Van Wyk Inc.

Bingo ... The company I'm with deals with a handful of brokers that's it. They're pretty good one's too , but it's still a negotiation process. I often have to remind myself , that the reason it take all day for backhaul to find me something half the time is because they won't pull cheap frt. We're a private carrier , but do resort to backhauls when mty more than 2 hrs from a plant of ours. But hey when I roll and sometimes it's over a 1000 miles to pu , it's at 48 cpm mty or loaded. We've deadheaded Miami to Bowling Green Ky , I personally have gone Suffolk VA to Appleton WI for a load back down to Dallas or Houston. Periodically we sit a day waiting on B/H or 2 days for a plant load , but it's easy to get a load and B/H total 4000 miles in 7 days , you'll make almost 2 grand. It's why I'll work about 23 or 24 days and take 5 to 7 days off. It's not monthly I can do that without fail but 9 out of 12. isn't too bad.

 

Talked to 2 drivers today, they still get paid the 10 cent a mile to deadhead to their next pickup, always have been like that...

They don't play favorites but do they take care of the guys whose been there longest and their hard work?? Sure do. I was one of those guys upset that I had to run the Midwest in the winter when the Sysco stuff slowed down and others didn't. I #####ed about it, hell it's probably in this thread. Then the next year and the year after a few guys left and what do you know, me going to the Midwest in the winter was an rarity. Stuff happens like this happens in trucking, no different from the head guy at the LTL company getting the gravy line haul route while the low end guys get the scraps.

And yes the transferring of loads at times do suck because your pay takes a hit but I've always had it made up to me, can't speak on others but that didn't happen much, maybe 5 times in a year at most.

And you also say you can do much worse than Van Wyk and that's factoring in what?? As for as OTR and Reefer jobs, I don't think many companies can top what they offer. But you're green and you'll learn over time...

 

As long as I'm not killing myself to make a buck the percentage game is the way to go. Again, if you wanna make the "CPM" or pay me for the miles I drove then majority of the guys from VA still was doing 0.43-0.47 a mile. Don't see the problem especially when they try to get most guys to run over 60,000 every 6 months

 

Like I told the other guy, it was about a year but it wasn't like I was being fed scraps or hauling trash freight. My first year I did 50, 2nd 54, and my 3rd 58...

Home every weekend except for a few hiccups here or there but I wasnt crashing in truck stops over the weekend waiting on freight or waiting to deliver freight...,

And call BS on the running broker freight all week, in my 6 years of either working for them or being in contact with someone who works with them they've never done that. They'll run a broker load to get back to one of their main lanes I.E Dakota City, Minnesota Area or Nebraska. You might run two broker loads in a row if you going back west outta of the NE to Ohio or Indiana, then another load to Iowa or in that area from there.

And everything I'm telling you guys are documented in this thread, just go look at the patterns..

 

Like Matt said, VW ain't for everybody, just feel some of the stuff you guys are saying are misguided. You'll still make plenty of money and they got plenty of work.

 

Idk Hawk, if those two drivers said they were getting 10cpm to deadhead, then I got screwed out of a lot of money for about 5 months.
Everyone is going to have a different fit at a company, and there were many pros to VW. Good equipment, never really sat all that often, and they pretty much got me home when ever I asked them. As far as relaying with other drivers, I wouldn't have had a problem if may dispatcher came out and told me,"Hey, we have a driver that doesn't like to run any further east than PA. I need you to relay a load for him." Instead, I was told he's out of hours rather than the truth. Then when i brought up the difference in the rates between the two loads, I was told I would be taken care of. Followed up twice on that...nothing.
You are absolutely right that I am green, and I honestly don't have much to compare it to, other than the career I had before this. I may work for another company or two and realize it wasn't as bad as I thought, but it just seemed like there were too many drawbacks to percentage as a company driver.

 

Do you guys get load choice options? When I was on percentage I typically had 2 or 3 loads to choose from of course back hauls where a different story I had to take what was offered.

 

At times you were already preplanned, but there were also times that we were given choices. Depends a lot on the lane you're in, your clock, and how long you are staying out. I'd say 1 out of 4 times I was given options...I remember one time when I was staying out for 2 1/2 weeks I was given like 5 different options.

 

Trying to tell a 28 yr veteran driver % is the way to go , is like telling the camper , don't fear the bear , they're friendly in this forest. Look dude , I drove Hazmat ltl 7.5 yrs for Jevic OTR , 15.00 a stop avg 40 stops a week and 48cpm Long haul , 51cpm regional and prior to that did local Chicago work for 12 yrs hrly.
You take your % , and drive over 120.000 miles a yr , to make decent money as in what ? 55.000 59.000 ?.
Well the day you try working for a company pays avg , 45 to 50 cpm , by the hub... and gets you the miles You'll then learn that you can make as much doing 96.000 miles a year , and if you want your 120.000 miles and willing to stay out more , you'll make more like 70 to 75.000.
If you believe % is the way to go , it's because you never had a great paying Job , and have become comfortable in Van Wyks nice spoil me trucks , and with the way you're paid. I for one am not driving anybody's truck 400 miles at 10 cpm. And IMO , those that do hurt this industry beyond repair.
If No one would do % work , % companies would have one heck of a dilemma wouldn't they ? Fact can't be debated. Not only that , when guys like what's his face tells a guy with 20 yrs driving , he's got to take a 18cpm Broker load Norfolk to Green Bay , and will likely have to take another broker load from there , the company should just fold you ask me. Better yet , the U.S. Dept. of Transportation should prohibit this practice all together. You want safety on the roads , yet close your eyes to companies running guys into the ground to make 400 bucks that week. And if you think that isn't so , think again.

 

You're a better man than me if you're gonna take a financial hit so another guy doesn't have to go where he doesn't like going. Had i been lied to by dispatch , got to the relay point to find out , he just doesn't like Jersey , I told him " well then you suck" , go get a job flippin burgers , steerin wheel holder. I get screwed financially , you get the better load because you don't like Jersey ? Wow , ... Then I'd have been on the horn to line me up a load getting me home , clean it out , and I'd have found another gig , and made my own way home when I return to Sheldon , Great Bend or , Waynesboro. Puppies catered to by the Company because they been there for a while is a big reason , you as a new guy makes no money. When i was 5 or 6 yrs at Jevic , if I took a load , i finished that load , SOB's used to grab up a 10 stop loads in Delanco NJ , going to KC MO. run the heck out of that thing , over 2 days , make over 600.00 bucks then tell dispatch they're out of hrs to pedal the frt. Here you emptied 10 stops the day before , and now you're pedaling his frt the next day , instead of getting a B/H back to Delanco. , By the time you get out of there he banked enough hrs to head a load back to Delanco after midnight the next day while you were laying over , He beats you back to Delanco and gets his next load before you. I used to give those a hole's an ear full , wth you taking a dam load you haven't the hrs to run ? Wth is wrong with you ... Hey , just because your green doesn't qualify you as a welcome mat for everyone to clean the crap off their shoes on.