Oakley Transport a company to avoid

Couple of questions:

How old is the equipment? With the newest truck (that you are aware of) having 300k plus on it, I put the age of the rig at 3 years. I drive one much older and with twice the miles (for someone else). Since Oakley is a tanker outfit, perhaps engine hours are a more accurate indicator (for the PTO time)?

Oakley is advertising pay raises and bonuses, so could you be more specific about the pay cuts and how you were unable to get your bonuses?

What exactly was the home time experience with Oakley?

In what specific ways did operations show they didn't care about the drivers?

I am really getting frustrated by the generalized ######## that contains no informative specifics!

 

Not really a rant bud.... just your perspective. Sounds like S.O.P. for most carriers and that's a shame. Oakley was a fine company. Who owns them? Indian River?

Point is and JMO is that times are tough for all carriers. Fuel is up, parts are up and shippers aren't paying their bills. The ones that do pit one carrier against another with questions like how cheap and how fast or what have you done for me lately?

300K is nothing if properly maintained but 300K ignored , well that's a different story. 2 hr tank washes are normal but they usually throw you a bone like cash.

Your carrier and others like him in or out of that same boat will do what they have to, when they have to. Piddly stuff like torn seats and dirty trucks....well they might get to it later. D.O.T. stuff is up to you, You pretrip that truck and only you decide if it rolls or not.

On the rest ? Pushing you against your 70 and only giving you 34 off is actually good business. NO ! I wouldn't like it either and would find a way out if it were me. Cutting driver wages and bonuses is a survival technique. They always come to the drivers bucket first when they need something and our only defense is to leave his iron empty and against the fence.

I don't see many choices here. The economy is a ways from coming back and we are entering the prime hiring time for many jobs. Weigh your options and decide if what you have invested with them is worth keeping. Make this all about you and remember; there is only one PSP score, yours, and 10,000 carriers, just like him.

Good luck!

 

I will have to say that THIS driver always wrote up anything on the truck that needed to be fixed AND would leave several "hidden" lists for the next driver! One in the over head for the CB connection (yeah now that's a waste of time as most of these drivers can't even afford a Cobra 19!) I'll leave one under the mattress, and if there is an owners manual one in there so that the new driver will know that I did write up any problems.
I look at it like this. Why would I NOT write up something that's not going to affect the company more than the poor slob that's going to take my place in a POS BFI by not telling of something that going to make him/her have to sit when it finally breaks down. I have more respect for the drivers behind me than a lot of drivers do or have for many years!

If the company was any good I would NOT be quitting! And that's the FIRST thing I put on that note above the repairs list the list of "things" that the company was good at doing as to why I quit! I'll let them know that this list was handed to the company and they can even read it on the "satellite system" if there was one!

I just can't leave another driver hanging like many do these days!

As I said, if a company is worth it I'll stay with them as I'm like an old cowboy.
I ride for the brand! I did untill I was let go and I've quit a few that weren't worth the waste of time to sit in an orienation when orientations started!
It used to be they would hand you a few log books, keys, fuel card or running cash, a BOL, a card with the phone numbers on it and a few pre addressed envelopes with stamps point you to your truck and trailer and you were on your way!

But those were the old days! Now you have to sit through a boring 3 days of we do this and you will do that and keep from laughing your arse off from some of the stupidity of things like:
You will take this per diem ripoff.
You will get 'fined" for that.
You might get home 1 day for each week but you must give 3 weeks notice you want to go home!

And the myriad of other craziness that if you havent fallen to the floor laughing your arse off you'll get up and walk out!

 

3 days Rollover? I had to do 5 in the class and 2 out rolling. And I agree about being loyal to the next guy.....

 

WTF can they possibly do that's so darn different than that BFI you just left that it takes 5 days to do an orientation?

If I was told 5 days I'd hang the phone up and dial the next one on the list! That's just plain stupidity there! There just can NOT be that much paper work to sign or "company regulations" to go over unless they haul extra top secret gooberment loads or radioactive shipments or stuff that goes boom and of course hazmat!

But for dry, reefer, bulk and tanker which most companies try to hire experienced drivers for that....Oh I see...... I'm sorry, there is the problem!
No one is hiring experienced drivers any more as they must be paid what an experienced driver is worth which is way more than that pathetic $.23 - $.30 which these poor ripped off driver mill graduiates need to get by on as no experienced driver would even put the key in the door to climb up to put it in the ignition!

I'm sorry I got into rant mode! Us old experenced drivers get this way at times!

 

I know bud....I was looking and the pumpkin called....so I listened and it sounded fairly good.... I mean workable figuring I could beat their numbers with my experience.

Whoops sorry driver, you were out of a truck in 2008 ( Ike flood ) so you only have 2 years experience, not 25 years so we can only offer .32 for chemicals. ( yeah c'mon! )

My rebuttal was: Why would I haul dangerous goods and wear chemical gear plus hump hoses for .32 when I can haul pre-loaded beer on a drop and hook for J.B. and do it in nice clothes for the same .32? She had no answer.......

4-Q for the pumpkin and I wish you many more service failures......2 yrs my arse!

 

Okay, thanks, this was way more useful to me. I had been considering Oakley, largely because I wanted to get back into bulk (when I did it before I was treated and paid much better). Having read this, well, looks like the ads they're running are just BS, like all the others.

 

I thought Oakley was a owner operator company?