Has anyone heard about tradition transportation

1500 a week is truck payment + insurance+ maintenance account and what ever other deductions they take out. Mileage varies in the check I posted I had 24xx loaded miles. Remember we get paid by the load not by how many miles we run. Load amounts depend where your at. Some times they suck and sometimes they're good. As far as fuel mileage goes I get 5.5 to 6 out of a w900. I dont know what others are averaging but even with not so great fuel mileage I still make a check. And if you really are crazy about fuel economy they have t680s here.

 

Remember on a loan that 5% is APR. So for every year you have that loan you pay 8250 in finance charges. So now do the math 8250 x 5 = 41250 just in finance charges. Add that to 165 and you're 206250. And that's for 5 years, here out lease is for 6. So if you did 52 x 695 x 6 youd get about 216000. 10k more than a 5% loan which there is no way in hell I would get a rate that good I would probably be paying more like 10 or 12% apr so I'm ok with 216k lol

 

That’s not that bad @ $2.20 ish a mile average.. do they allow you to self-dispatch at all (Coyote, TQL & etc).. ?

 

If you wanted to you could. The guys in dispatch here run me well so I don't bother, taking one or two of your own loads here or there would probably interfere with their planning since they usually have 5 to 6 days out scheduled for you. So it would be either do it all yourself or have them do it in my opinion.

 

Ok guys and gals I'm going to show you what a bad week looks like. I was home for christmas I got home friday the 21st at around noon and left out Wednesday the 26th at 1600. So that's almost 5 days off for the holiday and I still made a paycheck. It's really not that hard just pull the loads they send you and dont cause drama.

 

So do they just do flatbed there or do they have other divisions like Refer or Dryvan?

 

Van is primary here they do have like 7 reefers and maybe about 20 conestoga trailers but primarily van company. No drop and hook with reefer or conestoga

 

I guess about my last few question I would have would be:

Are the trucks Powered down and whats the speed set at?

Is there a contract and if so how long?

My last lease I just leased the truck, I didn’t have any intentions of owning it, just wanted the money and payed the payments until the contract with the company was over. Could I do the same here or is it strictly a lease purchase?

What power units do they have, please don’t say Paccar (lol) .. haha.. Do they have manual transmissions & if so do they run 10 or 13 speed..

Are there trucks new or could u lease a new truck (I ask because a new truck usally has a warranty).

Do they run duke tire or super singles?

How do they treat you as a driver on a scale of 1-10 , 10 being you love it?

What type of ELD do they use?

Would they let me read the contract before committing to them?

What % of the FsC do they pay, also do they offer load insurance who pays that?

What % of your maintance escrow do they keep and can u use it for tires, service and etc and is it your choice where that is done or do they make you go threw the shop?

Lastly do the have lanes in to the west coast?

You have been very helpful, thanks for your interaction thus far..

 

Ok here will be the answers to your questions I reposted the whole thing and just filled in the answers. Easier I thought lol.

Are the trucks Powered down and whats the speed set at?
No they're not beasts 450 isx or x15 efficiency series. Mines not governed and I dont think a lot of the trucks are. I have heard some rumors the new 389s are set at 70 but I doubt they'd care if you turned it up. I run the speed limit and never heard anything about it.

Is there a contract and if so how long?

My last lease I just leased the truck, I didn’t have any intentions of owning it, just wanted the money and payed the payments until the contract with the company was over. Could I do the same here or is it strictly a lease purchase?

Yes there are 2 options.
Option 1: You can do a full on lease purchase which is 6 year term. You have the option to buy or just get a new truck at the end.

Option 2: They have certain trucks that you can do a 1 year term on and at the end you can choose another truck. You may be able to stay in the one you have and just do another 1 year lease but I'm not 100% positive on that.

What power units do they have, please don’t say Paccar (lol) .. haha.. Do they have manual transmissions & if so do they run 10 or 13 speed..

Paccar lol. KW T680 (mostly company drivers) you can lease one though. Then they have W900s and Pete 389s. They do have International Lone Stars if you're a navistar fan, personally I'm not. All the trucks here that I have seen have all been 13 speeds.

Are there trucks new or could u lease a new truck (I ask because a new truck usally has a warranty).

Yes, most if not all of their trucks still have factory warranty remaining.

Do they run dual tire or super singles?

Duals

How do they treat you as a driver on a scale of 1-10 , 10 being you love it?

I'd give them a 9. The night and weekend dispatch is very understaffed and sometimes difficult to get a hold of. They usually have you planned over the weekend in advance but if something goes SNAFU and you dont get loaded and its past 5pm Friday you will most likely be sitting for the weekend. The dispatchers do try to make up for that if it does happen though. Other thing doesn't bother me too much but we fuel at Loves (and get amazing discounts on fuel) but they limit your card to 465$ a day in fuel. You can call them and they will turn it on for more if need be. Also we have comdata cards but you have to call in to have them put money on it before you can use it for fuel. I've never had a problem with the 465 a day but it kind of seems like babysitting to me. If i want to dump my whole check in my tank I should be able to. Lol but then again they probably had that happen too many times and got tired if drivers #####ing about no pay. Other than that things are good. Dispatch is easy to work with when they're in the office and I have a truck I am proud of AND I make more money here than at my last job. So win win for me haha.

What type of ELD do they use?

Qualcomm's but they're pretty plane jane. Just messaging, hos, and vir. Most of the trucks have the touch screen in the dash if you need a gps.

Would they let me read the contract before committing to them?
Absolutely I read mine before I signed it.

What % of the FsC do they pay, also do they offer load insurance who pays that?

Ok so the FSC and the load amount gets grouped into one sum and you get 80% of that. I know it seems unfair they take some FSC but I'm telling you the discounts we get at loves make up for it. There have been times I've saved over 150$ off what the pump said.

Cargo insurance you pay for. Comes out of your settlement at 25$ a week.

What % of your maintance escrow do they keep and can u use it for tires, service and etc and is it your choice where that is done or do they make you go threw the shop?

I think they take 7cents a mile for maint. You can make it more if you want but not less, unless you have a lot of money in your maint account.
Yes you can use it for tires, service ect. Most tires and service done at Loves or speedco. If something major they'll send you to a dealership. Not gonna say for sure but if you have a local mechanic you use talk to them about it they might not have a problem letting you go to them. I do all my own services myself, tires I use loves for.

Lastly do the have lanes in to the west coast?

Yep. You'll meet your dispatcher and planner during orientation and they will ask you where you like to run and where you don't. They seem pretty good about it. Only place I really dont like is west coast haha so I'm not picky.

You have been very helpful, thanks for your interaction thus far..

No problem I wish I could have found some good info before I came here. Was a bunch of bad reviews from ex employees.... so yeah hopefully people can see what I have posted and what the bad reviews are and make a more educated decision about whether they want to work here or not. Its not horrible here, they are not out to steal your money and make you broke. Some guys succeed and some don't that's the long and short of it. Feel free if you think of anything else just ask I'll answer stuff to the best of my knowledge.

 

Yep thanks again.. I guess my challenge would be to see the settlements from the employees who say it didn’t work and look at there weekly miles, pay adavances and any repair.. But sounds a lot like what I have done prior during my lease.. 6 years seems like a long time to lease a truck but then again I assume if you put more at it you would have less years..

I might call them in the next few days and ask some more questions.. Prior to speaking to you and seeing your settlements I assumed they must be just aweful.. But maybe I put them back up on my radar..

Thanks again..