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Estes | Is Estes Any good?

FLYINGBY said:
Does it make sense that a guy that has way less time in a company have it alot better then you.
Linehaul for 6, city for 1, utility for 1, and the rest of my time hub, just sorry but years back I was not gonna take a run that paid nothing on the hub, and now they seem to be going hub and utility it screws the guys that spent alot of time on something else.
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It's a screwy senority system but what would happen if they did everything just by company senority?
 
Not to mention probably keeps a few from coming to work here. And would keep good people around, cause I know a couple good guys that quit, and got let go when they decided Linehaul guys were not good enough.
If they ever would do it by Company Seniority say two boards a Road AND City board, think about it.
They could still post runs by Linehaul, hub, utility, team, and you could take whatever is you like, which means not to be stuck doing one thing for the rest of your life like hitting that dock in the middle winter.
I am a variety type of guy, it be nice maybe to go Utility for a year without losing my hub time to some guy that has been here for say 2 years less then me if you catch what I am trying to say.
 
From the way I read it hub and utility are the same. That's what it shows on the black and white paper "hub/utility" you might want to check it out.
 
FLYINGBY said:
Not to mention probably keeps a few from coming to work here. And would keep good people around, cause I know a couple good guys that quit, and got let go when they decided Linehaul guys were not good enough.
If they ever would do it by Company Seniority say two boards a Road AND City board, think about it.
They could still post runs by Linehaul, hub, utility, team, and you could take whatever is you like, which means not to be stuck doing one thing for the rest of your life like hitting that dock in the middle winter.
I am a variety type of guy, it be nice maybe to go Utility for a year without losing my hub time to some guy that has been here for say 2 years less then me if you catch what I am trying to say.
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Sounds like it turned into a personal problem to me,with the guys that quit...
 
flaswampfox said:
Looks like some of you out there are drinking the Estes kool-aid. What ever happened to overtime after 8 in a day or 40 in a week? You are losing $150.00 a week if you make 20 dollars an hour if you work 55 hours. Thats 600 dollars a month your family is missing out on.
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I am a linehaul driver, the OT doesn't apply to me. My wife and I used to be out 90 plus days at a time with 1 day off for every 7 out. We made a fair amount. Our first full year here we made a lot more. Why wouldn't we be in love with this job? I think some of the drivers here have been out of the OTR loop too long and don't remember how good they have it here!
 
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flaswampfox said:
Looks like some of you out there are drinking the Estes kool-aid. What ever happened to overtime after 8 in a day or 40 in a week? You are losing $150.00 a week if you make 20 dollars an hour if you work 55 hours. Thats 600 dollars a month your family is missing out on.
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You can look at it 2 ways. Our guys used to get 60 hours and sometimes more than that. I'm not saying, "that's great!" because most don't want that many but some banked on that many every week. Now at 55 hours O.T. that pretty much ended the 60 hours. Anyone with 45 hours on Thursday are told to hurry up and clock out because Friday might be a busy day. Did we get a raise with overtime? I'm no rocket scientist but these companies need to make a certain amount per bill. Right now the amount made is very low because of the freight war going on. If overtime was granted after 8 hours we would have plenty of drivers to help out. When freight slowed a little, it's turns into a "keep cell phone with you in case we need you kinda thing." If you don't believe me, you can probably figure it out by reading on other forums. It will explain it in a more clearer detail. That $150 a week we might sometimes gain, turns into a several thousand dollar paycut at years end. That's the way I see it. Maybe it's because I'm from the east
 
I've been with this company for 5 yrs. If you like working 55 hrs. at straight time and you might get 5 hrs. of overtime a week I hope that makes you happy. If you go to the extra board you get to do a lot of free stuff like fueling your truck, switching trucks when your piece of junk breaks down, doing dock supervisor work (flipping placards off empty & loaded trailers), waiting for hours on end at hotels (Grand Rapids, Memphis, Bloomington, Dallas, DesMoines, Minneapolis, etc, & on & on & on), dispatching yourself cause TM's, operation managers & city dispatchers don't know how to dispatch linehaul. And now we have to put all of our equipment away when we break sets instead of just the lead and the dolly (Jr. Johnson said nothing had changed) but now we have to put away all 3 of the pieces away or we get the big goose egg for pay. There is a few good points to this company but I'm tired of typing and sick of talking about Estes Express Lines.
 
You are rite mildew it does take a special person to be a trucker. i would love to know when it became alright to work for free. i have been doing this for 30+yrs and i dont remember when it started. probably after deregualtion. But i do know 1 thing this company wants you (no expects you) to do a lot of work for free. a lot of other ltl co. pay to fuel, paysto hook each piece of equip., pay to switch trks, pays to pre+post trip, pay to wait on dispatch, and on and on. then on top of that we get a pay cut (the raise we got does't equel what we lost and it will take 3+yrs to toget back toeven). If you think this is the best you can get then you aresadly mistaken . this is an ok co. but there is better.
 
I never said they were better. But I still believe all these Trucking Companies treat their driver's like crap. I don't think big E is making a profit either. If they were why did we borrow millions of dollars to buy new terminals from Roadway and buy new tractor's. ( just like ABF, Vitran, Fedex, OD, etc.) On the average we're no better or no worse than anybody else, it's just the way trucking goes downhill.
 
Hopefully things will improve for everyone since these ltl companies feed off each other
 
stud muffin said:
I never said they were better. But I still believe all these Trucking Companies treat their driver's like crap. I don't think big E is making a profit either. If they were why did we borrow millions of dollars to buy new terminals from Roadway and buy new tractor's. ( just like ABF, Vitran, Fedex, OD, etc.) On the average we're no better or no worse than anybody else, it's just the way trucking goes downhill.
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Using "OPM"(Other Peoples Money)...Keep yours to make payroll and such...Borrow millions at 3% interest..10 year note at 3 million a year,paid off,by means of lease-backs...Rob is a bean counter..You can bet he got the best deal he could find...
 
They just posted 2 bids at our barn and filled them by total company drive time. .not by classification or the experience in each classification. I think ya all might be getting your wish.
 
mildew said:
They just posted 2 bids at our barn and filled them by total company drive time. .not by classification or the experience in each classification. I think ya all might be getting your wish.
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Well,well...Trying something new,are they...Amazing..Maybe we'll be up to getting better mechanics before too long...Just wishful thinking...
 
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