IWX Motor Freight

Just did my drug screen yesterday for a smallish company out west that has an excellent reputation among drivers. They don't have inward facing cameras, they let their drivers opt out of per diem pay without penalizing them for it, and they're 100% dry van, which could mean fewer visits to grocery warehouses compared to reefer, but I'll have to wait and see about that.

 

Surprisingly it wasn't the Reagan administration that did this, it occurred under Carter's watch. I don't know much about the history, but do know that things weren't 100% rosy before de-regulation either, which probably explains why Carter went along with the idea.

I regret not finding out about the difference between LTL and truckload when I first got my CDL 25 years ago but don't regret being at non-union companies my whole driving career. I like to occasionally come off the road to pursue hobbies and needed to care for my parents when they got old, so it's been a huge plus to me that there are always zillions of trucking jobs available with companies competing to attract drivers.

Sure, there are huge problems too, but my complaints with the industry's direction during my 25 years in it mostly have to do with FMCSA overregulation, not the de-regulation that occurred 40 years ago.

 

My experience has taught me that any business with either farm or family is the name isn't going to pay much or be the kind of place I’m going to work at.

 

Well the way I measure it, they paid me what they promised and then some. I got bonuses that were unexpected, Steve kept his word to me, and always paid me what I had coming to me. No false promises, they told me up front how the benefits worked, I had no problem with it, nor did I ever lose benefits.
They also supplied me with plenty of work, never forced a run onto me. But did allow me to run how I chose to run. If a driver agree's to the work, and when you except the job you agree you have no complaints, unless they hid something from you.
They also supplied me with the best maintained company truck I have ever seen. Everything was always repaired right away. No problems.
There are a lot of companies way worse to work for, in fact most of them. At least in my experience.

 

Way back in 99 I signed on at a different carrier. The boss promised a bonus of .5 cents a mile for all miles over 10k a month 1 cent for all miles over 12k and 2 cents if you made 14k solo in a month. Those were retroactive to the first mile of the month. In my time there I missed it 1 time when I sprained my ankle and was sitting at home for 2 weeks. The rest of the time I routinely was getting between 14-15k miles as a solo driver.

This was before the reset provisions were introduced to the HOS. How I kept the left door shut hammered down and ran as hard as I legally could.

 

Used to get cash bonus at times but I don't think it was common knowledge. Just a envelope and a think you, the drivers that did all the crying never heard of them I'm sure. But DOT coming down on all the refer companies kind ended all that. I ran as high mileage driver at Kingman several times running harder than some of the teams. There were lots of crybabies there. Drivers that would run into CA, they would sit in Kingman and wait for loads them complain about the money, they would have made more coming into CA and meeting the Solo driver bring the load out.

When I would call in from Salinas to let dispatch know I was ready to roll with the load I was offered the option of delivering or taking them to Kingman, most of the time I would haed out 80, next stop Columbus. They had teams that ran shuttles from Springfiled to Kingman, most cried and did not want to run.

 

I worked for the Coulter family no complaints, good people I got back what I put in, sure thats how ot worked for all.

 

IWX does advertise part time driving positions. what's that all about?

 

That was sure nice of those dispatchers to give you all those miles so you could keep your benefits. Thankfully the company where I work now—like most any decent company out there—doesn’t give dispatchers that power.

 

They use them or shuttles I believe, go pick up loads sometimes run loads from yard to yard. In the Ohio area they may run loads from the drop yard to recievers or shippers