My Experience with the XPO Tech Fleet

A new thread by ABRO Coming from Crete Carriers to The XPO Tech Fleet
My Daily Experience With Crete Carriers

As my chapter with Crete Carrier has come to an end a new one must begin. On Nov 19th 2020 I delivered my last load for Crete. I turned in my truck, went through the exit interviews and rented a car to go home and take the next 2 weeks off.

I was looking for a "needle in a haystack" opportunity as my next step. It took a couple of months but I was determined to find it. I wanted the chance to Plan, dispatch, book and control where and when I run and still remain a company driver at this point. Basically a chance to keep building up my bank while having the freedom and opportunity to see what I could do.

I posted a couple of ads on FB explaining what I was looking for. I was also receiving Landstars spreadsheet of BCO's looking for drivers. I received a response on FaceBook and after a few days of talking I found exactly what I was looking for. A small family owned company that leases on to 3 different carriers and mainly runs teams. The owners of This 30+ year old company with 25 trucks are looking to retire and a couple of the managing family members started a break off company called HaulageA1. (Short version of the story) and they were looking to add a solo driver. They offered me a CPM rate but to me it didn't make sense for me to run CPM. We would of had 2 different goals. Mine would be the most miles regardless of the rate and they would be looking for the least miles with a higher rate. They agreed and offered me a % that I was more than happy with.

So here starts my adventures with HaulageA1 and the XPO Tech Fleet.


My Daily Experience With Crete Carriers

 

Following, ABRO! Good luck in this new endeavor!

 

Good luck.
Perhaps @Dave_in_AZ and or @Farmerbob1 could help you along.
Again, good luck and happy trails

 

So, as I stated I left Crete on the 19th of Nov. They tried several times to get me to stay but couldn’t match the offer I received. The did give me a $155 check for reimbursement to get home which surprised me.

My orientation with XPO was 100% online 3-4 hours max. They do Orientation on Tuesdays but with the week of Thanksgiving they did not hold one. So, I had mine on Dec. 1st 10am-1:30pm Not bad quick, short and to the point. I received a lot of info in this short time span as well as my access to the load board that I’d been dying to get. (I wanted time to study it and their lanes) All paperwork was done electronically and the whole background, urine, employment process only took about a week, which I had done prior to leaving Crete.

The truck that HaulageA1 had for me was in Katy, TX. The plan was to leave the day after orientation. HaulageA1 offered me a plan ticket down but I really wanted to have my stuff in the truck as I’d be running for a couple of weeks before I went home. They agreed and the rental car search started. Enterprise wanted $1100 one way. Avis was $600 but no cars available. I found a Hertz about an hour south of my house. $280 1 way. Booked it and went and got it right after orientation. I packed ½ of my stuff that night and finished the rest in the morning. I left mid-morning on Weds. for Katy I drove to Dublin, VA and found a room for the night, Grabbed some Hardies and a beer and off to bed. Next stop, Katy on Thursday night.

Driving through Lake Charles, LA was crazy. The disaster from the hurricanes was still evident. Debris piled up along the roads, Tarped roofs. Houston had a nice view driving in and I found a nice hotel in Katy about 10 minutes from where I was picking up the truck. (Studio 6.) Checked in around 9pm and grabbed some food from in n out burger. Friday 8am was what we had set up to get the keys and other stuff for the truck!!

 

Up and ready to go.

8am meeting to get the keys, paperwork, QUALCOMM (QC) etc. Excited and ready to get this journey started. Check out of the hotel and get there about 10 minutes early. The lady I was meeting was already there and had the truck running. Over the last few days XPO was trying to figure out where I had to go to get the QC installed. They originally had me going to Laredo to the shop. Nope a day later they told me they didn’t have any QC’s there. So we decided they would overnight it to Katy and I would install it on Friday. It hadn’t arrived yet which was fine. I still had a carload of stuff to move into the truck and return the rental. Inspected the truck and went through everything. It looked good, minus the mattress. Whatever the dealer put in here for a used truck was worse than sleeping on the ground. I doubled the top and bottom mattress to make it a little more comfortable.

2014 Freightliner Cascadia. 559,383 miles. No collision mitigation, no adaptive cruise, no bells and whistles going off. I do miss the bunk heater and opti idle though. They had asked me what I would like in the truck. My only requirements were a inverter, fridge and microwave. All installed and ready to go when I arrived. Some may be like a 2014? 559k miles? Hey it’s an investment for the owners and a tool for me. When I was with Eastern Freight Ways those were some barebone, beat up junk Volvo’s and I made it work.

Anyways, Friday turned into a day of getting the truck set up, grocery shopping, returning the rental, installing the QC, waiting for the QC to update, sticker and letter the truck and finish off the final onboarding process and awaiting the location of the trailer I had to hunt down. 19:00 and I’m ready for my day to start. LOL

 

So we are up to the end of November? The suspense is killing me

 

Haha trying to have enough ahead. Planned on posting over the weekend but 1 of my sons fractured his Tibia

 

Hope he’s ok. I’m still out after having fractured my fibula on New Year’s Eve. Good luck on the new adventure!!

 

He's doing well. Stuck in a cast but other than that ok.
Thank you

 

The trailer is where??

Florence, KY. Yes Florence. 1055 miles. The tech fleet uses Ryder trailers and the Tech fleet is 99% live Load/Unload. This seems to be the only place 1 is available I am told. So $1 a mile to Bobtail to KY. OK lets go. I leave at 19:00 Friday night. Logs on the QC are still not working. Sweet. Paper logs it is. Headed north through TX on a Friday night with no plan on where I’m stopping. I just want to get this trailer and get rolling

About 1:00 my QC goes off. Makes several noises and finally activates. Ehhh. Well, no more paper logs. 3:00 I had enough. I believe I was somewhere in AR. Found a spot in the campers only parking and was out.

Up at 11:00 the next morning. I went through my logs and It never registered that I had started at 19:00 Fri. night. It was only active from 1:00 Sat. Sweet. It was going to be late when I arrived in Florence so I stayed at a rest area down the road and got to Ryder on Sunday morning. The trailer is where? Drove around and couldn’t find it. Called in they tracked it. Yeaaa so someone had grabbed it. It was there for over a month. Lol They found another one in Muncie at a place that we have a dedicated account. I head up there and find it. Inspect it, book my 1st load for Monday and head that direction and shut down for the night.