Estes sucks

It looks like they'll be looking for another driver.

 

As an Estes P&D driver, I can tell you why this happens.

The information in Peoplenet system is NEVER correct... NEVER. Your business hours may be 8:00a-4:30p, but the information in Peoplenet tells a driver you are there till 6:00p.

Drivers have complained, and complained, and complained, to no avail. The first week I was with this company, I turned in more than 50 corrections to hours and addresses for customer information; not a single change was made in the system; to this day, they are incorrect. When I asked senior drivers how to resolve this, I was told, "You can't, the company does not make changes."

One stop, a parts supplier to PACCAR in central Ohio, has an address in the Peoplenet system that is three miles from the actual location, as the business moved to a new facility nearly FIVE YEARS AGO. The customer stated they have updated that information with every shipper, and Estes is the only one that can't seem to fix it.

Now, for drivers considering working for this company, when an address cannot be found, when a delivery cannot be made due to the business cutoff time, or some other incorrect system information, THE DRIVER IS HELD RESPONSIBLE. Yes, the driver.

So when the company sends you a pick up order, and the system says the customer is there till 6:00p, then you show up at 3:00p, only to find the customer actually stops shipping activities at 1:00p, and closes at 2:00p; the DRIVER is the one in trouble; not the dispatcher, not the managers, but the driver. This can include verbal warnings, write-ups, suspension without pay, and termination.

Shippers, when an Estes driver shows up after your operating hours, it IS NOT because of the DRIVER in nearly all cases, it is because THE COMPANY REFUSES TO ADDRESS THIS ISSUE BY UPDATING CUSTOMER INFORMATION. PERIOD.

One thing you can do, is put "Must pick up before _ _:_ _ A/P" in special instructions, when you are booking your freight, whether it is with Estes, online, or with a third party freight broker.

Estes could eliminate 80% of P&D issues and productivity interruptions just by simply updating their customer information pertaining to hours and addresses.

 

If a company is not going to service a customer, they should not accept a pick-up order from them in the first place. Afterall, the company IS capable of properly screening customers they want to service before taking a booking. Sad attitude :/

 

Everything you have stated here is absolutely, 100%, nail on the head correct. When I worked there they went through a little phase of “if the address is wrong, bring it back and we will re bill it and charge a redelivery fee”. Well that lasted about a week. Every P&D Driver was bringing so much freight back, customers were calling screaming that they “moved 5 years ago and now all of a sudden we couldn’t find them?!”

 

Why do you guys put up with this ####; move on to something else. Do you have no balls?
Ok for you ones that will complain, now go to hell grow a set.

 

anymore, no one does the screening, it's done on line. You manage people and your day is going good. All the sudden a pick up pops up in the middle of nowhere and you suck because you can't make it

 

well, again, that's why you suck as a dispatcher or terminal manager (having had that looped around my neck more than once)