross, than it wouldn't have taken 3 times for them to get it right loading me.

What Knight could have done about my weight issue was have everybody in the company stop calling me to ask me if I was under way. They don't seem to know how to talk to the people in the same room as they sit to work in, and with Knight, it gets more complex when you have to deal with two termnals, because one won't talk to the other.

But Timtruck, you are wrong, but that's OK. I understand your issue, but when I can't scale out a load, and I talk to the office clowns, and they can't figure out how not to bug me on my ten because they couldn't reload the trailer fast enough, that's their problem, not mine.

 

You should not be answering msgs on your break. They will figure it out sooner or later by checking the GPS.

CA can be tuff on heavy loads with the 40' bridge law but your Volvo 670 and a trailer is around 33,500 and anything over 40k should not be rear of 45 feet.

I used to pick up at Grocery outlet in Sacramento all the time and they were 2 stoppers which meant splitting the load and alway overweight on the tandems by 700 to a 1000 pounds. I sneaked thru the scales at cottonwood a few times set at 42 since they will give you 200pounds before they put you on the static scale. But one time they made me reset to 40' and I had to go around the back and gun it and slam on the breaks to get the load to shift forward. And one time I had to just get back there and start trowing cases of sardines back to get under.

Usually it is faster to rework the load yourself unless the freight is to heavy to breakdown and move yourself. The shippers like to screw with you for some reason when you bring a load back to rework.

Like the other poster said it is also a good idea to see how a heavy load is being loaded so you don't leave a dock with 45k pinwheeled or something.