I have worked for Knight Transportation out of Katy, Tx for 1 year in a couple of weeks! I have had a few minor downs but more ups with them, Ive been driving since 97 and they are the 5th company I have worked for! I was doing OTR 3-6 wks out 1 day off for a week out prehistoric trucking time off crap before. I wanted more hometime, decent pay (Was willing to take paycut for hometime), nice truck, dedicated\regional to stay near home.
I have gotten all the things above, Im home every weekend usually friday afternoon thru sunday nite or monday morning, drive a 2005 volvo, have a dedicated run from san antonio (home) to dallas\houston\valley cities. Im making 35.5 cpm at my highest pay scale and my trips are all usually under 300 miles so with the sliding pay system I make the highest pay for the short runs. Im not sure of the exact pay scale atm for starting but it was 31 cpm a year ago and the fleet got 4 raises in the past year. We get detention pay by the minute, after 2 hours.
To start with I drove a 460,000 mile century which I didnt like, then it had problems so I got another 500,000+ mile century which finally after 10 months of driving they gave me a new truck, which is a volvo and they are in the process of making the dry van fleet all volvo. After about 8months I got my first dedicated run which only lasted about a month which upsetted me, then last week after running regional around Texas mostly for 3 weeks I got another dedicated run I mentioned above (home every nite\in town at least)
They are the best company I have worked for, list of other companies I worked for and comparing to below
1. Stevens Transport > 18mths, low pay, taught me allot though, good starting company, get experience from free training and leave after contract.
2. James Helwig and Son > 3 yrs off and on, great small company, no hometime though, too much east coast big city, tired of it, meat hauler mostly.
3. CFI > 6 mnths messed up hometime, crazy dispatch number system, hated the phone highway miler thing, felt like a number with this company big time, would never consider going back!
4. JB Hunt > 6 mnths , actually really liked them, slipped seated 2wks out 4 days off but I had to go from houston to san antonio on a bus to and from work, I really liked there dispatch system (never met my dispatcher in another state) but you were a number.
Knight is really a good company even though we drive slow 62 mph trucks! They have a killer back breaker physical, you go to a physical therapist and he works your butt off to test you! Lots of drop and hook at Knight, lots of dedicated runs. You will have to work for them for awhile to get the ded runs but sometimes you may be in a hot spot and get lucky from the start. When I started I told my dispatcher I liked running the southwest and went to LA, Las Vegas back to Texas allot. You can choose or ask what loads they have or tell them what your plan is!
I have problems with load planning (really thats everywhere but they dont utilize the info from the qualcomm we give them), lack of empty trailers (drive around for hours looking sometimes), my 2nd dispatcher just quit so here we go again waiting for new guy. I really want a speed increase but its not the most important thing, hometime and pay are!
Overall if your looking to staying close to home, having more time at home and eventually getting a dedicated run Id go for it! Just dont forget we drive slow so get a xm radio to kill some time or something
Need more details let me know, some of my info may not be precise cause things change allot and ive forgotten stuff from orientation a year ago!
Knight Transportation
Go safely; see you on the big road :rock:
