Calex Express....My New Home!

Well you are talking about Gary. Unfortunately Gary had a falling out with me last August and we haven't spoke since then. In fact, I haven't seen him in person since I got back from my last California run in July. If there is anyone that can have an argument all by ones self it's him. I'll take the more mature route and leave it at that. He's still here, in fact I saw him going north last week as I was going south. We all have issues in life, I have mine, I'm sure you have yours, and Gary has his. What really has me annoyed about him is that he goes out of his way to avoid me. In fact, he was at the Petro up from our terminal a few weeks ago taking a reset after just getting back from California and stood in his truck all day and night until I left the next morning to load my run. Isn't that how all 50 year old adults act?

 

Wow that is too bad that had to happen, but you are right we all have issues but never would of thought anything would come between you two as you two seemed pretty tight and thought you found a good life time friend. Good friends are hard to find now days. Sorry to hear about your falling out and to bad it is what it is but sometimes that is best to do what you did and be a man about it, I hear ya..

 

All I can say is this is a small company that hires drivers as needed. Which means they only hire as freight dictates, not just to keep a line up of drivers waiting to fill a seat. Sorry it turned out the way it did. I'm sure there's a reason why they said no, I'm not privy to that information, even though if I asked I would find out. But, like you said, they are on your poo list and going in with that feeling, I'm sure you don't want to work here.

 

Well just spoke to Jason in dispatch. Nothing yet for Monday. Which to me is a good thing. At least I won't be loading at the brewery in Jacksonville. He told me if nothing comes up Monday morning he will just deadhead me to Greenville again for a drop and hook on Tuesday morning.

 

i can tell that you are sad you dont get to sit at the petro for 3 days this week !!!!!

 

Right. Now I get to ride the bike this weekend.

 

Makes me wonder if I really want to work for this company....If this is a sign of what is too come, better off looking somewhere else to work...

 

You are basing your decision on one post off a public forum on the internet. Oh yea that's right the internet doesn't lie.Do a little more research 25 yrs in the business you know what truck drivers are like.

 

"I live just outside of columbus.. so im guessing this is a lie and this company is now on my #### list"

This is what was written by one person, who doesn't even work here. I would have my doubts about this. Take the time and read this blog from it's inception. It was started by me in August of '09 and has been added to and updated every day by myself, that I might add only tells of MY time here. Over this time there's about 6 or 8 drivers that add to this blog every week, who have been with the company as long as I or even longer. In almost 4 years there's been about 3 negative posts, one from a driver that turned out to be a drunk, the drunks girlfriend who was also a drunk and one from another driver who couldn't leave the terminal without knocking something over.

We don't have a recruiting department, in fact the only advertisement for drivers is this blog, or craigslist when they need a driver. Here's the problem being a smaller company with 165 trucks, they can be very picky who they hire. Our hiring is done by 2 people, Brian or Bob in safety, the same guys that run the companies safety department. I have been at this racket for 32+ years but have worked for only 4 companies in that time. Is Calex the perfect company? Nope. Do they do what they say? Yep. Are the powers to be hands on and get involved? Yep. If you think I'm a cheerleader for this company then read what some of the other drivers here write.

There are a select few of us that have dedicated runs for some of our top customers. We are left alone to do our job, every week time and time again. Here's a few of them you can research.

Chris "The Rookie" been here 2 years
Tom Been here 2 years
Rob "Rhino514" been here 2 years
Gary "Garylobo" been here 2 years
James "Cowman Trucker" been here a year
Ray :KWRay" been here 6years
Christine Been here 2+years
John "Johnboy" (me) 4 years

All but KWRay have one thing in common, they all got this job after finding out about this blog. There are even more but I'm sure you get the point. There's one other thing, I have never worked for a company that has so many long time drivers and employees. That right there tells me a boatload. We have half the fleet with over 5 years, many over 10 and a bunch with over 20 years driving here. The people in Operations have been here for 20+ years. We have 2 dispatchers, Louie and Jason, 3 if you count Billy who takes care of all the local guys doing the Northeast. Louie-24 years here, Jason 4 years, Eddie, 28 years on and on. They ain't perfect, but they sure leave us alone, as long as you do the job. The guys on the dedicated runs are preplanned the whole week. I never check call and the only time I hear from Louie is when I need a new trailer, then he'll call me to give it to me. When I ran the coast before this I would leave Florida, get to PA, reload then go to Ca, Wa or Or then back. The only time I spoke to Louie was the day before I got empty to find out where I was reloading.

I think I have been very honest in my writing about Calex over the years. We have drivers that work at other companies that follow this blog on a regular basis that will tell you the reason they follow it is because of my honesty. If it's good you'll hear about it, if it's bad you'll hear about it before the good.

My job security here is predicated on the type of driver they hire. For whatever reasons they decide, they pass on some drivers. Could it have been handled differently? I'm sure, but at the end of the day they did whats right for the company and the rest of us that work here. No one needs to listen to me, I mean really, who am I? but when there's a bunch of drivers on here with the same message, what does that tell you?

One last and final rant, if more companies took hiring drivers more seriously then maybe we can clean up our industry to make it better for everyone. Case in point, the average mega carrier has what, about 120% turnover rate and needs to have a steady stream of warm a,s,s,e,s in line to put in a seat? We don't have that issue. We hire as needed. Knowing my work record, knowing my safety record I can write my own ticket to work anywhere, maybe we need to be more selective in the hiring practice. I work here for 2 reasons, hometime, and I'm treated like a driver with 32 years of experience with no accidents and 2 tickets.

 

Let us know how it turns out. Living in Florida is not exactly the hot spot of the country for trucking jobs, especially for someone like me in South Florida. I made 56K last year and I tell people I slept in my bed at home with my wife more than I slept in my 20 square foot tin can.