I drove for crete carriers for a while they have a pretty good deal.. have you tried looking into them?? :shock: http://mysite.verizon.net/ressupie/

 

Never assume anything .... did you forget what industry you were working in? I don't leave anything personal in our own truck when we park it at the mechanics for a couple days while home. If it was personal Novacane you should have taken it with you to the new truck. Why in the world would you leave jewelry in a truck they are working on if you are leaving in another truck. :roll:

You will be lucky to get all your "personal" stuff back, some things will come up missing.

 

Hi, Novacane!!

Your tenacity has served you well; in the end, it's their loss and it will prove to be your gain.

Bush Bunny is absolutely 100% reight on when she spoke of the dangers of making assumptions, especially in this industry.

While it is a sad fact, it is a fact nonetheless that there are just too many people out there who have sticky fingers, and it only takes one of them to cause a serious problem for you.

In any event, please keep us all posted, and let us know what you are doing.


BTW, Melton is supposed to be a pretty good outfit. There is a familial relationship with CFI, and I think they are some of the nicest flatbedders I've ever run with.

Literasly every one of their drivers I encountered had a sense of professionalism and courtesey that is all too uncommon.

Best Wishes, and GodSpeed!!
Useless

 

Hi novacane, you might want to give Millis a call, they do have a SE Regional, and they seem pretty good to work for with good equipment, not the pieces of crap that you had to drive. Good luck

 

hey manny797 ever worked for roehl transport inc.

 

Well, I am not officially back yet, matter of fact I don't know when I will be able to post again, but I just had to write and give an update since many have asked about me and pm'd me.

Man, it's been such a long time, I don't even know where to begin, lets see, I will start from where I left off in my "Let's hear it for the recruiters" post I made a while back.

Ok, here's what happened. After I was home from cleaning out my truck from Roehl(by the way, they were cool about it, and refunded all my money I had to pay out for king pin, and steering wheel locks and other little things like that without hesitation) I started looking for a new job.

In that process I wound up talking with a recruiter that offered me the "dream job" I mentioned in my other post. So even though the company had a pretty bad rep, I figured I would go for it and see what happens since the job was so great. Well, as you know, they didn't give me the job, and tried to put me on a south east regional run. They got me a truck and hooked me up with a rental car to get to it since it was at another terminal in NC.

But before I left, they told me that since I was hired in on a dedicated run that they would try to get me one if I wanted to wait a few more days, so, since I knew they would take 6 months to work me into a dedicated run if I accepted the regional, AND the fourth of July was right on top of me, I figured I would once again go for the dedicated since that's what I wanted, plus it would give me home time with the family. Plus, if they didn't get me a run fast enough I would just break down and take the regional and deal with it, or so I thought.

So they gave my truck and rental car to another guy, and since he had to drive right by my home on the way to NC they told me to get a ride home with him, cool, no grey dog here, I have had enough of that darn bus, I truly hate them now that I have rode them a couple times.

I get home and have a wonderful 4th of July, all the family was there, just wonderful. I wait a couple days to give them time to find me something and the phone isn't ringing. So running really low on money, I call the head of the dedicated division and ask whats going on, she says she is working on it, and to give her another couple days.

No biggie, fortunately, I had enough money saved to be out of work a couple weeks and still not hurt too bad, so I waited it out. A week goes by with me calling every day, and either being ignored(more often than not) or told there wasn't anything open in my area, and this is coming from the head honcho.

2 weeks go by and I am out of money totally, and am desperate, so I break down and call them to accept a regional run, oh well money is money you know? I go through the same hassle of either leaving a message, or being told there are no trucks available. I finally tell them that I have to get to work, and that I need a truck by Wednesday(this was on a Monday morning) and they said they would work on it.

So up to this point, the 4th was the only thing that went right, my cell phone starts messing up, and I have no idea whats wrong with it, and since I am out of money, and was stupid enough to buy a phone and not purchase the insurance for it, I was out of luck, uh oh, now I was in real trouble. I still managed to get it to work most every day, but it had a problem ringing when someone called.

Anyway, that Wednesday morning, my phone beeps and there is a message, missed another call, and what do you know, it's the company calling to tell me that they had a truck, but I needed to call them in the next few minutes if I wanted it since there were people on the grounds there that would take it.

But what is the time that they called, almost 30 minutes ago, so sure enough I call and they have gave it to someone else. Now, I know this isn't their fault, I should have had a working phone, but I had been calling every day to see if they had something for me, since I knew my phone sucked, so surely they knew I was eager to get behind the wheel. But after I missed that phone call, they acted like they weren't interested in me, or maybe they thought I wasn't serious or something. Well, I had had it with them at this point, promise after promise broken, and nothing to show for it, I miss one call(after they missed 20 of mine) and they blow me off, oh well, time to go with a better employer, one that I was going to start with before, until I got offered the dedicated.

So for all the people that complain about JB Hunt, I join you, since the only thing I did wrong was believe the lies they told me, and miss a phone call. I thought that Roehls business practices were not up to par, but after this fiasco, they are a dream company to work for, and I stand by them to this day, I think they are a great company to work for and if they would have let me switch divisions, I would still be employed by them, and not going through the financial heartache that is my life here lately.

I can't believe I fell for JB's little con, them calling me several times a week to offer me a job should have let me know that if they have to try that hard to hire someone, something must be up. I read on the boards bad story after bad story about them, and still got suckered in by lies, and the hope of having a dedicated run that would get me by the house several times a week. I guess it's a good thing though, since I have kept in contact with my friends I made while in orientation, and one has got 1000 miles a week, and that is on a 2300 mile dedicated account. Another friend went south east regional and had 800 his first week and 900 the second due to having to sit for 3 days each week. But just to be fair, another person got 1400 the first week and 2000 the next on the national account. All three say this week is looking the same as far as mileage goes.


Now, in order for this post to make more sense, I must tell you that it has been written over a few days. I have had internet problems at the house, plus I have been busy doing home renovations that have been on hold for what seems like forever. That combined with looking for proper employment spending my days out and about in the heat, then coming home both disgusted with the outcome of a local job, and to more house work, I just haven't had time to deal with it all, so I decided to put the message board on hold for a little while and concentrate on everything else.

Besides nobody wants to hear about looking for jobs that aren't hiring and hearing the same story over and over with nothing new to update. I just decided to wait until I found a new company before I started posting again, and that would give me time to have the internet looked at, although unless I start getting some decent paychecks asap, I may lose cable which in turn leaves me with no internet, but if that does happen, I will be back eventually. I hope it won't be that way, but I wanted to let everyone know in case I go missing again. By the way, I have seen all the phone calls I have missed, and it's not that I am avoiding phone calls, I just can't answer the phone or it won't even turn on.

But now it has been almost worthless, so as soon as I get home again, I will go to Verizon and get a new one, and hopefully get billed for it next month when I should theoretically be on better ground financially.



Now that you understand why the message may appear choppy, I will start from where I am at this point on Tuesday July 18th. I said I didn't want to start writing the boards again until I found a decent job and could report something good. Obviously if you are reading this you have figured out that I have been hired by a company.

I chose to go with Barr-Nunn. This was the company I was gonna go with originally, but when I was offered my dream job through JB, I declined it, and man oh man what a mistake that was. I really believe I have found a job I could retire from, the people here so far have been nothing short of amazing. I decided on this company because compared to most other places, it's small, less than 700 tractors. Plus they had everything I was looking for, South East regional, excellent rider policy, decent pay for a years experience(35cpm, 36 with hazmat, and that is regional pay not national), pet policy, 2 instead of 3 day orientation, $1000 sign on bonus(although you only get $500 of that on your first paycheck), a decent health plan that is about 20 bucks cheaper than at Roehl, $600 bonus every 60k miles, they pay practical miles, free prepass, you don't even have to ask for a private room during orientation because you automatically get one, rental car instead of the grey dog, and although you don't see many of them around here, I was hard pressed to find a driver that wasn't happy, I am not saying they don't exist, but for every bad remark, I found 5 good ones.

I am supposed to get my truck in the morning(Wednesday) but since I have had such bad luck here lately, I am not holding my breath, although this company seems to be the best thing since sliced bread, really. Orientation has been wonderful, the people are great, the food puts both Roehl and JB to shame, they are straight to the point, and you don't spend you're 2 days just sitting most of the time like at other 3 day orientations.

I can't vouch for the company yet, but as of right now, I feel like I am home. They have surprised me time after time in the short while I have been here with the way they run things. One thing was the fact they sent out a questionnaire asking several questions, of which one was how much time to you want to be home. He said it's your choice, you can be home as often as you want, or stay gone as long as you want, and that the answers to these questions will be given to dispatch so they have an idea of what you are looking for and can try to accommodate you.

You can take any route you want, they send a suggestion, but if you have a better route or one you would rather take, it's fine, you won't get in trouble for it. I am sure that there are limits to this of course, but you get what I mean. You can fuel when you want to, at any place you want as long as it's on the list, and the list is seems to be pretty much most all TA's, Pilot's, and Flying J's, and as most of you know, fueling has always been an issue for me.

I have been issued a truck but haven't got to see it yet, and have no idea what it is, but supposedly, they don't have anything older than a 05, and from what I have seen in the yards, the equipment all looks brand new and well maintained, again, I can't vouch 100% right now, but you guys will know if I feel comfortable giving the "novacane approval" sticker or not after I have some time to find out if this is fluff or the real deal, but I have a really good feeling about this place, I just can't wait till the morning to see if I actually get the truck I was assigned or if I am going to get the run around again.

Anyway, that's all I am gonna write tonight, I will update my "post" more tomorrow after I hopefully receive my truck and get on the road turning miles into cash.


Ok, this morning(Wednesday July 19) I woke up nice and early from a good nights rest, anxious to finally get back in a truck. I was nervous that I would go through another scenario like JB and not get a truck, but much to my relief, I get a call around 8am, and am told to go ahead and check out that my truck was ready!! WHOO HOO!!!, I can't wait baby!!! 8)

I was so nervous on the shuttle ride(actually I drove the shuttle) wondering what kind of truck I would get, and hoped it wouldn't be a piece of junk or something that was worn out. Since I had been issued a truck already last night, I already knew the truck number, and as soon as we arrived were told to hunt down our truck and start putting in our personal belongings and such. I walked through the parking lot hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst.

It didn't take me long to find my number, and what do I see? What looks like a brand new truck waiting on me, turns out I was issued an 05 Columbia, now I know that most everyone says that it's the bottom of the line kind of truck, but honestly, it's what I have been wanting, I guess mainly because that was my first truck I ever drove back when I worked for the nursery, and I have just had a thing for them ever since. Needless to say I was happy, but I hadn't opened the door yet and seen what the interior looks like so I held my excitement until the door opened and was surprised to see a perfectly clean truck, with no visible damage whatsoever.

I spent the next few minutes hanging clothes, and looking the truck over, and the more I looked the better it got! Power everything, tilt, cruise, a/c(and it works really great too!), jake brake, locking diff, cd player(that sounds really nice), new mattress, and only 88k miles!! The ONLY thing I don't like about the truck is the fact that there isn't dual bunks, which sucks since now that I have a excellent rider program I will want to take people with me, but believe me, I will be able to get over it.

Got out to inspect everything outside, motor and everything under the hood was clean enough to eat off of, looks like new tires all the way around, brakes in good shape, just everything, it was really groovy to say the least, I was so happy. So here I am, with what seems like the perfect company that really cares, nice equipment, love the truck, and that leads me to wonder what the catch is, of course......I surely won't get any miles.

I finish everything and am finally dispatched on my first load, and at first I was disappointed. A short 300 mile trip hauling CORN FLAKES!! Again, this may not be a big deal to everyone, but when you are used to hauling bricks, metal, equipment, and stuff like that, it was really cool to haul something like cereal, seems stupid, but you know.......... :wink:

I was weary since the first load was kinda short, but 5 minutes after I was dispatched, I got another message with another trip to do after this one, and it was over 700, cool, and fast, I just hope it keeps up like this. So I started my journey of driving van with an empty trailer to go and pick up my corn flakes. I can't count the number of times I was freaked out by looking in the mirror and not seeing a flatbed. I checked for my tarps several times, this is gonna take some getting used to, lol. :roll:

I make it to the shipper, and after a few errors with paperwork(it's a lot different if you can believe it) I got my first load, 28k lbs. of corn flakes, man that sounds weird to say, lol. I was inside getting my paperwork so I could leave, and when I went outside, I got really scared, I couldn't find my truck for a moment, yep, you guessed it, I was looking for a flatbed with a red truck, not a white truck pulling van, nothing major, just made my heart skip a beat there for a minute. :lol:

Anyway, now that I have something decent to write, I will post this message(of course I guessed you figured that out huh?) although I don't know how long it will be before I can post another one, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, but I will try really hard to post more often and continue the "adventure's of Novacane" saga I started so long ago.

Oh, just one more thing, some advice really...............when driving van, it's a lot easier to open your trailer doors BEFORE you back to the dock, lmao! Learnt that one the hard way, lol. :wink:

 

Aaaah JB Hunt, now it all makes sense. I have never worked for them but I wouldn't trust a company that has ''contract recruiters'' working off cell phones in truck stops. They (the contracted recruiters) have no reason not to tell you exactly what you want to hear as they are paid for you showing up and have exactly no responsibility for what happens afterwards (and the company seems to operate off the idea that once you show up you're likely to take whatever they offer as most truckers can't afford to keep losing time going back home again and starting over with orientation for another company).

I'm glad it's working out for you at the new place.

 

Good for you Novacane Sounds like your off to a good start.

 

I knew it was JB before you ever mentioned thier name. Thier recruiters are liars bigtime. I had 2 friends promised dedicated by JB only to arrive at orientation to be told their positions had been filled but they could go OTR and have the promised dedicated run when another opened up :roll: Needless to say they both told JB to shove it.

 

Good couple of days, and the more I work for this company, the more I love it! I can't believe that pulling van is so easy, it's such a weird feeling to have someone unloading the truck when I am just sitting in the a/c cab doing paperwork that I used to have to rush to finish.

I have had 4 loads so far, and 2 of them were drop and hooks, now this I can get used to, lol! I screwed up my very first load though, and haven't been able to forgive myself for it. I forgot what time zone I was in when I accepted the load and was an hour late, man I hate that, but I have made sure to get the other 3 to the consignee ahead of time, in fact hours early.

Since I didn't get the first load on time, they pulled the next load from me and gave me another one, I thought I might be screwed on miles, but they were the same, with the only difference being that I had to wait till noon to pick the load up before heading out, if I had the other one, I could have pulled out at 6am.

But it was a blessing really, since the time zone change has had me messed up, and the first few nights I have been arranging the truck trying to find the best place to put things, and just when I think I have it figured out, I find a new place to cram something in, which in turn makes me move everything else, it's a vicious cycle, lol.

Since I got my truck, I have logged more miles than all the friends I made at orientation with JB have, and that was with them starting Monday and me Wednesday! Don't get me wrong, it's under 1400 right now, but for 3 days on a new job it's more than I expected and am happy.

I still love my truck, it is so much more powerful than my old international, I am driving the same area's so I know what gears I usually climb hills in and such, and this one has a lot more power. It also is just nicer in general, I haven't found anything that didn't work, and it drives like a new one, I am so happy. The only things I don't care for(notice I didn't say "don't like") is the clutch "sounds" funny when released, not a bad sound, but just odd, maybe I am not used to it or something, works perfectly, but makes me wonder. It also doesn't have quite as much room as the international, but still plenty, and I would take this one over 2 of the internationals.

Anyway, today was great with one exception, my phone went completely out, last night I could still text message Chris's phone, but today, nothing. So after I picked up my "time sensitive" load at noon(it was a con-way load going from terminal to terminal) I took the first opportunity to send them a message asking when I could be routed home so I could get the phone fixed once and for all. A message was sent to me "please call dispatch" and I thought uh oh, I shouldn't have asked that so soon.

I stopped for fuel(without having to drive on a 1/16th of a tank) and used a calling card to call the dispatch. I was told that I don't have to ask for hometime, and that if I needed time off, that I should TELL them and they would see to it the best they could. I couldn't believe my ears, can this be true? He was like "I just wanted to talk to you straight instead of through message and let you know when you need time off, you tell me, and I will try to get you home as soon as I can per your request, it's my job, you know?" I swear a tear almost came to my eye, lmao.

Anyway, I had to pick up at noon and the load had to be there by 10:15 tonight, I was there at 9:30. I get there, back into a dock, which was easy as pie, it was a huge terminal, a big long building with truck docks the entire length on both sides, cool, never been to a place like this before. It's nothing compared to the place I went to in Ohio the other day on my 2nd load, man that place was bigger than huge!

It was a drop and hook deal, and I dropped and went to find my trailer which was easy as pie, everything was laid out nice. I hooked and did a pti on it while waiting to see what they wanted me to do. They told me to just find a safe place to park that they didn't have anything tonight since I didn't have much drive time left anyway so I can get some sleep and an early start tomorrow.

Thankfully there was a small truckstop on the same exit, and I went over there hoping there was a parking spot open since the closest thing is a small pilot that is always full, so I would more than likely be stuck driving 45 minutes to a big one that would almost certainly have parking spots left. I got over to the one a mile away and sure enough I was lucky, 2 spots left. I was on the cb asking as I was pulling in to see if someone was leaving or seen a spot. A driver got on the radio and said there's 2 spots, nope make that one, and I don't think you can get into the other, I said if it's big enough, I can put the trailer anywhere.

This of course got everybody talking, and wanting to see if the "girl could do it". It was a corner spot, and it was a odd place to pull into, but I got it in one shot, backing these vans are a LOT easier than the spread axle flats. You see with a spread, it can turn at 2 different rates if the ground isn't level, if there is more weight on the front tires, it will turn fast, if more is on the rears, it will turn slower. You just never know what it's gonna do till you start backing, but with the van, they are all together, so it turns at the same rate, and much smoother.

Anyway, I got the big head from the guys saying how well I did, so it was just the topping on the cake at the end of a wonderful day. And if that doesn't beat all, the store had some things I have been looking for, for a while, and at a decent price, and they gave me a free fountain drink as well!

I am usually scared at this point when I seem to be having good luck, knowing that the bad is just around the corner, but I am not that way this time, I feel great. So here I sit in Charlotte NC. had a quick cat nap, and woke up to a reply to the message I sent earlier TELLING them I needed to be home asap for my phone problems It simply said "10-4 will do". I felt so good I just had to update the boards, sorry nothing exciting or something out of the ordinary, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, now, do you think they will live up to what they say and get me home in the next couple days? Stay tuned and we'll find out!