Who's The Worst Of Them ALL to work for?

Arrow rates up there with Swift

 

my vote goes to roadlink.

 

I came accross this site because, i am going back to driving. I have some observations and questions.

1. Everyone has a story to tell about every company. Why is there the few that make there vague complaints and have not offerred any solutions. I haven't seen one solution.

2. You people that bash companies and drivers need to look at it in a statistical way. If you have a company with one hundred drivers and and 10% of them are bad then you have 10 bad drivers. Similarly if you have a company with 20,000 drivers and 10% are bad drivers you have 2000 bad drivers. This applies to DMs/Dispatchers as well. The point being, the larger the sample of society you put behind the wheel of a big truck, the more you'll see boneheaded decisions being made both in driving and mgmt.

3. Learn people skills, let the DM know you are a driver not his/her #####. There are ways to do that without it being a drama. .

4. And I really wish these "pro" drivers would get off their hi horse and realize they had to start driving somewhere too. I drove for Swift from 1999-2001 after I left the army. I heard one story and witnessed one act that came from you "pro" drivers. At a flying J, I heard an old driver go on how he left Kalamazoo MI and drove to LA and then to laredo all in under 30 hours. WTF? No doubt an exageration and I'm not impressed I'm scared to death for others out on the road with this idiot and his super trucker mantality on the road. The other incident I witnessed was before the trucks were turned up to 65. Between Williams and Flagstaff, this chicken hauler and his peterbuilt passed my admittedly slow truck and literally shook my truck. A 4 wheeler ahead went to make a pass and the pete came within a foot of the 4 wheelers bumber. The car was wrong, but drivers are supposed to be professional and driving like that was stupid and wreckless.

5. The trucking industry, the lifestyle is what it is. And each person that chooses to be in it makes their own experiences. The lifestyle is what you make it. If you don;t want to drive long haul then don't. These companies are out for the bottom line and drivers are nothing more than expendible resources to every company. Each person has to find their own niche with a company where it works for the driver and for the company. It is a synergism and any drivers that think they are owed something are naive as far as the industry is concerned.

6. I am going back to swift because I had no bad experiences with them, If that is looked at as a poor choice and people's only response is to flame me or put me down, then thats on you. I read all theses things in 1999 before I drove for them and nothing happened. I had to leave for marital reasons. (We divorced anyway)

I would like to see people quit flaming each other as drivers. Flame the companies all you want, but everyone that takes to the roads in this industry are only trying to make a living. And by the way, you chronic flamers, you look really bad because driving a big truck is not rocket science and for you to constantly flame others mistakes means you make no mistakes and I find that hard to believe.

 

ox overnite has to be the worst out there they have screwed me the last time dont ever go near that company if u like eating or paying ur bills...........ox ox ox SUCKS BIG ONES...........................................................

 

There is no solution to big companies that everyone complains about.

These big companies are not looking and hiring real truck drivers. They are hiring steering wheel holders.

 

HumpyDriver, nice post. I agree with you mostly.

Hey-you did well at Swift because I was getting all the bad treatment in 1995.

Seriously, though.....when thousands of people tell you a company is bad, are you going to believe it or brush them off and charge ahead? Better yet....What does 150% turnover mean to you? This is what it means to me--It means sooner or later a driver who goes to work for a company having that kind of turnover will be walking away. No thanks. I like better odds, not odds that are closer to my winning the powerball lottery.

You are right, in some respects. People choose to go where they go, warnings or no warnings.

However, when I warn people off of SwiftCo, I am really saying the odds aren't good for them if they do go to work there. I myself am not saying those folks will definitely be reamed. It may work out for them. I hope it DOES, and it does for some folks, sure. What I'm trying to tell them is it probably won't, based on statistics. Turnover is a good statistic to use as a guide.

And 150% turnover is low at some companies. I think C.R. England's is over 200%, meaning some guys just don't get it. These are guys who charge ahead regardless of next weeks' outcome. They'll go to work for England this week and be leaving those jobs next week. A company can't have turnover unless it's filling empty seats. Try to determine how those seats became open, and how frequently they become open. When you have the answer, get back to me. Don't become "today's seat-filler and tomorrow's quitter". Only idiots do that.

 

The solution, as far as this board goes, is to not work for that company. I have plenty of complaints about the company I drive for--as anyone who has spent any amount of time with any company would--, but I don't believe those complaints are really reasons someone shouldn't work for them, so I haven't voiced them here. I have solutions for most of those complaints as well, but again, this is not the place to voice them.

Very good point. Anyone who publishes information, such as wrecks in a year, driver turnover, etc. does it using statistical analysis (35% of drivers driving for X Company wrecked last year) and not with just pure numbers (8,000 drivers for X Company wrecked last year).

More good stuff here. Nice point and one that gets ignored too often, I think. Another option is to just request a new DM/Dispatcher. If enough drivers bail on a person, someone in charge is bound to notice.

You know how to tell if a trucker is lying. Right? His mouth is open...

Very, very true. We live in a "gimme" society and people expect the world for free.

I personally would never drive for them as I've heard too many horror stories, but that doesn't mean others shouldn't. Like you said, there is a spot for everyone, you just have to find yours. I prefer smaller outfits.

 

Libertarian, I refer to your post here:

"You know how to tell if a trucker is lying. Right? His mouth is open..."

That sounds like a quote from a dispatcher I once knew at a Salt Lake company I once slaved for. Are you an insider, Libby? Just kidding, man.

I must have missed most of those guys, as I met few liars who were also truck drivers. Mind you, I kept my CB off about 99.99% of the time I drove, so I wasn't exposed to the lying sort. When I met drivers in person, I met guys who shot pretty straight. Sure, I did meet a teller of tall tales or three in my time, but they were rare.

The liars in trucking are on the inside driving desks. Be they brokers, recruiters, DMs, safety jocks, shop grease monkeys, or dispatchers, I met plenty of liars in all those categories. Drivers are angels compared to those devils.

 

LOL... Tip that is so very true!

 

Tip - re: last paragraph - you should know they take an extra class: LIAR 101!!