Avoid at all cost

I honestly have thought about it, but I'd rather not burn any bridges. I'd like to lease a new tractor in the future. I can see the full maintenance lease working, but I did have to learn how to deal with Quality and Celadon mostly through trial and error. It would have helped to have more information in orientation.

For example, I had believed the truck would have had a DOT inspection and the windshield/tires replaced onsite (if needed) before I even left or started making payments. I believe there was a sign at the terminal that stated this, but this was not the case. I left with a self-certified inspection sticker dated for that month (by who I don't know), 8 bad tires and some other issues. I spent the first week in the International dealership and then the Love's Tire shop. I even had a payment that week. It was deferred, but I was still making payments before I started working. Quality just put on Celadon's stickers and a Qualcomm in it and sent me on my way. This is why I'm saying "new truck with a dealer warranty."

My truck had no maintenance records whatsoever (I even tried requesting them from Quality). I had the inspection sheet laying in the truck, but who would claim a truck with 8 bad tires was ok to drive? From what I had heard from the other drivers, it was like that for all of the full-maintenance lease trucks.

 

I'm writing a quick update about my time between January and today, March the 25th, with Celadon and Quality Companies. I've brought in a total of about $28k in revenue from January to today. I brought home $5106 total for this time as well. I literally made $650 the entire month of February. I haven't taken hometime since December of last year.

Now the month of March is definitely going to be the bulk of my earnings, seeing as how there's 5 weeks. I should make $4-5000 just this month alone. However, it was a real pain having to go without for 2 months. January I had a $4000 week turn to zero with old deferments. February I had loads pulled off of me to finish short relays for other drivers. This month I've had my share of problems as well, such as having every load I had's pickup/deliver times adjusted so I'd be late to the pickup after dropping off and not having enough time to deliver in the new window. I'm fairly sure they're getting bored in the office and trying to run off some drivers.

I got Quality's approved carriers list from my business advisor, but literally nobody will return calls or will tell me flat out they don't take Quality trucks anymore. I am just shocked how things have gone and how myself and other drivers I've spoken with have been treated. As a company driver for a different carrier, we were treated positively and people even returned phonecalls. Now, I am hassled for taking more than 10-hour breaks, have loads pulled or changed at random, got routed immediately when I got home for scheduled hometime that I had to miss in February (current load's relayed early and I'm already late to pickup for my next load while being 800 miles away and still on-time for my current load's delivery date), and never get return calls from anyone except my driver manager or logs.

I am still toughing it out, hoping to get at least a year in with the company so I don't look like a job-hopper, but it's rough. I actually had my car repossessed in February because of how things were going. I did find out about International Used Truck's Second-Chance financing in Kansas City the other day, so I guess all is well.

 

Holy #### man. That's rough.

 

Hmmmmm.... Still there? Good luck!

People work for money not inconvenience.

 

How the he77 do you eat or shower???? I'd never consider a lease. I have been back to trucking for 19 months after a 11 year absence. I will do nearly $60,000 this year as a company driver.

 

I'd like to first apologize for my rant. This isn't my personal blog or anything. I wrote my previous posts because there's not a lot of clear and recent information about Celadon and Quality, so I thought I'd share my personal experience with them.

I did lump both my complaints about Quality and Celadon into the same post without a clear distinction between the two companies, and did make it sound like leasing was more of a "job" and not a small business. I still do agree that there is a major delay in response from Quality. I haven't had any problems with Celadon since writing that. I'm not about to close my business if things smooth over. I leased for a very specific reason, and Quality was the best I could find when I did my initial research.

I did complain about my revenue during a slow freight period, but it was more loads being pulled and no responses to trailer routing than just the lack of loads. My rates for the quarter were over $1.30 on average and this month will put me back towards clearing $60k or more for the year at this rate.

As for showers and food, I've just stuck with Love's the entire time I've been trucking and saved a few thousand already from showers and various discounts.

Celadon recently updated their terminal list, and I guess sold some of them to Quality. Many of them are now closed down, but the list has a few new ones (mostly warehouses). A lot of the information available to drivers is outdated and is slowly being updated. I find new things in the driver portal every few weeks that nobody mentions.

 

Clearing 60k on how many weeks work?

 

Every day and every week.

 

Having been to Quality's yard in Indy, I just can't understand how so many drivers go there and think they're OK to do business with. It's a junkyard!

 

So 52 weeks to clear 60k?