Triple Crown Services Co, - Fort Wayne, In.?

One of the reasons I stay away from standard type manufacturing hauls is that I have found that i can stay very consistent by staying in the food grade world. Things like cars and refrigerators are optional when times go bad, eating is not. When things go good, a guy goes out to the restaurant and has dinner rolls with his steak. When things go bad, he pools what money he has left and gets a loaf of wonder bread to eat his baloney sandwich. Either way, the flour came through my truck.

My plan is when the entire country is in poverty and eating out of breadlines, I'll be hauling the flour to make the bread......

 

Thanks for bringing this info to our attention. There's a few things that I don't like either in reading this.

You're apparently near me, and in the tri-state area, where Triple Crown was once thriving, they have lost quite a bit of business. They lost around 50% of their business in this area when the plant in Chattanooga that made automotive brake drums and rotors shut down as well.

Many of the contractors in this area that I knew, who were leased to them, moved on to bigger and better things.

I've never paid for permits when leased to any company, and I don't like that charge. This was customarily picked up by the company, as part of their take.

That charge of .03 cpm for "Worker's Compensation" is a rip-off, plain and simple. That is not a viable means of assessing the rates for Worker's Compensation, and they are very likely profiting from those intake of funds.

It is illegal if they do not offer to allow a contractor to seek either Worker's Compensation coverage through sources that the contractor chooses, or to seek a qualifying ACC/OCC policy.

A flat rate of $50.00 per week for physical damage insurance? Maybe this is an average.

These are terrible rates.

Of course, the ONLY place where the fuel surcharge rates make any difference, is how they are addressed in the lease agreement. If there is no clear language as to how they are assessed and paid to the contractor, then you are largely left to their whims and desires.

I'd question that "pickup/delivery" policy real closely. This may very well be referring to ADDITIONAL pickups and deliveries.

That's going to take away much of the remaining business they had in the North Georgia area.

 

I used to work as a mechanic for TCS. I worked at the detroit terminal. All of there trailers do have a DOT inspection every 8 months. Once they get to the 11th month and haven't had an inspection done they are taken out of service. The main problem we had with these trailers were blown tires and broken crossmembers. We always had atleast 3 mechanics during the day and 2 during the night. I think the biggest complaint from the drivers was when the train was late and their loads were on the train. But if the train was late dispatch would try to switch everyones load around to keep everyone moving. The pay wasn't bad from what I understood the guys I had talk to said they made anywhere from 1.25 to 1.75 a mile plus fuel surcharge, and $40 for each load contract. They mainly dealt with Automotive freight until about a year and a half ago they started picking up Proctor and Gamble loads, a liquoir account, home depot and a couple of other big accounts.

 

I am about to start with Triple Crown this Monday. If anyone is interested I can keep you updated... BUT being that this is an old topic, you all might not care haha

 

That would be great
Keep us updated

 

Sounds good! I thought about them about 10 years ago, when I had my own truck. But I'm closer to Chicago than Ft Wayne, and didn't want to be domiciled in the Windy....

 

Ok, So I just finished up my first week with Triple Crown.

I know that 1 week can't tell you how great or poor a company really is, but I am pleased so far with my first impression. Everyone I have come into contact with has been very friendly and willing to help me out with whatever questions I might have. Dispatch gets busy at times and makes it hard to get through to them on the phone BUT I am getting scheduled to have my qualcomm installed in my truck pretty soon. I even have my terminal managers cell phone number in case I need something, even when he is sitting at home watching tv eating dinner he will take my call.

Their equipment is actually well maintained, they have a few older trailers in the fleet but everything is in working order. Most the trailers have air slide tandems which is NICE because I've never had to slide tandems so much in my entire LIFE. Leaving the terminal the tandems are slid all the way forward (to ride on the rail). Tandems must be slid to the 41 foot mark when leaving, if the load weighs over 45,000 lbs it must be scaled by the driver who picked up the load and if the tandems need to be somewhere other than the 41 foot mark to be legal it will be noted with a copy of the scale ticket. and yes scale tickets are reimbursed. When dropping a trailer at a customer the tandems must be slid all the way back, And when you bring a trailer into the yard, yep you guess it. slide the tandems all the way forward

Most the trailers LOOK a lot worse than they are. because they ride on the rails they get grease/oil slung all over them making them look like ####. I've never pulled such dirty trailers before. It makes even a fairly new trailer look pretty old.

I did get a trailer that needed work though, I pulled up to maint area and a mechanic came up and asked what I needed help with. I showed him the problem, and because the repairs would have taken more than an hour dispatch took me off that load and put me right on something else so I wasn't sitting around waiting. that made me happy!

Triple Crown kept me very busy for sure. 99% of my work was all drop and hook. I averaged 9-10 driving hours logged each day (logged 100% legal by the way lol) I only spent one night in my truck and that was because I volunteered to run a load to the Ft Wayne terminal, I did it for the miles. I did have to work Saturday but thats because they rotate weekends, so next weekend I wont have to work at all unless there is too much freight.. then everyone works.

Next week is my first payday, and my first payday as an owner operator. I will report back and let you all know if the money is worth it.

 

i hope works good luck

 

Ok as promised I'm back to report how they pay. I know I know I'm a little late with this but they have been keeping me REALLY busy.

week 1:
I ran 1,900 miles
they paid 1,746 miles
compensation $2,551

week 2:
I ran 1,853 miles
they paid 1,737 miles
compensation $2,730

Other than the 1 night I spent in my truck by choice I was home every night. So far I am very pleased with triple crown. They keep me very very busy!

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Kc8yhk, how is week 4 and 5 going? Are you still happy with triple crown?? I'm moving to Dallas in the spring and I'm interested in triple crown?