Well, I finally decided to pull the pin and tell CRE what they could do with their fleece plan. I've been working on a dedicated account for them for almost a year now and the situation is getting steadily worse. My miles have steadily dropped from an average of 2800 a week 8 months ago to 1900 a week over the last month. I was still surviving and not going backwards, but barely.
But this thread is not to attack CRE, nor to have myself attacked and called an idiot for doing the CRE lease, so I may choose to ignore any posts along those lines.
I accepted a position with a small company in Wheatland, WY pulling a flatbed as a company driver. They have 28 trucks on the road and run all 48. From talking to the people in the office and shop as well as several of their drivers they are a very family and driver friendly company. I think it will be a good fit.
They run KW's and spread axle flats. The trucks all have automatics... this is the only thing I'm not too sure about, but the drivers I talked to all assured me that once I got used to it I would love it.
NO QUALCOMM!! they issue a company cell for all communications with the office. The phone is locked and can only call dispatch and two other numbers for breakdowns or emergencies at night.
I'll be starting at 33cpm, they pay practical miles.
Other pay:
+ 5cpm for anything oversize
+ 5cpm for hazmat
$15 per drop
$25 to put up the side kit
$15 for the steel tarp
$25 for the lumber tarps
+ 1cpm safety bonus paid quarterly
+ 1cpm production bonus, paid if miles exceed 12000 for the month, paid monthly
Their hometime policy is very generous, pretty much if I want to spend some time at home I only have to give them a few days notice and they'll get me there for as long as I need. I was told "spend every weekend at home if you want, just realize you won't be making much money". A lot of their loads run through where I live anyway, so I plan on staying out for a month or more at a time.
I asked them how they determined delivery appointments and explained that with most companies I had worked for, it was some convoluted formula of miles over time, then the appointment is set to give just enough time to get the load there, barring any difficulties or weather. The guy who I was interviewing with (operations manager) laughed and said that he had heard that from quite a few drivers, then said that when we are given the load they ask when we will be there with it, then they set the delivery. I threw out a few examples and really liked the answers I got, and his answers were confirmed when I talked to a few of the drivers. Two of the drivers I talked to loaded at the same place in Texas with pipe a few days before, on a Monday. One of them ran hard and delivered Wednesday morning, the other didn't get there until Thursday morning and everybody was happy with that.
The impression I get, and what I was told, is to run hard if I want or take it easy, totally up to me. The driver that ran hard and delivered on Wednesday showed me his calendar and load sheets for last year. The only time the entire year that he sat for more than 24 hours is when he was at home and/or chose to. He confirmed what the operations manager said, that there was plenty of freight and I wouldn't be sitting anywhere waiting for a load. I'm still not totally convinced about that, but we'll see.
Of the drivers I talked to, 2 had been there for 15+ years, one for a year, and the other was back for his third hitch after giving other companies a try.
There was a lot more information I asked about and was told about, too much to post it all here now. I've gone through quite a few interviews over the years, but this is the first one that lasted over 2 hours for a driving job.
My new adventure starts in a week... I might do a bit of a blog thing if anyone is interested (hopefully I'll have an air card for the laptop next week too)
