How often does us exp get you home

I have a buddy that is on dollar general dedicated account and he is getting home most every weekend. He is running midwest regional. Been there around 14 months now. All I know on US Express. Good luck.

 

1 day home for every 6 days out.....limit of 4 days off without loosing your truck and you need special permission from your FM to stay home longer.

I stay out 4 weeks and go home for 4 days.

 

I just spoke to a recruiter, who I might say had no personality and told her that I live in the midwest (NW MO) and asked if they had any midwest regional drivers. She said that all they have is Northeast Region. So living in the midwest and working Northeast region they will get me home every weekend. For some reason I don't see that happening.

 

Do they actually give you 4 whole days off? Or is it basically 96 hours from the time you park your truck and sign off of the qualcomm, to the time you have to be back on it? Just to clarify, in case you're not certain what I'm asking about...say you get back to your home terminal on a friday night. Would you then have to be back on your truck by tuesday night? Or would you get saturday, sunday, monday, and tuesday (4 days) off? I've worked for different companies that are on either side of the fence about that, with their home time policy.

 

It may depend on different FMs, but when I get home after say 1400, that is a freebie day....so then I get four full days at home....for example, my home time starts at 0800 at Wednesday and I'm home until 0800 on Sunday.....and my truck sits about 10' from my front door...LOL

 

Sounds good. That's the way it should always be! (-; By the way, are you a company driver or an owner op/lease op?
I'm scheduled for orientation with them on the 12th, in Colton, CA. So far my recruiter has answered just about every question I've thrown at him.
I even asked him what would be the chances I'd get to come home for Christmas, with orientation being on the 12th, since they claim on their website (under benefits/perks/something like that) "guaranteed home for Christmas". Of course, he being in his non-committal typical recruiter tone, just said "they'll (my fm) find a way to get you home for Christmas, one way or another". I'm just assuming, and I hope you don't mind that you celebrate Christmas? How have they been thus far in your experience at getting you home for that?

 

I am a company driver and also a trainer..........I have heard a rumor that USX will be busing the students home and then busing them back to meet their trainer, but don't count on that.......Last year I was just a driver, but I picked up a load in Fargo, ND, traded for an empty in Chicago (not at the terminal...LOL), picked up in Chicago, and headed for home (can't remember what I did with the load, tho). The driver I traded with needed my load to get him home to Florida for Christmas.

I do celebrate Christmas as the birthday of my Saviour....this year I will be on the truck.....my son is 18 and we feel like it's more important to do what we can so that another driver can get home for Christmas with their family....I will be home on the 13th.

 

Well I'm not a student (or a trainer either), but thanks for that information. I guess I'll wait and see what happens with Christmas. Obviously, if it was of "paramount importance" to me that I be home on Christmas day, I wouldn't be getting myself scheduled for orientation on December 12th, so if I can't make it home, I'm ok with that. Although I'm single with no kids, I've already placed everybody's presents under the tree, and I've already told my family to plan on having Xmas without me, based on past experiences I've had with past unreliable FM's before (with other companies), and that I'll try to make it home if I can though.

When I first talked to my recruiter, since I'm out of California, I was applying for a western regional position...12 to 14 days out at a time, 1 day off for every 6 out, .34/mile. But by the time he had received and processed my application, he told me that position closed. So rather than lose me, he found another opening he could offer me up at least in the meantime until their western regional positions open up again, by mid-January, by his estimation. The new position he offered me would be driving for some contractor named Freight Systems. It's a otr position, 4 weeks out, 1 day off for every 6 out. But although I wasn't crazy about the idea of having to stay out 4 weeks (even though I've been kept out for much longer at a time than that before with past employers), the bright side of this is that it would be paying .36/mile. Only .02 more per mile, but I've never had a week in my career that I've ran less than 2,500 miles (solo), so that .02 extra should add up fast. At least I'm hoping...so just let me go ahead and think that. Ha ha!
The whole thing about driving for that contractor, named Freight Systems, had me confused when he first made me the offer. But as I've found out everything I can find out about the job. It's not driving for an independent contractor with multiple lease trucks, as my first notion led me to believe. I'll be driving a US Xpress company truck, be a US Xpress company driver, and no different than any other company driver driving for US Xpress. Turns out the only difference that seems to come with driving under Freight Systems is, as my recruiter tells me, is they have their own freight, separate from US Xpress' freight. Thus, they can afford to pay me their own rates - .36/mile, to haul their freight. As my recruiter put it, "think of it as driving a dedicated account, but without any specific dedicated lanes".

 

Well just a quick update here. Turns out I won't be going to work for US Xpress/Freight Systems, Inc. (some second-hand agency that is contracted by US Xpress...don't know all the details about exactly what this "agency" is all about, all I know is that I supposedly I was supposed to be going to work, hauling F.S.I.'S freight, while technically employed, for all other rights and purposes, by USX). Turns out apparently, my recruiter was giving me bad information, and well quite frankly, just being a typical #### recruiter...flat out lying to me all along. Not about everything. Just a few things, and one particular biggie to me, that I couldn't accept. They waited all the way until this morning, when I called in to confirm I would be attending orientation on monday, to explain to me what I was really in for.
After I called and confirmed, the scheduling rep noticed an inconsistency between the reservation I just booked, and what she had on file for me, so she transferred me over to a Freight Systems rep/"recruiter?". First thing I was told is that they would need to put me on a bus by tomorrow, to have me sent out to Little Rock, AR (where Freight Systems is headquartered). My recruiter had been telling me all along, I would be attending the USX orientation, in Colton, CA...about 20 or so miles from where I live. Needless to say, my bags weren't exactly packed yet and ready to go tomorrow, as I wasn't expecting to get out of town until about this time next week, when I was expecting to be wrapping up my orientation here in Cali, and be issued my truck. Next thing they told me is if I went out to Arkansas, since it's Freight Systems that would be administering the orientation, and not USX, I wouldn't be getting paid the $58 per day that my recruiter told me I'd be paid to attend the USX orientation in Colton. At this point, I was already thinking that I'm not liking what I'm hearing so much. Then came the straw that snapped the camel's back like a twig. The Freight Systems person I was talking to asked me, has anybody discussed our home time policy with you yet? I told her yeah my recruiter told me that the policy is 4 weeks out, 4 days off, 1 day off for every 6 weeks worked. She then told me that would ordinarily be the case, but they (Freight Systems, Inc.) are based in Little Rock, AR, and thus the majority of their freight is centered east of the Mississippi (mind you, she was talking about F.S.I., not US Xpress, which I know is based in Chattanooga, TN of course, and obviously a national carrier), and that they have very little to practically none freight going into California, so I could typically expect to spend no less than 6-8 weeks out at a time, because it'll probably take them a little big longer to find me a load heading in that direction when I need to get home. Well, needless to say, that was where she lost me. I've had to spend 7 weeks out on the road before, as the result of an incompetent fm being unable to get me home when he was supposed to, and it was nothing short of hell. I've spent 4 weeks out at a time plenty of times, and that's ok for me. But in my experiences, that 4 week mark is about the limit that my sanity can be stretched to...it seems the longer past 4 weeks I was kept out, the more I started to feel my sanity slipping away every day. No, not literally of course. I am just trying to be funny here, so please excuse me, if I failed at doing so. Lol! So anyway, I wrapped up the conversation with a simple "this isn't what I was promised by my recruiter, it's not even in the ballpark, so thank you, but no thanks."
So now I'm back to the drawing board. I've gone ahead and filled out another couple applications with another couple tempting looking companies, now to get in contact with a recruiter, and see where I'll wind up from here.
Just wanted to say thank you to all the USX drivers and others on this USX forum that have been replying to my posts, and helping satisfy my curiosity about your guys' company. Sorry I will not be joining with you any time soon.