USA Truck Inc. in 2012

With all due respect, such a policy will be a disaster. For most breakdowns the company already does this now. They make you leave most of your stuff and get on a bus. What this will do at the terminals is lead to a lot of tractors being parked. The shops will focus on the simple quick stuff and the problem tractors will get (shadetreed) then pawned off on new upgrades. The upgrades are getting enough junk as it is. USA Truck needs to get these tractors to the dealers and get them factory spec,ed. Yes it will cost more, but over time these repairs will last longer. However I don't see this happening. The company I work for now will take a problem tractor to the dealer in an instant. We don't have a lot of tractors with chronic problems like USA Truck does either. Last December I spent 4 days in Arkansas getting my Mack worked on. They took it to the Mack dealer and they fixed every issue on it. Said tractor become a runner and I made a lot of money driving it. I lost it in January but the Volvo I am in is a runner too.

 

Well I'm living proof of the new policy. Got to Denton this morning after delivering my load. Checked in and was promptly told by svc mgr that they didn't have the parts and would need to be ordered. Informed my FM and she told me I would be changing trucks. Then she asked for an inventory of what was there. About 4-5 unassigned Prostars, one Pete 386 and a brand new Cascadia. Told her I wanted the Freightliner and by 1 I had keys in hand and was transferring my junk. By 3 I had 3 load plans carrying me up to my home time this weekend. I love my FM!

BTW, I think turnover is becoming a problem. The truck I picked up today was a guy that quit with no notice last week. I'd never seen so many unassigneds at Denton and Van Buren had at least 20. Karen Davis called me today and practically begged me to be a trainer. 3rd person I've talked to in a week. I told her I'm still pondering it and I'd let her know next month. She suggested that I was planning to quit at the end of my C1 contract. I denied it but I don't think she believed me. She sounded depressed.

Maybe I'm just blind but I can't see why so many are quitting. I'm getting awesome miles consistently, I have a good FM, and a new truck.

 

Denton is where I turned my truck in. I scrubbed it with 409, mopped the floor and handed the keys to the maintenance guy. I live close to Denton. Anyway, I won't live in a truck for that pay. I make pretty good money where I'm at. I get to go home at night.

 

Karen is a great lady with a tough job, somewhere in the back of her brain she can't be happy with the current shape of the company.

Hey, start talking to the drivers. In a little while you will get your answer.

 

I seem to have a better shot of meeting Jesus than getting my transmission fixed or just getting another truck.

 

Now, get all that with higher pay and you see why people leave . I won't work for less then .40/mile anymore, although most likely would try to find someone with higher pay if I'd go back OTR.

 

Well here's the problems as I see them:

1. Truck Maintenance - This has been the one consistent problem I've had since I started. It seems to me that they are having too much lost productivity with trucks being down. Now I understand that when a machine is being run 330+ days a year pulling up to 80k lbs and racking up 500k miles, wear and tear will break things. When things do break, their should be a plan in place to address it promptly. If at a terminal it needs to get fixed. We know parts will need to be ordered, why make a driver sit an entire day before even looking at his truck to diagnose it. Then have him wait another day for the parts and then however long the repairs take? They need a triage section like the ER. Fix small things quickly so the driver can keep going and not lose his load. I think this is why they've just started swapping trucks.

2. Regional- Ok Heartland Express uses a regional model and it works. We brought over a VP to "teach us how it's done," but we aren't doing it. Almost every regional driver I've talked to has told me they LOVE the home time policy. Most say they get home at least bi-weekly if not weekly. But they say they are starving. This is why I left regional and went back to OTR. 1300-1500 miles per week just doesn't cut it. Even at 1800-20000 it's barely scratching. Heartland uses a sliding pay scale so the shorter the route, the higher the CPM. Why don't we?

3. OTR- The OTR guys I talked to seem to be happy with their milled but many still complain about lost home time. This doesn't apply to me because mine has been 98% accurate. But one guy at Denton yesterday told me he's been out for 6 weeks everywhere but near his home in Iowa. His planned time was 2 weeks ago but he's still out and being told the old favorites, "There's no freight going that way." and "Were trying to route you home.". I can't understand this except for maybe a lack of balls on the FMs part. Mine fights for her drivers, I've heard her in the background on the phone. Home time is one of the easiest thoings to plan and one of the easiest ways to lose drivers when screwed up constantly.

As I said before, I like USA. I think they just make some bad choices in picking leadership who then compound it with more bad choices.

 

LOL...I ran teams with USXpress after I left USA. We had a Cascadia, and I cleaned it out prior to us quiting there. Then when I turned the truck in I got everything else out...Filled up the entire back area of my Tahoe...glad we already had the fridge, micro and oven out, along with other non-neccessities

 

I get paid by the hour now...$31.25/hr and work 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off...Definitely not missing USA. I do miss the Chinese food from the Roanoke terminal, and staying there for a week for an air leak and A/C problem(great time to go to the races, might I add).

The A/C problem was repetitive with the truck I drove. It went in the shop 10 times before it was fixed, just a couple weeks before I quit. 6 dealers and 4 terminals. I knew what was wrong with it, and would fix it when it went out...but when I was pissed at FM, I had revenge just like they did. Quick wiggle of the power wire going to the AC compressor and no AC The last week I spent in Roanoke it went to the dealer first for the AC and they had it fixed finally after all the other jokes of techs looked at it in other dealers and terminals. Then there was an air leak also while I was there. They tried to fix it for 3 days and every day they said it was fixed and every day it was still leaking. When it came time for my home time that following weekend, I just decided to drive it out, and get home. Then my FM wanted to keep me out, and when I ask for my load swap"pretend FM" (aka night shift at 3:00PM) said FM already left, and you have to run this load. I said, "oh but I have an air leak." BD sends out someone and they said they couldn't fix it until Monday, but it'd be ok to drive. So I waited it out and the next day weekend FM got me swapped and home...now I can drive it again

After all that FM tried to screw me out of BD pay. I had to call for about a month after I quit to get upper management to pay me. They said he never agreed to pay me more than what I received, and that I got what was correct. I said negative, I have email proof. Sent it to them, and made him look like a fool. Sure he is still there though, because USA cares more about their FMs than drivers.

 

I don't regret leaving. I can have 3 days off, and still make more than when I worked at USA.