Any current Covenant Drivers??

Dont quote me on this for i could be wrong--if i am not mistaken--students that go on with covenant are required to run teams. I am not sure if you are looking to team or not but I am pretty sure they run teams starting out.

 

im a current driver for covenant and i must say so far i like it. of course i dont have to go thru training since i have 6 months experience.all the instructors are nice and well informed. most of the stuff they say other companies wont admitt. like night/weekend dispatchers suck and they out right say this dont contact them unless its an emergency since they arent trained for all situations.i get my first truck with them tomarrow and im excited. ill keep ya'll updated. take care and be safe out there.

 

I don't have much knowledge about them as I never really looked into them. I did at first when I started looking around for companies but then this site turned me away from them. Generally it seems they overall have a negative reputation.
Another thing...I was following a convenant truck the other day for a few miles and listened into a CB conversation between him and someone else. He was a student with another student / new driver or something like that...and he said he only got paid like .15 a mile or something during his training period. Not sure if anyone can provide more info on taht or not.

 

Did they also admit, that you would not be allowed to leave the Chattanooga Terminal with less than 4 hours drive time remaining for the day? Even if you had a hot load.

This was policy about 4 years ago. Not sure it still applies.

Did they admit, that you may be required a "religous oriented" drivers meeting?

 

My son works for Covenant. But he is just beginning, been out with a trainer for a little under two weeks. They've put in lots of miles so far, up the east coast to New Jersey, then to California, then to Kentucky, then to New Jersey, then PA, now on the way to Washington state to drop a load tomorrow night. They pay .14cpm to start as a school graduate/trainee but it goes up after training at certain milestones over the next 6 mo to .18cpm. But that is for total truck miles, not just the miles driven by the driver. Which would you choose: a brand new solo driver getting 2500 miles per week making .26 cpm (like Werner or Swift, etc.) or a brand new team driver getting 5000 total mi per week (truck miles) making .15cpm? My son chose the latter (because he had a recent license suspension and could only go with the low-end companies) and is willing to team drive to get the 6-12 mo experience to move onto a better company.

And yes, they do make you go with a trainer for 45 days and then team with a co-driver/trainee until you reach 6 months driving experience. After that, you can choose the division you want to drive for and the pay scale changes depending on the division you choose.

My son thought Covenant would be awful based on comments made here and elsewhere but so far he and all the trainees he started with, along with lots of long-term Covenant drivers he met at the Chatanooga terminal, all seem to be satisfied. But then again, he's a newbie and it might all change as he (and his co-driver) go out on their own truck.

Good luck with your decision.

 

They do have those and even at orientation they said that they were going to do it. However, they told those people who were not religious that they could step out during that period with no repercussions. My son did and so did almost half of the group.

 

I am a new driver, and also chose to go with Cov.

A couple of points of clarification:
1) While they may have a religion 'class' at Chatt or another terminal, we did NOT have one at the Hutchins terminal. I have noticed they do a lot of 'god bless you' on their monthly 'The Driver' discs, and similar in most materials. For the most part (as a non-religious individual) it is low key and fairly unobtrusive. I have not, at any time, felt pressured. Again, though, I am a new driver, and still new with the company, so this may be different for others from different schools.

2) My co-driver and I met in school, so we signed up with the buddy program. If you are a 'solo' student, your training period is 35 days, if you are on the buddy program, you train for 40 days. Training pay is 14 cents per mile, after upgrade that goes to 17 cents, and at 3 months it goes to 18. At 6 months it goes to 20 cents. If you get your HazMat endorsement, you add 1 more cent per mile (plus 1.5 cents on placarded HazMat loads.) That is for all miles the truck moves. If you sign up for their per diem program, you are paid 15 cents per mile after upgrade (instead of 17).

3) My trainer (and other drivers we've spoken to) laid it out pretty well, if you go to Chatt, plan on spending at least a full day there. We've been lucky so far, and only had to go once. That trip took almost 12 hours (and 1 hot load we were on when we got there). If we had not been under a load when we arrived, it would have been 2 days (bumped up the repair list because we had a load waiting).

So far, we have had a lot of good luck. Our dispatchers during training and now on our own have been easy to work with, polite, and always helpful. Night/weekend dispatch, as stated above, leaves a lot to be desired. Polite most of the time, but not always helpful, and almost never 'timely'. That is likely a product of the company not hiring enough to cover the fleet and/or not training them to handle the issues that come up.

Every company has it good and bad points. So far, for me, Cov has been a decent decision. It seems they have made many gains in addressing a lot of the BIG issues that have been brought up here, and time will tell if that works out. The miles have been decent most weeks, which probably helps my good will (;

One thing I should add, we've recently been informed that they are changing idle time policies so that drivers are charged for going over 25% idle. My co-driver and I have just found out about it (from a letter sent to his house less than a week before the policy is supposed to take effect, while we are on the road), so I don't know all the details, but it may be a big issue, if you don't get enough miles to keep running. (Currently, it reads that we are charged $5 for every hour over 25% idle, and we can get IdleAire for $1 per hour up to 40 hours a week, $2 per hour over 40. However, they may be raising the speed limit on the trucks to 68 for teams who keep their MPG above 6.4mpg.) No clue how this will all play out in the long run, but it is something to consider (if they don't give you the miles, it could be some NASTY hot summer days, not to mention cold winter nights.

Hope this helps,

 

Thats a good deal.

I have nothing against anyone for their religous beliefs. But, I want to be paid if I'm your employee. And you want me to listen.