Knight Transportation

[smokineagle]

Monday I start orientation for Knight at Katy TX terminal. Is there any drivers on this forum that can tell me how things are at this terminal?

Also I am a Ambassador for the Worlds Largest Truck Convoy benifiting Special Olympics. Do you think they will allow me to place a decal on the truck stating this?

I have read most of the post on here about them, and have seen very little about Katy, TX. Please dont tell me half of the bad storys. So many times people say a company dont run me or I only made 100.00 last week. what they dont tell you is they are difficult to work with or they were in a freight depressed area. I have been driving for over 20 years and have never been intentionaly sat by a company unless freight was not there or not where I needed to go. Sorry about the soap box statment I will get off it now.
Any info would be appreciated.

[jonekatz1]

I've been to the Katy Tx terminal before and it seemed Ok to me.Knight has a shop there and there is decent motels near by. which i would imagine U will stay near by. there is also a few strip malls and such near by.I won't bad mouth Knight this early in the day.but they have there good & bad points as most things in life do it seems ! I will say one thing the safety & recruiting man in Carlisle, Pa. told me that they no longer pay any $ for orientation. they may say something different in Texas. Reason for the change is drivers could go on daily pay and earn after there 1 st load is scanned in to Phx,hope that heLps U ? 8)

[Uturn2001]

I don't know how Katy is now, but when I was at Knight in 2005 (KC terminal) it was probably the most screwed up terminal in the company.


One thing about Knight, no matter which terminal you work out of, is to develop a good working relationship with your dispatcher. Don't be afraid to tell them what you expect but be sure to listen to what they expect also.

[dollarshort]

I will keep this short and sweet since I am constantly beat up about saying anything good about Knight.

They will let you put a decal on stating that you support the Special Olympics. Just make sure you ask first.

I take part in, and am a very big supporter of the Make-A-Wish Convoy every year. I also got Carlisle terminal to give out some shirts and hats at the last years event and they were very supportive.

Good Luck!!!

[scythe08]

Not meaning to sound like I'm flaming you or anything, but if you've been in trucking 20 years why work for Knight as they don't pay for experience. You should be able to go out and find companys that will jump through hoops to get someone with 20 years. Knight is going to pay you the same amount that they will someone with 4 months. Again I'm not flaming you I just think you deserve more for your experience.

Chris

[smokineagle]

Not meaning to sound like I'm flaming you or anything, but if you've been in trucking 20 years why work for Knight as they don't pay for experience. You should be able to go out and find companys that will jump through hoops to get someone with 20 years. Knight is going to pay you the same amount that they will someone with 4 months. Again I'm not flaming you I just think you deserve more for your experience.

Been driving since 1984 when I got out of the service. I have been doing alot of reserch and the few good companys that pay more or have the bennys I want, want me to stay out 3 to 4 weeks or they dont hire in my area. I live in Floresville Tx just south of San Antonio. If i have learned anything in my last 20 some years in this industry it is alot of companys will promise the moon and only deliver a moon rock. I just sold my truck and wanted to work for a company that was large enough to have drop and hook but be small enough to recognize a good driver and then treat that driver accoringly. Also was told by the union outfits here that they mostly take on transfers from other areas as san antonio is a warmer climate.
Thanx for ya'lls post they are all appreciated

[jonekatz1]

Hey Smoki'nEagle, I don't run truck for the Knight family any longer but considered giving it another try.the mistake which I made was there Idea of non-forced dispatch & mine was totally different there's is if UR fatiqued or sick U don't have to take the load or run.My understanding of non-forced dispatch was & is if U did'nt want to run to a certain destination I:E Boston Mass for example U should'nt be forced to take that load.Wrong thinking on my part! It's determined on freight availability.Which not knowing this I copped a attitude which made matters worse.Dollarshort said beware of perdiem which probly is a wise choice. most dispatchers have'nt run truck though.main thing I'm getting at is keep a positive attitude there! Hope all goe's well for U 8)

[oklagp1200r]

Katy is a good terminal to work for! Been there a couple of years myself.
Just keep in mind freight has been SLOW here lately so dont expect to much to start out with until you learn the system! AVOID Randy in the shop as much as you can he is a ***** and dont trust what he says! Colby the Ops manager is a good guy and the terminal manager Steve is new to Katy transfered from Phoenix have worked with him before he has a good heart for the drivers. Just make sure you travel agent knows that he or she works for you not the other way around! Tell Mel in recruiting we said hi!

[Howard]

Been looking at Knight ,does anyone know something about them in the Chattanooga or Atlanta Ga. area.

[jonekatz1]

A couple yrs back in Atlanta they just had a drop yard in the same area as c.r england. chattanoga, tn don't know about. this may of changed by now!

[movinit]

What has been previously said about getting to know your dispatcher is right on with Knight. There are two big problems with Knight.

1. Lack of empty trailers and they are selling off a huge amount of their older ones. Rumor has it they are trying to get down to 1.5 trailers per truck. They are also buying 14' and double pups (saw one the other day being pulled by a Yellow :? ), so the 13'6" 53' are getting fewer. Be prepared to get good at scavenger hunting.

2. Each terminal does their own dispatching, so there is the always suspected hoarding of good loads. If you are going to travel into the territories of the other terminals then your dispatcher will have to be one that is more aggressive, yet doesn't step on the toes of the other terminal planners. Many times a load doesn't show up in the system until it has actually been loaded and headed down the road. There is also a lot of right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.

As for the non-dispatch being forced, we have never had a problem with telling them "no", but we don't work out of the Katy terminal and each terminal rules their own roost.

They are the most disorganized company we have ever worked for, but if you can get past the adjustment period and learn their system you will find that over all Knight is a good company to work for. As a team we had our choices of companies, yet they work for us because they offer great home time, good pay and the option of where we want to run.

[smokineagle]

Thanx for the info all. Just got home yesterday. They assighned me one of the 379 Pete's. Jury is still out as to weather I like it. So far everyone has been reel nice and helpful. They assigned me to Mike's Board and he told me what he expects and I told him what I like and dont like. Mike told me he trys to keep his trucks out of the Northeast but sometimes freight dont agree and he has to send us. Steve seems like a manager that is a real hands on guy. Wants to hear from us on how our disp. is doing. he told us to call his cell if we dont have a preplan 150 miles out of our dest. So far no lies from recruter. I will keep everyone posted.

[scythe08]

1. Lack of empty trailers and they are selling off a huge amount of their older ones. Rumor has it they are trying to get down to 1.5 trailers per truck. They are also buying 14' and double pups (saw one the other day being pulled by a Yellow ), so the 13'6" 53' are getting fewer. Be prepared to get good at scavenger hunting.


Why the heck are they going back to 14' s ? When I was there they were trimming all the 14's back down to 13'6 or selling them because people kept taking them east and hitting low bridges. WOW still sounds like everything is still the same there.

[scythe08]

1. Lack of empty trailers and they are selling off a huge amount of their older ones. Rumor has it they are trying to get down to 1.5 trailers per truck. They are also buying 14' and double pups (saw one the other day being pulled by a Yellow ), so the 13'6" 53' are getting fewer. Be prepared to get good at scavenger hunting.


Why the heck are they going back to 14' s ? When I was there they were trimming all the 14's back down to 13'6 or selling them because people kept taking them east and hitting low bridges. WOW still sounds like everything is still the same there.

[movinit]

Why the heck are they going back to 14' s ? When I was there they were trimming all the 14's back down to 13'6 or selling them because people kept taking them east and hitting low bridges. WOW still sounds like everything is still the same there

We wondered the same thing. It just doesn't make good business sense to purchase equipment that can only be ran in half of the United States especially when they are eliminating hundreds of the 13'6" trailers. We recently saw one of these new 14' trailers way east of I-35 (the rough cut off for 14' trailers) and it was being loaded for NJ. We told the shipper that it wasn't supposed to be there, told Knight it was being loaded and no one seemed to care. The really scary part is they haven't informed most of their drivers that these trailers exist and how to identify them. There are no markings other than the trailer number starts with "H". If you are behind a Knight east of I-35 that has a trailer number starting with "H" and they are headed for a 13'6" clearing stay way back and enjoy the show!!!!!

[Orangetxguy]

Why the heck are they going back to 14' s ? When I was there they were trimming all the 14's back down to 13'6 or selling them because people kept taking them east and hitting low bridges. WOW still sounds like everything is still the same there

We wondered the same thing. It just doesn't make good business sense to purchase equipment that can only be ran in half of the United States especially when they are eliminating hundreds of the 13'6" trailers. We recently saw one of these new 14' trailers way east of I-35 (the rough cut off for 14' trailers) and it was being loaded for NJ. We told the shipper that it wasn't supposed to be there, told Knight it was being loaded and no one seemed to care. The really scary part is they haven't informed most of their drivers that these trailers exist and how to identify them. There are no markings other than the trailer number starts with "H". If you are behind a Knight east of I-35 that has a trailer number starting with "H" and they are headed for a 13'6" clearing stay way back and enjoy the show!!!!!

Don't ya love it when the college degree knows more than you do !!

Can't wait to see one stuck in a plant!!

Heaven help the Knight boy that takes one of those through my old home town there is a bridge that is 13'10 and he will hit it BTW it is the ONLY truck route to the plant that Knight loads out of also. Also he will be hitting a RR bridge when he does hit it also and the RR will be MAD. Since SOP for them is a FULL inspection and this is the busiest Intermodal mainline in the US that will be closed nice job Knight.

[smokineagle]

Sorry it took so long to get back. My laptop has been messing up.
I was gone 17.5 days and run 6300 miles. All legal and no pressure. I did one local was paid 4 hours for about 1.5 hours work and the rest of the time I was on my 10 hr break. I also got 10 hours of detention and 2 extra stops. All scales and tolls have been paid and all lumpers were paid without question. got paid 2 days of layover because of not being able to switch out at terminals or other issues.

Totals

Miles= $2191.70
Stops= $30.00
Det. = $100.00
Local= $48.00
layover= $90.00

Total= $2432.70

Divided by 17.5 days = $138.97 per day
This is not great but not bad considering the times and the freight availibility across the country. Also I never run more than 50 miles extra on any one load and many times run less than I was paid according to my GPS . In other words miles are close to what I do.

[cockroach]

Trailer numbers starting with 6 or 8 are 13'6, 7 or 9 are 14, plus the H's that you mentioned before. I really don't know why they don't put the trailer hieght on the trailers. I have seen stickers on 14 foot swift trailers that says DO NOT PUT LOADS TO THESE STATES ON THIS TRAILER and has a little map. I don't understand why knight doesn't do this.

[jonekatz1]

We'll Smok'inEagle I'm glad thing's are going OK for U over at Knight's. my main problem was I had a misconception with there non-forced dispatch format Anyway :!: