Colonial Freight Systems

Just curious, does Colonial pay by the hours racked up on the ECM? There's one right now that has run for at least for 6 hrs. AT 55 DEGREES ambient temp!

 

I recently got back from being in Texas with a job in the oil field (good pay, but for personal reasons didn't work out) and was looking into finding another job. Colonial Freight had a Craigslist ad and I ended up applying for it and got accepted. As usual I was checking up on what people had said on the forum about both the company and leasing from a company in general and came up with about a dozen questions to ask them. First up, since a previous person had mentioned that he had asked for a copy of the lease agreement and they refused to give him one, I was going to ask for it too. I wanted to read it myself and on anything I couldn't understand have a lawyer look into it. So today on the phone I asked them for a copy of the lease agreement to have it checked out by a lawyer and wait till you read the following conversation. While the following is not word for word accurate, it is very close to it.

ME: I was calling because I had some more questions about how the lease worked. First thing is I would like to get a copy of the lease agreement so that I can have someone look over it.

CF: I'm sorry, but we can't do that.

ME: Why not ?

CF: We don't allow unsigned copies of our contract to leave the office. Its not how we do business.

ME: So how am I supposed to be able to have a lawyer look at the agreement before I sign it ?

CF: You could have your lawyer come to our office and read it here.

ME: You are in Knoxville, there's no way I can get my lawyer to come there to read it.

CF: Well, you know, we've had a lawyer look at it. (No joke, I'm not lying here, she said this along with everything else so far.)

ME: Yes, you've had a lawyer look at it to protect your interests, I'm having one look at it to protect mine.

CF: Well there does need to be some trust involved in this you know.

(Here's where my mind is literally so blown or else I would have said that if there needed to be some trust, then why the contract.)

ME: So there is no way for me to get a copy of the contract before I head all the way to Knoxville next week ?

CF: No, again, it's not how we do business.

ME: Okay, thank you for your time and I'll be letting David that I won't be attending the orientation next week, have a nice day.

Now they can't be worried about others getting their contract because the people working there could let other see their contract because it's SIGNED, it was only UNSIGNED contracts that are not allow to leave the office. So I guess there's a lot of pressure once you are in their office to sign that thing, especially since most people have driven a long way to get there.

So, I don't know what it's like to work there, but I have to say that this raised a huge red flag about this company. I just wanted to post this as my own short and personal experience with Colonial Freight.

Now I'm back to trying to find another company to work for.

Take care and drive safe.

 

This is a company that I was thinking about going to work for but after reading this I dont know. I have been talking to David McBride, I actually just spoke with him earlier today and I have also talked to 2 different drivers on the road. I have not had any experience as described above. I asked for a copy of the lease and gave him my email address. He said he will send it to me along with some other info on the company first thing in the morning. We will see how it goes. I will keep you posted on how it goes.

 

Here is a copy of the Lease Purchase Contract from Colonial Freight. They were very open about it and had no problem sending it to me.

 

Pretty simple contract

 

The second page is missing. I called David with Colonial and talked to him about it. He has been very busy the last couple days. He has taken the time to scan the contract and send it to me for my review. He said he will be getting the second page to me tomorrow. I will post the entire thing tomorrow.

 

As you probably can tell from the research I am doing on Colonial I am looking for another place to call home. I have been with the small company I am with right now for about a year and a half and things are going down hill fast. I live in the upstate, South Carolina. If there is anyone reading this that has some suggestions they would be greatly appreciated.

 

Colonial is one of those companies that you can make money if you are willing to work. i have been here for over 5 years and it is a dream compared to my last three companies. If you show your dispatcher that you pick up on time and deliver on time you can do no wrong. I see jokers come here sometimes that talk a big game, but give all drivers a bad name because they will not keep the door shut. Colonial is one of the toughest companies to get hired on with which makes a lot of people mad when they get the rejection call, so if you can get on with us i wouldnt think too hard about it.

 

Just becuase this thread made me curious.... I asked for a copy of the Colonial lease and they had no problem letting me read it or have a copy of it. They said they get drivers that ask for it before they apply, but some people do not qualify for Colonial, so you have to qualify before they want to spend the time to send it out. I understand that.... I don't ask the bank to fill out my paperwork for a million dollar loan, becuase I wouldn't qualify for that, and its only wasting both of our time (unless I win the lottery soon!). I am not sure what all of the fuss is about on this blog. If you qualify for the company they couldnt be more crystal clear about how they work it. Again, I've never had any problems out of them.

 

Well there you go. They turned me down. They said my CSA scores were to high. I dont know. I think im going to be run out of the business due to that ####. We will see. The guy im working for right now is going to be leasing all of his trucks on with some company out of Lancaster, PA and they are giving him grief about my record. I may be without a job and homeless here soon. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.