Questions for Smithway Motor Xpress (SMX) trainers/drivers

[Nerok9]

anybody out there that drive or train for SMX i would really like to chat with you and get some info.

Thanks
Nero

[Mr. Ford95]

They were bought out by Western Express and supposedly a lot of people jumped ship when that happened.

[Nerok9]

yea i know western express bought them but i hope that someone with SMX would reply. But I also heard that western express couldn't come up with the full amount of money owed to buy SMX and that they might have to back out of the deal or sell theirs and SMX flatbed division.

Nero

[skier]

Yes Western Express did finally come up with the money and bought SMX.

However you may want to do some digging into WE.
Have a cousin who drove for WE, back in the late 90’s Ran his tail off as part of a tem based of SLC when WE had a yard there. In 01 or 02 he left them, to help his best friend run a commercial fishing boat off the Oregon Coast.
In 2004 after I had gotten my first year out here under the belt, he and I went to team with them. He was amazed at hope much they had changed in two short years.
As a team our first 9 loads were nothing longer than 900 miles over nighters up and down I-81. We both thought they wanted to see how we did for the first few thousand miles or so.
He then talks to the office and asks why we can’t get any thing going out to the west coast, their reply, there’s nothing going that way. Strange , then why were a couple of solos we had went thru orientation running from Nashville to California. Yet here is the two of us, stuck on I-81.

So things got a little better. We started getting runs to the west coast. But as soon as we got back east, there we would be, till we started saying something to the office.
What made up our minds to leave them after 90 days, was we would put in for home time well in advance, yet they seem they could never get their act together, and corrordinate one of our trips home with a trip to the coast.
They would have us drop our trailers in Riverside, Ca, then go to another place to pick up our load, yet the load wasn’t ready , because they didn’t have any WE. trailers So we would tell after hours, and they tried to bobtail us 4 times to Northern Cal. To get our empty trailer, with out paying us the miles up and back.
What struck me as strange. In their one day oreintation we went thru in Nashville, not once did the 10 of us in the class take a driving test. They were more concerned with talking about benefits than anything else.
To heck whether or not the drive they hired can drive the truck.

I have no clue how they are today, but you may really want to dig into them.

[Nerok9]

your right i havent heard to many good things about Western Express but i think SMX is a seperate division of them. I have a SMX terminal 15 min from my house and talked to them. Thanks for you insight and am weary anout WE but will try it. Im paying for my own CDL school so won't have to stay if i don't want to.

[Bumper]

Well if they contacted your past employers I would say they have a reasonably good idea wether or not you can drive a truck. If you were a brand new driver then I would say they would give you a road test.

[Nerok9]

well i definitely have a stable work history. Been in the military for over 17 yrs but will be med retired soon. Want to do SMX because of the close terminal.

[Orangetxguy]

well i definitely have a stable work history. Been in the military for over 17 yrs but will be med retired soon. Want to do SMX because of the close terminal.

If you are just getting out of the military, get with whom ever handles your discharge and get signed up to get your CDL training through the GI bill.

Several companies are signed on with the DOD to assist those of you getting out, with getting your cdl's and training for free, or greatly reduced rates. Some of those companies are ok..some are great..and some..not so great..but you shouldn't need to pay to get a CDL, when it should be yours for the asking.

[Nerok9]

yea the military will be paying for my school. I have 55+ days of leave to burn before i get out so im going to Western Dakota Tech for their 6 week course. Thats 5 min from my house.

[Orangetxguy]

Good deal. Another outfit you should look at, right there in your area, is East/West, flatbed, stepdeck and RGN's, as I remember them. If I remember correctly, they were part of SMX. Don't know if they remained with SMX as part of the WE buyout though.

[Nerok9]

East/West was bought out by SMX back in 99. When WE bought SMX East/West ceased to exist. The terminal up here in Rapid City was the East/West terminal. WOW alot of 3 letter abreviations lol