covenant

My hubby was with Covenant from 2003-2004. He went through their training program and had a great trainer. The problem was after the training and he went solo.
He ended up having a lot of issues with them and not getting layover pay or pay he really was entitled. His home time was not too great. His first dispatcher was a reall b**** and later he got a dispatcher that is also a relative. It got better then but he still had problems.
He left in 2004 due to health issues. Before he left, he was doing a dedicated run that originated in Florida. He was supposed to get better home time. Well, it didn't turn out that way. When he turned his truck in, a driver just came in and said he was to take his truck as his needed some skylight repair. While talking to him, he stated he was getting great home time. He lives in Orlando while my hubby and I are in Jacksonville. My hubby got stuck one time in NC over July 4th even though this was a dedicted run in which he was supposed to be home on weekends.
I am thinking of getting in driving myself for a career change. I will most likely go to a reputative driving school -- National is one nearby -- and see aobut getting into driving and maybe then go into the office route. I want to see what is going out on the road and the office route would be in safety management. So will see how the cards fall!

 

I can give you a personal experience with this. Hubby was home inbetween loads but it just so happened his load was high security and he knew that.
He couldn't bring the truck and trailer to the house as we live in a subdivision and it isn't big enough for trucks. So he parked it at the nearest truck stop and backed the truck in so the trailer doors could not be opened. He was carrying [edited].
He was then going to plan to come to the house for dinner and then go back to the truck as he knew he couldn't be gone long.
It wasn't long, Covenant was calling the house seeing if he was here. I told them he just pulled into the truck stop here in Baldwin. When he called me to come over to pick him up, I told him they called the house.
To make it short, we ended up having dinner there at the truck stop so as Covenant wouldn't get all "worried" that he abandoned the truck. It eventually worked out ok.
Other high security loads he was on was with his trainer and they were carrying [edited]. This is usually given to a team so as one person is always with the truck until the delivery. Plus they have to go at least 200 miles before they do any kind of stopping otherwise the qualcomm goes nuts.

 

I apologize for editing the contents of the loads out of your post, but because we never know who reads these discussions, I think it wise to not offer any information that might cause harm to a driver. Freight theft is through the roof, and if people are able to associate certain loads with certain carriers, a nervous hijacker could take a driver's life.

Please do not discuss specifics in regard to freight hauled by named motor carriers...

 

I am happy to hear that your husband and his friend have made it into a truck together. Making it this far bucks the odds, and this is quite a hurdle for them to have hopped over....I pray they honor their hometime commitment to the both of them. They've earned it.

To the issue of them having more time on their hands than they would like, I wouldn't worry too much about it for the moment. I'm merely guessing, but they may be going easy on them because they are new to the company, and they may actually not want to push them. New drivers, and especially inexperienced drivers under pressure make mistakes. If this persists over the course of the next few months, then I'd worry a bit. Low mileage is another of those persistent complaints I've heard repeatedly about Covenant, especially by teams. And of course, newer drivers are not going to get the consideration for loads that drivers who have been with the company will.

Quite honestly, it should be possible. With any decent company, when a driver makes a request for a dispatch change, it will be honored. Covenant seems to have this issue come up on a regular basis. I don't know what kind of people they hire for those positions, but this is right up there at the top, of reasons why people leave them.

I don't know how they are trying to accomplish this, but it will more than likely involve going over people's heads to get it done. Talking to other drivers of the company that have some time there, may net him a name of someone that he can call to get results.

Of course, the proper answer is that permission should be asked before leaving the equipment for an extended period of time, but let's look at it logically. Lower level employees, or the dispatchers are not going to grant that permission. Their pat answer is going to be..."NO! You've got to stay with the equipment, and protect it". If it were legal to chain the driver to a truck, some of these companies out here would do it.

He leaves the truck I'm sure several times a day, and in each of those instances, the equipment is vulnerable. I stay in motels at times, and am away from my equipment overnight. Drivers will kill hours on end in truck stops at the poker machines or in the TV room, so what's the difference?

Okay...there is the issue of the fact that freight theft, and equipment theft being through the roof. The thing is...it isn't going to matter to the company if your husband was out of site of the truck for 10 minutes to go to the restroom, or if he was gone for a period of a couple of hours. If something happens, the company will try and hold the driver(s) responsible in some way, and this will not matter if it happens today, with him being there 30 days, or if it happens 15 years from now.

So...here's my advice. If the truck is secure, and his sixth sense tells him that there is little chance that the truck will be bothered, then I'd slip off for a little while and see the sites. I do assure you, that drivers do this all the time. I sure have. Your husband is not a prisoner, nor a slave, nor paid to be a 24 hour, 365 day a year security guard.

A super heavy, and hefty padlock on the rear of the trailer, and the air-cuff locking device I wrote about earlier in this thread, is the best and most effective way to prevent theft that is available today. Life is too short to be tied to that 8 foot by 8 foot cell 24 hours a day. Tell him to enjoy life, listen to that sixth sense, and all will be okay....

I want to offer a personal thought as well....you're apparently the type of wife that most drivers would love to have waiting for them at home. I'm fortunate to have one like that too....

Please keep up the good work, and inform us of how things are progressing with Covenant. You're helping others more than you will ever know....even if it means I am completely wrong in some of my assessments of the company.

Let me leave you with one more thought. Once they have in a solid year of all weather driving with Covenant, and if they do so with no accidents, these two guys are going to be in a position to write their own checks. There isn't a company out there that would not salivate all over themselves to hire a good team for one of their trucks.

 

Actually, she is a native North Carolinian, but has spent most of her life in Tennessee....

I didn't realize it, but you and I live about 25 miles from each other....

Okay...the way most per-diem deals work, and I'll use an example for this, is like this...

Let's say that a driver is paid .30 a mile, and the per-diem rate is 7 cents per mile.

On the settlement sheet, you should see where the driver is paid .23 a mile for all the paid miles that he runs. This section is usually detailed to reflect the trips and mileage figures. In another section, you should see the per-diem figures, with NO detail, but the mileages should be able to be matched up to the detailed section, and of course, this should be at the per-diem rate, of 07 a mile in my example. Added together, they should total .30 for all paid miles (in your case, .195 a mile).

Now...the way per-diem works, this .07 a mile is set aside, and no payroll taxes are assessed on this amount. It is added back into the net pay, after taxes are taken out on the .23 a mile plus any other accessorial pay items (detention, extra stop pay, etc.). The .23 a mile is reflected on the W-2 form at the end of the year as part of the gross pay (along with accessorial pay). Most companies report the per-diem amount in box #14 on the W-2 form.

What this means, is that the company in essense, is claiming to reimburse the driver for a portion of their road and meal expenses, and this is in the form of tax free money paid to the driver. In reality, it is a legal ploy to save the company on a part of their portion of the 7.5% (apprx) of the Social Security taxes that they are supposed to suppliment, PLUS they get to claim reimbursements that are written off their taxes. Another drawback to the employee, is that their future benefits are reduced, because it appears on paper that you made less than you actually did, and therefore, less money was paid into the employee's Social Security account over the year, both by the company and the employee.

Short term, the employee saves on payroll taxes, just as the company does, but the long term effect could reduce what the employee will draw at retirement age. I suppose to decide if it's a good or bad thing, it would depend on how much a person will have to depend on their Social Security to support them upon retirement.

There's a couple of ways to handle this at tax time, since transportation workers are allowed a generous write-off for meals and incidental expenses, and there is a way to recoup some of this, in the form of a savings on your taxes each year, IF they do not report this in box #14 on the W-2.

If it IS reported on the W-2, then you can deduct either the standard meal allowance, over and above the per-diem paid or the actual amount of expenses if that is more than the standard amount, for a further reduction in income taxes, or in the case of a complete absence of the per-diem amount reported on the W-2, you could.....geez....do I have to type it? I think most people will catch my drift.

Why should they be the only one to catch a tax break?

 

Do you know what I love about all of this?

They burned Covenant....big time.

Usually it's the other way around.

Oh....they kept a little detention money.

But, the two of them are now on their way to doing what they wanted, and they were not trapped into a year's worth of indentured servitude to get there.

That's going to make me smile for the rest of the day.

 

I have heard of Ocoee River Transport. The COmpany offers 1000 dollars a week and several days per week off and every five weeks you get a week off. Its a great setup if you like going to Ca .. TOP OF THE LINE no doubt