SPD (Smokey Point Dist.)

Only like 5 million times through 3 mergers and name changes

 

Based on some of the new drivers I'd be surprised if they could spell Williams Sonoma let alone know what it is.

 

Do you know any of the ins and outs of the team side of things? SPD is one of three companies my wife and I are looking into for our potential new job. I'm bored as heck with pulling a reefer and SPD is one of the very few flatbed type companies we've ran across that has teams. We live in central illinois and prefer to be out a month at a time.

 

I do not have anything to do directly with any of the team trucks other than rarely they move some of my legal loads. All of our teams are dispatched by a young lady named Randi. The bulk of them support the 737-MAX program and as I'm sure you're well aware that has slowed down right now. There are a few that support Pratt & Whitney moving jet engines around, primarily east of the DFW area, a whole lot in and out of Connecticut, DFW and South Florida. I have a single team run in my program from Red Oak, TX to Toronto, ON twice a week. It's usually a single box that can easily fit in a small SUV but for insurance reasons, it has to go in a truck. Unfortunately we do not have any teams that can or will go to Canada so I broker that to a carrier from Ontario.

Teams almost always get new trucks and if the amount of miles they put on them is any indication of how well they do then they do awfully well. I have gotten a couple "hand me down" team trucks for my guys and 1 year old trucks have 250-300k miles on them.

That brings us to today and this global pandemic we're all hopefully living through, everything except my wing programs have slowed considerably. Many of the plants our trucks run in and out of have shut down or seriously slowed shipping and receiving so the bulk of our trucks, teams included, are moving freight outside of our regular lanes and have slowed down.

Due to the current situation I do not believe we are hiring any new drivers at this time except "come backs" that have worked here within the last year. Our headquarters is in Arlington, WA which is the epicenter of where the Coronavirus started here in the US so other than a very small handful of management people and shop personnel, which are working a rotating schedule, everyone else is working from home so there are no orientation classes going on.

 

Thanks for the reply. When things pick back up I'll get in touch with recruiting. I've spoke to a gentleman there a few months back. I don't remember his name.

 

If it was a guy in recruiting, that would have been Sean and sadly he passed away a few months back from a massive heart attack at 50 years old sitting at his desk in his home office on a Saturday morning.

We're all still running and every morning's report shows we're still well into the black but I'm not going to blow smoke up your $$$, it has slowed down across many of our sectors. In fact ....... cough ...... I hate to say it but we're going to send a few guys to do ....... cough cough ....... wind energy OD loads which we normally NEVER touch. Customer is in a bind so here we go. Tough times call for drastic measures.

 

Well dang I'm sure sorry to hear that. He seemed like a really nice guy. He seemed really willing to go to bat for us. My wife's year will be up in 4/20 ( our 1 yr anniversary to boot ). So we're no longer obligated to the company we're currently with. Well hopefully things will smooth back out in the next couple months. I've got 15 yrs left before retirement and would like to spend that time doin something more challenging than swinging reefer and van doors.

 

I am sorry to here about Sean he was a really nice guy.

 

Sean and I bumped heads a few times but the one thing you could take to the bank with that man, EVERYTHING he did, he had only the best interest of the drivers in mind and everything he pushed for was from the heart to make SPD a better place for drivers.