any info on all star transportation out of pacific, mo?

I started with all star at the beginning of the year and so far I have no complaints. If you have hazmat they will start you out at .34 cpm, it's not a lot but you can expect to do between 3600 and 4000 miles a week on average so that makes up for it. basically I leave out of pacific with a load and head to somewhere on the west coast usually SoCo then turn around head back to pacific with a load of produce, I drop it at the yard and one off the short haul drivers takes it to its final destination out east. At which point I go home for a day or two and then head back out and do it all over again. 7 to 8 day out on average. A trip to LA then Yuma and back is a little over 3700 miles and thats a typical week for me now. And yes all star is an all company truck fleet.

 

That sounds pretty decent. I think I'll give them a call this week and see if I could get on there. I can see my experience being a problem with them being a smaller fleet that is most likely not self-insured. The two year policy is probably, in large part, an insurance requirement.

I do have hazmat/twic/passport and my year experience is w/ reefer. Do you know if the 34 cpm is before or after per diem? The carrier I'm working for pays company drivers 42 cpm, but it only says 36cpm on your paycheck and they add in per diem as part of your pay. Do you know what their insurance is like? My company charges $80 / wk for their lowest policy.

Where are the trucks governed?

Thanks a lot. Even if I can't work for them now, I can use this info towards the end of the year when I have 2 years experience.

 

34 is before per diem. I dont know about the insurance yet, I'll find out after 90 days. the truck is governed at 68 to begin with and once you can prove your reliable enough they can bump it up to 74.

 

I’ve workedfor All-Star for 10 years so I know quite a bit about this company. The Craigslist Ad from AZ is not the samecompany. All-Star only hires driversfrom the immediate area. A majority of the drivers have worked here for 10years+. 3 drivers have been with thiscompany since they opened 25 years ago. Every driver I encounter has goodthings to say. It’s family owned so weget immediate response if we need a repair while over the road. Their MaintenanceCSA score is low. We get through the shop almost weekly and when we take ourtime off the shop does preventative maintenance. I know they do bend on the 2 yrs. experience. When I started I had 11 mos. But no acc,tickets, etc. Call Mary she the one that knows everything about everythingabout their company.

 

I couldn't of said it any better myself driver. The shop does a great job keeping my truck in tip top shape, my last company won't even look at my truck unless it was a major issue or way past due for a PM service. It's real nice being able to get back into and town and drive right into the shop and have them check over the truck and trl so I know i'm good to go after my time off.

 

got a call from mary today looks like i will be joining up soon as my 2 week notice is up where i work now

 

So do you make decent money there? How often do you get hometime and how are the benefits, is insurance really expensive? Thanks a lot.

 

Do they require drivers to do any unloading or is it all lumpers paid for?

 

I've worked for them and am considering going back. They're pretty easy to work for, and are pleasant on the phone when you call-in unlike a lot of other companies, which is refreshing. Mileage pay isn't great but isn't bad either and you will get miles. If you can't run hard and are a truck-stop cowboy, you won't last there. I've done both west-coast and short-haul and had no problem getting miles either direction and will give you benefits and drawbacks of both.

West coast: Plenty of miles, open-road, great speed limits, fast and nice trucks. 5 of your 7 days are easy. The 2-3 days in California can be hard because of California's ridiculous 55 mph speed limit and surprise D.O.T. stops on certain highways. You haul general freight out there and bring produce back, which typically means 3-6 pickups of which some take hours just to pick up a few pallets so getting them all picked-up can be time-consuming and stressful. Salinas is a common route as is Bakersfield. They pickup a little bit of everywhere mid-state and also San Bernardino and Yuma, AZ. Once you get out of California and hit Lake Havasu, you're back running 70+ and making great money on the open road. They also run the Pacific NW but I think they generally have certain drivers that take those loads. If you run those loads, you're typically out 10-12 days as they often run loads direct from Washington to Pittsburgh. I never ran those loads but I know that's what they do. I don't want those loads anyway so good for the guys who do.

Short-haul: Pretty much dedicated lanes to Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and occasionally Charleston, WV or Cincinnati. Now that IL and OH have 70 mph speed limits, you can run fast and make good money. You can run Indiana safely at 67-68 as well except around Indy. If I got paid $1 for every slower truck I'd pass from STL to Cleveland, I'd make an extra $500 a week . Their biggest customer has on-site parking so when you get there for your break, you can just park at the receiver and wait for your appointment, which is nice. The biggest drawback is you deal with grocery warehouses, which generally are a pain in the ###. It's all no-touch freight and the company has accounts with the lumpers at most stops. If you do have to pay, it's easy to get a Comchek or if you pay cash, just turn in the receipt and you're always paid back in full. It's usually no more than $50-75 if you have to pay. Their biggest customer also has a habit these days of being extremely picky to the point of absurdity rejecting product, which is the biggest pain if you go that direction. That's not the company's fault, but you do have to deal with it. That produce has to get off the trailer before you pick up a backhaul and since you're an hour ahead of the headquarters, you're typically unloaded before they get to work in the morning. If you have rejected freight, you wait until they find someone to take it, which is time-consuming and can really make for a long day at times. You generally have to run longer days going east, as some of your pickups have to be delivered in the STL area the next day. God bless paper logs. If you can deal with that though, you get good miles and good hometime. Typically out 1.5 to 2 days and home. You can run 2 of those per week, sometimes 3 if all goes well and can get anywhere from 2400-3700 miles in a week, generally around 2600-2700. I probably averaged about 2750 a week and didn't try. Most times I only wanted 2 runs but occasionally I'd do a 3rd.

Their equipment compared to other companies I've seen is top-notch for the most part. They send their newer trucks out west obviously because of the extra stress of the miles and because of California's war on trucks. So if you run west, you'll likely get a better truck. Their shop mechanics are all pretty good as well. They stay on top of preventive maintenance and get things fixed that need fixing. Other companies I've worked for it's almost better to have them serviced at a TA.

It all depends on what you want. If you don't mind being gone, the west coast is the better way as it's better miles, easier work, and a much more scenic route. You also get stop-pay ($20 per stop after stop 1) so you usually make an extra $60-80 in stop pay picking up produce. And your days going out and coming back are laid-back and you can run perfectly legal without a problem and still cover over 700 miles a day. If you want more time at home, go east. You're gone typically 2 days and back at or at least through the house, typically at. You can still make good $ but you'll work a little harder for it a lot of times and obviously the traffic is more of a problem running I-70 through Indiana and Ohio and I-71 as opposed to I-40 or I-80 out west. I've been fortunate to work for 2 pretty good companies in my career. The first spoiled me a bit because they had a lot of perks but I also had to run team to get them. But All-Star compared to a lot of others I've seen, talked to, or been around is a good option. I don't know what their turnover rate is, but I do know they have quite a few drivers that have been there a long time and it's a small company so do the math...