CSQT Trucking

I talked to a person that works for them just this week.
She lives in South Alabama like I do.
She said she loves it. She is always moving and always has a preplan.
She likes that it has a small company feel with 100 trucks.

 

Worked for them last year, worked for the owner Arthur Beech before at Freight Systems before Celadork bought them out. They are paper haulers primarily. If you run like the wind, manage your clock properly, Scott Sharp will see to it that you get plenty of miles. Don't go there planning on running only 2000 miles a week because that is all you need.

Now starting at .45/mi. It was .39/mi when I was there. I left because I'm a Project Manager on another temp gig that should end soon. Considering going back.

Trucks were Cascadias when I left last October, but I understand that they have picked up some former Maverick trucks and have started a lease program (which surprises me because Arthur was very vocal about NEVER doing a lease).

Benefits really sucked so I didn't bother. Per diem is mandatory. If you stay away from that yard and the bs, you'll make money there. Shop is too busy most of the time to get your repairs done withing a reasonable amount of time. If you ask nicely, and they have crew available, you might be able to get a truck wash behind the shop. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

BTW, I liked to run 3500 miles per week or more and they usually never had a problem giving it to me.

My Cascadia had issues keeping me cool on a hot summer day because the electric apu was way too small to do the job. I run 24/7 but prefer nights because I could get further with less traffic and construction delays. Record was 3940 miles one week, 708 miles overnight to save a load by a lazy driver, but that is not typical.

1500 watt inverters were the limit. Newer trailers, but a few Xtra Lease.

I had a habit of showing up at consignee a day or two early and "playing dumb" or just blaming dispatch for sending me there early. Sometimes bribing the receiving crew worked too. Get the load off the trailer and go get anot her to get more miles.

I could usually get a load fro Clearwater Paper on Friday and get to Gary IN by Saturday afternoon to get a 34 hr restart in before delivering in Michigan on Monday. I tried to stay busy enough to run my hours out by Saturday. 10 hours and 1 minute after going off duty or sleeper and I was on duty for pretrip.

I was only there for the money, as you can see. Very little contact with dispatch or anyone at the terminal. Didn't need or want it.

 

They run East coast?

 

Slacker

 

Yep, a little. Here is my destination list from memory:

Massachusets from Columbus, OH twice
One-three dropper in New Jersey (not too bad)
A couple South Carolina (small town down 77 a bit north of Columbia, usually pickup paper north of i20 in SC then)
One or two Maryland bound loads
Richmond VA (if I remember correctly, then go to Hampton to pickup engine blocks for Celadon)
Couple Columbia SC Intl Paper drops
A few around Atlanta
Panama City FL back to Arkansas
Montgomery AL,
Mobile, AL
Jackson, MS
Houston
Dallas, Dallas, and more Dallas
Ft Worth
Hot Springs, AR
Shreveport, LA
Texarkana
Nashville, AR
Chicago
Russelville, AR
St Louis
Springfield
Indianapolis
Louisville,
Cincinnati
Columbus
Cleveland, OH
Youngstown, OH
Mendon, MI
Omaha, NE
Ft Dodge, IA

Etc...

 

I know, right?



Seriously, I'm no super-trucker, I was just greedy. And since there weren't a lot of loads forthcoming on weekends, I burned my clock out early so I could pickup on a Friday and go get a 34 starting Saturday afternoon. I liked stopping at the TA in Gary cause there is a cool little bar down the street. Get up Sunday and do laundry and watch movies in the truck, then run over to Mendon MI to deliver on Monday morning. Usually early. The lady there is very nice, especially if you pull up the rubber mats for them from under the paper rolls.

Did I mention they pull a lot of paper? Arthur Beech has been pulling paper for the better part of 40 years. Clearwater Paper and pretty much ANY paper plants around Little Rock are his bread and butter. Grab it and run, but you #### well better scale it. I've pulled paper out of Gaston NC close to I95 in NC out to Dallas, or somewhere in Alabama or Mississippi. That was one of my usual pickups out of hometime. Sometimes I'd get lucky and pull paper out of Pageland, SC. Real close to me.

Understand, I heard a lot of other drivers whining about not getting miles. Not sure why. There was a brief period when I first started in March of 2016 when I found myself sitting after a Friday delivery halfway to Dallas down I30 waiting for a load. Never forget that weekend. I had a total of about 1800 miles for the week. Not happy. Ended up going into Dallas to pickup baled trash paper to deliver to a recycling plant south of Shreveport, then had to deal with the trailer rejection because of little bits of glass at Clearwater Paper in Arkansas City. Picked up after that and never stopped. If I didn't get 3200+ miles per week, I thought someone was mad at me. My goal every week was 3500, and I made #### sure they knew that. Ops Manager (Scott) fed me as many miles as I could handle, especially when I did favors for him (local shags on a 34 break while at the shop, etc....).

 

One other note, and I know you hear this a lot, but I am deadly serious here....

If you are constantly late, constantly wrecking the equipment, or think you can turn down loads for no other reason than "you are tired today", you aren't getting many loads, especially if they need to be run hard to get there on time. If there are three CSQT trucks sitting at a Loves, two have been sitting for a day and contain drivers who are regularly late, not doing the required TirePass every week at Loves, blowing out tires, etc... and the last one to arrive to the Loves after the others have waited a day contains the driver that "GETS IT DONE", guess who is getting the next load out?

 

Hey brotherman ... can I ask why you left, if you don't mind answering? I am a well qualified experienced driver familiar with the old Freight Systems when I pulled a skateboard around the SE for Bulldog out of Charleston, SC. Anyway, CSQT called today and my interest is peaked. I told them I'd get back to them tomorrow.
Would you go back?
Paper logs?
Support creative legal logging?
Governed?

Thanks in advance!