BEWARE Boyd Bros.

[TimberWolf]

Yep ,
and the teamsters told the UPS Freight guys that there would only be one or two outside contracted companies pulling boxes into and out of the Orlando terminal based on company needs. to date when I drive by the yard I have seen Werner, Swift, Covenant, Walmart, and one Cosco van in the yard hooked up to their perspective tractors. not to mention the contracted owner operator UPS Freight guys who operate independently... They/we were told "only the contracted owner operators will be coming to the yard based on company needs and business levels" Business levels are extremely slow in Orlando yet this yard has several big companies coming in and out... So much for that promise huh...
Way to go teamsters for protecting you're underlings, with friends like that backing you, who needs ememies....

Timberwolf

[feederfred]

Yes, I know Timberwolf, every holiday season at Brown, we always got the "bottom feeders" taking a lot of our line haul work..Supervisors doing bargaining unit work etc, ad nauseum..Filing grievance's took forever, usually always went to an administrative hearing where the union's attorneys would recommend dropping it..It got really bad at the end, before I retired. You could see that management at Brown was no longer respecting the Teamsters. I can just imagine what it's like now with the economy in the tank and volume down..let's see, a "national truckers union".....hmmmm, isn't that what the Teamsters USED to be ???

[avc]

With roll overs like you guys, you all will be working for .15 cents a mile soon !!!!

[feederfred]

and what union were you ever in AVC ? Another flag waver..."Union power" is long over with. Deal with it. Perhaps you could go to over to teamster.net and raise the flag with the diehards over there. Even there though there are realist's .....I spent 30+ years in the IBT and watched a lot of good people go by the wayside, with my union "brothers" doing absolutely nothing..

[avc]

Yeah, you say the union did nothing for you, but for YEARS YOU MADE BIG MONEY working for a union company !!!!

[Doctor Who]

Yeah, you say the union did nothing for you, but for YEARS YOU MADE BIG MONEY working for a union company !!!!

Good God this gets old!!! Go wave the Onion,oooppps I mean Union label somewhere else!!!

[Malaki86]

Is Boyd Brothers going union? Is that what all of the union talk is about here?

[DaveP]

Is Boyd Brothers going union? Is that what all of the union talk is about here?

LOL....not in a million years.

Just another rant by a guy probably not suited for the road.

[Rev.Vassago]

The union discussion* has ended.








*rant

[navguy05]

I have to say that I never thought my posting my bad experience with bottom of the barrel Boyd going down this road. Wow.

[Fredog]

I have to say that I never thought my posting my bad experience with bottom of the barrel Boyd going down this road. Wow.

you post a good experience and no one gives a crap, but post a bad one and everybody jumps aboard.

[zipy46]

The polls have closed and the results are in:

Apparently Misery does love company

[disgruntled]

If you like short runs, lots of sitting waiting for loads, beat up equipment with lots of problems, 60 mph trucks that wont climb a hill over 35, these are the people for you. They tell you when and where and how much to fuel, if you deviate, no fuel bonus. If you don't make 6.7mpg or better a month, no bonus. They use combination tarps with 5ft drops instead of lumber and steel tarps. They're too small for a lumber load and too big for a coil. On a typical lumber load, you have to turn the tarps sideways and use all 4 that they issue you to cover it. But dont worry, they'll show you how to do that at the end of orientation. OH, and you only get $18 to tarp a load. Their little fuel mileage nazi, Jayson, in Birmingham is a treat. When I did my road test with him, the first thing he says is "forget whatever you think you know about driving a truck, I'm gonna show how to drive." And learn to shift your truck between 1000-1300 rpm every gear or you get nasty grams on qualcomm about "watch your speeding and shifting". And pretty much anybody that doesn't like you or you have a disagreement with, can send you home. I don't know about all the dispatchers, but mine was always "waiting on the sales department, I'll get back to you." I have a 100mph dispatcher with a 60mph truck, if you know what I mean. When you get unloaded first thing in the morning and have to sit and wait till 3 or 4 or 5 pm to get your next load, it's hard make any money. I've worked there a month and half and haven't made a paycheck over $500 yet and thats with living in the truck 1 to 3 weeks at a time. Come Thursday or Friday there's "no freight moving up by your house right now." I called my dispatcher and the ops coordinator and told them that I'm turning my truck in today because i couldn't live and support my wife and two kids on $350 a week. I was told "if you want to quit that's ok, we don't care, but we need you to pick up this load and bring it to yard with the truck or it'll damage your DAC from now on." My truck's going back empty. They've already cut off my fuel card so I hope there's enough fuel to get it there or I'll have to call them and tell them on the side of what road it's sitting. I've run into some other former Boyd drivers who've had similar stories, but this, of course, is just my personal experience. Feel free to PM me for any additional information.

That's weird. I work for Boyd, but I have had a slightly different experience. Their equipment is really not bad. They have decent trailers and the majority of their trucks have apu's and are either new or pretty decent. As a brand new driver you might not get a new truck, but it wouldn't be reasonable to expect to either. You do get a lot of short hauls, that's true. But not all the time and even pulling some short runs you can still hit 24-2500 miles a week if you're willing to work hard. As far as as fueling they expect you to comply with their fuel solutions 70% of the time. The mpg goal is somewhere around 6.7 and I've been hitting it every month since like february. You're right about their tarps, but it's extremely rare that I have to use 4 on a load. Hometime, during the past 12 months there have been 3 weekends I didn't go home. As far as loads and miles, it's really rare that I wait for a load although it does happen sometimes. Some areas are always slower than others and if you get unloaded early in the morning you'll have to wait until they show up to work in Birmingham or Clayton. The thing of it is, if you make an effort, learn their system, figure out how they do things, work hard and show them that you are dependable, they will take care of you. At least that has been my experience.

[navguy05]

disgruntled,

I'm glad you're having luck with these bottom-feeding pieces of garbage, but personally, I hope the entire bunch from the dispatchers on up to Boyds dumbass kids go broke, loose everything, and slowly starve to death. I know I wouldn't loose any sleep over it. Maybe thats what they pray about after every meeting. What a bunch of Godd@#n hypocrites.

[Orangetxguy]

LOL....not in a million years.

Just another rant by a guy probably not suited for the road.

Actually Dave...If you sort through all his bs, you will see that he drives for AAACooper down in "southern" Alabama, and is so unhappy with his wage, he is here calling for "National Unionization" of all us truck drivers......so that he can get a wage at his job, that is more to his liking!

I don't understand why he doesn't just go out and find the job, that pay's the wage he desires...like 99.95% of the rest of us.

[Jumbo]

I traded my hourly, home every night local job for a percentage, home every week otr job and I couldnt be happier. If you dont like where you work or what you make then do your homework and change jobs.

[disgruntled]

disgruntled,

I'm glad you're having luck with these bottom-feeding pieces of garbage, but personally, I hope the entire bunch from the dispatchers on up to Boyds dumbass kids go broke, loose everything, and slowly starve to death. I know I wouldn't loose any sleep over it. Maybe thats what they pray about after every meeting. What a bunch of Godd@#n hypocrites.

Well, you know, if someone asked me if I would recommend Boyd as a company to work for, I'm not sure that I would. There's a number of things I'm not too happy with either. On the other hand, when I get frustrated I try to look at the big picture, I do get decent miles, pay's not bad, I'm home most weekends and also they leave me alone to do my thing, nobody bothers me. I could go to another company where they have better benefits, or better accessorial pay, but that won't really help me much if i end up sitting all the time or staying out for weeks at a time, or if I keep getting yelled at because I don't keep the chrome shiny on my truck. I'm just not sure that there's such a thing as a perfect company for drivers out there anymore..... But if you do find one be sure to let us know...

[homer]

[QUOTE=avc;455577]Duh !!!

Because if the company was union this would have never happened.

there is no otr union companies that aint gone under.
just local delivery and ups
the only people that can afford that union labor are spending the tax payers dollars.
im sure you call those union plumbers, electricians and carpenters to come work on your house.
boeing is building its last plane in washington because of disfunctional union management

[steelhauler]

If you like short runs, lots of sitting waiting for loads, beat up equipment with lots of problems, 60 mph trucks that wont climb a hill over 35, these are the people for you. They tell you when and where and how much to fuel, if you deviate, no fuel bonus. If you don't make 6.7mpg or better a month, no bonus. They use combination tarps with 5ft drops instead of lumber and steel tarps. They're too small for a lumber load and too big for a coil. On a typical lumber load, you have to turn the tarps sideways and use all 4 that they issue you to cover it. But dont worry, they'll show you how to do that at the end of orientation. OH, and you only get $18 to tarp a load. Their little fuel mileage nazi, Jayson, in Birmingham is a treat. When I did my road test with him, the first thing he says is "forget whatever you think you know about driving a truck, I'm gonna show how to drive." And learn to shift your truck between 1000-1300 rpm every gear or you get nasty grams on qualcomm about "watch your speeding and shifting". And pretty much anybody that doesn't like you or you have a disagreement with, can send you home. I don't know about all the dispatchers, but mine was always "waiting on the sales department, I'll get back to you." I have a 100mph dispatcher with a 60mph truck, if you know what I mean. When you get unloaded first thing in the morning and have to sit and wait till 3 or 4 or 5 pm to get your next load, it's hard make any money. I've worked there a month and half and haven't made a paycheck over $500 yet and thats with living in the truck 1 to 3 weeks at a time. Come Thursday or Friday there's "no freight moving up by your house right now." I called my dispatcher and the ops coordinator and told them that I'm turning my truck in today because i couldn't live and support my wife and two kids on $350 a week. I was told "if you want to quit that's ok, we don't care, but we need you to pick up this load and bring it to yard with the truck or it'll damage your DAC from now on." My truck's going back empty. They've already cut off my fuel card so I hope there's enough fuel to get it there or I'll have to call them and tell them on the side of what road it's sitting. I've run into some other former Boyd drivers who've had similar stories, but this, of course, is just my personal experience. Feel free to PM me for any additional information.

OK, follow me here. Im gonna break it down for you really simple, and if you cant understand, then you are not ready for the road.

1. Did you not ask any questions before going to Boyd? How are you surprised at 60mph trucks? YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THE SPEED BEFORE GOING. Not 6.7mpg or better? AGAIN YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THE RULES BEFORE WASTING TIME

2. You will learn in flatbed...its very rare to have big mile loads. I have never pulled anything BUT a flat, sidekit, or roll tite, and I have seen 10x more short runs, than long ones....

3. YOU DRIVE/DROVE THEIR TRUCK, YOU BUY FUEL WHERE THEY PAY TO FUEL. You want to pick and choose then buy your own chunk of crap, fuel wherever, and go under.

It never ceases to fail you get some moron on here that has NO INVESTMENT in the company, equipment, etc yet they want control of the situation. Thus why so many hot head owner ops go under, they have no idea...

You should have known the tarp pay, you should have done what was asked, and you didnt. That doesnt make a company bad, it makes you bad. I would never go to work for boyd...but I also wouldnt blame them for a lack of ignorance on my part to get as many of the facts BEFORE wasting time. Call TMC...They need some guys with your experience.