new info on Schaffer

i started with shaffer 9 wks ago biggest mistake ive ever made whoever said there getting 2500 miles a week is a liar the most i ever got out of these crackheads is 2100 useually 13 -1800 is all u get hope u like the northeast ive been to nyc more in thelast 9 wks than i have in the last 13 years if u do hire on here go to ur dr and get a sleep test done if u take theirs youll fail and theyl charge you a grand right out of oret.

 

That bad huh? How do they determine if you need a sleep test done?

 

Well, he's been with them for about 7 weeks now (with one hometime), and they're not letting him reset his 70. He's also been in the N.E. at least 80% of the time. They keep giving him loads he doesn't have the hours for - they don't account for load/unload time, scales, etc. plus they've fibbed about how many miles the trip actually is. He's complaining , but I just tell him to hang in there.

 

im not complaining or not enough to say they are a bad company anyway. let me explain more instead of you trying to put words in my mouth. 1st i have been with them 9 months now. after my 75 day deal i decided to bring that back a bit. i've been doing 30 days out or so. this is by choice. they do have a bit of a problem when it comes to getting my home though. again let me explain before y'all jump the gun. they have had me home on the day or the day after everytime so far. it's been a bit of a fight a time or two but i got here, home rright now as a matter of fact.i've been to the NE but by no means has it been 80 percent. it seems whereever i go i spend some time going back and forth til something bounces me out of that region. i spent about 3 weeks going back and forth on i80 and 90 during a bunch of the snowsttorms. when i was talkning with them they said we go from NE down to san antonio and the NE down to GA. i've been to 44 states in my 9 months. i seem to be in IN and OH more than the NE. i did have a week during my last run where i went up to CT 2 times but i'm not there all the time. hmmm what's next,as far as not letting me restart my 70 the way i look at that is that's how good the computer system and the dispathers are, if they can keep me running totally safe and legal for 75 days then all i can say is good for them. again, i would have liked a restart but i'm not going to ##### c uz they are keeping me running, afgter all aren't we doing this to make a living. as far a dispatchers giving loads we dont' have time for, yes that has happened more than once buit since we do everything by the books at shaffer all you have to do is tell them you can't make that and you will get a new appt or they will put someone else on it.
lets talke about my biggest complaints in my few months. number 1 at the top of my list is whiney truck driviers. i was taken off a 3100 mile run from NJ to OR a couple months ago because a driver was saying he didn't have the time to run from IA to IL. ok thats fine i understand that, but then during our short conversation he said all the same old crap that is said by many drivers, " you can't get miles with this company, you never see runs over 300 miles" then i take his 100 mile load from him and hand him the remaining 1900 miles of mine and he says " i'm going to tcall this in lincoln , i aint' going all the way out to OR" next biggest complaint is drivers who drag tires cuz the tandems wont move or drop a trailer with a missing mudflap. i end up taking more trailers in or risking a ticket if i'm not near a terminal to get something fixed.
i'm not going to sit here and say shaffer is perfect but what job in america is. they have a great safety score so getting pulled in for an ispection is rare. i've personally never been pulled in but have seen a trailer now and then in the inspection lot. before becoming a driver i was a songwrtier for a publisher in nashville., the job i had b een trying to land for 15 years and after 6 months i wanted out of my contract. i stuck it out for the 2 years and now i am happier then i've ever been driving for shaffer. I have had a pretty frustrating month as far as miles but when i look at my check stub and see that i've made $20,000 in the first 6 months of my 1st year as a drivier then i realize i just have to take a bad week here or there. I'm making .35 a mile and that will go up to .42 at my one year mark. i was just talking to a 7 year prime driver the other day who is making .39.....so if it's the bottom line you want , at the way i'm going now and with my pay increase in september i will easily hit $40,000 as a first year driver. hope that clears a little up

 

I was by no means trying to put words in your mouth and if it seemed like it, I'm sorry. Like I said, I told him to hang in there and he's resolved to that. We'll just take it one day at a time and hopefully things will get better. So far, the paychecks are good - enough to supplement my own income, at least. Thanks for all the great information, the more we can get, the better.

 

Wait till your pay goes up to .42 a mile. You'll be wondering what happened to all those wonderful miles you once had.

 

the point I was trying to make was this...If he didnt care about this driver, and his kids, why do you think he would care about you !...no matter he's now ceo of sister co. Hunt Transportation

 

...just did a road test at Indy terminal...hand put me in a Crete truck for the test though..a super-10...detroit diesel...had over 477k on the odo though...maybe the newer fleet is different...more later.still in orientation...or occidentalation...one of the two...keep in touch...I'll let you know...Thanks

 

My situation: I no longer drive for Shaffer, but am seriously working on coming back. I have driven for Con-way Truckload; Dedicated Logistics; New Century Transportation and Ruan as well as Shaffer. I can say without qualification - Shaffer is the best to deal with.

MILES: I was always running my full 70 hours each week. I had great runs - talkin' Portland OR to Connecticutt; Minneapolis to San Antonio; Atlanta to Denver - and there were several spurts where I made a bunch of pickups in the Chicago metro and dropped them (t-called) in the Ottawa, IL terminal for another driver to pickup and run later. HEY, before you complain, how many times have you benefited from picking up a yard-load and ran? It's sweet - but that load has to get to the yard somehow, and I figured it was "my turn" to pay the dues. I did call the dispatcher to discuss the frequent short hauls, and the dispatcher thanked me for just doing the job and not complaining. He promised a nice pull to get me out of there - Chicago to Portland OR with plenty of time to get there.

HOMETIME: The miles drop as they try to jockey me home, but that's understandable... we don't all live in the freight lanes.

EQUIPMENT: I had an '07 Frieght shaker with Opti-idle. Not the best, but hey, if you owned the company, would you put a driver who looks good on paper (MVR) in a brand-new ride?

WHAT YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW: Shaffer and Crete do give you exact routes to drive - can't blame them with diesel @ $4 per gallon ( at 6 mpg, that's $ .66+ per mile fuel costs ). I echo what someone else already wrote - frequently I was paid for MORE miles than I actually drove on most loads.

They have the forms at the terminals that allow you to quickly subscribe to Pre-Pass, which I did. The cost is under $20 per month, and I loved skiing past scales - I hate scales - the company has a great CSA score, so I got green-lighted all the time.

FUEL: Mostly Pilot fuel stops with the occassional T/A and Love's. The company tells you where to fuel up and how much to take on at each stop. My FM - National Fleet - had my fuel stops almost all set up where I would be stopping for my 10 anyway. Nice!

REFER vs DRY: My outlook is pulling refer lets me haul ANYTHING that can fit in my trailer; hauling dry van, you're restricted to non-temp control loads. One load I pulled was zinc-plate sheets from northern West VA to Crete, NE for use in pet-food cans. The metal needed to be kept @ 60 degrees... cool! Dry vans could pull during spring-summer-fall, but only my bretheran and I could pull the load in winter.

There are complainers who hang in the driver's lounge - so did Con-way TL, New Century and Ruan... what's new? Avoid the bad-seeds.

PAY: Never had an issue with my paychecks - always right on the money and on-time (direct deposit).

PER DIEM: Never have done per diem pay - never will. Why? Because in my eyes per diem pay is equivalent to you paying part of the wages with your own tax-refund you would get later. Per diem pay lowers your reported gross pay, which lowers what is reported to the banks if you apply for any loan, and it also lowers your gross pay when used to calculate (God forbid) unemployment and worker compensation pay. Shaffer/Crete does NOT offer per diem pay.

Be safe guys and gals -

 

hey all, i thought i'd throw one last update out there. Unforturnately i was terminated last month for testing positive after my hometime. let me just say i really screwed up and wish i could relive that weekend but oh well, life goes on ..
anyway, i will still say that shaffer is a great company. i was averaging right around the 9750 a month or so. even after i went up to .42. my trainer, who i still talked to regularly also was right up there with the average . I'm not going to say i never complained about a load now and then but i never complained to the dispatchers cuz monthly miles stayed consistant. I talked to a driver one day who was telling me how horrilbe shaffer was and how he never gets 9000 in a month and in talking with him more i realized the guy was a complete idiot. If you don't get the miles with shaffer it's probably cuz you are an idiot or lazy. You need to work log book loopholes no matter where you work or you aren't going to make money. i'm not saying drive illeglally but things like getting to a customer the night before so the next day you don't have to start the log and things like that. if you can't make $50k a year with shaffer then that is your own fault. the last month i was there they were starting to do a new thing with driver managers and i was running even harder. actually ran over my 70 2 weeks before being terminated and almost ran over the last week. running over was due to I 75 being backed up for a few hours.
My only complaint at this point is due to the situation i'm in now. i tested positive for drugs after my time off. i was told i needed to go through this ASAP stuff which i did but due to the zero tolerance thing they wont hire me back for 5 years . I paid $1300 to go through this stuff and shaffer or anyone else wont hire me. So if anyone can learn anything from my experience, if you want to be a truck driver then don't use drugs. i knew better but was out celebrating my raise and brand new truck and got stupid and now it looks like i'm heading back to the world of $9.00 per hour warehouse jobs. they did , btw , just put me in a brand new cascadia. one of those with one bunk and a midroof. it was nice. it had 26 miles on it when i picked it up in lincoln. I drove it 800 miles before i had to take it to ottawa and take a bus home. as far as shaffer goes though, they are a great company to work for. i looked at the website before i was terminated and my average trip was right around 500 miles for the year. As with any job out there in the world , you have to take the good with the bad. jsut because one month is annoying you don't get your panties alll in a wad, it will turn around. my july was just horrible , i ended up getting like 4 restarts in 28 days but then aug and sept rocked. i wish i was still there but this has been a great experience for me overall. going through 15 hours of counseling really showed me i had some issues i needed to deal with. again, i hate that one stupid mistake on my weekend off is totally ending a career i was truly loving .. although i wasn't drinking or drugging while i was on the road i still didn't let that part of my life go when i was home. now i'm on 2 months without drugs or alcohol and life is feeling ok. good luck to everyone and drive safe
frank