auto hauler information please?

Yung, he's not lying about the $$$. They've been making that for years (top seniority guys). Cassens & Jack Cooper that is. I always liked the Cassens organization even though I never worked for them. I did get the opportunity to speak with the old man Albert Cassens a few times when we purchased some old equipment of his back in the day. He asked how many trucks we were running and I told him just one. He said "ain't a thing wrong with being small...I can remember when we only had 1 truck and I was the only driver."

Seniority dispatch will have a big impact on home time and loads you get. True also on hotel every night you're away...they have a network of approved places and they'll make the list available to you. Daycabs only so you have to hotel. Obviously, new hires would have to suffer through being on the bottom of the totem pole as far as seniority is concerned to get to that level. Lotsa guys and gals can't put up with that long enough to get there. It's a HARD job but I always heard hard work never hurt nobody. Don't know who nobody is but it's took it's toll on my tired ol' carcass.

My Dad always said if you can't say something good about somebody don't say nuthin'...so I can't comment on the 3rd option in your OP. They advertise an annual driver's salary of 68K on their website but I don't think you'll ever see a lot of advertisement from Cassens or Jack Cooper about needing drivers. New terminal openings may require an ad or two but for the most part, you hardly ever see any. That says a lot in itself, IMHO. Also, Cassens and Jack Cooper tend to have the better equipment and facilities to maintain it. Annual (?) equipment bids used to be the way of life, so as a newbie, you of course will get whatever is available after the seniors get theirs.

Just don't think you're going to jump in making 100K a year immediately, be in the Holiday Inn by happy hour every night and get the solid, easy loads at every dispatch. Working your job outside 100% of the time in all weather conditions, 4 chains (or straps mostly nowadays) on every vehicle (times that by 10 or 11) and then double that figure by 2 for load/unload. That's just the basics.

Even though it is possible for them to make that kind of $$, these cats that are telling you about all the $$$ they are making...don't listen to that. If they are making good money and happy with their jobs, they are not gonna be spreading that around. At least if they are smart. Why run your jaws about something like that to a stranger? Maybe to try to impress you? Why? They will never tell you about the times they wished a thousand times they had never seen a car-haulin' truck or about their blown-out rotator cuffs in their shoulders from yanking on that tie-down bar or etc etc etc. I will repeat...it's a HARD job.

Good luck.

 

No, I can't say that I have had a tarp fly off a load but I did haul a load of classic Corvettes out of Phoenix once and the buyer insisted he put a cover on one of them...me telling him there is no way it's going to stay on there and it will cause damage to the car. About halfway between Phoenix and Flag...it came off. And then there was that day in Iowa I was zipping along on my way to Cali when a bedliner blew out of the truck that was backed on the top front of the trailer. Stopped at the next rest area and went in to rest area. On my way back out, saw a old guy standing beside my truck who told me he was in that cabover pointing over there...his wife was driving her first time & following me...when that bedliner lifted out of the truck and he said it looked like a roof off a house at first...coming right at her. He said she was still in the bathroom and laughed. I laughed too after I realized nobody was hurt. I always wondered what would happen to a poor biker if a bedliner fell out of the sky on top of him. ????

In that case, Yung, I say go for it. You'll have the best of benefits going along with the stuff posted above.

 

They aren't the same. Flatbed and car hauling are completely different.

Something wrong if you had a tarp blow off going down the road.

 

The automakers terminated their contracts with Allied because the car hauler tried to obtain a rate increase of at least 15%... Jack Cooper Transport and Cassens were identified as fleets that gained the former Allied business... The dispute developed as the union is in the early stages of contract talks with car haul carriers. Their three-year contract expires May 31. (Transport Topics 4/4/11 page 37)

http://carhauler.blogspot.com/

 

If you're making $17K yearly your getting bent over.

 

I understand that Allied has lost quite a bit of business the last few years. I think that Jack Cooper had the Chrysler business in St. Louis. That must have hurt when they closed that plant.