ESTES Express (5 Year Review)

Funny you should say that, they just added another in Hagerstown Maryland, 80 some odd door dock. They needed it though, Winchester was a clusterpuck, it Winchester will remain open as well.

 

You’ll do good in Charlotte when freight is good. But when it’s bad they have been known to only work the extraboard guys 2-3 days a week then sent back home. More than likely you’ll have a weird start day like a Friday or Saturday and work 5 nights then come come and have like a Wednesday and Thursday off for your home time every week. Be prepared to run the northeast. All of us Carolina guys get plenty of northeast, be prepared for Pennsylvania and New Jersey snd lots of it. If you save your money for the lean times, you can make it through the slow times no problem and enjoy your time off. Im from Raleigh a much smaller terminal but know some guys in Charlotte. When things are good at Estes they are really good. But when freight is slow things are absolutely terrible, they won’t lay off but they won’t mind starving you out in the winter while the big seniority guys continue to run their 3000 mile a week bids working themselves into an early grave. Estes is very unorganized and you will really scratch your head and ponder on things that go on here. But all in all it’s still a good job and the check clears accurately every Friday morning. I have never done anything but LTL so I don’t have anything else to compare it to but you can make $100k here a year if you’ll run and don’t goof off. A lazy and I mean lazy guy can make 70-75k.

 

Saw Minneapolis for the first time in over a month for a 34, so took an extra day off. Got as far as Chicago, coming back on, but then headed back west. In Denver.

 

Hey guys, thanks so much for the replies! Sorry it's taken me a few days to get back onto the forum and reply.

So in regards to my question of "earning time off" like we do OTR, it appears there were two different answers so I suppose it depends on the terminal. One person said you can't take a week off after staying out for 4-5 weeks while another said he knows somebody that does. To be clear, either way would be fine with me. I know with OTR the longer I stay out the more that I earn, so I like to do that. But, if I stay out 4-5 weeks and only get 34-48 hours off at the end of it, I couldn't do it, I would get too burnt out. I need that week off after living in the truck for that long. But again 34-48 hours off after a week of work would be fine too.

I have a few follow up questions, again if you can answer that would be very helpful but if everybody is too busy that is ok too!

1. What do you guys do for GPS? I ask because from what I have read on this thread, it seems that you are assigned a truck but that other drivers can just take (or maybe "steal" is the right word?) your truck whenever they want and it happens all the time. So are you guys just mounting your GPS systems in your trucks and taking them out every time you leave the truck? Or can you just have a phone holder/mount and have google maps running? I'm assuming Estes is a no phone policy but having the phone on a mount would be ok for your GPS, or no?

2. What's the deal with breakdowns? I'm assuming if you break down then you don't get paid, breakdowns come with trucking I get it. That said, you guys always get the PM's on your assigned tractors done at an Estes Terminal, right? For example, my company has us get our PM's done at a Love's or TA or other big name truck stop, since we don't get routed by our terminals very often. That leads to situations like a couple days ago on Friday, where I sat in the Hardees dining room at a Love's truck stop for 7.5 hours waiting for the Love's to do my PM. It needed to be done. But I don't get paid for that time. Do the PM's and other routine maintenance get done at the Estes Terminals?

3. So the routine work week is a 5 day work week, 3 in a hotel, 2 at home, then 34-48 hours off? Is this GENERALLY correct? And do you guys normally get closer to 34 hours off or closer to 48 hours off? Also what is generally the hours that you work, 9pm - 9am or something like that?

4. Is it normal on your working days to start working immediately when your 10 hour break is up? Or do you sometimes get to have an 11 or 12 hour break before you have to go on duty again?

5. Do the daycabs in the trucks all have a passenger seat to put your night hotel bag on so I don't have to sit it on the (probably dirty) floor? Sounds like a dumb question but I don't know maybe some of them don't have a passenger seat or something for whatever reason.

6. WHAT ABOUT SHUTTING DOWN IN EXTREME WEATHER - How lenient is Estes about shutting down in extreme weather if you feel unsafe to drive, especially with snow in the winter? I should be clear, I have driven in the snow plenty. But I do shut down if I feel it's unsafe and I DO NOT LIKE DRIVING IN BAD SNOWSTORMS AT NIGHT TIME! My current OTR company has no problem with me shutting down if I feel unsafe. To be clear, I've driven in the mountains out West plenty of times at high altitudes in the mountains during the daytime but I do shut down if I feel unsafe or see on my app reports of flipped and overturned vehicles ahead.

7. Last and probably very dumb question - Do manual trucks have cruise control on them? I got my CDL by testing in a manual (and have never driven a car manual before) but we never used cruise control, even on the interstate. But maybe manual's have cruise control?

8. Oh ok this is the last question - All of extra board only goes to and from the Estes Terminals, right? So no more 4 - 5 hour waits at the Reefer DC's waiting to get loaded, right? And it's all (or mostly) drop and hooks at the Estes Terminals, no live loads or live unloads, right?

Thanks again for all those who answered my previous questions!

 

You have me beat by a fair bit, but something good recently happened, so I'm going to do my best to catch you by the end of the year. Lol

 

I'm right around him and I'm a team. I think 74. RL sucks!