Fikes, Good or bad?

And if anyone us doing there lease purchase I would love to hear about it as well no I'm not saying I want to do it but am curious if its better than what bennet or any of the other owner operator companies are fairing

 

Well Blade, the reason it's low is, I don't want to work that hard. My truck, cars, house, motorcycle, boat, and children's college is paid for. I spend alot more time with my wife, and my favorite golf course. I could always make more, I'm just happy where I am.

 

I know it's been almost a year since this post, but are you still happy with Fikes? I live in south Mississippi and am looking to switch from Landstar van to Fikes. Any info would be appreciated.

 

I was with Fikes/FTL for 14 months.I was on the reefer side which is FTL. The first year was great and I did exceptionally well (take home was 1800.00 to 2800.00--but my truck is paid for), I was OTR for the first 5 months and got a dedicated from Mount Pleasant, TX to Fayetteville, AR, down to Dallas 3 times a week bringing in 2200.00 a week and home on the weekends. All was great until January; I was told that the dedicated was gone and was put on a dedicated from DeQueen AR up to Delaware, OH that paid good going up, but they could get nothing coming back and usually had to sit at least two days with no layover pay (they cut out the layover after Gary Salisbury took over the company), and got a very cheap dry load back as that was all they could get. I told them I would not do that route anymore if it was going to be that way everytime I took a load up only to sit and lose money. I was then asked if I wanted to take a dedicated from DeQueen, AR, to Robert, La that was paying well and then a load back up to Prescott, AR. Both paid really well so I agreed. Well, once I got down to Robert, LA they were unable to get the one going back up to Prescott, AR and expected me to deadhead over 300 miles 4 times a week back up to Dequeen. That was too much DH every week for me to pay out in fuel. So I sat another 3 days this time waiting on a load out of there with no layover again. I had to end up deadheading home anyway otherwise I would be stuck another 3 days over the weekend. I then get told they have a real good dedicated from Dequeen to Dallas everyday and that they could get something going back up to Hope, AR and then it would be just 50 miles DH back to Dequeen, and home on weekends. So I went for it. Well, I always had the load out of Dequeen but they could never get anything headed back up that way and when they did it was every couple of weeks or so. I had to eat over 300 miles a day DH, 1500 miles a week deadhead out of my pocket. I tried to work with them and give them the benefit of the doubt and hold onto their empty promises which were emptying my pockets. I had done so well with them in the past and was actually treated very well until the bottom fell out when January hit. I stayed on till April but nothing changed. They started putting on company trucks and I found out that that is where all the good loads were going.
I will say that for the most part the people at Fikes/FTL are pretty good people. I just couldn't afford that much DH every week. I tried as long as I could to stick it out, but could not afford to lose everything I owned on promises that never came. Since Gary Salisbury took over, things just seemed to go in the toilet. About the only customer they have is Pilgrims in DeQueen, they just seem to have a ton of trouble getting any good paying freight anywhere you go and with no layover pay it's a big gamble going on a good load only to sit 2-3 days and then having to DH on your dime a couple hundred miles, it eats your profit right up. I spoke to other o/o's and they all seemed to say the samething when it came to all the deadhead, average DH was around 1300-1600 every week and a lot of the o/o's are parking their trucks or just leaving. I can't say how well the flatbed side is doing as I never really ran into any of those guys. I figure if you have over 600 miles a week DH, something is wrong. But 1500 is outrageous.

 

Thanks for the info. I ended up staying with Landstar and bought my own flatbed (my truck is paid for, also). So far, everything is going great and I couldn't be more pleased. There is so much more flatbed freight down here, and they are great paying loads. I have very little deadhead and only do so if the load pays extremely well. Good luck to you.

 

thank you grumpy as i said not trying to be noisy and hope you are enjoying the course this year

 

i'm thinking about fikes reefer sides.if i can bring home 1,800 week im good and be home on week.

 

I've been seeing some FTL trucks at some of the places I hit on a regular basis, and it got me curious about the company.

Anyone have any updated info to share?

Thanks!

 

I will say right off that I know nothing about Fikes its self .

But I do have to ask myself about any company that is always advertising for help all the time .
Do they have so much freight that they need more trucks or are they just adding trucks because they have so many leaving ?

I have found most companies that just add trucks to say they have so many trucks tend to have allot of guys sitting and waiting for freight.
I would rather work for a company that thinks of their guys before they just go adding trucks .

I have also learned that if there are any company trucks you will sit while they run .
That is why I never lease to a company that has company trucks ever !

Ok that's my .02 worth of useless info good luck .