Arctic express hilliard Ohio

This company is not worth the ####. You will be wasting your time. Its a small outfit. They have approx 120 trucks with a 92-94% safety rating. They had 4 accidents in 7 days. How are you that small and are like 6-8% away from being 100% UNSAFE! They do not maintain their trucks or their trailer at all. I can not begin to tell you how many times I have pulled their trailers with no brakes on them and they don't care. They are worried about saving $$$$. They recently turned in all their 2009 trucks they had so that is a sign of them going under. The safety man doesn't even have a CDL so when you go through orientation another driver who is on the yard will be the one to give you the road test. That is insulting to the drivers who have experience.

They have an escrow account even for the company drivers. What they do is take $20 out of each pay until u get to $700. They say $500 is if you leave their truck somewhere and the other $200 is for equipment they suposibly give you. HA HA HA! What a #### joke. Thats just another way for them to keep your money when you leave them!

Out of the whole company there is only 1 person who is good. Roshone will truly take care of his drivers! If there is something wrong he tries to fix it. But at the same time he will try to have sexual relations with his drivers!

I no longer work for the company and I am so glad I left. Those 7 months I was there were pure hell. I mean I always had something wrong.

The previous post about this company are so true.

I was only getting 1400 miles a week # .31cpm to be going through so much nonsense. I also refered someone and I waited for 4 months to see about getting my referal bouns that they claim you get and every time I contacted Susanne in recruiting and Jay in safety (owners son) they both say they would check into it and never did. SO I just chopped that up as a loss.

They are scrapping the bottom of the barrel for drivers so they will hire anyone. If you need a second chance at driving then this is the company for you if you can deal with all the nonsense and BS.

Watch and see what I tell you people.... When CSA2010 goes into full swing I bet my life AE will be the first ones to be shut down!

I know work at Butler Transport out of KS and I must honestly say that is the best move I have ever made!

 

Hello brother,
you looking for O/O info? If so Who you running with out of Dallas now?

 

I was with Arctric Express for a year and three months. They were by far not the worst company I drove for, but not even close to the best either. The pay sure wasn't there, but I dealt with it. I started there in May of 2009, at .31 cents a mile, and when I left, it was still .31 cents a mile. I tried thier lease purchace program, now that was a rip off. They specifically told all brokers not to tell any driver what the load pays. That gave me good reason to believe that they were not telling me the truth about what the load paid. So, in 3 months, I terminated the lease. Prior to signing the lease, I asked Dick, the owner of the company, if I was displeased with it, will I be able to terminate it without any penalties. He told me no, all I had to do was sign a piece of paper, and I could return to a company driver. When I terminated the lease, he charged me .31 a mile for the whole time in the lease truck. Ended up keeping all of my maintence account, a separate escrow which I started up myself, and some other escrow which they started. Almost $4000. In the end, I paid him not only the payments on the truck, but I also paid HIM to drive the truck. No penalties my ###.

 

its a shame that there are companies out there doing this to their drivers. its almost as if that is the only way they can stay in buisness, by screwing over the drivers pay..just a shame

 

Ed so they were a decent company for company drivers? What were your miles and hometime like?
Realtalk just curious if things were so bad there why would you refer somone?

 

I worked for them for a few years, they werent a bad company. Most of you clowns that sit and whine all the time will be bouncing from company to company. Stop ######## and do your job. And the guy said that the safety director doesnt have a CDL, so what. Hes the owners son, (Jay) and he is a super nice guy. And youve never had another driver road test you? You would moan if it was a swimsuit model testing you.. If you do what your supposed to do with them and go to John (Dicks brother) you will get the raise you deserve, you just dont blab your business like you are doing here. Adn trust me, iof they kept any money that was coming back to you theuy had every right to. They arent going to be taking anything they shouldnt be after the lawsuit from years ago. Somebody gets on here a bad mouths a company and everyone feeds into it. BOTTOM LINE, DO YOUR JOB AND STOP BOUNCING AROUND FROM COMPANIES.... You guys dont want to run like your supposed to and then want them to give you priority loads. STOP WHINING TURN YOUR CB OFF AND DRIVE..............................................................................

 

Wow, now that is passion. Actually nice to see. I do feel the "need to defend" and update my opinion. As for the lease purchase, I still think it was fishy that the brokers was told not to tell the drivers what the pay was. I figured that if there weren't anything to hide, they would not have been told not to say anything. And, charging .31 a mile for miles driven when I terminated the lease is bogus too, but, from what I have learned since then, it makes sense to me now. So, even though I still disagree with it, I understand it now (didn't then though).

As for the raise, I did asked for a raise, a few times. But was told they had a freeze on raises. I know it had nothing to do with my driving, as I was never late with a load which was my fault. I always went above and beyond to make on time deliveries. But I never complained about it because I knew about the economy, and understood. As for the road tests, I agree with you. I never had a problem with anyone giving me a road test. Anyone can say they can drive, and I have seen many claiming that, but when they got behind the wheel, they couldn't. Besides, if anyone is going to drive my truck, I sure would want to see their driving habits.

Anyway, bottom line is this; I came to realize that Arctic Express IS a good company to drive for. Everyone there is very easy to get a long with, they don't get inside the trucks every time a driver comes in to inspect it. (I'm sure if they would inspect the inside of the cab, at least the driver would be able to be present.) While out on the road, they don't hassle the driver. They give the load info, and leave it to the driver to do the job they are being paid to do. No company is the best, but I can say this much about them, they are very driver friendly if the driver is doing what he/she is getting paid to do. Back to the lease, much of my comments were out of ignorance. That was actually my first lease purchase experience, and expected more out of it than I should have. Out of curiosity, I checked into lease purchase from different companies and every one that I checked into were very, very crappy compared to Arctic. So would I recommend Arctic to someone, heck yeah I would. On a scale of 1 to 10, (with 10 being the best) I'd say Arctic will rank at an 9. The only thing that is keeping me from ranking them a 10 is they are out of Ohio, and I live in Texas, and they run primarily the northeastern states.

 

As for the miles, I really never complained about it. I was very content about it. And the hometime, I have always gotten home when I put in for. As for recommending someone, for a company driver, they are a great company to drive for. I have learned a lot about lease purchase since then, and now realize it isn't as bad as I thought. I expected too much out of it.

 

Wow, nice to see a thread that sounded like it came from a mature driver. Anyways, I would think Texas (depending on where) would be a good spot for a driver to get through the house. Im on with a company now that is really great if you want to be home alot, I own my truck free and clear so I do have a little more freedom as far as how hard I run. The only thing is the rates could be better, I actually talked to Jay last week and might go back to Arctic in August, There is alot of money to be maid if you want to run. I just hate to leave a company a mile from my house, lol. I live in Cranberry Twp pa, just North of Pgh, pa. So I can be home throught the week with Arctic also. I figure with my truck being paid for Im gonna go back and see how it is now a days.....I thought about going to Power Source but they want a $2500 deposit to work for them, Im sorry but I think thats a little steep. I did hear some good things about them and like anywhere else I heard some bad. .........................I also thought about leasing a truck from arctic again, its actually a deral where you get the title when your lease is up, they arent new trucks but you do actually own the truck when your done. I figured Id run it until I know its a good truck then sell mine and bank the money......Just and Idea..... Good Luck

 

I appreciate the compliment. Jay called me a couple of weeks ago letting me know that I was up for rehire, and the pay raises were back in effect starting in July. Then yearly raises after that. I missed his call, but got the voicemail. I called him back, but got his voicemail. I'm driving local right now for a lumber company, getting paid pretty well, so I'm not looking to go back otr right now. But my mind is made up that if this don't work out, then I'm going to call Arctic and try to go back there. As I stated, the only thing I hated was that they spend the majority of the the time in the northeast, and I rarely got to see Texas unless I came home. I love Texas, and it would be nice to deliver in here without having to go home. But, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say it's a 2 in the importance scale. (Not very important at all.) But you living in PA, I can see you getting home regularly. I've spent a lot of time going to and through PA.

As for the lease purchase, as I stated, from what I learned since then, they actually have the best lease purchase I have seen yet. I really never checked into it before then, so it was out of ignorance when I was making comments about it. I mean, a driver can get in a truck with no money down, the payments are about the same as all the other companies I have checked with since then, BUT, in a year when the lease is up, the driver gets the title, free and clear. No baloon payment or anything. At least that's the way it was when I was there. So, I'd say it's a great deal.

Anyways, good luck when you go back. I hope you will see the goodness in the people there as I did. If you remember, tell the guys in the shop that Babygirl, Edwin Mandel's dog, misses them. They got along with her pretty well.