My journey with Dart

Lysol use the entire bottle and close the window come back few hours later

 

Good to hear you are still there! What kind of mpg has your truck been getting? Your net income is pretty nice for a five day work week. I don't think your runs are available where I am at in Texas unfortunately. Do you do a lot of live loads or mainly drop and hook?

unloader

 

I would say the light loads I'm around 8.5. Heavy I'm around 6.5. I probably live load/unld 40% of the time.

 

The smoke smell could also be in the venting system. There are fogging systems out there to run in the truck and through the a/c and heating vents. That will help a lot. Go to a car lot and ask if they have someone that gets the smell out of their used cars...most have them.

 

Still running for Dart jimmycrackcorn? Hope everything is going good.

unloader

 

6/4/2015 app

6/4/2915 just approved for L/O for Dart through Highway Sales.
Speaking to Zack Z he explains 1.00 loaded 91 cent empty FSC 24.6
Avg of 2800 miles per week
Avg take home 1000-1300
Tractors 2012-13 -14 volvo 630 670
2013- 14 -15 Freightliner Cascadia
2016 kenworth
Cost from 1495.00 to 2350.00
Any advice they're ringing my phone off the hook as I write this.

 

Yeah... Don't do it. At the end of they day, you're lucky to put $.50 per mile in your pocket, and i haven't seen 2800 miles per week yet. I'm going to post a breakdown of what i've made for the last 4 months. If you absolutely have to sign on, the best advice i could give you is to pick the smallest payment that you can because the insurance will also be cheaper. But for what you're paying for their pos's, you could have a brand new truck fully loaded for the same money. Their trucks are stripped down shells. They don't get all the standard cabinets or even get the speakers in the bunks. Kind of a joke really.

Their dispatching sucks and their load planning is unreal. They don't have a friggen clue, to be honest with you, and they get irritated when you tell them, sorry can't make it. Gotta take that mandatory 10 hour break. They seem shocked. I believe that a wet noodle could run that company more efficiently.

I guess i've reached my breaking point. I'm just fed up with the crappy dispatching, crappy planning, crappy loads, crappy miles, crappy truck, and crappy pay. I'm done with it. I really wish it would have worked out, but it didn't. I never made that little money working as a company driver (even for Werner or Jb) let alone a contractor. The whole setup is a big sham. But it might be perfect for the next guy. I guess i just hold a trucking company to a little higher standard than what Dart holds themselves to.

All you can do is weigh all the variables and make an educated decision as to whether you will make the money you need to make. I can't live on $600/wk paychecks. Yeah, when you get your signon bonus, its $500 more, and puts you at what a normal paycheck should be. I was running Eagan City Short Haul, and as i suspected, there's still no money in short hauls. Not for the drivers anyhow. Dart is making a killing on the stuff. They switched me to % when i griped about not making anything and learned that they are getting over $5/mi on alot of the stuff they haul, and they bill round trip, but you only get paid one way. so you just can't win.

Good luck.

 

Now that i have vented a little bit, i'll tell you this. They really can't plan a truck. When you call them out on this, they basically say that they are understaffed and it's your job to make sure you can or can't make the runs they put on you. I was having an issue with a customer that i hauled for regularly and told dispatch and FM that i didn't want to haul for them again. They ran me around for a week, then gave me 2 preloads for that customer. DID THEY THINK I WAS JOKING? I wasn't. and i made myself pretty clear about the matter.

Here is a breakdown of my miles vs money from the end of Feb 2015 to the end of June 2015 (one day short of 4 months).
Paid miles: 34,837 (G: $1.35/ N: $0.49) But if you factor all miles (G: $1.17/ N: $0.43)
Odometer miles: 40,052
Miles summary: 21,461 loaded/ 13,376 mt/ 5215 unpaid
Gross wage: 47,029.93
Net wage: 17,140.38

I can goto almost any company and earn $.43 cpm and have full benefits at that. Now if you're a good little boy and put 25% away for taxes, that doesn't leave much. Hope this helps anyone considering Dart Transit Co.

Actual miles for each week:
(loaded vs mt)
1894 162
1271 346
1809 376
1091 385
1120 899
1397 981
1290 857
1471 1109
936 1469
1704 672
1421 1057
1624 916
928 798
716 1015
494 277
1283 1001
695 420
317 636
total: 21,461 loaded/ 13,376 mt/ 5215 unpaid

 

What if you had owned your truck. Would that have made any difference in your decision?