[griffdd]

Got this offer running team from kansas city to salt lake city 2x one week and 3x the next. Starts out at .38c a mile. This is for a contractor and would be a dedicated route.. Can anyone give me some insite on fedex ground good or bad?? I've been wanting to get out of the local intermodal grind and this look's pretty good.

Originally Posted by griffdd

Got this offer running team from kansas city to salt lake city 2x one week and 3x the next. Starts out at .38c a mile. This is for a contractor and would be a dedicated route.. Can anyone give me some insite on fedex ground good or bad?? I've been wanting to get out of the local intermodal grind and this look's pretty good.

The good news is that it's 100% terminal-to-terminal drop/hook. You don't even have to break down your set. Uniforms provided at no cost from FedEx.

The bad is that .38 cpm is crap money for pulling doubles in a line-haul operation. Go to FedEx Freight, FedEx National LTL, Old Dominion, SAIA, UPS Freight, or just about any other decent LTL carrier and you can make + .50 cpm doing the same thing.

[Brown67]

You would be driving for a contractor and not Fedex ground. They contract out all of their over the road trucking. Guys can have one route or several. I've heard its a good way to get your foot in the door if you're interested in getting your own contract with them someday. Drive for a contractor and learn the business and when a route comes up you can move over and become a contractor. I've seen other posts on the subjest just do a search on Fedex and you should get more info.

again cold frosty opened his uneducated pie hole. fed ex is terminal to terminal, yes. uniforms are NOT provided, however the contractor may buy you a few to get stared or all you need, just depends on the individual. and they do break down and hook up their own sets. and in my opinion 38 cents is not bad for starting out and all you do is drive. fed ex freight and the other all do dock work in addition to driving. it is very easy work.

[Ian Williams]

Originally Posted by jedfxg

again cold frosty opened his uneducated pie hole. fed ex is terminal to terminal, yes. uniforms are NOT provided, however the contractor may buy you a few to get stared or all you need, just depends on the individual. and they do break down and hook up their own sets. and in my opinion 38 cents is not bad for starting out and all you do is drive. fed ex freight and the other all do dock work in addition to driving. it is very easy work.

Frosty has been called many things on here...some of them rightfully so. He speaks the truth in a somewhat cynical, pessimistic and predictable way. Given that the vast majority of drivers on here are long haul some of his comments really stir the pot.

The pay and bennies OTR offers has to improve significantly if the driver "shortage" is ever going to get better. Other industries that compete for the same pool of skilled blue collar labor offer far better pay and home time. Heck even one of the owners of CRE said that a driver needs to earn about 50% more than they do now. In the rest of the developed world drivers earn MORE than construction workers.

For comparison:

I'll earn ~42k this year working 8-9 hrs per day on a regular M-F swing shift schedule. If I were to bid road I would earn 60-65k woking 12-14hrs on gaveyard. Barring epic bad weather or a breakdown I sleep in my own bed every night. At my barn the top city guy earns ~60k and the top line driver earns ~80k. This is the norm for LTL.

Roughnecks on an offshore oil rig $40-60+k/yr. The norm in CA is one week off for every week on the rig, 50% Hometime!!!

Railroads have a similar screwball 24/7 on-call schedule but they offer better pay, home time and far better job security. RRs are the textbook definition of monopoly.

Until OTR pays 50-70k year with more predictability the shortage of drivers will continue. The business pratices of the CREs and JB Hunts of the world actually make it worse. How many people have been turned off to OTR by their empty promises and low pay?

The FedEx Ground Contractor scheme is the LTL & Parcel version of fleece purchase.

There in an inverse relationship between the quality of a job and how much advertising & recruiting is needed to fill it. I frequently see contractors looking for people to work for them and/or sell their route on Craigslist here in Reno and Sacramento all the time. Ground puts up billboards on truck routes looking for contractors.

All that said you could do a lot worse for a 1st job than Ground. Remember that you are responsible for in charge of your equipment. Don’t be afraid to say “NO” if something is illegal or unsafe. Once you get to the 3mo-6mo-12mo-24mo mark with a clean record more opportunities will become available.

[Griff]

After further review this maybe isnt that great of deal no paid holiday's,vacation time,bennies and going from solo driver to team. Also running dedicated to salt lake down ugh I 80 every week would get real old fast. I have 3yrs of driving exp with all the endorsements im thinking ill be better off tryin to get on with the actual company as a driver.

ok i may be a big dummy, but i got to ask. how the hell is the fedex contractor getting hosed in the "FLEECEPURCHASE"???? we own or trucks, therefore we can take our truck and leae whenever we want. again a bunch of mindless asses talking out of it. you must think since you can read and can talk with big words that you know all there is to know. at least CFM worked at a fedex yard..as a package handler, not a driver or really even associated with drivers, but whatever it takes for him to know everything. the fedex ground operation is no more than o/o's signing on with a carrier, which most do. mybe you can explain to me the whole advertising thing you are talking about, cause i do not see any relation with the question about fedex ground contractors

[Sealord]

"kansas city to salt lake city" "down I 80" Wouldn't I-70 into Utah be shorter? Or is it six to one and a half dozen to the other. Would be sweet in Winter. BOL

[driver67373]

Originally Posted by Sealord

"kansas city to salt lake city" "down I 80" Wouldn't I-70 into Utah be shorter? Or is it six to one and a half dozen to the other. Would be sweet in Winter. BOL

Not if you're going into Salt Lake, 80 goes straight in to that city. 70 comes out at I-15, way south of Salt Lake. You also have to deal with Vale and Eisenhower etc.

Originally Posted by jedfxg

the fedex ground operation is no more than o/o's signing on with a carrier, which most do. mybe you can explain to me the whole advertising thing you are talking about, cause i do not see any relation with the question about fedex ground contractors

Don't you know anything? FedEx Ground has been taken to court countless times because they misclassify their employees as contractors. And in case after case, they LOSE!

Read all about it here: http://www.fedexwatch.org/resources/ground

At least some of you guys got smart and organized a couple of Home Delivery terminals up in Massachusets and Connecticut. Those contractors are now TEAMSTERS! And they'll get the pay, bennies, and working conditions they rightfully DESERVE.

So you think .38 cpm is big money for pulling doubles? What a joke! The guy up in that Kenworth daycab from your sister company pulling FedEx Freight pups is doing the same job for .54 cpm, a pension/401k, and top-flight health insurance. What kind of benefits do you get if you even get any? What kind of retirement plan do you have? Oh yeah, I know. They're called Jack and $hit!

What's funny about you jedfxg is that you're getting royally screwed and you don't even realize it. You're like those Japanese soldiers they found on those islands after WWII who didn't even know the war was over. And you know why?

Originally Posted by jedfxg

ok i may be a big dummy