Fikes, Good or bad?

Tenn I See Trucker · Jun 24, 2014

TheWitchDr said: ↑

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.
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They put all their eggs in one basket, and a leaky one if that,Pilgrims/JBS is infamous for cutting carriers without notice (I drove for them).Some companies should stick with what they do best .i.e flatbed. Roehl did the same thing when I worked for them got in the reefer business for one customer.

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