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

I wonder if any of the Mods can look into a bunch of thanks I received from some dude with a website signature. Just curious about it being some scam.

 

That was him. Thank you!

 

Ok, finally have time for my yearly review of the company and my job here at Abilene. Now, please, so people don’t get upset with me, this is my review, based on what I went through and experienced this past year, not anyone’s but mine. Here goes........

I started this past year on the road January 1st as I have not been home any New Year’s Eve or day since I’ve come to work at Abilene, this year was the first time in years that I was. My odometer reading was 163,105. I ended the year at 345,290. I drove a total of 182,185 or should I say the truck turned that many. I happened to be paid on the total amount. My earnings on that number alone was $76,517. I had 2 paid weeks of vacation at $1490 each and $1800 worth of layover pay. There was no referral bonuses achieved at all this past year. My total earnings came out to $81,297. On these numbers alone, I averaged 44.5 cents per mile.

Now, here’s where my thinking and what’s important to me as I enter the last few years of my career come into play. The most important part of my job is my home time. I include my vacation into my thinking. Even though I had 2 weeks paid vacation, I took an extra week when my wife and I went to Costa Rica last February and an extra week in August when we went on our Alaskan cruise. So my vacation time off was 4 weeks. One very good aspect about Abilene is their time off policy, we all know what it is, they have never once questioned or denied any time off I asked for or took. Add to those 4 weeks my requested home time, and it comes to another 60 days.

You might ask how I achieve those numbers with this much time off. I train, not full time, but enough to warrant 182,185 miles, not all training, there is quite a bit of solo miles in there. I have a great mixture of solo and training miles combined. I was also lucky enough to have all but one trainee learn, get out solo and are still here. This past year I have a total of 5 trainees that are still here doing their own thing. I had one disaster of a trainee, he didn’t make it, thank God.

Now let me discuss the company. I don’t have much of the same issues as a lot of other drivers do. Abilene is not perfect, at times they can be downright irritating. I never turn down freight, I always go wherever I’m dispatched to. I will always, if warranted voice my displeasure if something is not right. I had what I called the best FM ever here at Abilene, and anyplace else I’ve worked over the las 39 years. Unfortunately for me, she had an opportunity to advance and she took it, she’s now our safety director. Her replacement, in the beginning was anything but a FM. In fact, he was so bad, I went and resigned from training twice, both times I was talked out of it. Rusty has come a long way, my problem is twofold, one, he came off in the beginning as a used car salesman, second, I’ve been out here far to long to be BS’d in anyway. Once he and I got on the same page, it’s been pretty good. I make no bones about telling him or anyone else, that my job performance will bee 100% at all times. I have this uncanny need to look good all the times.

My biggest concern and complaint, is being dispatched by some people in the office that can hardly spell CDL, let alone figure out how to move a truck. For the areas that I run, those load planners have been here a long time and are very good at their job. Just this past Christmas, I had a trainee on the truck and was held over in Brooklynn waiting on another truck to take his one 1 pallet to Bethpage Long Island. I had zero issue with that, even though my trainee and I spent all day waiting on him. The issue was that I couldn’t be guaranteed the receiver would wait on us and that I had to come off the Island at 5pm and get to south jersey to load. When I told Rusty that if I was held over just to sit overnight in Bethpage, that would be the last load I would do for Abilene. On my way out to the Island I get a QC message from Rusty. The load planner said they will wait for you. At this point I was so furious I wrote back “tell Adam to go to hell” I calmed down before I got back to Richmond that night then was called in to discuss what happened with the boss. It was resolved and we all kissed and made up.

Let me talk about something very important here, payroll. We are paid every 2 weeks. When I run 12-14 thousand per pay period with a trainee on the truck, my pay voucher reads like an encyclopedia. I have numerous reimbursements, numerous trips, sometimes a layover and a bunch of other things. I had zero mistakes on my pay. None, zilch, nada. That alone is worth its weight in gold. Let’s talk CPM, do I want to make more? Sure I do, we are getting a raise this month based on merit, I’m getting the top rate, plus I get another penny in April on my anniversary date. I have zero complaints about what I make. If you take the training pay out and look at my solo earnings, it was $65k. I look at the big picture, my hometime, my equipment I drive and pull, no micromanaging, the open door and the relationships I’ve made here. I have said and continue to say, if Abilene doesn’t run me off, I’ll finish my driving career here in 3 years.

We have driver facing cameras. Not an issue with me. I was brought into the office over the summer and got an “Atta Boy” award for being spot checked and everything was perfect, I even had both hands on the wheel. We have Elogs, another nonissue. I’ve been on them the last 10 years. I rather like them, especially since I’ve made more every year since I’ve been here. We also have automatics. I’m old school, drove every transmission created, my best one that I still think about is the 13. But I have no problem telling anyone, nothing beats coming out of the GW toll plaza at 7am, drinking a cup of coffee, and not worrying about shifting.

I have always said, if anyone comes here and survives the Abilene way the first 6 months, then this becomes a pretty good gig. I’ve learned one very important thing over the years, every trucking company has 2 books, one book has the names of the drivers that can and will, the other one has the drivers in it that cant and won’t. Abilene is no different. My biggest complaint? They spent a boatload of money on our new truck wash, yet they only wash trucks twice a week. My other complaint? Put a few more lights through the lot so I don’t fall and break my neck. If anyone has any specific questions, please ask. Either myself or some of the regulars will answer you. Be safe everyone, thanks for letting me bore you.

P.S., my wife and I are leaving for Portugal February 8th for 10 days. We go away every February to celebrate my birthday on the 13th and our anniversary and Valentine’s Day on the 14th.

***UPDATE*** One thing I did not include in my numbers is the company contribution to my 401K. That was another $3800. I have 15% put into my account every pay period. I’ve been enrolled in our 401k for 4 years now. It is something I’ve done with every company I’ve ever worked at. It has added up quite nicely.