JB Hunt - Lowell, Ar.

Even Busses have jakes today Mack.I was supprised at that.

 

Someone correct me if Im wrong. Didnt they do away with their trucking schools in the 90's and offer .41 cents per mile for the top experienced drivers? Now the starting pay when going to their website is .36 per mile. This is one reason why I no longer listin to the the americas trucking network show on 700 WLW when on my third shift mail runs. The commercial I heard once of the annoucer asking why would you drive to the same docks to get paid less then our drivers made me cringe. Any prospective employee should ask, why do you start out experienced drivers out with less pay now then in 1999?

 

Yes...they did away with their schools and now have a 3 month minimum experience hiring requirement. They have lowered their pay offers from where it once was, and to get to the top pay, a driver will have to stay there for 12 years to achieve it.

As I covered in a different thread, JB Hunt is still up to it's old tricks, and they do reserve the right to change the terms they offer to drivers on a daily basis, and do by golly.

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JB Hunt's Craig Harper has been running a radio spot on America's Trucking Network recently, and of course, it's timely and it's topical. It involves the subject of taxes. I'm working from memory, so this is a paraphrase of the ad.

"Driver...How would you like to have more money to pay your taxes, and how would you like to save money on your taxes? With JB Hunt's per-diem program, we can help making more money a reality.

The IRS allows you to be reimbursed for expenses you incur while on the road, and recent changes by the IRS in the per-diem rates now allow us to convert this into a generous cent per mile rate, that will actually increase your paycheck each week, so that you can pay those taxes and have more left over each week in your paycheck."

The rest of the ad is the usual dribble, so I'll leave that out...

The deception in the above is simple. First of all, no company, nor the IRS reimburses a driver for a thing. The IRS approved meal and incidental expense deduction is not a reimbursement of any kind. It is used as a means to reduce your tax burden, and that's it. You've still spent the money to eat and to pay for the incidentals that come with the job, or most of it, but no one is repaying those expenses back to you.

The best that JB Hunt does, is to set aside part of your pay FROM being recognized as taxable income, and then adds it back in after the balance has been taxed.

At the same time, that money that is set aside is not recognizeable as income for any purpose, and will not appear on your W-2 at the end of the year. It is not included towards your income that determines your lifetime income for Social Security when you retire, thus reducing your benefits, and if you are seeking a loan, it's excluded from your income, if that income must be verified, as would be the case if you are seeking a mortgage.

And...how does JB Hunt prosper from the program? They are exempted from payroll contributions to the Social Security system, and they can take a deduction and claim they have indeed reimbursed you, at least partially, for your meals and expenses.

Why am I picking on JB Hunt for this? Because while the other carriers have per-diem programs that are often forced upon their drivers, they are at least NOT running ads that are blatently offering false information for the purposes of recruiting people. They silently take advantage of the rules to save them money.

To JB Hunt's credit, they do not forced drivers to participate in the program, and I urge anyone that has the option, to NOT take part in this. Your tax deduction will be larger and your income will be far more on paper for the things that count, by taking the deduction at the time you file your taxes each year on form 2106.

I'd hate to know the number of drivers out there that do not file for the deduction each year, and it's really a shame that a company would purposely misrepresent the scope and intention of their per-diem program, when the fact is, the company actually makes out like a bandit, while further reducing what a driver is lawfully entitled to, be it short term or long term.

We have all been indoctrined for years by the Government to be grateful when they generously allow us to keep part of the money we have worked for, that would otherwise be spent recklessly and given to people that do not deserve it, and it galls me to the bone when this type of play on words is used to line the pockets of a company. It's not a reimbursement. It's a DEDUCTION from out tax burden. Calling it anything else is a lie.

Craig Harper...you're a putz.

Oh and by the way...it would be nice if your outsourced recruiters QUIT calling me. I'm sure they are tired of the clicks on the other side of the line when they announce that they are calling on behalf of JB Hunt. Every weekend, I get at least a half dozen calls, and it's a different voice each time. It's rather pathetic that your company has to lower themselves to cold call people to try and drum up drivers.

 

Can you *64 them? They have so many numbers available...

 

Unfortunately, so many people use methods to thrwart calling back and the caller ID system. I've got a system that is supposed to be top knotch in rejecting and thwarting the efforts of the most aggressive of telemarketers and unidentified callers, and it's practically worthless lately.

I've never bought a thing through the efforts of a telemarketer, unless I arranged for the call to be made in some way prior to receiving it, and I'm sure that I'm not alone, so I really don't see why they keep trying. I am not interested in working for JB Hunt either, so it's equally pointless for them to keep calling me.

If I could figure out a way to route any call placed to my home that was not approved to go through direct, through one of those countries that has like a $200.00 per minute rate, I'd spend the money to do it, because I'm quite sure that I'd get taken off of people's lists REAL quick after one or two of those kind of charges appearing on THEIR statement.

Hey....maybe I can contact one of those Nigerian scam groups and see if they want to do something legitimate and WORTHY for a change.

Nah...they'd probably want to be paid by credit card, and I know what will happen if I give it to them....

 

Hey Turbo,
Next time JB calls, remain calm and talk to them for just a few minutes. Tell them you would like to either remove your name from their calling list or be placed on their no-call list. JB won't tell you that they can do these things, but if you're cool about it, they'll do it. I know because JB was burning holes in my cell phone minutes calling me nearly every day. One day I was in a really good mood and I explained to the recruiter that I didn't appreciate the numerous calls and that person suggested that I do one or the other as I have suggested to you. Know what? It actually worked. I haven't heard from them in like 3 or 4 months now. If you remain cool, they'll do it for you to. I know it's hard to stay cool, I'm like you. I DESPISE telemarketers and the like! I'm the first one to step up and rip someone's head off. I even threatened to call out the FBI on one telemarketer because I had asked repeatedly for them to stop calling. Once I got real nasty (and sounded like a lawyer) they backed off, but JB was cool with me as long as I was calm with them. I'm sure they'll offer you the same. Good luck!

-Doc-

 

Well, I'm new here but don't just think I'm some sort of cry baby or noobie driver....But I have a horror story, and it happened today. My background: 37 years old, 16 years experience and 1.6 million miles accident free. Married 10 years, $225,000 mortgage, $50,000 car loans, 14 year old daughter in high school, and a household income of $106,000 (wife is an executive). I have had 3 trucking jobs in the past 12 years.

Well, I will keep this short. I was working in Omaha for a small company that processes beef for pet foods. I was running an FLD daycab pulling a 48ft trailer from Omaha to Lexington Nebraska and back (443 miles roundtrip) everynight M-F. I was making about $34,000 per year (not a fortune, but I was home every day, and off weekends). Well after 3 years, I was sort of getting tired of working nights, and decided to submit a resume looking for another trucking job that would have me home weekends at the least, or even better a day job local that had comparable pay.

And here comes the nightmare. Out of the clear blue sky a "headhunter" calls and tells me he has a job that would have me home every night, weekends off, and said the average driver earned $10,000 more per year then I do. I thought I had hit the jackpot. Day shift, weekends off, and I could spend more time with my family. He told me he would have one of thier recruiters call me right away. Well guess who called!?

JB HUNT. Yeah, April with ol HUNT called and told me they needed a day driver for thier DCS account with Weyerhauser in Council Bluffs Iowa...this is about 17 miles from my home. She wanted me to go to orientation on the very next monday. I told her, I would have to give notice to my present job, but I was still interested. Fair enough, and she went into the details of my "new postition".

They called two days later, and asked me if I wanted the job, as they had to get it filled soon. I pressed her and asked if the job would start right after thier orientation, she confirmed that I was the driver they had been looking for. So I told her yes, and she asked me if I would be able to go to orientaion the following week. I told her yes, and called my current employer and told them I was quitting, and would like my vacation pay to follow after my last work day. They were sorry to see me go, but agreed.

So this monday, (Feb 27) I showed up for my new job orientation! I decided luckily, to drive my pickup to St. Louis for Orientation. Day one went off without a hitch....except JB HUNT lied about how long orientation would last. They told me 3 days and now they were telling me 4 days, plus they said the 4th day would not be paid. Wow, first day.....first major lie. Oh well, I thought....I'm gonna have a great new job starting next week.

And today, the nightmare started.....
I pressed the orientation team member (Brian Gardner) about the road test, which had the requirement of being able to step up into the back of a trailer. I told him, I had a bad knee, and has some concerns about the task. He told me it wasn't any problem, but it was required. I told him I could probabley do it once, but my knee was gonna ache. Then I joked about how I would never have to worry about climbing up onto trailers by hand, as I would be running a flatbed for Weyerhauser and could use a ladder or step ladder to perform such tasks.

Then the bomb dropped. He informed me that they had made a mistake, and there was NO OPENING at the Weyerhauser DCS in Council Bluffs, and I was going to be put in the OTR fleet on thursday. He gave me "gee, I got an email, I thought you knew" (not sure of his sincerity, but he seemed like a nice honest guy). I told him, that I had not driven OTR in 12 years, and I sure as hell wasn't gonna start now. He called a guy named Denny S. the head of DCS accounts.....he confirmed that thier were no open trucks at Weyerhauser, and hadn't been for some time. Brian then told me that in 6 months or a year, maybe something would open up with one of thier other DCS accounts, and driving OTR would get me home every 3-4 weeks. Quite a difference from what I was offered, and the job that I had just left, forever might I add.

I walked out of orientation, with no new job. LUCKILY, I drove myself down there from Omaha, as I have an "allergy" to Greyhound. I also stayed at a nicer hotel, as I'm "allergic" to cheap motols. Now I know why the pushed so hard for me to take the bus. They wanted to trap me down there, forcing me to get into one of thier OTR trucks. Without so much as a warning.

Here is what JB Hunt doesn't know. I recorded every conversation I had with the "head hunter" which turns out to be a JB Hunt recruiter, and his lackeys April and Megan. Every promise, every word telling me to quit my job, and that I would be starting the local job at Weyerhauser immediately after I finished orientation. All on tape, all blaring with lies.

They dropped a dumptruck of lies that cost me a perfectly good job with my old company. They tried a bait and switch tactic, and everyone is gonna know about it. I really do hope they want to go to court here. My family has roots in this town going back 100 years. I wonder how my fellow citizens would like to here about how one of thier own was cheated, and tricked. Fraud over an interstate telephone line.....thats gotta be illegal!

Thanks for listening to my horror story. I will update with my new job information as soon as I find one, and any progress this whole mess leads too.

*had to edit some....I'm mad and have a bad case of potty mouth when upset*

 

Your story is not unusual, I have heard it before and I call the bait and switch and JB Hunt is not the only one that does it. I don't see how they keep trucks on the road with this type of practice, only that there are people that allow themselves to be suckered in and believe the bullwaste that they put out...