My Sammons experience

Hi Robert, Well this month has been better than last month.
Right now kinda stuck in Virginia beach, Not much moving around here. Cheap rates. Might just end up pulling a legal parts ld. outa here Fri. going to Mn. The rate is not bad for legal 5 axle freight.

 

GOOD NEWS----- Spoke with recruiting at Sammons 2 minutes ago, I'm all clear to come aboard! I'll be in Missoula on 9-3 to start the "official" process of becoming a part of the Sammons family.

Anyone care to impart some "wisdom"...things they wish they knew but no one ever told them about in reference to picking out the truck, questions to ask, etc?

I've been a step deck owner operator in the past, so I'm not really looking for any trucking advise, just things I need to ask or watch for during orientation. Anything to help me make an easy smooth transition back to life on the road with Sammons would be great.

 

I got tendered 2 loads out of K'ville today...first time in several months. Both going to Dundalk. One 210, and one fall off load from 2-210. Can't they load you out of there?

 

Well our rep, bid on 2 lds. going up to your home base, We got under bid on both.
Do not know how much lower the bid was. Just we got under bid.
This was Thurs.

 

When I have to pull a crappy load to get out of a crappy area, I try to find something light even if it doesn't pay that great...as long as you get out....

 

How are O/O doing there? I just quit ATS cause of multiple problems. Freight was cheap, found myself sitting a lot on first in first out dispatch. Avg settlement over 90 days was 850 net. So Im having to move on. Heard a lot about Sammons, just wondering how O ops are doing. At ATS they seemef to take care of the l/p guys ahead of O/O.

 

poundpuppy, I thought you were going back to FCC?
Where is Amherst, too lazy to look in the map book.
I am in London,Oh tonight then del. south of Youngstown and then reloading near by for Houston.
But I'm on HH side

 

Iam going to them on tuesday. But I cant seem to shake the stepdeck bug. I love the work, always have. So I try to gather info here an there to store in my brain. Its more for the future, I'd like to getback into this workin a couple years.

 

Well I've been reading the posts on here and doing research online, and Sammons sounded the best.... so I decided to call Sammons today, a female rep answered, told them I was interested in working for them but had a few questions. Asked multiple questions about the setup of the truck, what areas do they run the most, etc. and all I got was a lot of "I don't know's" or "I'm not sure" for answers. She said to fill an online application, told her I'd like to know about the questions I asked beforehand, but she seemed to be in a hurry, so told her I would and hung up. So after carefully considering about Sammons after the phone call, I filled out the online application, I was actually surprised I got a call back for another lady fairly quickly. Unfortunately that was the only thing that was good about the whole thing and the call didn't take long because according to her, even though I had a few years in driving in the Northeast pulling flat bed, step deck and heavy haul, her excuse was because "I haven't been driving in all 48 states, you don't have experience in driving in different weather conditions and mountains"?? I said "Seriously"?? Well I think she needs to come to the Northeast in the dead of winter and then tell me I don't have experience in them conditions. And then the 2nd reason was "We want you to stay out 4-6 weeks and because I didn't do OTR, I won't stay out 4-6 weeks"?? Now by this time, I'm thinking this is really funny. So by this time I already had my mind made up that I wasn't going to argue with someone who already thinks she knows how well I can drive. But funny how according to the video's on Sammon's website, they say "You can run when you want and come home when you want" .... well evidently you can't or they won't hire you. Sammons, you need to update your website and tell the true details and tell your drivers in the videos to tell them to say what you told me and not what you want prospective drivers to hear. Glad I found out their true motives BEFORE I went and done something stupid and started driving for them!

Also, this is not really to do with my experience with Sammon's, but sorta does... I hear people on the CB saying and bragging about how they have 20, 30, 40 years experience driving a truck acting like their professional drivers and then saying how the drivers with only a couple years under their belt don't know much about driving..... makes me bust out laughing, especially when I see these so-called experienced drivers trying to maneuver their truck in a tight spot or even trying to park their truck at a truck stop, takes forever for them to do it ..... so that's just proof that you professionals might have drove for 20-40 years, DOESN'T always mean you can drive better than other drivers. I've seen a quite a few of these so called professionals try to park a truck many many times and it takes them longer than the rookies. And after the new "30 minutes off within 8 hours" law, you should have heard all these professionals on the CB trying to figure that one out. LMAO!!

 

Some things are quite obvious.

Good Luck Driver.