Foodliner

Great quote Jonathon51. i agree every company has its horror stories. I just wanted to point out that Foodliner's turnover rate is around 35%. The ATA lists the national average for trucking companies is at 80% last time I checked....... That would tell me they are doing some things right.

 

Hey Hogboy,

The problem I saw at Foodliner was not the drivers who came and went. It was the good people in Management, who would leave, and be replaced by someone with no respect for the drivers. In the Newark, De. terminal, they had a guy named Bob, who was always up your butt about something, but as soon as you asked about something he was supposed to be taking care of, he would put his finger on his bluetooth earpiece, and say "I have to take this call". He would never get back to you on any issues he said he would, and was always involved in some way when a driver got screwed.

Frank D., on the other hand, treated the drivers well, and always insulated the drivers from abusive customers. I never heard any other office people say a single kind word about him, but he was always the one to go to with a problem. He seemed to be working so hard, and getting so little respect for it.

They finally got rid of Bluetooth Bob, but instead of letting Frank take over, they moved in a guy named Doug. Doug took all the best work away from drivers who were with the company a long time, and gave it to his friends. Seems after Doug showed up, so did a handful of new drivers. Suddenly these new guys were taking all the higher paying work away from the old dogs. Then I started to notice all the guys getting the work, all seemed to know Doug from before they came to Foodliner.

Management allowing this to go on, chased away most of the better drivers. I'm not angry at this point, for what happened to me, but it still kills me to see a great company get taken over by people who do not respect the guys who actually do the work for the customers. When I was out of Langhorne, PA., we could not drag guys away from our terminal. A few guys got fired here and there, after screwing up for the 4th or 5th time in 6 months, but nobody ever quit. By the time I was fired, most of the drivers there were all looking to leave.

It's a shame to remember how Foodliner was back in 2005, and compare it to the mess it was in when I got fired in 2011. Back in 2005, I threatened to kick a guy's butt, very seriously, for writing "Foodliner sux" in the dust on his truck. 5 short years later, I agreed with his view. Sad but true.