Owner Operator Looking For New Company

Not sure on DeckX (I would assume no, being they do such a wide variety of stuff). They also have Regional/City O/O's and US Short Haul. One big advantage with these guys, is they will let you pull vans/reefers, if deck is ever slow.

Kleysen idk at all. But they have Regional/City O/O work

Payne you can have your own trailer for-sure, either mileage or revenue.

Big Freight and Keystone Western you can have your own trailer on revenue, and would be worth a call. (Both have Yards in Calgary and Edmonton now).

Payne would be my choice overall, own trailer or not. My outfit works with them a lot on the LTL van side, good people, nice equipment, organized from what I can see.

 

To answer to the kleysen unknowns.....if you can put up with bureaucracy bull by the droves and you have a work ethic I highly recommend them.
My parents were company drivers for them for 9 years and now switched to O/O's, they're taking home 1.16/mile after all expensese and the last 2 months were paying about 45 cents a litre for fuel. They do deck work canada/US, paid lay over after 24hrs. Ive forgot if they get paid loading/unloading or not and what the overdimensional rate is.
They team drive and take home 15+k a month as O/O but most single drivers that work hard take home 11+k a month on deck.

They also have a bulk division that has different pay rates and perks but also pays very well. Right now theyre scrambling hauling salt from rocanville to fort mac cant get enough drivers but the pay is crazy good. Once a again i know an O/O on the bulk side, he's never struggled there at all. The down side with bulk is it gets slow sometimes.....very slow

I used to work in the saskatoon shop as a tech for 3.5 years, pay was crappy very crappy, was treated like #### and was promised alot of stuff and they reneged on virtually all of it, because i was the 2nd best guy they had and they wanted to keep me there.

Only people who dont make it at kleysen are drivers who dont want to work, the guys that want to be home every night. Only want to do certian work, want to work 3-4 days a week and expect to make a million every year.

Heres the ugly with kleysen:
Crappy worn out disgusting trucks (kw t800's exclusively)
Management treats everyone not in management like crap scum of the earth
The Bureaucracy bs is out of this world

Heres the good:
Great pay
Very good health benefits for company guys
Safety gear allowance every year
Paid layover
Expenses reimbursement
Owner ops:
Dirt cheap fuel
Lots of work
Cheap shop rate ($78hr)
Great mileage pay
Overdimentinal work if wanted

Kleysens head office is in winnipege mb they have yards in regina, saskatoon, endmonton, and calgary as of 8 years ago, they might have more now tho. Kleysen is owned by mullen trucking which last i remember owns 85 other companies around the world.
If i remember correctly Brent Hildabrants still the HR/hiring guy.
I'd be there right now if it weren't for me not getting along with my old boss who manages all kleysens shops.
Hell if i cant swing a deal on a new truck I'll probably get the emissions delete removed from my truck and go apply see what happend maybe

 

Also forgot to mention Select rv haulings another really good company to look at. Ive seen pay statement from company guys at select and they make as much or more than I do as an O/O at my current company. When rv haulings slow they switch to standard deck work. O/O can either rent theyre trailers or bring your own.

 

#### that noise lol.

You better come Reefer man, 11k to the truck is chump on the low low side for a single out here. I just left a Mullen owned smaller company, all I can say about that is; I will never do it again!

That being said, I’m seeing lots of Kleysens Intermodal guys in Calgary (I live near the CN terminal in Conrich AB just outside of Calgary. I’ve often thought about doing intermodal, but it sure as hell won’t be for CNTL/CP/RIG.

 

Thats what im heavily leaning towards, I think I'd like it best. Just hope i can get a new truck so I at lest have room for an apu. My current trucks costing a fortune in fuel....get 3.4-3.7mpg. Goes into peterbilt friday for some testing and I'll be talking with the sales folk about a trade in.

Im very sick of just scraping by waiting for the next break down to put me back in the hole. After ice roads i should at lest have 30-50k in the bank so i can leave my current gig and do reefer.

 

A 579 Pete, setup right is a 7.5-9mpg (US) truck, running 80k lbs tandem reefer. I’ve seen guys doing those numbers, with both the X15 Efficiency/12 speed Endurant and the MX13/Paccar AMT combos.

 

Schneider.

 

Kleysens is owned by bison.

 

When did that happen? Mullen bought them in the late 90's....i used to work for kleysen.

 

Still owned by Mullen.