[CrazyTulip]

Originally Posted by bigpapa7272

hey crazy thanks for the input I am looking to us xpress when i get out of school in october. They are high up on my list along with maverick and transport america. Any more info you could pass along to me about them would be great.

No problem, just keep in mind there are some different policies with USX for solo drivers such as a sliding pay scale, so you might want to look into it more before you decide. A lot of drivers don't care about it, but others do so if I were you I'd research everything and see what you want out of a company before going in. Also a negative about USX I want you to know: they will not go into your background at depth until you're in orientation. So they might look at a glance if you don't have any major things wrong from reading your application, but other than that they won't do background checks etc. until you're there. They HAVE sent plenty of drivers home during orientation because they found out stuff during orientation. If you go make sure to arrange transportation! We took our own car when we went just to be on the safe side.
Miles wise I don't know much how they are for solos since I drive team - I have 2 friends with USX who run solo: 1 her truck is in the shop a lot, the other one just started a few weeks ago with USX and so far is satisfied.
Again: if you want to know anything - I'll be happy to help you!

[Skywalker]

I'm surprised I'm bothering to even respond to this....but here goes:

If you are going to drive solo....you could do better with Swift, or Knight.... But you'd probably be better off with Knight to start.

Frankly....for solos's...the sliding payscale....is :dung: It literally cheats the driver out of pay. It is can be used as a tool to literally hose the driver.

Do they do it.... I really don't know.

But I do know this: Anyone who thinks my skills diminish in value when I drive more miles and make them more money....has their cranium well ensconced on rectal defilade..... :evil:

Personally....beyond the "pretty red trucks"....nothing.

[Copperhead]

It isn't that your skills diminish with longer miles that they pay less, it's because shorter hauls actually are higher revenue than the longer ones. Since USX is getting paid a better rate for a short haul, they are increasing the driver pay likewise. I won't debate whether they are increasing it enough, that is another issue.

You are looking at a longer run is a pay cut per mile. In reality, the shorter haul is paying better to somewhat compensate for more frequent loading and unloading. It works that way throughout the industry. Of course, many carriers are just paying a flat rate per mile, but they are then shorting a driver for additional effort involved in a short haul.

If you would check with any broker, shorter hauls pay more than longer hauls. Just a fact. I do not have a clue what USX pay scale is since I don't work there, but I would consider it a plus if I was getting a better pay rate for shorter hauls.

To each his own.

[CrazyTulip]

Originally Posted by Copperhead

It isn't that your skills diminish with longer miles that they pay less, it's because shorter hauls actually are higher revenue than the longer ones. Since USX is getting paid a better rate for a short haul, they are increasing the driver pay likewise. I won't debate whether they are increasing it enough, that is another issue.

You are looking at a longer run is a pay cut per mile. In reality, the shorter haul is paying better to somewhat compensate for more frequent loading and unloading. It works that way throughout the industry. Of course, many carriers are just paying a flat rate per mile, but they are then shorting a driver for additional effort involved in a short haul.

If you would check with any broker, shorter hauls pay more than longer hauls. Just a fact. I do not have a clue what USX pay scale is since I don't work there, but I would consider it a plus if I was getting a better pay rate for shorter hauls.

To each his own.

Hence why a lot of drivers go for it, but like you said: to each his own!
If you want to see the sliding pay scale rates check here: http://www.xpressdrivers.com/solos.html
On the right of the page is an icon that says "Pay Scale" click on it and it'll show you how it's broken down.

[Gunstra]

Originally Posted by Skywalker

I'm surprised I'm bothering to even respond to this....but here goes:

If you are going to drive solo....you could do better with Swift, or Knight.... But you'd probably be better off with Knight to start.

Frankly....for solos's...the sliding payscale....is :dung: It literally cheats the driver out of pay. It is can be used as a tool to literally hose the driver.

Do they do it.... I really don't know.

But I do know this: Anyone who thinks my skills diminish in value when I drive more miles and make them more money....has their cranium well ensconced on rectal defilade..... :evil:

Personally....beyond the "pretty red trucks"....nothing.

Just FYI Knight pays on a sliding scale too, .34 to .43 per mile, the more miles the less your paid (IE: .34 for over 900 mile trips) and the less you run the more you get paid (IE: .43 per mile for short trips), so how is it bad to get paid more for short trips which don't amount to many miles then it does to get paid less for longer miles? That has me confused.

[Phreddo]

Originally Posted by CrazyTulip

Teams generally don't run their trucks over 180,000 miles and you'll get a brand new one. We run a minimum of 5200 miles a week and our best week (well it was actually 9 days) was 8500 miles. Unless we go home and the week is cut in half, we never had less than 5200 miles. They get us home on time (with a 2 day margin before or after the date you request which is fine with us).

Damn, the company I just started with runs their trucks to [Dr. Evil] One meelyon miles [/d].

[K9]

1.) Dispatch: Idiot bullies who've never set foot in a truck and expect you to drive 3 states in three hours ... (because they've run off all their drivers and didn't get the load there on time ... and ... well ...they're idiots!)

2.) Money. THEY CHEAT YOU BIGTIME. The miles they give you are far shorter than what you actually drive ... then they cheat you some more by not putting in the miles they are giving you ... then they cheat you some more with that "Per Deim" thing ... as in ... "Hire on for .41 a mile and we'll actually pay you .32 cents a mile and then we'll look you in the face and tell you that you're paying less taxes ...therefore you're making out like a kitten in catnip.)

[NOTE: I drove for them 3 weeks and they paid me $1,000.00. And that's WITH the $500 bonus.]

3.) They are NOT driver friendly. They want you to be in that seat 11 hours a day so they can pay you for ... maybe 4 hours. If you need to get supplies or have an emergency ... good luck!

4.) I was told there are three companies that are operating out of that family .... US Xpress, Western Express, and Covenant. That's right ... Covenant. Need I say more??

5.) They will run you past your legal log time if there's half a chance for them to do so.

6.) No ... they do not want you to go home..

And despite it all ... there are people who've worked for them for years and who are making pretty good money (they say)_I guess you have to learn their system. Lot's of women working for them. GREAT facilities ... oh ... that was BEFORE they closed the Oklahoma terminal and sold the Colton building, fired half the office staff, and half the shop staff.

WARNING - WARNING ... DO NOT DRIVE FOR US XPRESS ... unless you have to. Nice trucks though....

[geargrinder]

because they hire and awful lot of lady drivers. Seriously, I have spoken to quite a few of their drivers. Never heard any really major complaints. They do one of them dollar stores, I heard that particular account can be a pain in the keister. Other than that they seem like a happy bunch of fresh meat. Best of luck.

[BIG JEEP on 44's]

Originally Posted by geargrinder

because they hire and awful lot of lady drivers. Seriously, I have spoken to quite a few of their drivers. Never heard any really major complaints. They do one of them dollar stores, I heard that particular account can be a pain in the keister. Other than that they seem like a happy bunch of fresh meat. Best of luck.

I've heard plenty of horror stories by USX drivers ...But I think most of it was drivers that were new ,and just were not cut for the job , because the complaints just seemed mostly like stuff about hometime,and dipatcher does'nt understand legal HOS complaits...I don't think USX the cream of the crop, but they on't seem bad to get started...I was surprised to see that their Volvo 780s have no power window on drivers side seeing as it's a 780,and everyone says USX has high dollar equipment.

[K9]

Wait "BIG JEEP on 44's" .... you say that drivers who "complain" about idiot dispatchers are not "cut out fer da job" ... but then you turn right around and complain about (automatic) Volvo's that don't have POWER WINDOWS???

Amazing.
Then they say Truck Driver's aren't the sharpest pencils in the box!