A Place for FFE Drivers to Keep in Touch

not real good from the people I know ----glad I am on ltl --- according to kllm the ltl is operated as a separate company and has nothing to do with them ---- like it wasn't part of the deal and was staying ffe --- kllm drivers do some of the line hauls and we have heard that by first of year all line hauls will be teams --- I mostly work out of bridgeview and run mostly ohio but have been to Burlington Dundee and Lithonia in the last couple of weeks and didn't notice any changes --- haven't been to Lancaster since September . a local city driver that worked the day shift got bumped to nights by a kllm driver because he had more "seniority " but he is the only kllm driver that switched over that I know of . the regular owner operators contract is up dec 31st --- lease drivers that lease expired are going on month to month extensions ---- there is some talk of a cut in the stop pay but I don't think that's going to fly without losing drivers --- kllm thinks its to high compared to what there regional guys make and they don't like the weekly minimums the company drivers have ---- theres too many jobs out there to take a pay cut so I will leave if that happens . so far we still have people net and I don't want that qual com .. I heard it puts you on drive line after a mile fcku that and no pc miles fcku that too . the lease department is down to just susan owen is in settlements . they are switching the insurance over to kllms jan 1st . we did have the option of finding our own . I call the ffe road service and it goes right to kllm . So far I haven't heard anything positive about anyone that switched over -- I have 3 good friends that switched 1 has turned his truck in and the other 2 are really thinking hard about it . kllm phones may even be worse than ffes lol ------- waiting to see how things work out after the first and hopefully they don't fcku my job up lol ----- so far its been just little things like comdata and stuff like that we only use ffe trailers too so maybe ltl wasn't part of the deal

 

Dude, you have know idea of what you're getting yourself into...first a lease certainly WILL NOT level the playing field, it will make it stacked against you, don't be sold a bill of goods, why would they give you a better deal, the company is transfer all the risk of ownership to you, making even more money off you and keeping the tax benefits...also there are no two year leases you can get out of in two years...you sound young, you need to give it some more time...

 

I keep searching the forums for both good posts and bad posts about KLLM/FFE. There's nothing lately. My personal experience is that KLLM's planners are idiots - and lazy. I'm almost ready to post my experiences with KLLM since I switched over from FFE back in October. I just want to get other driver's experiences as well, so I can see if I'm the exception or the rule.

Thanks buckeye bandt for your post. It helps.

 

Thinking about turning my truck in. I'm getting runs but my delivery dates most of time is after payroll. i had to t call 3x so i can get paid before the end of the weeks. b getting between 200-300 DH miles about 1800 miles per week all on long trips but im not making money off these load. I keep my speed between 62-65 mph not going over on fuel. my dm will call me with an load and hang up don't give me the time to go over the detail of the load. I been running on my recaps for the last 2 weeks and need a reset. 2 weeks ago my check was only $75.00, the most i made was $1300, this week i took home $577.00. i feel that i can go back as a company driver and make more money then this. my gross paid but me in a high tax bracket but the money is not there after deductions. If things the change after end of this month I'm out!!!!

 

I started as a KLLM driver 18 mos ago.. Things are definitely worse lately. Even as an otr team, we cant break 4000 miles. barely over 3000 the past 6 weeks.
Im losing the very little patience I have (redhead issues)
We keep getting 15-1800 mile loads with 3+ days on it and have had more resets than ever before.
And yes, all of our good loads keep unloading right after payroll cutoff.
our pay this week under the "if you want a holiday bonus you cant refuse any loads" was 483.
483. for a team.
wtf

 

I can't believe anyone with a year in is still with that outfit. But, to each their own, I guess.

 

hopefully things get on track quick for you guys my only beef with ltl is terminals and the waiting bridgeview is a cluster puck at best . so far my only experience with kllm is on the phone with breakdown and it takes way too long to get ahold of anybody ---- still have people net and hopefully will not change over . I cant believe they have teams running 3000 miles a week that's a joke . I like the ltl planners its just getting the loads back out and too much waiting ---- but I am making decent money and my net works out to around 85 cents a mile (its the stop pay were the money comes from ) hardly ever get close to 2000 miles a week

 

I'm still not ready to post everything that has happened, but the list is pretty long. To make a very long story short (well, sort of short), I went to Lancaster last week to try to resolve the issues I was having. I talked to Tim C. and my DM, who both agreed that there were issues, and if we all communicated we could avoid them. I felt like things would work out and then went to Kenny and talked to him. While we were talking, he gave me a load from Waco to Kennesaw. I went to find an empty, washed it out, and sent the truck number to my DM so I could get the load officially sent to me. Without any call, or any explanation, I was given a completely different load going to someplace completely different. You have absolutely NO idea how pissed off I was. I had spent lots of time trying to resolve the issues, and the very first load I get after all of that, nothing had changed.

I calmly went to my DM to ask for an explanation. She said that the planner in MS would not give me that load, and a new one was given to me. She knew about it but did not call me. No one sent me a message explaining why. The planner put a long note in the call notes explaining why he had to make the switch, so my DM and the planner knew why, but NO ONE took any effort to let me know. At that point I told them all I was not taking the load and I was bobtailing to Jackson. My DM's boss convinced me to take a load to Jackson and drop it off, so I did. That in itself is another long story. While in Jackson, I eventually talked to the supervisor over all of the DM's and their supervisors. I explained the situation and he said he would talk to my DM and we would try to work through the issues.

I felt pretty good about that conversation and then got a load that picked up a new trailer in VA. Once I got the trailer I waited about three hours for a new load. Of course, it was no surprise that the load info said I was going to be late. The appointment window was from 10 to 12, and it was 1130 when I got the load and I was more than two hours away. I asked my DM if I could arrive late, and she asked if I could be there by 2. I said that I could not, and that was the last I heard. I did not want to refuse another load so I took a chance and got to the shipper at 245. Once I arrived I talked to the shipper and they told me that as long as I arrive by 330 there are no issues, and they don't really go by appointment times. No one in shipping has any idea when a truck is supposed to arrive. They also said that if I needed to arrive after 330, someone would stay as long as they knew they needed to stay. Of course, none of that was communicated to me, and I have no idea if anyone at KLLM even knows what the shipper's policy is.

I'm not going to leave - at least not yet. But I am going to start refusing loads that are past their appt time. I'm also going to stop relying on my DM to call the CSR for info. This was not my DM's fault. I'm sure she tried to get the info for me, but no one would answer her. The same thing happened to my last DM as well. I'm just going to call the shipper myself and find out what's going on. I already handle lumpers on my own and just submit the receipt. I pay for repairs on my own as well. That eliminates me having to talk to two different departments, and it has been working out pretty well. I just have to figure out how to do this with as little contact as possible with my DM and the planners.

You would think that being preplanned on a load would solve this. You're right. It would. But getting a preplan is like pulling teeth. They seem to think that you can just arrive at a receiver and stay there as long as necessary until they figure out which load is the latest and then throw it on you. It does not work that way. We need to go someplace and park, and more often than not it is in the wrong direction of where they end of sending you.

I don't, and can't, believe it is going to stay this bad. It has to get better. KLLM is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new equipment. They ordered 1500 trailers from Utility and are getting them 100 at a time. 1500 x $130,000 is $195,000,000 just on trailers. That does not count all the new trucks they keep ordering, the new academy and the other miscellaneous building renovations. It makes no sense for them to keep chasing customers and drivers away. I think the problem is that the upper management is just not aware of what the drivers are experiencing. If I do end up turning in my truck, I am going to make sure that everyone from the CEO on down knows exactly what the drivers are experiencing and how much it took to make me finally leave.

After reading this post, I can't believe how much it took just to describe a few day's worth of issues. LOL. I have TWO MONTHS of this nonsense that I have been dealing with. It's just too much to write out.

One last thing - KLLM has lost several former FFE customers because of the merger. That came from a very reliable source. The customers were so fed up with the poor service because of the merger that they just gave up and went with other carriers. I want this to get better. I really don't want to go somewhere else.