Cliff's Announcement and Company Transition

That 600 a week guarantee is only for upgrades and only for a short time

 

Lol. I guess they want the new guys to make something since they'll spend a lot of time running in circles in the north east trying to find some of these places while staying on legal roads.

I hate the north east sometimes. Just can't get enough of these 200 mile runs that take 4+ hours because of traffic. And I swear they think I love the Baltimore/DC area.


Sent from somewhere out there on the road.

 

While I must say I did spend a lot of time in the northeast while driving for them, I honestly doubt this is the primary reason. I suspect it's got more to do with having a large part of their drivers with 6 to 8 months or less. Most of their drivers start to leave after their year is up. The less then 1 year driver turn over is very high there and I think they are trying to soften the blow somewhat. I can only speak for me here, but I doubt this will help in the long run. Don't get me wrong here, it is a great start, but it don't address the loss of (core drivers). I define a (core driver) as someone with more then 2 years driving experience most of it with company. I have spoken to dozens of their (core drivers) over the last year and a half. With some exceptions these drivers are not happy, and most have told me of their plans to quit. At one point last year the company TBA fleet was hovering around 14 % . With a reported fleet of just over 2300 power units, this is somewhere just over 300 of those units just sitting. I still believe the spike in TBA was because of the loss of (core drivers) beginning in the spring of 2011 over that stupid spiderweb crap and the loss of some business. (Core drivers) once gone are almost impossible to replace and this is another reason the company so desperately needs trainers. This is not an opinion as much as it is right out of the company quarterlies where they keep harping on lack of drivers.

I think the best solution at this point is for the board to kick Cliff (Barney Fife) Beckham to the curb, and hire a proven person as CEO. While I won't get into names I do know of several people working just under the upper management of the other carriers whom have the operating experience USA Truck needs at this point. I believe if the money was right some of them would jump at the chance. Cliff Beckham is a bean counter with no practical operating experience to run a trucking company, and it shows. It's my humble opinion the correct changes will not be made as long as he remains as CEO, and the company will be ripe for a takeover resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs in Van Buren.

 

USA truck should be #### glad I'm not in charge of anything. P/U a trailer today that has a flat tire, marker light out, and no brakes. This is an ongoing problem with these lazy ### sorry excuse for a human drivers. The first thing I would do is track all trailers and who left them where. If you left something like this, you are out of service for 24 hours. Second time you are out of a job!!!! Now lights do go out, but if they keep going out on your trailers then there is a pattern. OOS for you, keep it up and bye bye! If the tire looks like a racing slick, I would not only get the last driver who had it but the 5 before him too! If you're too #### lazy to get stuff fixed, at least send a bd macro when you drop it so it can be fixed on site!!!!!

 

Unfortunately this is an industry wide problem. I have been in places like walmart bored and take walks looking at the dropped trailers. I can't count the flat and slick tires I have noticed. I saw one in New Albany Mississippi missing both mud flaps and one of the MF brackets was gone! I pull reefers and you would not believe the amount of times I have picked up an empty only to find it nearly empty of diesel. I have done repowers and find -10 loads sitting at 30 to 60 degrees because either the fuel ran out or there was a problem and the dropping driver just pawned problem off on me. My company has already bought a load because of this. Another issue that really gets under my skin are the drivers that won't report missing tags or permits. I got a finger in my face by a DOT officer in Va a number of months ago about a missing registration, thankfully I have a 3in1 scanner/printer I use to in cab transflow and got my company to email me a copy and printed it out. I recently was stuck in McDonough Ga looking for an empty and the only one there had a paper sign on it saying the reefer was inop. I went ahead and hooked to it and took it to our Atlanta Terminal, After turning it in I found out it was a (lost) trailer AND was long overdue for a PM and service. There are some drivers that simply refuse to take the extra time with problem trailers, and they really screw over their fellow drivers because of it. These guys take the opinion they are only hurting their company, but in reality they are only hurting the next driver having to deal with what their lazy butts pawn off.

 

http://biz.yahoo.com/e/120830/usak8-k.html

Go there is you wish to read some specifics on the new credit agreement. Most notably as most should know Wells Fargo had USA put everything on the table for this loan. The loan itself only guarantees upfront 18.75 million. All other withdrawals after that will be based on USAs ability to make the payments. They say it does not hold any maintained financial results requirements but its up to us to read between the lines on that. There is a reason USA couldn't stay current on the last credit line. What they should do is take that 18.75 mil right away and try to see if they can put it to work but we all know it will take much more to get this company out of the red.

 

I bet they hire a bunch more office people. They will give the big wigs a big raise. Screw the drivers some more. Run the company on into the ground. It sounds like they only have a few years to prepare there retirement.

 

Amazing how some thought the new credit facility was positive news. The company can't prop themselves up so they needed capitol. Just a temporary stop on their way to the bottom. They have the revs to support a company at their size but they just don't manage it properly. The market has remained stagnant despite the announcement so go figure. Im not surprised.

 

Just to be clear, USA Truck was not behind on servicing this debt. What got them in trouble was the debt had grew past an automatic trigger % of their balance sheet, it cost them an extra $100,000 AND was about to cost them an extra $300,000 before they got another lender. I made that same mistake till a friend of mine who is a CPA corrected me.

 

Ok so your basically saying the debt grew past their limit? If that is the case it still means the borrowing is out of control. Door is still wide open for trouble. Its possible that making sure they show making their debt payments is the most important. At some point I see them not being able to make payments somewhere. Like a repair shop. A driver pulls in needing repairs and USA isnt current on their payment so they can't get the work done. Happens all the time