Systems Transport

Quit what? The job, the thread, or both?

 

Quit system's. I'll go into more detail on that later. Cleaning out truck now . I'll issue a final summary statement when I receive my final check.

 

Looking forward to it.

 

Well the truck is cleaned out of all my belongings except for a couple things which will help the next driver. vacuumed out all the surfaces and wiped down all the control surfaces with armor all wipes and applicable surfaces with armor all wipes leaving her looking better than when i got her.

I will preface this by saying that it was a long time coming and this was more of the straw that broke the camels back than the singular cause.

This last week I was left to sit in Tennessee for 6 days without a dime of compensation and they refused to answer any questions about even reimbursing me for a hotel room. 2 days were caused by being stuck waiting for a Monday unload. 2 days were waiting for them to find me a load out. 2 days were caused by my load picking up 1400 lbs of water weight just sitting in a truck stop during a heavy rain storm with a load of lumber. This was a freak occurrence that even surprised my family with 38 years flatbed experience. I dropped my tarps with a different driver to get my weight down initially, but it was no use as the load soaked up more and more rain water.

So when a forklift came out and put 2 bundles onto a different drivers truck who was heading the same way as me i was finally able to leave after a total of 6 days with a total of 700 miles. No additional compensation was offered and they would not answer any questions about the possibility of being reimbursed for a hotel room as i was left 2000 miles from home the whole time.

So moving on I haul butt over to the customer in Wilcox,AZ pushing over 700 miles per day driving overnight after staying up all day dealing with dispatch to ensure we can at least make a Saturday Delivery now. With hard work I make the drop Saturday morning, but then am left to sit until Monday.

Monday morning I go and pick up a load of steel pipe they say needs to be tarped. I tell them i will need to pick up my tarps in the PHX yard as i gave them away back in Tennessee. They agree with that,but as it turns out they take 4 hours to get me loaded and by the time i reach the PHX yard we are right on the edge of rush hour. Now the PHX yard is in Eastern PHX and the traffic going West out of PHX during afternoon rush hour normally costs me about 2 hours of driving so it is imperative i make it out of PHX before rush hour goes into full swing as i have a schedule to keep that does not include sitting in PHX for the rest the day.

While I'm at the PHX yard a FNG in training comes up to me as I've finished my business and asks me what type of trailer I'm pulling... I tell him it is a step deck... Then he asks me what the risers are called so i tell him... Then he proceeds to tell me he uses 2 straps to tie down his risers just to be safe. ok... Then he wants to argue with me telling me that my trailer is a 53'. I explain to him trailers ending in 3 are 53's and trailers ending in 8 are 48's. So when we're just about finished dealing with this mastermind his trainer comes over.

His trainer like 99% of our trainers here is a hyper inflated egotistical selfish POS. The trainers here get so used to living in a 8' box with some poor student verbally abusing them IE. talking down,screaming,yelling ETC... and using them for free miles team driving that they think they are going to talk like that to everybody. Well I get about as much joy in putting them back in their place as they do in abusing their poor students.

He proceeds to tell me in a loud aggressive voice getting right up in my face that If i don't put chains through the risers the DOT is going to have my ###. Now I don't mind a little advice from the older generation, But if your coming at me like that you better be prepared to get knocked on your ###. Not to mention I have approx. 7000 lbs pushing down on each riser from the load alone and 6 4" straps tight as a guitar string on a 20' section of steel pipe.

So i proceed to tell him "good luck with that".
he Asks "what do you mean still in an aggressive manner"
I say "Good luck with getting me to put chains through those risers because I've been through 2 dot inspections in the last 2 weeks with nothing but bungee cords on them and they have yet to say ####"

I turn around hop in my truck and tell em to GTFO my way as i got to go to beat the aforementioned traffic.

Butthurt trainer calls his dispatch who calls my dispatch who calls his boss and now they're messaging me and calling me asking me why the load isn't tarped yet and theirs no chains on my risers.

Well I was always taught to not say anything if i didn't have anything nice to say so ignore those phone calls and messages.

The next morning I wake up to this...



After almost a year and a half of solid service and all the #### i put up with of theirs in the last couple weeks they got the balls to call me a liar. I told them I tarped the load at the TA west of PHX when i talked with Toby the Previous day. I've never lied about that in 17 months working here.

So I respond with...



John the 2nd in command of Systems transport calls me and demands I chain down the risers. I just talked with my uncle of 38 years flatbed OTR experience who told me that's a crock of #### confirming what i already knew. I tell John I'm not chaining them down and he demands I go to the Bloomington yard and chain down the risers when I'm already up on 395. Then he's pissed because I'm running over on 58 instead of my "routing". Well I asked him if he wanted me to try to cross westbound through Los Angeles with a hot load at 9am in the morning. He backs off that, but insists i chain down the risers still telling me it's a safety issue and the DOT could give me a fat ticket for it.

I tell em I'll be in the yard in 8 hours and they can do whatever they want with it then. Stop by the house to clean out the truck and then leave it nicer than when i got it bringing this story full Circle. At that point he accepts my resignation. We discuss the final details like getting my final paycheck and whatnot. We end by my stating the pleasure I've had working with him, although i cannot say that about everyone I've worked here and i wish him the best. He wishes me the same and now we're hanging out at home hanging out with the family and the dogs.

I'm not making any plans yet, but I'm considering just staying home for Thanksgiving,Christmas/New years. You miss so much out on the road it would be nice to be home for the holidays if i can handle being in California for that long. Only time will tell i suppose. Got some camping and shooting trips planned out to break up the monotony.

 

Egad! I hardly know what to say other than I would pissed as hell also! I hope enjoy your break and remain a fixture on TTR, I have enjoyed your contributions. I may have some questions for you in the not so distant future, if you care to entertain them.

Thanks for sharing your situation!

 

I don't think I will make another thread like this one in the foreseeable future as i plan on going to work for a smaller company. I'm just really sick of the bureaucracy and red tape that runs rampant within these mega carriers. I would however be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about my experiences. Transparency and shared knowledge have been the goal of this thread and I have been and will remain an open book on all matters regarding it.

I'll issue a closing statement to summarize my experience and detail the exit process with System's Transport when I receive my final check.

 

Interesting experience. Well, you got over year of flat bed experience, most doors are open to you by now. Keep your CDL clean and you'll keep making more money. Im sure there are better companies out there, also there's option of being owner op.

 

All true statements. You should be out of training by now or shortly. How are things going for ya?

 

Ive been out on the road (solo) driving for 2nd month now. Of course I had taken 4 days *actually 3 1/2 days in between. I'm due for hometime on Thanksgiving week. Things are doing well. I got a good dispatcher (Jeanette) and she gives me miles.
I'm not making whole lot of money though, a miserly .32c/mile and of course they don't pay for loading/unloading, which I think is total bs as its actual labor I do, getting all the equipment out, strapping, chaining everything down, etc.
I'm thinking about becoming owner-op or something, I have to make better money than .32c/mile
I already got email from Knight offering me-- *Pay: .36-.45 cents depending on the length of haul (average .37 per mile!) I've been with System almost 5 months now (since date of hire)

 

If It's a tarped load which all of our loads are you'll get 30 bucks. I can't tell you how many loads of rusty steel that's been sitting outside for months on end i've been told to tarp in the middle of summer lol. Once you get into your rhythm you'll have no trouble securing and tarping most any load in an hour. So the tarp pay will be relatively easy money to help with the free labor you give them during loading/unloading. Their detention doesn't even start clicking down for 4 hours and even then it's only $12 Per hour which I always was rather annoyed by.

You say Jeanette is a good dispatcher? I suppose if you don't mind being micromanaged by someone who can't even find you on a map she could be good. I refused to work with her after I got past my first 3 months solo and was given my 2.5cpm raise. I got a different dispatcher who then was leaving the 200 fleet and they tried to put me back on her. I told em i would quit if they forced me to work with her ever again.

The mileage pay is pretty ###### no doubt, but they have contracts that make it fairly easy to keep busy. I would recommend staying there for your first year solo. There is not a ton of companies i know of that will let a rookie run from WA to NJ on 3000 mile runs on a fairly regular basis. If your on the 200 fleet and you don't run Canada your regular freight lanes are going to be Spokane,WA-Chicago,IL-Los Angeles,CA

You'll see variation in there but that's the big 3 for this company running long haul. We very rarely have more than 1 or 2 drops as well.

I've been able to keep my average at over 1000 gross per/week since getting off the green fleet and getting put up to 34.5cpm. I will post my final numbers in my final statement summarizing my experience with Systems once i get my final check.

I know I'm rambling, but to wrap this post up in the end all that matters when it comes to pay is what your making per week and here you can average 1000 per week without much difficulty. Most knight drivers I've talked to can't say the same and most tell me they get left to run the east coast for weeks on end. As far as going an owner op with only 2 months of experience I would parrot the wisdom passed onto me from much more experienced drivers and O/O's when i was in your shoes thinking the same thing and recommend you get at least your first year in solo with a company. Winter is coming on right now and with the regular running you'll be doing between Spokane and Chicago your going to learn a heck of a lot before the spring thaw.