Calex Logistics

I was there 4 years and ran the coast running around and chasing produce. The last year there I was on a dedicated run from Pittston to West Palm Beach, 4 miles from the house. It was a great gig, I was home 4 nights a week and in the truck 3 nights. I started there making .36 asked for a raise after 4 years and was told no. I took my 35 year safe record and went to Abilene. I started here 2 cents per mile higher then at Calex and yesterday for my 4 year anniversary, got my 4th raise. I have nothing bad to say about them except that they are cheap.

 

I'm not sure anymore on what they do in the city. I heard they lost or dropped a lot of the freight they had when I was there.

 

It was a decent company to work for back in 2005 or so.
Tommy Grimes is running that company into the ground and he Is the reason all the experienced drivers quit.
There were people who had been with that company over 20 years when I started and once they cut the trucks back to 68 mile an hour and put us on computer logs pretty much everybody quit and now it's a training company because they can't get any experienced drivers to work for them and they hire people right out of truck driving school.
It was fun while it lasted but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're right out of school and you want to run Coast to Coast solo and spend most of your life in a truck away from your family.

 

I honestly don't know as I never really ran on that fleet. I'd venture to guess it would be industry average of about 1,800 to 2,200 per week.

Considering the speed that most companies govern their trucks at these days, 68 isn't too bad. My problem with them was never how they operated, but the lack of miles I got running for them. it seemed like I just could not get over 2,000 for any particular week. many were in the 1,400 to 1,800 range.

Perhaps if I ran the coast or ran the local (NE regional) fleet, I'd have done better, but I like and enjoy running in the southeast and midwest as opposed to New England, so I chose the regional (east of the Mississippi generally) to run.

I can TRULY say that other than the lack of miles, I really liked driving for them. There are some really great people who work there, and they still have a true open door policy where you can talk to anyone at almost anytime. It's nice to be able to go up to the dispatch window and get your load assignment face to face with your dispatcher. Where I'm at now, everything is done via Qualcomm, the driver managers are behind locked doors, and don't even answer their phones if you have a question or concern.

 

From what I recall, the only guys that ever made money working for that outfit were the guys hauling produce from California and they got two trips per month and it was the easiest job I ever did.
On the other hand, the regional guys always complained about not making any money which is perfectly understandable

 

Answer some questions for @Middleagedrookie such as do they give a new physical or will they accept current physical card and is it driver no-touch freight and where can you park in New Jersey?