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Well then, why didn't you get good miles there? You're avoiding the question. Before I left Roehl to come here I literally tried to strike up a convo with every Crete driver I saw, whether it was in a restaurant or on the CB. I probably spoke to 50 of them, literally. Only 1 guy was pissed at Crete and ready to quit because he said that he "never got to go home" he did say that he got good miles though.
Avoiding questions, hmmm, I don't see how. Why don't you make a time machine and take us back to when I was there so we can see all the loads I did. Wait, we don't have to because I have my journal documenting every trip and every mile paid to back up everything I post. All of my loads there were dispatched at a pace of roughly 400 miles per day maximum, with firm, set appointment times. Then add in the time spent wasted between reloads and maybe you can figure out why I wasn't getting great miles.
You'll be delighted though to know that I found a few more miles that I ran with Shaffer (though not enough to go back), and they are listed in here now for a full comparison, as well as the other posts.
Now, let's talk about that getting home thing shall we? Remember that I live in Florida. When I was there, the National Fleets were as follows: Shaffer had a three week out dispatch, Crete a four week out dispatch. Even with Crete currently telling me they "try" for a three week out dispatch with Florida drivers, that's not good enough. I want to be able to come home more often if I choose. If I choose to stay out that long then so be it, but don't tell me it's a requirement to stay out that long, especially with the four day time off maximum rule.
Also, with my personal situation, Acklie simply will not give me the hometime I need, and as often as I need it. They simply do not work for me. Couple that with my bad experience there, and I'm forced to refute you and anyone else who calls them one of the best companies out here.
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Do either of us have hard numbers to argue the turnover rate? No, so what's the point? As a driver that has just graduated from a PTDI certified CDL school or someone with 1 year experience, you'd be hard pressed to find a company that pays as good and keeps you moving like Crete does.
I can think of a few actually. My current company and sister company for starters...
My point being an old cliche'...the best companies don't have to advertise. Yet over the past year and then some, Acklie has had ads running in every major trucking publication and also began advertising on XM, when they hardly ever advertised at all. Why is that? Apparently there is a turnover problem, even if minor.
And just for general info, the turnover rate here at Superior Carriers is 34% and Carry Transit is 37%.
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And as far as surge. I know what defensive driving is and understand that tankers need more room to stop, hence needing a larger space cushion in front of you, so I aint skeert.
You don't have one concept of surge if you've never actually experienced it. Knowledge of defensive driving only gets you so far until you experience the real thing.
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Some of the craziest drivers I see on the road are chemical haulers, I'm not saying that to attack you but it's the truth.
Crazy and the truth? Prove it. Funny, I always notice box haulers doing the stupid stuff such as shooting hills, going into curves at the posted speed limit, trying to drive in snow and on ice at the speed limit, etc.
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In case of accident, would you rather be covered in eggs or milk or toxic chemicals like you haul?
Mmmmm, I love eggs and milk!!!
Toxic chemicals huh? You make it sound as if we chemical tanker drivers deal with nasty stuff every load, and that we don't wear the necessary safety gear. To refresh your memory, I've done fifteen actual HAZMAT loads since being with Superior Carriers. Out of those, the two that were actually really nasty were handled completely by the shipper/receiver. I was not allowed to be anywhere near the actual loading/unloading, as is the case with many companies. And obviously you're not aware of how much it takes to actually split open a tank. Also, I actually have been covered before and didn't get as much as a mark since I had on my PPE and all immediate action was taken as trained for.
Allow me to ask the same question of you though but from a different perspective. What are you going to do if you are picking up/delivering a HAZMAT load, you're required to be on the dock to supervise, and the forklift driver ruptures a tote, drum, etc. covering you?
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As a company driver, having to go 10 miles out of route is a minor inconvenience.
Not when you are being instructed to put in x amount of gallons here, x amount of gallons there. Talk about eating up time for work, not to mention your free time. Out of route adds up, as well as the extra line four time for those extra fuel stops. Guess I'm spoiled not ever having worked where a company driver is told where to fuel and how much to fuel. Is this a small reason perhaps why you are no longer a company driver there?
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My truck is wide open, but guess what? I enjoy getting good MPG. I have 44k in the box, I ran 593 miles yesterday and got 6.2 MPG with my Detroit 60, thank you very much. You probably also enjoy being able to pass company trucks, right? I mean after all, you don't pay for the fuel.
Oh, that's such an impressive answer! With 52,000 pounds loaded in the tank running the routes I did with a C-12 Cat, geared 3.70, with an Eaton Fuller 10-speed running the speed limit of whatever state I was in, I averaged 5.8 mpg.
My reasoning has nothing to do with passing other company trucks. I've already stated some of those reasons before. You're simply too focused on making comments to try and divert the subject.
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Yeah I haul napkins, cereal, pop-tarts, spaghetti sauce etc. Grocery warehouses certainly don't make up over %15 of my total loads though. BTW Crete has a General Mills dedicated that I believe is %100 drop and hook.
Does Crete or Shaffer National Fleet operate 100% drop and hook? No, they do not. You still deal with other places that are PITA to deal with other than grocery houses. And I could really care less about a
dedicated fleet because our debate isn't about that.
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There's also much less milk and eggs to haul vs. everything else that can be put in a dry van. You want stability, Acklie has been in business for 40 years, every truck, every terminal is paid in full.
An impressive point indeed. But Acklie's not the only one that's been around forty years; so has Jim (Aartman Sr.).
Once again though since you didn't absorb it, milk and eggs never stop running, since cows and chickens don't stop producing. Day in day out a food-grade tanker driver will always have loads to pick up and deliver, and miles to run. Acklie is still a general freight carrier. General freight has slowdowns and potential shutdowns. Last time I checked, you can't transport raw milk, liquid eggs, juice, alcohol, chocolate, corn syrup, glycerin, etc. in your dry van to a processing or manufacturing plant now can you? And you can't put enough quantity of those in a reefer either to replace bulk tank shipments.
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I highly doubt that I could get to go as many places as I can on the national board with Crete, variety in other words.
As for "variety", I'll go back to the point of consistently running the same freight lanes back and forth with the same products. Especially when dealing with having a consistent paycheck every week. Seeing all the different parts of the country got old quite a few years ago.
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So what you're saying is every tanker driver is happier? Are you the national spokesman for tanker drivers, or what?
Happier, yes. National spokesman, no. I do however, enjoy sharing my information with others based upon facts from personal experience. But I accept your nomination and will stand dilligently behind my opinions.
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I'm not trying to say that pulling a dry box is necessarily better, but I'm happy. It seems as if you have something to prove by tearing down the company I drive for and it really doesn't bother me at all.
Wrong again. In your own round about way you've tried to discredit food-grade tanking as being cheaper and that running a dry box is better because of the bigger company, more freight, higher cpm argument. I am glad that you are happy at Crete. I have nothing to prove. However, I have every right to tell people that Acklie is not the end all, be all from once again, my personal experience driving there (though it most certainly goes against the grain of you and all the other happy drivers there). Working smarter, not harder goes far beyond that high cpm you keep speaking of with
any large company.
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With money though, my attitude is "the more the merrier."
Then why are you running for mileage pay when you can make more and run less by pulling for percentage?
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I met a tanker yanker in Mississippi last fall who was pulling drinking water. He hauled chemicals for 20+ years. He was recently diagnosed with terminal leukemia, he was getting off the road in a week to be with his family. I told him I was considering pulling chemicals and he told me that he was convinced exposure to all the different chemicals over the years contributed to his illness. We had been talking about our kids and how fun it is to watch them grow up. He practically begged me to reconsider. This was a family man that was facing death.
A sad story indeed. However, did this driver divulge to you anything else that may have attributed to his illness? Did he tell you his doctor diagnosed him due to chemical exposure, or did he come to that conclusion, per your statement? I understand the hazards associated with my occupation. Nonetheless, this sad story of a chemical tanker driver has absolutely nothing to do with where this has come to, in comparing Aartman and Acklie. Now, if you'd like to compare Acklie and Superior Carriers, go right on ahead. In that perspective I understand and respect why you don't want to pull chemical tankers.
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I have an excellent BS detector (which is why I dispute what you're saying) and he wasn't lieing to me.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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So you're being condescending because you have more experience then me? Real mature and professional.
Not at all. But you took it that way. Why the big mystery on your total driving experience? Are you ashamed? Do you have something to hide? You seem to take great offense when this issue is brought up, whether by myself here or in other posts by other drivers with obviously more (experience) than you. You seem to have the attitude that you can't be told anything, and that you have everything figured out, even when it concerns something you've never actually done. Case in point, you choose to be argumentive with me over
facts I present from my actual time at Shaffer and at Jim Aartman.
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Also I'd have to take a 12 CPM paycut, and I'm all about working smarter, not harder. Why don't you crunch some numbers to figure out how much harder one would have to work to make that up?
Are you saying that at Crete as a company driver you were making .46/mile? That's what you must have been paid to take a .12 pay cut starting at Aartman (.32 + .02 bonus for six months, then .33 + .02 bonus for six months, then .34 + .02 bonus). More on this below...
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Yeah I'm sure you wouldn't want to read another story like that. You'd love nothing more then to read on here that I've failed to try to further prove that what you're doing is so much better then what us OTR drivers are doing.
Once again you are wrong. I was being completely true and honest with my statement Prodigy. I do wish nothing but the best of luck to you in your endeavor. I don't wish malice against anyone unless they do something to harm my family or I personally. You have taken a path I never will with purchasing a truck. But I'm not going to tell you not to do it, or that you're crazy for doing it, though I have seen many who did and failed miserably. Only time will tell in the long run if it is a good career move for you. Again, I hope it is and brings everything you desire it to.
And as of today, I am still a very happy OTR driver.
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Don't worry though, I'll be happy to disappoint you.
No worries, the only one you'll disappoint is yourself. Your youthful bravado does absolutely nothing to impress me.
You mention avoiding questions, then why am I still waiting for answers to these?
What would posess you to go to Bynum instead of Aartman, if you pulled easy food-grade tankers? What brings you to the conclusion that they would be a better company than Aartman?
Are you or any of the other happy Acklie drivers going to tell me that at Crete/Shaffer as a company driver you're practically guaranteed almost 12,000 miles from only 5 or 6 six loads with a full week off consistently per month, 100% no-touch freight, no company politicking b.s., or company driver micromanagement?
Take two...
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Also I'd have to take a 12 CPM paycut, and I'm all about working smarter, not harder. Why don't you crunch some numbers to figure out how much harder one would have to work to make that up?
The figures below, which are based off of actual mileages and loads ran, will be put as for what I would make at current experience and pay rate levels with each respective company, with the same deductions for my 401k and tax. However, Shaffer's
PAY COMPARISON numbers are going to be adjusted +8 % for them finally paying practical route miles in October of 2005.
Shaffer Trucking National Fleet, Nov. 27, 2001 to May 20, 2003
Total dispatched miles: 169,210...182,747 (Converted to practical routing +8%)
Average monthly miles: 9,533...10,296
Average annual miles: 114,396...123,552
Total loads: 191
Average annual loads: 129
Average length of haul: 886 miles...957
Total days off: 124
Average annual days off: 84 (rounded up from 83.76)
Monthly average days off: 6.98
$55,598.40: 123,552 miles x .45/mile
- 2,779.92: 5% 401k (with company's 10% match on the dollar equals $3,057.91)
$52,818.48: Taxable gross income
-13,204.62: 25% Tax
$39,613.86: Annual net income
Jim Aartman Inc., June 24, 2004 to July 27, 2006
Total dispatched miles: 297,853
Average monthly miles: 11,914
Average annual miles: 142,968
Total loads: 145
Average annual loads: 70
Average length of haul: 2,054 miles
Total days off: 195
Average annual days off: 94 (rounded up from 93.6)
Monthly average days off: 7.8
$51,468.48: 142,968 x .36/mile (.34 base + .02 quarterly bonus)
+ 2,400.00: Health insurance credit reimbursement
$53,868.48: Gross
-14,634.00: Per diem deduction (271 days x $54/day)
$39,234.48: Adjusted gross
- 1,961.72: 5% 401k (with company's 100% match on the dollar equals $3,923.44)
$37,272.76: Taxable gross income
- 9,318.19: 25% Tax
$27,954.57: Adjusted gross
+14,634.00: Per diem reimbursement
$42,588.57: Annual net income
So by being able to gross only a mere $53,868 from 70 loads a year with ten more days off, versus $55,598 from almost double the amount of loads that are much shorter and, with less time off for the year is working harder not smarter?
People can read and decide for themselves as to what they deem good and bad. Only an individual can make the proper choice for them, and their family if they have one. It doesn't matter if it's van, reefer, flats, tanks, specialized, etc. as long as it works for them.
For me, it's obviously tanker regardless if it's chemical or food-grade. I have fun, and more importantly, I love doing it. Those who know me can attest to that, whether as a friend or, just as another driver asking for information through a simple email, private message, or phone call.
With this I leave you to say what you will and believe what you may.