Lester Coggins any experiences with LCT, Lester Coggins?

now thats a name i dont hear about to much anymore BUT he is still out there doing his thing,
now i new lester years ago when he was in fort myers fl he was associted with the fl flower ###. and watkins motor lines i leased a truck to him lasted for two trips that was enough.

cant give you any current information but i can tell you this , he still,owes me 1800.00 bucks and that was 35 or 40 years ago , do i think he will ever pay me , nope not a chance. would i work for him, nope not a chance you get me once my fault you wont do it twice.

in all honesty how he is today i havent a clue but in my expeirence once a crook always a crook.

hope this helped you some . best of luck.----southernpride

 

Clearwater Driver, do a search on them here on this site. Good Luck !!! Former safety harbor resident, now in ocala....

 

You mean Last Chance Trucking?

 

I was at the Petro in Mebane, NC yesterday and saw something I hadn't seen before. It was one of Gainey's red and two grays Freightliners with a LCT sticker on the side of the sleeper. It wasn't like it was an O/O's truck as it still had all the Gainey stickers on the doors, unless he is extremely lazy. I knew they were affiliated, but I've never seen an LCT truck pull a Gainey trailer or vise-versa.

 

I may have a job opportunity with Lester Coggins Transportation. As many of you know, since my lease from a certain Jacksonville, FL based company was terminated because of my accident (no one involved, no injuries, etc.) I have not been able to find work. I have heard Lester Coggins Trucking called "Last Chance Trucking" on here, but I may have to go with them.

There are only a few threads on here about them, and they are all mostly negative. I am not asking anyone to sugarcoat anything, but I would like to have more information as to what to expect as far as miles, policies, etc. Will I get to go out west? Do they have APU's? Am I really not going to get miles with these guys? What is up? I got 12 years out here, so don't sugar coat it, just tell me the way it is, so I will know what to expect. Thanks, yall - I appreciate your time.

 

It's been about 2 years since I worked for them, so I dont know the absolute latest...but they were an OK company to work for. My DM didn't bother me much, and I kept busy. I was a solo driver and took many trips out west to California and other points north like Oregon, Washington, etc. The best time to get a Cali run is if you have good hours to run and are in the midwest. They haul alot of OJ from Florida Natural in Lake Wales, and Minute Maid in Leesburg. They haul from a few other juice plants in Central Florida as well. If you come in ald they dont have a load for you to take out, sometimes they'll ask you to run to Miami straight down US 27 and pick up a trailer full of flowers from the MIA terminal, or plants from a nursery down there. The flower loads are hot loads that cannot sit long once they're loaded. Bring those up, and they'll have a team run with it to its destination(s). It's roughly 260 each way, and can be done in a single 14 hour period if there are no holdups or breakdowns.

The pay was a little low, but I threatened to quit once over the pay and got a 3 cent/mile raise, lol. I only got it because my DM went to bat for me, and showed the Ops. Mgr. the loads I was delivering, and the fact that 75%+ were delivered early, and the rest on time. By the end of my stint there I was up to $0.34/mile. Not great I know, but I was home alot, and kept quite busy while I was out. Deliver early or on time, and they'll pretty much leave you be. At one point, certain the CSR people started asking my DM to have me run their loads because I was seen as being very reliable. I got alot of gravy runs that way. Example: I picked up a Minute Maid juice load in Leesburg (10 minutes from LCT), and took it to Paw Paw, Michigan to a Coca Cola distribution point. Then I had a load waiting for me there (reloaded in the same door) that went to a Safeway Distribution Ctr. in Tracy, CA (Sacramento area). Then they sent me south to L.A. to pick up a light load of clothing that was floor loaded as I waited (about 20,000 lbs). I brought the clothes back to Florida via I-10 and dropped the trailer at a Macy's facility in Tampa. After this, I brought the empty trailer back, parked my truck, set up my next load with my DM, and went home for 3 days home time. Sometimes you have to get your DM to "forget" about you, or push your next load out so you can get an extra day off. I did this often, as they'd give you 2/1/2 days to get to the Giant Foods distribution center in Laurel, MD...but you can EASILY get there in 1 1/2 days, as it was only about 850 miles and they go there religiously.

They stress being on time, but USUALLY if you call the receiver ahead of time and can tell them when you'll be there approximately, and it's within their recieving hours, they'll unload you early. Once you get that agreement from the shipper, you can call your DM and set up the next run so hopefully you wont have to sit longer than your 10 hour break. I never sat much. In 2 years, I had 2 times that I sat for 24 hours or more. One was due to an impending snow storm in Buffalo and the receiver shut down early and couldn't unload me until the roads were cleared so trucks could get in, and I vaguely remember the other time. They never lied to me, and I never got home late for hometime, as they stayed on top of that. I was usually gone for 8-10 days, and always wound up back in Florida within that time, sometimes sooner. However, if you want to stay out, they'll keep you out. Some drivers had a 6 inch stack of pay stubs waiting for them in the dispatch office. No bias here one way or the other...just the facts from my stint at LCT.

Anyway, I got long-winded, but feel free to ask if you have any questions.

 

the gainey co having dif times the failed to pay back loans lost truck when people start losing it all i dont think they could offer long term stable but if the moneys good give a try u can find another job good luck

 

One thing I will say about when I was there, is that even though they're a subsidiary of Gainey, LCT was always run as its own entity. I was told that as long as they made a profit, it would always be that way. Supposedly it was the only part of the Gainey empire that made a consistent profit, due to their specialty in running flowers and plants.

During peak flower season, they will ask solo drivers to team up and run flowers to wherever because they're always short teams during Valentine's, Easter, Mother's Day, etc. These are usually the times where you'll find yourself going out west, although I have hauled OJ to Los Angeles a few times. Sometimes you have to express your desire to go out west, because your DM might not automatically think of you when he/she has only 2 loads going out there, yet all 70 drivers on that board want maximum miles.

If you're just getting into trucking, or want to get back into the game after an absence, they're a good outfit to get the ball rolling. The company has its aggrevations and quirks, but my experience was positive.