Husband/Wife need KLLM Info

We may be right behind you guys! I am a second time around guy as well. I have crunshed number like a steak and shake burger. If you can average 49 an hour in 18 hours(lets be reasonable), its 882 a day. with fuel, lease, insurance etc. working fairly brutal works out to 63-67k a year. I factored in a 10500 maint cost in as well(never know) Would like to see what you all figured. thanks

 

Welcome to the team driver. Well, there is no average wait time, when one's available, one's available.

1) As far as where to meet your trainer, after orientation, you'll have the option to go home for a week or head straight out on the road with a trainer. If you decided to head home, kllm will most likely give your trainer a load that goes by the town you're in, and if there's a truck stop near you, that's almost certainly the place you'll be picked up. If you decide to head straight out on the road after orientation, you'll depart from the ATL terminal and depending on how far u live(I think its 200 miles) they'll either put you in a hotel until he arrives or if u live less then (I think) 200 miles, you'll have to go home and they'll give you your trainers phone number and he'll communicate with you, and you both can decide the best place to be picked up.

2) Inverters are allowed. Some trucks have them, some don't.
On a company truck, you don't have to pay for anything. Shop has everything. After you finish orientation,(I forgot the guys name) this guy up in jackson will let you choose what type of truck you want. Being picky on what a truck has, and doesn't have, can cause you a very long waiting period. But I'm pretty sure that if you tell him you want a truck with an A.P.U and an inverter, he'll get you one, it just may not be right away, and there's no telling how long you'll wait. I had to settle for a Vovlo( 1 of four in the company) when I first started with kllm because they didn't have any Freightliners available. Just imagine comming straight out of driving school, going out with your trainer in a Columbia Freightliner for 8 weeks, practically mastering it, only to do your road test in a Cascadia Freightliner, then catching a ride with another driver so he can drop me off at my truck which is a VOLVO!( it was parked at a truck stop 600 miles away and I got paid for the trip to my truck) And inside the Volvo, everything was digital, it was like stepping into a spaceship! I had to drive and play with it for about 8 hours before I told them I was ready for a load. But anyways...

where were we?...

oh..

Bottom line is, he'll get you the type of truck you want. It could be available right away, or it could take months!

As far as team miles, you might hear kllm representatives say teams average 6000 miles a week, but I've been hearing around 4500. But I don't know, every team has a different story. It would be best if you approached a team and talk to them.

Well, I think I answered all your questions to the best of my knowledge. I've been with Kllm for about 2 years now. I spent 21 months as a company driver, and about 3 months as an O/O in the lease Purchase program. I love it here and don't see myself going anywhere anytime soon.

Again, welcome and good luck.

 

One of the biggest problems about the Volvo's is that for KLLM company trucks they are heavy trucks 21.5K # - 22k lbs against 19.3k lbs for a columbia (I'm driving an 08).
They have a really good ride from what I heard from others though.

 

Yep, the Volvos are super heavy. I was in the volvo for about 5 or 6 months, and in that period of time, I've had to slide my fifth wheel more times than than I needed to while in my current Columbia, and I've been in this columbia for 16 months!( I could've drove back to the shipper and had them re-arrange the load, but why when I can just slide my fifth wheel, which i'm now a master at, thanks to the volvo) After I got the hang of the Volvo, I fell in love with it. It was like driving a Cadillac. I'd close those heavy doors at night and I wouldn't hear a thing. After they took the Volvo from me and gave me a freightliner, it was easy to distinguish that the volvo is waaaay more trucker compatible. And yes, its almost surreal how smooth it drove, I'm telling you, it was like driving a cadillac. After they took the volvo from me, they put me in an '06 Columbia. And in the Volvo I'd be on my headset talking like I was in a car, just having a casual conversation without hearing any engine or anything.They put me in that ####### '06 Columbia, and all of a sudden I hear everything. I'm yelling on the phone and...just don't even ask lol. I only had that '06 Columbia for a few months until I requested something better because it kept breaking down. They gave me an '08, which I've been in for the most part with kllm, and it's
treated me so good that I decided to lease purchase it and keep it. This truck is NEVER in the shop. I just re-generate it when the light appears on the dash, then I'm good to go.

 

Gee, You must have been one of the lucky ones. After My Orientation and training, they gave me a truck and said take it. I got a Columbia. A very Dirty Columbia that took me days and several bucks out of my pocket to get cleaned out and scrubbed down. I BEGGED for a Cascadia because I'm tall, and the leg room is better. I was told, sure no problem, we'll get you one. Weeks later, I was still begging for one. Then after seeing the guy in Jackson you mentioned, he told me he did some "checking around", and didn't think there was any difference in leg room, but he would still try to get me one. I told him that was strange because I trained in a Cascadia and lived in it for 6 weeks, and I'm driving a Columbia now. I know the difference after driving one for 11 hours or more per day. After that, whenever I would go to the Jackson yard, he would walk by me and look down or look away, like he never saw me. Well so much for that.
As for the Invertors, the shop and administration would not let you have any invertor that you could not plug into the 12 volt plug. No hard wired Invertors unless you had it approved by the office in writing, you bought it and the shop install it. No one got a choice of an APU. There were very few trucks with them, and they quit installing them after several months. It was the luck of the draw. You got it or you didn't.
Can't say about the team miles, only worked as a company driver. After a few months the Company Driver miles started going down, as they were trying to force everyone onto the Sharecropper Program. I was going to do the lease, but then they started dropping everyones pay and benefits down, including the Trainers. Then they dropped the milage pay on the Lease, and increased the truck payments. I saw the handwriting on the wall at that point. Hell, if I wanted to get paid less than poverty level and make payments on their truck, I could go to Swift, Werner or England and at least run miles. I really enjoyed the first 6 months of KLLM, but then they started becomming just like every other big trucking company, and modeling their company after the others. Pay everyone less, make them buy the truck and pay for it, and make a bigger profit margin. They would tell us one week that business is booming and the company is doing great, then 2 weeks later they would tell us that freight is slow, the company has to cut costs, and the were cutting pay and benefits. What the.....? This isn't ancient history I'm talking about. I've been gone from there about 10 or 11 months and drive local /regional now. I'm not saying they are not solid and they aren't one of the "better" companies, but I just never saw anything like you described while I was there.

 

^^ Like yourself, when it was time for me to be issued a truck, the only thing available for me at the time, was the Volvo. I remember he specifically told me "you can either take the volvo, or go home and I'll call you when a freightliner is available". So I could've went home and waited,(no telling how long) but I needed money, and fast! so I took the Volvo

As far as the company drivers miles are concerned, its kinda weird. I had a certain dispatcher,(wont' say any names) and with him I averaged 2500 to 3000 miles a week. They moved that dispatcher over to the o/o and gave me another dispatcher and all of a sudden I'm only averaging about 1800 to 2200 miles a week.(not to mention that I didn't get along with this guy as well as I did with the old one) Luckily, I had already been contemplating going o/o and decided to l/p the truck I was in. And what a surprise, my first week as an o/o, I got 3800 miles, week after that I saw 3400. So I instantly got the impression that they were giving all the good loads to the o/o. Anyways, now that they changed our trans-flow deadline to Thursday morning at 0600, from Wednesday at 1400, we're all able to add that additional trip to the weeks payroll.

Overall, I just want to see 2500 miles a week and I'll be happy, and that's been achieved. Sorry things didn't work out for you # newbiewannadoitright. I guess everyone has a different story.


And to the husband and wife team, newbiewannadoitright is correct. Not every truck has an APU. Some do, some don't. I know the website portrays that they do, but its the luck of the draw. Either you get one or you don't.

As for inverters, the best way to get your questions answered is to call
800 925 1000, then press 92, the automated machine is gonna give you the option to press 1-9, press 5(road breakdown), then ask them whatever is on your mind. Hopefully you'll get goodhearted Jimmy.( I swear every time I speak to jimmy, this guys attitude makes my day a little bit better

 

J= Jimmy is a long time KLLM employee(he has been at KLLM longer than I) . Former mechanic who moved upstairs to Road Breakdown. He is also very knowledgeable about equipment. Also great sense of humor.