Sounds like things at Knight havnt changed since I left in 2008. When I hired on with them in 2003, they were about 700 trucks, all new (& kept squeaky clean) Freightliner Centurys & trailers, and were known as a driver co. who had a steady & loyal customer base. Then they starting going after Swift customers (cheap freight!) following the end of their "No Compete" clause after the Knight boys separated from Swift mgmt years before (they had been doing business up to that point as a warehousing co. called Total Warehouse). Knight Total Trailer w/knight Logo Original Knight Trans Trailer w/same knight logo In just a couple of years I saw them becoming more like Swift (going after ANY business), having that experience as I had worked for a Swift o/o co. for several years. I spent 5 years with Knight hunting trailers as they would take trailers out of service for sale often b4 replacing them and maintaining their ratio of 2.5 trailers per 1 tractor. Once while desperate to meet a p/u in Phx when starting my time out, I tried to allocate one of the 20 or so trailers parked out front that were for sale but got stopped by Qualcom's status on them. Knight who became ALL business (drivers & customers come 2nd) & the bottom line (often 'short-term) tried to maximize their resale's on both trailers & tractors, which is when they started leasing tractors to their drivers who made just enough $ to keep their bills paid and them in debt to Knight (had to use Knight's shop, insurance, etc.)! During those 5 years with Knight, all drivers complained about a lack of MT trailers & the time spent hunting them which they didnt get paid for at that time---spent an entire day in L.A. once running around and having 'other' drivers beat me to 'available' MTs! So Knight KNOWS about their trailer shortage, and that they lose customers who cant get MT's to load, but has decided as a business strategy to keep that ratio and go after new business currently available---it's all about the bottom line, most likely the quarterly and not so much the long term, as losing customers (& drivers) is not good for business........must be plenty of BOTH for them to operate this way!!
Can only twist a rubber band so tight before it snaps. I will say this there is grumblings going on right now in upper management. We may start to shift back now, only time will tell. Frankly hard times needed to happen otherwise we are doomed to continue the status quo as any company is. Hard times bring change and reflection. I only hope its in time. I like the people I work with and frankly I like who I work for. I dont want to see us suffer.
They were saying that about Swift when I left in 2003!! The vast supply of new CDL's coming up along with the general shortage in trucking has kept Swift going despite their bad reputation! Again, 'cheap freight,' i.e. freight that there is little $ in and most trucking co.'s dont want, keeps up the demand. Btw, just looked at the latest Wiki on Knight Transportation, and according to it they NOW have about a 2:1 ratio of trailers to tractors ( 8,700 trailers, 4000 tractors) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Transportation
Also, dry van freight tends to be more seasonal, picking up at the end of summer-fall and continuing thru to the holidays, and then falling off for the couple months following, as opposed to 'refrigerated' which is pretty much the same demand year round (except for more frozen turkeys from Thksgiving to Xmas) as ppl eat every day..
Going Refrigerated with Knight vs. Dry Van is the way to go. "Economically," the Refridge's are the 'white collar' part of Knight vs. Dry Van being the "Blue collar" part! The dry van part gets sent to "God forsaken" areas (like loading rolled bales of hay & gagging, air clogging alfalfa pellets out in the fields of UT, bulk wheat & corn loads at grain elevators in NM, small 1-horse businesses w/o loading docks in the middle of nowhere, ,etc.) as opposed to the more sanitized, large food DC's that the refrige drivers pickup at. EDIT: I also hear that the gloves Refridge drivers use to hook up glad hands and close their trlr doors are 'white'...
Freight is slow in CA but I managed to pull down 2900 this week. I also saw I forgot to scan in a load last week so I will get 3400 miles total on this check plus a 400.00 X pay since payroll can't seem to figure out how to pay me on my missing local runs. I am back in Tulare after doing another Gypsum load. I need my monthly inspection, a fuel filter, and an air leak chased down on the truck. Too bad the smell of cow dung blows into the truck at night or it would be really pleasant here.
Soooo much truth here. Its a decent yard its a shame they shut down dispatch. It was quite when I stayed there a few weeks ago.
My recollections of the Tulare terminal (which was built a couple of years after I started working for Knight) was next to CA99 (so noisy from traffic), which I got burned out driving over 5 yrs (often rough, plus when rain or fog saw many deadly accidents along), and had a shop, wash (?), but no pumps. Was a good place to get dispatched from but no MT's within a 100 miles!
