Any real info on Redding Lumber Transport (RLT)??

There's a catch to our heavy haul fleet it does not go to Califrnia I too am a california native and had to move to Oregon for awhile I I used the family summer house on lake Shasta and would park my truck at the yard in Springfield and drive home but eventually I just moved up to oregon. The 5 axle fleet does lots over oversize long loads in california but 8 axle does the heavy.

 

Yeah I hate running California especially the bay area! And that #### dunsmuir scale I swear they have it out for me, only California scale I ever had problems with. I'd rather just run around the region and im happy. No California hmm no problem!

 

8 axle heavy haul oregon Washington Idaho montana Utah and western Canada that's all we run. start .46 a mile base pay with the dfc pay scale we have I normally make .50 to .53 a mile

 

I hate to say but I got promised a job for 2+ weeks and had my hopes trashed when the recruiter submitted my app to the owners for review. I am currently involved in a SAP program and was upfront about it because you certainly can't hide it. I was told there was several people working there now and they were working out fine,"it shouldn't be a problem"....as long as I didn't come up positive in the future and was willing and available for future tests as per the SAP program. I feel that,going in,I was honest and up front about a dumbassed mistake that I made but wasn't returned the same honesty.

 

Any owner operators out there running with RLT that could give some insight about company?

 

I'm running in the five axle fleet with Leavitt's, I'll try to answer the questions asked in here in a little bit, anyone can pm me if you want as well.

 

Yeah, you can take your truck home. Yes on the elogs. Peoplenet, not qualcomm if that matters to you.

Most of the drivers take the trucks home, except the local guys. I get home most weekends, in the 5 axle fleet. Some of the 8 axle do as well, some of them say they don't get home but every three weeks, just depends where you are running, but if you need to be home for the weekend it usually works out that way.

As to why they are always hiring? I think there are a few reasons. I think they are hiring too many new drivers who simply can't hack it and they hang up their keys and leave. I think they are hiring too many people who simply can't deal with what we do. Yes (if you run California, in the 5 axle fleet) you will be tarping at 117 degrees in the LA area in the summer. Yes, you will be tarping in sub freezing temperatures in the winter. Yes, you will be throwing chains in the winter. Yes, you will be driving in the mountains in the snow and ice. Yes, you will be driving in LA traffic, Bay Area traffic, Portland traffic, and Seattle traffic. To me that's just running a flatbed in this area but some people can't deal with it.

There are also issues that people have with the company. I won't sugar coat it. Every company has it's problems, no use pretending we don't. Too many new and lazy drivers means that too often you pick up trailers that have problems that should have been corrected by the shop but the last driver didn't bother reporting it. We do a lot of drop and hook on the 5 axle fleet, I almost never hold onto a trailer for more than a week and often pull 3-4 different trailers in a week. This leads to frustrations when equipment should be OOS but wasn't written up, when a load that you are supposed to just hook and go isn't loaded or secured properly, when you get a tarped load that has to be retarped. It gets frustrating spending time patching holes in a tarp you just got, only to put it on a set of coils and be told to drop that load at the yard and you get to grab another tarp that is full of holes.

The way loads are dispatched can be pretty frustrating too. I generally have no idea what I'm going to do after I drop a load until after I send in my empty call. Sometimes dispatch simply doesn't have anything planned yet. Sometimes loads are dispatched with no attention paid to hometime or hours left on your clock. Sometimes you'll get screwed, only to find that another driver has a load that would have gotten you home and you have the load that would have gotten him home.

But it's not all bad. I've been getting over 2500 miles most weeks. At top pay scale, (5 years experience) you'll be making 46 cpm if you get 5000 miles over the two week pay period. Add to that tarp pay, stop pay, and any oversized pay and the pay works out pretty well. I do get home most weekends. The shop does tend to be very good at getting things done when you write them up. I've seen the night guys sticking around really late to make sure something is fixed so someone can get moving again.

PM me if you have any other questions about how things are on the 5 axle fleet.

 

I thought this was an RLT thread.

 

Anybody have any info on RLT?

 

Last time I heard about RLT their flatbed side was at .34 a mile and reefer was somewhere close to that also. Basically if you live in Redding or on I-5 then you could get home when you pass through town and when the load has time on it. But there were no actual days off which was weird to me.