My 3 yrs with USXPRESS

I started as a co. driver and lasted 6mos.Was making 300-350/week,told them ive had enough,see ya.Well they came back with "How about our lease program".I told them i had heard to many horror stories about leases.Well the head guy of the leases dept called me and went over the program.I liked the 1yr walk away if you dont like it deal.At this time there were 250 lease trucks on the road.Fleet mng told me you will get the "good loads" now because this dept has its own planners and we get priority over co. trucks.

Well lo and behold this was true,I got preplanned every fri morning with loads thru the weekend and was running 3200-3600/week and making 1200-1600/week.The first truck i leased was a 07 frieghtliner(old team truck) it had 265k on it and this was 07.The truck had the piss drove out of it.I had alot of problems with the truck(17 breakdowns,7tows in 1 yr).I still made pretty fair money and could run as hard as iwanted.I finished the lease and told them thks but im not coming back because the trks were to worn out,and i dont want to get another piece of ####.

I wanted to take some time off between jobs so i didnt apply anywhere.Three weeks into my vacation,the lease dept in lincoln calls and ask when are you coming back?I say never,cant deal with worn out equipment that I have to repair.I should have hung up!"we have new petes to lease and you can have one of the first ones just go pick it up".Me being stupid said ok.My fleet manager was a 24yr kid (best dispatcher ive ever worked with.He was new and really cared)I started seeing lease trucks more and more and ask how many now?It was up to 600.

Well my fleet manager left,Ive been through six in the last 13 mos.When that lease was up i had had such good luck with the new truck that i kept it for another year.Im into third month of 12 month lease at this point.Now the bad.USX does hire nothing but kids out of college to be fleetmanagers they run between 55and 65 trucks each.Most are idiots that have no life exp.yet.Not that thier bad people they just dont give a ####.I know i didnt when i was 23-26yrs old,why should you?.Most of what is said in these threads are true.


There are now aprox. 1500 lease trucks and being added to every day.they are becoming another prime, cr england type of outfit.I did well before they started pushing leases on everybody that wants to drive solo.You will lose loads looking for empties,you will be given wrong pickup#s,spend hrs trying to staighten out.I went to their co headquarters in chat. tn. it was like a college campus,all the customer service reps,fleet managers,and load planners were kids.The only people that were over 35 worked in payroll(You know you cant trust kids with money),but truck drivers lives well who really gives a #### right?

Im going to make maybe 300 this week on 2400 miles.My avg.has dropped 700 miles a week in the last 4mos.Im looking hard for a new job now.I would never recommend this co. to any body but someone who has no exp.Remember this they avg 200-250 new hires per week that means that 250-300 quit every week.Do not drive a co. truck i talk to co drivers who are making 150-200$ per week all the time and are asking me about lease.I feel terrible for them that a co.
could do this to people,with kids and familys.Iwill try and keep up with this if anyone has any questions

 

Yeah it does suck,im pretty dissapointed at this time.Live in N.TX.area and am looking at other co.s now.Im going to talk to head guy over lease trks mon or tues and ask for another fm,but im not sure this will help as ive talked to other lease drivers and this is the norm right now.I think the amount of lease trks has now forced them to run them on co.trk lds now.I now get those 350-400 mile lds all the time and no preplans untill im empty.Those 1200-1500 mile lds dont happen anymore at all.The wkend preplans are now held till fri at 1800 and then sent so planners and fleetmanagers can be gone before you get them. So they wont have to change anything. They know youre stuck with having to take that or those lds.Wkend fms handle 500-600 trks each so you can guess what thats like trying to change anything.

Im one who believes that things sometimes happen for a reason.I will get lucky and find another co. that will be the right fit for me sooner or later.I have 1 speeding ticket(2yrs old now) and no other violations on my record.So i figure someone out there needs a goood driver whos never been late for p/up or del.(except weather conditions).I stay uot for 7-8wks at a time then take 5days off,so i think im the perfect driver for a co.I dont know if its just the economy or what because i havent changed,USX has.