I was down at the port of Houston picking up pipe last Nov. I think (while I still worked for Arrow) waiting to get loaded, as well were several other drivers, and this o/o was there saying that Arrow had just bought a bunch of day cabs (think he said like 20) just to run local around Houston hauling pipe and that Arrow was going to "take over the port" and start hauling basically all the pipe coming out of the port.
He also told the 3-4 otr guys in front of him when he arrived that since he was local, he had priority over us and we had to move. He sat there and was telling us that and how Arrow was paying him $250 for each load that he pulled out of there and how he did 3-4 or more loads a day making like a grand a day only running 100-200 miles. While he was out there telling us all that, a truck pulled out and I quickly hopped in and pulled up, got loaded and got out of there. Waited to get a message from my dm that local drivers have prority over us, but it never happened. Guess that was why he didn't say anything when I pulled up.
But if Arrow is losing their pipe accounts in Houston, They are in trouble unless they get something quick to keep drivers busy. Usually had a hard time getting anything out of Dallas or Laredo, was almost always dead headed to Houston.

 

The trailors at the Houston yard were always terrible. I don't know why Arrow would never send some decent trailors down there, but you had better hope that you didn't have a step deck when you got there, because you would almost always have to drop it and get a pos laying around on the yard, if you could find one at all.

 

sorry so long to respond...been running my butt off lately,i run for paul trans out of ok.i live in houston also.i am by no means saying that they are losing all their local acct's but they are slowly losing quite a few.i have never seen a arrow daycab in houston and if they were here i would see them..as far a trls go,our worst trlr is better than arrow's best trlr's as i have been seeing more of them at place's i p/u.we have stacks of new trlr's waiting to be unloaded and lettered every week at the ok city shop.ran into an arrow driver at the pilot in huntsvill tx last week waiting for the hou shop to bring a tire because ya'lls road serv said they didn't have the money to pay for a new tire..this was in the am mind you,i came back through in the late afternoon and he was still waiting and missed his del appt on top and had to sit on his load until mon to del.the writing is on the wall..no credit and run down equipment and no new equip anytime soon foreseen in the future???oh well form your own opinion on that..as far as regional work,no they do not if you live outside of ok,tx..

 

I had plenty of times like that guy did. My truck cut off on me while going down the road. Called and they said they wouldn't have it looked at unless it was an emergency (I guess only the people whose truck wasn't runnig at all got any where with them). Brakdown dept. got more and more of a pain to deal with. Kept have to wait longer and longer each time for them to answer the phone. When I first started, I got upset wainting for 10 mins., at the end 10-15 mins was expected, and sometimes I waited for 30 min or more.

Arrow said they were going to replace their fleet in the next 5 years, but I noticed that they didn't say how many a year or any thing like that. Some people maybe waiting for the full 5 years, if they get a new one at all.

I didn't see any day cabs in Houston, I did sit up in Tulsa over Thanksgiving and saw a few rental trucks from Bright, which I thought was a company in Houston. Not sure if that was what that guy was talking about, just renting a some trucks. He may have been lying all together.

 

I talked to a Paul driver in TX not long ago, NICE equipment. he had a red Pete 388 and a Retnouer stepdeck. I was jealous lol. glad they are keeping you busy.

I would never pull a 10,000+ lb steel trailer for anyone, let alone one in the condition that some of Arrow's trailers are in. nothing personal against Arrow. I had an Arrow driver looking at my 5 year old aluminum Benson like it was a spaceship at Alcoa in SC.

 

I see them damn nearly every place I go and they do have some nice equipment. I have spoken to a couple of the drivers in the past and they seem to be happy.

:rofl: now that's funny :rofl:

 

another thing, not slamming Arrow, but I picked up a load of pipe at Wheatland Tube in western PA and it says right on the BOL "do not use Arrow Trucking unless absolutely necessary, with customer's permission"

is their rep really that bad? doesn't matter to me, even if a flatbedder doesn't want to put up with TMC, I don't see why they wouldn't try Maverick or Melton or a local outfit before Arrow. there is a commercial on Sirius proclaiming how awesome they are, doesn't appear to be the case from what I see. nothing personal, I just would not touch their equipment. ever.

 

From what I have heard there is a few guys that are hooked up to chassis and are starting to haul containers out of the Port of Houston. I was told that we might start doing the same out of CA. I and another driver said then we should get chassis to put the box on and we can do that for awhile. If we have to haul containers I'd rather have the right trailer.
In December I had a container that I hauled out of Long Beach up to Albu, NM. When I got there the customer said bump the dock and we'll open the doors. When I was stopped they asked why is this on a flatbed we can't get the dockplate onto the container.... We had to hook a tow strap to the pallets and drag them out.:thumbsup:

 

We've had a few guys go to Calexico and pickup trailers. Anytime I have to do this I will only pickup Aluminum trailers and bring back to the Phoenix yard. What gets me is the the trailers are located in one yard which we'll haul to another yard 15 miles away and drop the trailer. We have to do this twice so we have a total of 3 trailers.
Now we also need to have 150 in cash for the forklift driver so he will stack the trailers for us. I know of 2 drivers that have pulled the money off there cards and they had to fight to get the money back from arrow.
As far as trailers... I will do some slight work... change a light or fix a broken wire. What I don't get is when a driver drops a trailer at the yard knowing that it has a blown tire or sometype of defect and grabs a different one. issedoff:

 

Thanks ElGaul,

Yeah I have had to wait for a few hours to get a tire paid for. In fact I was in Coachella TA a month ago and had to get 2 tires replaced because DOT had checked and they were about 1/8-2/8ths.... I called Breakdown and told them I had a DOT inspection and I was able to get 2 all posistion tires placed on my drives.
After about 3 hrs I was told to take off by the manager of the TA. He was a little pissed with his shop guys when they kept coming into counter area and making calls. What they didn't know was that the counter guys were on hold with Arrow trying to get paid and they kept disconnecting the call.
Don't know how long it took to get paid but I was moving finally.