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

Driving flatbed is almost like real work. Spending two hours tarping and strapping in the dead of winter is not for the faint of heart.

In order to figure out who to work for, you need to figure out what is important to you. Make a list. Rank it from most important to least important.

I have two kids, and I see them every three weeks. I've been doing that since my ex and I split up in 2011, long before I started working at Abilene. Making sure that I was available to see them every three weeks was my #1 priority. Everything else came second.

When I called around to places like Schneider or PTL or Werner, I asked them the same question: "I have to have every three weeks off to see my kids. Can you do that?" And most everybody I talked to hemmed and hawed and made comments about "Well trucking is trucking" and "We can't really guarantee anything, because..."

The one exception was Abilene. I asked Rusty, our old recruiter (and long gone lo these many years now) the same question, and his immediate response was "Yeah, we'll work with you."

And in the 7 years since, I have only had to fight to get home a couple of times. And those were due to clerical error rather than any malicious attempt to screw me out of my hometime.

So you gotta figure out what's important to you. Hometime not so important? Then maybe work for a company where it's harder to get home, but they at least pay you more.

Ask questions about detention. Do they pay you for sitting in a dock twiddling your thumbs? How much? When does it kick in? If you have a live load or a live unload, and you're on time for your appointment, and the shipper/receiver takes longer than 2 hours to get you loaded/unloaded, Abilene pays you $20/hr. (That is a little low for the industry, tbh, and hasn't changed in at least 11 years. But it's better than nothing.)

Do you get layover if they don't keep you rolling? If our truck sits idle for 24 hours when we should be rolling, we get $150.

Do they pay you breakdown pay if your truck has to spend time in the shop? Do they pay for your hotel?

Where can you fuel? Are you micromanaged with respect to fuel stops? Are you micromanaged with respect to breaks? Some companies will tell you when and where you have to fuel, and will tell you when and where you have to take your breaks. And if you take longer than they allocate, they'll be on the phone with you asking why your break is so long. Abilene doesn't do anything in the way of micromanaging. They tell you where you need to be and when you need to be there, and the rest they leave up to you.

Are you pre-planned? Sometimes Abilene pre-plans, but most of the time they won't even start looking for your next load until you're finished with your current load. This is why they can be so flexible with getting you home. Some companies out there will pre-plan your next 4-5 days. Which can certainly keep you busy, but also makes it a lot harder to get home in a hurry if you need to do so. Because not only do they have to find some way to rescue the trailer you're currently hauling, they also gotta reallocate the rest of the loads on your plan.

Do they pay the same for all miles? Some places have different pay scales depending on whether you're loaded, empty, or bobtail. So when they say they'll pay 60 cents per mile, that's only when you're pulling a loaded trailer. If you're pulling an empty trailer, maybe you only get 40 cents per mile. And if you're bobtail, maybe you only get 10 cents per mile. (Abilene pays the same for all miles, loaded, empty, or bobtail.)

Do they offer bonuses for driving in congested areas? Abilene pays an extra 12 cents per mile for all miles driven north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Do they offer mileage bonuses? Do they offer safety bonuses? Do they offer fuel bonuses?

These are the kinds of questions you'll want to ask any company you talk to.

 

Oh yeah, I'll take time off, like every 3-4 months, just not too much, I want to maximize my time running.

 

Well said JB, wishing you the best in your next and final endeavor.

 

Delivered my load of mozzarella cheese thursday morning to pfg then got a bh to groveport from petersburg. QCOMM said supposed to be ready friday morning, ended up ready saturday morning. BH must have been behind. Drop saturday then head over to west jefferson kelloggs to grab a liad to salem kroger. Get tgere and tgey are closing cuz night security didn’t show up for their shift. Go back sunday morning and get told the load was supposed to live load the 13 at 1800 and nobody showed and nobody rescheduled it to be preloaded so get sent a deadhead move to kimberly clark in louden tn to hook an empty reefer to drop in Wytheville. Low on hours so prob finish a 34.

 

Truck in the shop getting its last PM assigned to my a.s.s. Load sitting in the yard going to Miami. Will be home tomorrow late afternoon, deliver Wednesday, then parked until a week from Thursday.

 

I just wanted to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a great 2024. I’m looking forward to following you and your upcoming adventure. All the best to you, sir!

 

Thank you. And same to you and yours.

 

Merry Christmas and good luck with the new job JB! Looking forward to the review.

 

My hometime starts Wednesday, so if they send me anywhere today, I'll have to be back tomorrow. Just talked to DM, they're real light on freight and have plenty of folks on the yard to cover it. And I got stuff I gotta do to get ready for my Christmas trip to Louisiana. So I'm starting my hometime two days early. Will be back on the road in the New Year, after the Era of JohnBoy has drawn to a close.

 

Thank you.