LC Transportation

The OO pay seems a little low to me, but maybe they have an above average fuel surcharge or pay for tolls or something. Or maybe they just aren't geared toward OO. I do like the idea of longevity raises and including the OO in being eligible for holiday pay. That's a nice touch.

Not busting on your new gig Scooter. Just my 2 cents. They seem like a pretty good deal for company drivers. I looked at their safestat scores and that all looks outstanding. That's the one thing I've found to be true-- a good safestat score almost always equals a good company. There are good companies that have a string of bad luck and get bad safestat scores, but its pretty rare to see a bad company with a good score.

 

where do u go to find the safestat? usdot.gov?

 

http://safersys.org/

There is a lot of info on there and you have to know how to read it. I'll use Scooter's company LC Transportation Services as an example of what I look for to see if a company is good or bad...

http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SafeStat/SafeStatHistory.asp?ais=&dot=312151&WhichForm=safer

Going from top to bottom of the spread sheet.

1. Number of trucks. LC had 115 tractors in 9/07 and they have 102 tractors now. This means that they are pretty steady as far as number of trucks, and that they are handling the current economy well. If there was a major increase or decrease in the number of trucks, that would be a red flag. Even though you would think that having a large increase in trucks would be a good thing, many times it is not. Over- aggressive expansion can mean that the company does not have the personnel to manage the number of trucks that have. Steady growth is good, but many times booming growth is followed by chaos.

2. Number of drivers. LC had 111 in 9/07 and 99 now. I evaluate this in the same what that I evaluate number of trucks. This number also tells me that LC is a majority solo driving outfit. 99 drivers and 102 tractors. If you don't want to be forced to team, this is the place for you.

3. Driver safety score. This is a grade between 0 and 100. The closer to 0 the better. LC's driver safety score was 53.81 in 9/97 and 39.65 now. So the trend is that LC's drivers are becoming more safe over time. This trend is true for most companies right now as there is less turnover than there was in years past. This means that LC's drivers tend to stay with the company. I'm sure this number will get even lower now that Scooter is driving for them. This score is actually very important because the DOT will start pulling every LC truck over for inspection if the score gets too high. Usually the harassment begins when the score gets over 75.

4. Vehicle safety score. Also a grade between 0 (good) and 100 (bad). LC's score was an amazing 15.97 in 9/07 and is still a very good 35.08 right now. This means that they take very good care of their equipment. This trend in the rise of the vehicle safety score is also true for most companies right now as most everyone is not buying new equipment, but making do with older equipment. Like the driver safety score, when the score is over 75, the DOT harassment begins.

5. Number of reported crashes. This is a rolling total that includes the previous 30 months. LC had 16 accidents in the 30 months prior to 9/07 and 12 in the current 30 month period. So that's an improvement.

6. Driver inspections versus out of service violations (prev. 30 months). In 9/07 there were 215 inspections and 15 oos violations and currently there were 240 inspections and 8 oos violations. That's a good percentage.

7. Vehicle inspections versus oos violations (30 months). In 9/07 there were 107 inspections with 11 oos violations and currently there were 120 inspections with 14 oos violations. Again, both good percentages.

So looking at the info, I can see that LC is committed to safety and maintains their equipment well. They have a stable driver pool and have years of experience managing a 100 driver power pool. They also seem to have the customer base to support that number of drivers.

That's how I would evaluate a company based on the safer info. I hope this helps.

 

Scoots

Yea I was up in ME last night for the white stuff. Little slick as the sun went down but I camped for the night and hit my P/U early 06:00 as opposed to 15:00. Sitting in CT on 95 at the Pilot now waiting for the morning rush to be over at 09:00. Then it's off to Brooklyn and my drop. Don't know where then, maybe south Jersey for a P/U. Keep'em turning brother.