Estes | New rumors!!!

Other ltl companies chip away at Estes by taking the drivers. Estes is in a bad spot when it comes to training drivers for OD and Dayton and others. Estes pay package is not as attractive as the rest for starters. Too many short runs on linehaul. Getting treated like the red headed step child at every terminal. Well I could go on, you get the point. The government could let us drive 13 hrs, Estes would still only use 6 to 7 of it and send ya home or to bed on average. Estes does not have a driver shortage, it has a driver utilization problem.
I'm not sure what part of the country you are from but this is the third LTL company iv been with in 11 years due to moving but it's the best pay package iv ever delt with and as far as miles iv never ran like this before all of our extra board stuff out of our terminal is 500+ right out the gate 95% of the time I'd rather do that instead of puddle jumping all night long is what always happen at the other places 14 hour day with 300 miles and go to bed so I'm pretty happy over here seems like the fill my pockets every week and the rest of our extra boards pockets also and top pay with our raise will put us right behind ups freight and Fedex not to bad I don't think
 
That's cool. Why do you think Estes is short so many drivers and can't move the freight to meet service times? I will say this, I'm not lying to you. Estes has hundreds if not thousands of drivers that they send home or to bed with 4 to 5 hours left to drive. These are drivers that want to work. So the pay to these drivers is not good since we get paid by the mile. It also looks like Estes is trying to move us away from dropping and hooking our own sets, that hurts when you can't get miles. Now put in the wait time at terminals that could care less you are there and the pay goes down further because in mileage pay- time is money. Look, Estes has a driver utilization problem period. If Estes can figure out how to open the gates and let the horses run, they will be taking drivers from the competition. Here's why. If a driver is going to be short run then he will go to the company that pays for everything, fueling, waiting, dropping hooking 53's ect.. Other companies pay more for all the other work we do, so at the end of the day a driver makes more running short at the competition. Most drivers can't wait 15 years to get a good run.
 
That's cool. Why do you think Estes is short so many drivers and can't move the freight to meet service times? I will say this, I'm not lying to you. Estes has hundreds if not thousands of drivers that they send home or to bed with 4 to 5 hours left to drive. These are drivers that want to work. So the pay to these drivers is not good since we get paid by the mile. It also looks like Estes is trying to move us away from dropping and hooking our own sets, that hurts when you can't get miles. Now put in the wait time at terminals that could care less you are there and the pay goes down further because in mileage pay- time is money. Look, Estes has a driver utilization problem period. If Estes can figure out how to open the gates and let the horses run, they will be taking drivers from the competition. Here's why. If a driver is going to be short run then he will go to the company that pays for everything, fueling, waiting, dropping hooking 53's ect.. Other companies pay more for all the other work we do, so at the end of the day a driver makes more running short at the competition. Most drivers can't wait 15 years to get a good run.

It’s coming. They just opened up around 10
600 mile runs out of 297. They opened them up last month and are locked in till next Dec.
 
Does anyone know what kind of runs they have out of Rockford Il? They are hiring OTR regional. I’m torn between Dayton and you guys. I see you can start at top pay with 3 years experience? 60 sum c.p.m that’s hard to beat!
 
Does anyone know what kind of runs they have out of Rockford Il? They are hiring OTR regional. I’m torn between Dayton and you guys. I see you can start at top pay with 3 years experience? 60 sum c.p.m that’s hard to beat!

Top pay .6525 for scheduled runs and .665 for extraboard. I don't know about their runs though and I don't think any of us are out of that terminal.
 
Does anyone know what kind of runs they have out of Rockford Il? They are hiring OTR regional. I’m torn between Dayton and you guys. I see you can start at top pay with 3 years experience? 60 sum c.p.m that’s hard to beat!
Tough decision but I'm pretty sure that most Dayton drivers are home daily, and I believe they are paid for all time spent (waiting and switching, etc). They also don't pull pups. As much as I like big E I think I'd go for the job at Dayton. I have a friend there out of Indy and he returns home daily and runs plenty of miles year round with no complaints.
 
That's cool. Why do you think Estes is short so many drivers and can't move the freight to meet service times? I will say this, I'm not lying to you. Estes has hundreds if not thousands of drivers that they send home or to bed with 4 to 5 hours left to drive. These are drivers that want to work. So the pay to these drivers is not good since we get paid by the mile. It also looks like Estes is trying to move us away from dropping and hooking our own sets, that hurts when you can't get miles. Now put in the wait time at terminals that could care less you are there and the pay goes down further because in mileage pay- time is money. Look, Estes has a driver utilization problem period. If Estes can figure out how to open the gates and let the horses run, they will be taking drivers from the competition. Here's why. If a driver is going to be short run then he will go to the company that pays for everything, fueling, waiting, dropping hooking 53's ect.. Other companies pay more for all the other work we do, so at the end of the day a driver makes more running short at the competition. Most drivers can't wait 15 years to get a good run.

Getting sent to bed with 4-5 hours left to drive happens at just about every LTL company I've worked at. It's just one of those unfortunate things that happens. I do agree that not getting paid anything while we sit and wait for a couple hours is the worst part. The XB drivers out of my terminal seem to be happy with the miles they get on a weekly basis.

In the end most of the LTLs pay just about the same. It's all about finding the one that works for you.
 
I don't like to see drivers get trained by Estes and go to the competition. I don't like to see guys take their place still wearing the competitors uniform to Estes. The guy should be sent home wearing the competition uniform to work. The guys we are getting are bottom feeders. We lose too many good drivers to Dayton, OD, Pitt, Fed Ex. If all ltls were the same then we would see tons of OD Dayton ect circling through but we don't. It's flowing in one direction mostly. Like I said before, the other guys are paying time spent on short runs. If Estes doesn't want to pay for time spent, then maybe one way to keep good drivers is more miles.
 
I've been on extra board at Estes 3 years almost and I can count on one hand the times I've been put on break with 5 hours left. Just my experience
 
I hear ya. Why do you think drivers quit and go work for OD and others? All the guys that left at my terminal have never come back. Plus the new guys are leaving and going to the competition. Why is Estes short 500 drivers? I heard from a driver that the bids went up this week in 068 and a hub run got cut so they took a long linehaul run and gave it to hub. Maybe that's why guys quit.
 
Getting sent to bed with 4-5 hours left to drive happens at just about every LTL company I've worked at. It's just one of those unfortunate things that happens. I do agree that not getting paid anything while we sit and wait for a couple hours is the worst part. The XB drivers out of my terminal seem to be happy with the miles they get on a weekly basis.

In the end most of the LTLs pay just about the same. It's all about finding the one that works for you.
Agree. Rather drive for 7-9 hours @ .60+ than use all 11 @ .45.
 
It’s coming. They just opened up around 10
600 mile runs out of 297. They opened them up last month and are locked in till next Dec.
Bull crap. They are not locked in unless there is a signed CBA. And even then, with the blessing of the Union a company can change runs up & down the board. The difference is the rank & file does have some say in runs They can change any run, for any reason, @ any time. I am glad there are new & longer runs for the drivers that want to work. That is good. But remember changes can & might happen any time with little notice. If it is a better fit money wise for the company, they will change anything that helps the bottom line. von.
 
Bull crap. They are not locked in unless there is a signed CBA. And even then, with the blessing of the Union a company can change runs up & down the board. The difference is the rank & file does have some say in runs They can change any run, for any reason, @ any time. I am glad there are new & longer runs for the drivers that want to work. That is good. But remember changes can & might happen any time with little notice. If it is a better fit money wise for the company, they will change anything that helps the bottom line. von.

Are you out of Phoenix? They were currently running a short 390mile run to a half way point called desert center. They changed them to Redlands. The drivers had no choice but to take it. They added more Redlands to the mix, and that’s when those on other runs were allowed to bid on them. This happened all before our normal bid time in December. They were originally told that if they bid on these runs they are locked in till next December, but I recently was told they might be changing that. Some drivers don’t like it because they prefer the short runs so they have more family time. It seems that 297 is very unorthodox.
Also Estes needs no blessing from any Union.
 
Are you out of Phoenix? They were currently running a short 390mile run to a half way point called desert center. They changed them to Redlands. The drivers had no choice but to take it. They added more Redlands to the mix, and that’s when those on other runs were allowed to bid on them. This happened all before our normal bid time in December. They were originally told that if they bid on these runs they are locked in till next December, but I recently was told they might be changing that. Some drivers don’t like it because they prefer the short runs so they have more family time. It seems that 297 is very unorthodox.
Also Estes needs no blessing from any Union.
No, I am retire. My point was the company can & will if they want change any and all runs as they see fit. If you are under a CBA then the union can have an effect large or small as to runs & their length. With other CBA work rules, it makes it harder & more expensive to make these changes. The Union will approve any run change as long as the pay is about the same. If they lay off, they lay off. In a nut shell working under a CBA results in better runs, pay, benefits, and equipment. The CBA will also have a effect on how the workers are treated versus a non contract employee. Ups & down on both sides of this argument. 18 years I worked under a UNION CBA & had no complaints, versus working with no contract & no pension. To me a good contract like I worked under beats no contract anytime, any place. I was lucky, 18 years with a ABF & my pension is 2 grand a month. To this day I have found no company that can come close to that kind of benefit. Plus for 18 years each pay period I paid 0 dollars for Medical Coverage. Another benefit companies can not match in the trucking Industry. Be safe. von.
 
No, I am retire. My point was the company can & will if they want change any and all runs as they see fit. If you are under a CBA then the union can have an effect large or small as to runs & their length. With other CBA work rules, it makes it harder & more expensive to make these changes. The Union will approve any run change as long as the pay is about the same. If they lay off, they lay off. In a nut shell working under a CBA results in better runs, pay, benefits, and equipment. The CBA will also have a effect on how the workers are treated versus a non contract employee. Ups & down on both sides of this argument. 18 years I worked under a UNION CBA & had no complaints, versus working with no contract & no pension. To me a good contract like I worked under beats no contract anytime, any place. I was lucky, 18 years with a ABF & my pension is 2 grand a month. To this day I have found no company that can come close to that kind of benefit. Plus for 18 years each pay period I paid 0 dollars for Medical Coverage. Another benefit companies can not match in the trucking Industry. Be safe. von.
I'm glad it worked out foe you. Other union employees cannot say the same. YRC drives some of the oldest trucks out there. They are also watching their pensions go down every year they stay on.
Again, I'm glad it worked for you.
 
No, I am retire. My point was the company can & will if they want change any and all runs as they see fit. If you are under a CBA then the union can have an effect large or small as to runs & their length. With other CBA work rules, it makes it harder & more expensive to make these changes. The Union will approve any run change as long as the pay is about the same. If they lay off, they lay off. In a nut shell working under a CBA results in better runs, pay, benefits, and equipment. The CBA will also have a effect on how the workers are treated versus a non contract employee. Ups & down on both sides of this argument. 18 years I worked under a UNION CBA & had no complaints, versus working with no contract & no pension. To me a good contract like I worked under beats no contract anytime, any place. I was lucky, 18 years with a ABF & my pension is 2 grand a month. To this day I have found no company that can come close to that kind of benefit. Plus for 18 years each pay period I paid 0 dollars for Medical Coverage. Another benefit companies can not match in the trucking Industry. Be safe. von.

I see. And how is the ABF pension now if I were to get hired today?
 
I see. And how is the ABF pension now if I were to get hired today?
About the best out there for LTL Freight companies, UNION or not. Just guessing your employer is Estes seeing how we are on the Estes Forum. If true, just how much does Estes pay a retiree after 20 years of service? Can't be to much, the workers @ Estes are not under a CBA. Which in of itself means there is no pressure on Estes from anywhere or anyone telling them to contribute money to their employees retirement fund. If by chance it is a 401K plan with a 6 % cap for matching by the company, well ya really need to save your money. Ya gonna need it. von.
 
Top