America's Service Line - Private fleet for American Foods Group - Green Bay, WI

So, I drove for Crete for almost 4 years, put up with a lot of BS there but since I'm the most patient person on the planet I guess I never #####ed about it. The final straw was waiting basically an entire weekend for a load and I applied for these guys that Monday morning.

So glad I did. Been here 3 months this week. I make gobs more money here than I ever did at Crete, even despite average miles not really being any higher than they were when Crete was running me halfway decently. For starters I get paid for every single pickup and final delivery I make, and I get paid more for every stop in between. The breakdown pay is meaningful. The detention pay is meaningful, and on company loads, automatic and after one hour. If you have a multi-stop load and one of your stops screws you over so the rest have to be rescheduled, and you end up having to take a 10 (or 8 in the sleeper) when you wouldn't have otherwise had to, or it was because of poor planing on the company's part, you get paid a fair chunk. I had this happen yesterday, due to poor planning on the company's part. All of this accessorial pay is far, far better than anything similar was at Crete. And trying to get that pay when deserved over there was often like trying to pull teeth out of a hen.

The basic mileage pay on most loads is what the top of the pay scale is at Crete (.51), and 2 cents more to the northeast/mid atlantic. Everyone is paid the same, so there's no worry about the new drivers getting all the miles and the established ones getting shafted because they're more expensive to run, that just doesn't happen here.

The shop - every time I've needed to go in except once, I was pulled right in, and the one time I wasn't, I just had to wait until morning. And generally when our shop does something I haven't had to go back. Carrier, on the other hand (with this $#@% APU) well... those guys in my limited experience have probably been as bad as Poly's shop, but that's a whole 'nother can o' worms.

The equipment - it's middle of the road spec'd, not bottom of the barrel by any stretch. All trucks have an APU. Full instrumentation including a suspension air gauge, wonderful if, like me, you don't like scaling every load. Until a couple weeks ago it was all 14/15 Cascadias, but last week we started getting T680s in. When I was at the GB yard a couple days ago, there were 5 of them there. All automatics.

The downsides - first and foremost, it's the reefer life - shouldn't need much explanation for those familiar, but all the aforementioned accessorial pay eases the pain there quite a bit. No west of Denver runs for company drivers (at the moment, due to the #### rates) - there's a lot of out and back from Green Bay, if out and back isn't your thing you probably won't be happy here. We have other facilities, but the point being, there's a lot of places you'll see regularly, it's not like OTR for a common carrier at all, so if variety is your thing, especially if money isnt' an issue for you, you probably won't be happy here. There's no personal conveyance (i.e. "line 5"/off duty driving) in company trucks, nor do they allow log editing (both due to ######## who abused the privileges). If you don't like fueling at Love's, you're gonna get frustrated here because most of my fuel solutions are Love's. (I don't have a problem because of their rewards system. Free stuff is good.)

My only real regret at the current time is not making this move sooner.

edit:// an addition - they are pet friendly and passenger friendly, and I have my little four legged friend with me. The passenger policy gives anyone over 16 a pass, you're not limited to an immediate relative or spouse like Crete was when I started with them.

 

I plan to. Right now I'm at Kroger in Louisville, KY - and in 2 minutes, the clock is ticking with nice cha-chings. After this I'm already preplanned to pick up to head to the Twin Cities, after which I'm going to request to get back to GB because Carrier dropped the ball yet again with this APU. It's working okay right now because it's warm out, the curtains are open and I have the A/C on high, but at night with the curtains closed and the A/C on low it doesn't do so well still. I'm going to request another truck rather than dealing with this any further and from what I've heard they'll honor the request, we shall see.

 

Edited the original post with some more information.