T A Dedicated

I thought it was name changed because CFI bought TA from TFI.

Who knew.

 

No, TFI was trying to put US truckload all under the CFI banner. The TA name was to go away, but then TFI sold CFI to Heartland Express, so TA came back as TA Dedicated, controlled by TFI as HE did not want TA. Yes, their safety program is a joke, as is most of the rest of TA.

 

I still don’t know this company. But, apparently their drivers are hawt! Where do I sign up? Haha.

 

TA Dedicated.... Let me tell you about my experience here for 3 months.

Lets start with orientation. Was flown to Atlanta. Day 1 was just a road test and putting your information into ADP. Class started at 0800 and was dismissed at 1400. You literally sat around or walked outside and killed time because other were taking their road test, so the orientation lady would not go over anything on day 1.

Orientation Day 2: We were told to come in at 1000 because we had all of our stuff done and a few others still had to complete their driving test, Which is about an hour long per driver. Once everyone was back in the classroom, we watched 2 hours worth of videos on the 8's of driving and backing. YOU WILL LEARN nothing about the CAMERA OR ISAAC ELD. We finished the videos and sent back to the hotel at 1400 to await our departure back home the next day.

The trucks are horrible, they are cheap and maintenance is at a minimum. Broke down multiple time is 3 months, no spare trucks for any account, they rely on rental trucks, which are also never available. You will sit without a truck for days. My first day I had to get 5 tires replaced, 4 drives and 1 steer. The EGR cooler was leaking, but I had to run the truck for 2 weeks, because we had no spare truck and no rental available.

Trailers. They are old and need work. Often times you would get a trailer that had a expired inspection by months. Maintenance is not a big deal for TA Dedicated. Their own shops skip fixing known issues.

ERS - Emergency Roadside Service is filled with hateful people who just do not like helping any drivers. They will give you the run around and end up blaming you for the maintenance issue.

The dedicated account sucks. You are constantly running as fast as you can to make the drops on time. Then you are scolded by safety and the managers about speeding over 65mph, following distance, and for crossing the white line by mistake. Even in a construction zone, where the lines often move for roadwork, your camera will flag as improper lane change. The Lytx camera picks up EVERYTHING! It will flag you for not just following distance, but Cornering too fast, being on a rough road, it marks hard road bumps as "Braking Events". You will spend your week on the phone with your manager and safety "coaching" you.

The ELD is by Isaac, it is a canadian company that is not driver friendly. You will have to watch youtube videos on how to use it, because they do not teach you anything about it.

 

The only interaction I've ever had with T/A is a few years ago I was going home in my pickup truck. A T/A dedicated driver was backing up on the shoulder, because he missed his exit. Almost had an accident with me, and a few other people. Just went on his merry way.

I contacted T/A, with truck number, trailer number, location, and time of this incident. They really didn't want to take any information, finally took the info, but didn't seem to care. Never heard anything more about it.

 

TA dedicated sounds like the kind of company PI lawyers drool over.

 

I see they're just as much a joke as they were 30 years ago.

 

That’ll explain why I haven’t seen as many Transport America trucks rolling around Wisconsin as I used to years ago.