CRST Malone (Flatbed Division) SUCKS!

Hubby is looking to sign on with CRST and I will be doing loads, have no experience. Would love some input. Thanks in advance.

 

They do have several Xtra-lease trailers in the fleet right now. Most of these have very sparse chain and binder hangers and side boxes. They are in the process of buying 50+ new trailers with headache racks with chain and binder hangers and 1 sidebox in between the spread axle. Thus far this has really been my only complaint. The first trailer I had was an Xtra-lease with no headboard and nowhere to put any of my securement devices. I bugged my FM on a regular basis until I moved up to this sidekit. It was a severe PITA keeping all my gear in my truck for the first few weeks.

As far as the gold trucks ar concerned, they were team trucks on the van side, and even the 09 have more miles then my 06 former crete truck. I got lucky and got this truck instead of a gold one, and from the reasearch I have done on this truck , it only had 1 driver at crete.... he has been with them for 8+ years so it was taken care of and not run through a series of drivers. You do sign the lease sight unseen of the trucks, and by me doing my research before hand I was aware of this. A friend of mine here got a ragged out gold truck, he drove it for two weeks, and raised wholly he!!, so eventually they put him in an old shaffer truck.

Thus far I have no regrets.....im making on average $2200+ a week to the house before taking 25% out for quarterly estimated taxes. Im home every weekend, and choose where I want to run. I am getting ready to have them take out an additional $100 a week for my truck payment so I can hopefully pay this off six months sooner. Is it a perfect lease? No, but im happy and profitable.

 

I understand what you are saying. I would not want to sign a lease on any truck until I could check it out. The trailers are rented week to week. I think you are probably limited as to what they have at any particular time.

 

...buy or lease without first looking it over? What do they take me for?

 

Especially considering that you're leasing used trucks from entry level fleets.

 

I have learned from my friend who has been with Crete on a l/p for over a month is that you can only change the oil every 40,000 miles and charge it against the maintenance program. If you want it changed more often, then you have to pay for it out of your pocket. I am sure that the gold trucks have only been changed at 40K as well.
I think industry standard is 25k miles.
He loves the freight, just not the equipment.

 

I spoke to malone and I was told you have a 50/50 chance of getting a new trailer...but you will not be guaranteed anything.
Their CSA scores make more sense the more I look into the way they do things!

 

Yep, a friend of mine finally got rid of his Xtra-lease trailer and got a brand new utility trailer. He is now able to put all his equiptment on his trailer, so needless to say he is thrilled.

 

Sooo, you grossed $26000 in 5 weeks??? That seems like an aweful lot for being with them such a short time. I'm curious what problems you had with Malone???

You owned your truck that you leased to them right? So you were'nt caught up in their endless fees! So what problems did you encounter?

 

It sounds like I would need to find my own loads off of their load board. I live in missouri so how hard would it be to get by the house every 2 or 3 weeks?how much do you save on fuel using their fuel card?