JB Hunt - Lowell, Ar.

My husband went with this program and we are dying financially. He was quoted as saying that drivers consistantly receive between 2500-3000 miles a week. He only got that about 3 times. He has been running between 1700 and 2150 miles. Now after all the deductions he barely brings home any money and that isn't even putting money aside for taxes. Besides truck payment, insurance, highway and fuel tax they also deduct $.08 a mile for a maintenance escrow account and $100.00 a week for a truck escrow account. We have seen ridiculous pay weeks of $66.00 and a minus $54.00. For the past 5 weeks it has been between 200-350. They try to blame my husband for the low miles but that is a bunch of BS. They record the runs in their favor. One load they say he refused which is a lie. It was cancelled! for an example. Their week runs from Tuesday to Monday. This past week my husband as of Wednesday had a 700 mile run. As of this past Saturday after he dropped his load he had 1500 miles. Now who of you think he will get another 1000 miles from Saturday to the cut off of Monday? I don't think many of you would and you are probably right. I am waiting to hear what kind of crappy load assignment he gets. The dispatcher blames drivers for lousey ETA's which is another lie, load planners suck. And as for the men in charge? They are worthless always pointing to the drivers as the source of the problem. Well my husband's lease is up on April 2nd of this year and rest assured JB Hunt will be getting their truck back to them and I have warned them that every dime in those escrow accounts better be returned to us or a lawyer will be involved. So my advice is STAY AWAY from JB Hunt. They are by far the most deceitful trucking company out there from company drivers to I/C's.

 

your "song of problems" has been sung way too many times, regarding the "lease/purchase plans" that some trucking companies offer. sadly, (i think) many of the paying loads go to "company drivers" and not the leasee. i feel your pain, as i'm sure so many others will when they read your statement. however, even though your husband did not refuse a load, dispatch wil put him at the botom of any list, since they have many more drivers that need loads to get moving, and those drivers were waiting their turns behind your husband.

i do wish you and him well, let this terrible experience be a stepping stone for future possible lease/purchase agreements. if your husband really wants to be an O/O, its probably best that he just buy his own truck outright, and THEN lease onto a company. but, if financial restrictions are holding him back from doing that, then a local driving job should do, since he now has his experience driving.

one other very important thing, make sure he gets a DAC report on himself, just to make sure JB doesn't sday anything disparaging about your husbands level of experience, etc, etc.

 

Rerun.........I realize that we are not the first to experience this situation. I had my reservations about JB Hunt knowing their record with how they treat their company drivers. Unfortunately my husband believe the line of BS. He has been a driver for 7 years. He never refused a load. That load was cancelled but they recorded the load as refused. Seems after reading these posts that he has found all the wrong companies to drive for. (He also drove for NFI). I am now researching companies for him. This forum is great. Wish I knew about it before hand. April 2nd ends our grief and hopefully by then we will find a decent company. I know most have a down side. All we are looking for is a company that will give miles. Again this week he only got 1900 miles. Which means after expenses he will get very little.

 

First of all, I would like to commend both you and your husband for sticking out that terrible agreement. It's more than most people would do, especially since you are not making enough to sustain yourselves.

As you may have seen, I posted the conditions that JB Hunt subjects those that lease trucks to, and one of those conditions includes "bringing the truck back up to Freightliner specs" upon termination of the lease.

I probably don't have to tell you this, but I would advise you to document every aspect of turning in the truck, and the condition it is in, which should then prevent them from having any reason to take any portion of that escrow.

Digital photos or videotape will be one of the best ways to document the condition of the truck, both inside and outside. Don't forget things like the tires, and if they are visible, the brake shoes. If you can afford it, take the truck to a reputable shop and have a DOT Inspection performed on it, and keep ALL evidence of that inspection under your hat, as independent verification of the mechanical condition of the truck.

Do a reversal on them, in having them sign for each and every thing that he was asked to sign for when he received the truck. From what I have been told by several people, they will probably refuse to do so. Your evidence above will be a legal counter any attempt to charge you for items that you know are not in need of replacement.

Most of all, please keep in contact with the forums, and let us know how all of this turns out. There are plenty of people that will help you and your husband through this and on to better things. Please feel free to call upon us if we can be of any help whatsoever.

Believe me, I know whow persuasive those recruiters for JB Hunt can be, and how they will pull the wool over your eyes. Chalk this up to it becoming a learning experience, and I have faith that you both will be more careful in the future and raise that BS detector a bit higher in the air because of it.

 

*Update*
Well I have landed on me feet, and things are looking up. I sold some stock, and that gave my back account a much need infusion of cash, so my part of the family bills are paid for the month.

Hill Bros. of Omaha, Nebraska just offered me a job running Omaha to Chicago, which will get me home weekends and during the week. They are also giving me a new Volvo Condo, so I won't be driving around in a Ryder FLD with 800,000 miles like my last local job.

As far as suing JB Hunt....heheheehe, I'm not supposed to talk about it. Let's just say....hehehehehehehehehehehe.

 

oh my god....this company is morally bankrupt in every sense of the way. They just screw and screw and screw...and when thier done with you they crap on your DAC report.....next!!

One of these days there's gonna be a national news story about some maniac that drove his JB Hunt tractor with a load of haz-mat straight into thier headquarters killing everyone. They just keep pooping on people, and its bound to happen. I don't condone violence, well not this kind atleast, but you can't keep doing wrong to people without eventually doing it to a nutjob.

They really need to clean up thier act.

 

Big Jason.....That's ironic that you would say that because I told my husband that I'm about ready to take that truck and ram it through their building in Lowell, Ark.

Turbo....Thank you for your advice. Hubby is coming home on the 18th of this month. I plan on taking pictures of the truck then. Also I was thinking of demanding a walk through with them when we return it to them. I like the idea of making them sign off on the truck. I will keep you posted. I will be contacting a lawyer in the next few days. JB has about $4,200.00 of our money in escrow. I refuse to allow them to keep one thin dime.

 

Good Luck with your new job. I am hoping that our nightmare with JB Hunt is coming to an end. Hey if you turn your law suit into a class action let me know. I would like to get in on it.

 

8) Maybe the J in J.B.Hunt will stand for JASON soon? 8)