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One more thing and I'll quit hijacking the thread. When I started over with ABF, I came from another Master Freight company that went down thanks to deregulation. I put up with Jackie Presser's 70%-of-scale re- employment wage outrage only becuz I wanted to keep my pension going. We all tolerated a lot for that pension. When they destroy that, all bets are off.
 
As for your question, they will do a thorough background, honesty is key, declaring truth is best. I know a guy had DWI 13 yrs ago, just hired a yr ago as road driver. DWI, failure to breathalize, etc never expunged from records, so always on MVI. ABF has become more relaxed than before. Now as far as beyond driving, crimes regarding dishonesty, theft, etc will get you booted too. My personal opinion which doubt you or most care to hear and differ from most and with all due respect, I would not enter into a career or "job" with ABF. 2 years until vacation, lowest pay amongst LTL, horrible conditions, hours, etc for city employees, not treated great by mgmnt, no great hours, set hours, etc for most. Linehaul, lowest amongs LTL, if not the lowest besides YRC, ever changing operations, dirty motels, meet turns waiting hours on fellow drivers, some due to dispatch, some due to lazy drivers. Now as far as company, they lie, last contract, all their lies, bought and passed a contract, now no mention, members should be ashamed, lost so much, dignity mainly. now all the changes of operations, UE, livlihoods.. its a mess. Now mid 2016, get ready 2018 contract,, its coming... not a good time to enter ABF world...
 
2018 will be make or break for a lot of us. Another thing he has in his favor is that the company is expecting a lot of old farts.......like me.......will be gone,......and new-hires from here on in until contract vote time, will still be in the "honeymoon" period with the company........

Restore just one issue, like vacations,...... .and most new-hires will fall over themselves to approve another concessionary contract with further expansion of subcontracting.........not realizing they are gradually putting themselves out of business.

ABF has probably relaxed their standards to get as many "honeymooners" as they can before contract vote time.
 
iam4us said:
As for your question, they will do a thorough background, honesty is key, declaring truth is best. I know a guy had DWI 13 yrs ago, just hired a yr ago as road driver. DWI, failure to breathalize, etc never expunged from records, so always on MVI. ABF has become more relaxed than before. Now as far as beyond driving, crimes regarding dishonesty, theft, etc will get you booted too. My personal opinion which doubt you or most care to hear and differ from most and with all due respect, I would not enter into a career or "job" with ABF. 2 years until vacation, lowest pay amongst LTL, horrible conditions, hours, etc for city employees, not treated great by mgmnt, no great hours, set hours, etc for most. Linehaul, lowest amongs LTL, if not the lowest besides YRC, ever changing operations, dirty motels, meet turns waiting hours on fellow drivers, some due to dispatch, some due to lazy drivers. Now as far as company, they lie, last contract, all their lies, bought and passed a contract, now no mention, members should be ashamed, lost so much, dignity mainly. now all the changes of operations, UE, livlihoods.. its a mess. Now mid 2016, get ready 2018 contract,, its coming... not a good time to enter ABF world...
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much respect ABFer and Canaryinthemine.. wish I were as kind and respectful in my bluntness as you all always are.. but I carry some anger, resentment.. but you guys seem to carry similar thoughts and feelings, outlooks.. best of luck. stay positive.
 
iam4us said:
much respect ABFer and Canaryinthemine.. wish I were as kind and respectful in my bluntness as you all always are.. but I carry some anger, resentment.. but you guys seem to carry similar thoughts and feelings, outlooks.. best of luck. stay positive.
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We may be older and not subject to as much as you could be. The longer one has to deal with it the rougher it will be.
 
canaryinthemine said:
2018 will be make or break for a lot of us. Another thing he has in his favor is that the company is expecting a lot of old farts.......like me.......will be gone,......and new-hires from here on in until contract vote time, will still be in the "honeymoon" period with the company........

Restore just one issue, like vacations,...... .and most new-hires will fall over themselves to approve another concessionary contract with further expansion of subcontracting.........not realizing they are gradually putting themselves out of business.

ABF has probably relaxed their standards to get as many "honeymooners" as they can before contract vote time.
Click to expand...
Holy crap! I opened a serious can of worms here. Guess it's already been opened for a while though. Ok, here it goes......this is going to turn this thread in a whole new direction......brace yourselves........I am a teamsters union member at my current position. Not a public company. A smaller private company but big enough. The reason I'm leaving is the contract we just signed. Here's the deal in a nutshell....

The company just shut the doors last year on one of their facilities after they voted no for the second time on their contract offer. They were basically told...."vote no and we will shut you down" They weren't joking. 300 plus union members lost their jobs. That work was then moved into another non union facility. An outside carrier was then contracted to handle that work. Throwing all facilities the occasional bone here and there. How? I'm not sure how but they got away with it. Fast forward to our recent contract "negotiations"? No negotiations about it. We're about the same size as the facility that was shut down. Now the fear of God is in everyone. Took the first offer thrown at us for fear of the same happening. And I think most everyone believed it would happen. This company would spend millions to prove their point.
On the contract we opened our doors to other facilities to come in and take loads out. They can basically not call me on a day off and give the work to a part timer with three months of service in from a completely different facility. Our facilities are close enough to each other for another driver to bring an empty trailer in and take work out. I am guaranteed 8 hours a day and that's about what I've been getting. Meanwhile for the last 10 years I've averaged at least 15 to 20 hours of overtime a week. I cannot afford to live on a 40 hour paycheck.

Wage increases.....40 cents a year for next 5 years. Which at the end of the contract would put me at $25.32 in the year 2020.

Vacation time.....under new contract only 4 drivers allowed off at the same time any one week. I will not see another Thanksgiving or Christmas vacation week. Or any prime week at all. Even though they use plenty of outside carriers to handle the workload around the holidays anyway.

Schedule......One Saturday and Sunday off a month. This is after almost 18 years of employment. I'm lucky to have two days in a row off at all. Only 5 guys with Monday through Friday time spots available on the schedule. This is with 45 drivers currently on the schedule. And those guys won't be retiring for another 8 to 10 years

401k plan.....The Great Recession cut my 401k in half or more. Granted the stock market has come a long way since then but when will this happen again? Could be tomorrow.

All this and I get to have a driver facing camera staring at my stupid head all night long. The camera was the final straw.

Plenty of other issues but this has been too long already. I've just had enough. Time to move on. ABF might not be the answer. I don't know. Just need a change. If ABF hires me I'll do my job and hope for the best. If not....on to the next. Or a complete career change altogether. Won't get a honeymooner out of me. Just a guy looking for something different. No offense to you guys at all. You've paid your dues and trust me I totally understand
 
iam4us said:
As for your question, they will do a thorough background, honesty is key, declaring truth is best. I know a guy had DWI 13 yrs ago, just hired a yr ago as road driver. DWI, failure to breathalize, etc never expunged from records, so always on MVI. ABF has become more relaxed than before. Now as far as beyond driving, crimes regarding dishonesty, theft, etc will get you booted too. My personal opinion which doubt you or most care to hear and differ from most and with all due respect, I would not enter into a career or "job" with ABF. 2 years until vacation, lowest pay amongst LTL, horrible conditions, hours, etc for city employees, not treated great by mgmnt, no great hours, set hours, etc for most. Linehaul, lowest amongs LTL, if not the lowest besides YRC, ever changing operations, dirty motels, meet turns waiting hours on fellow drivers, some due to dispatch, some due to lazy drivers. Now as far as company, they lie, last contract, all their lies, bought and passed a contract, now no mention, members should be ashamed, lost so much, dignity mainly. now all the changes of operations, UE, livlihoods.. its a mess. Now mid 2016, get ready 2018 contract,, its coming... not a good time to enter ABF world...
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I agree with everything you said except one.......kinda. Where I am we get treated pretty good by management COMPARED to where I came form. They might not be fanning us with palm fronds and hand feeding s grapes but the respect is far above what other places offer. I was made to feel like a criminal and NEVER heard a thanks for anything.
 
Boilerpeddle said:
I agree with everything you said except one.......kinda. Where I am we get treated pretty good by management COMPARED to where I came form. They might not be fanning us with palm fronds and hand feeding s grapes but the respect is far above what other places offer. I was made to feel like a criminal and NEVER heard a thanks for anything.
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I will agree with the management comment we both came from the same place, they really don't bother you the problem is they don't fix any of the problems that have been occurring for years. You have to adapt to what is changing around you & I say that is not happening....
 
HD-28 said:
Holy crap! I opened a serious can of worms here. Guess it's already been opened for a while though. Ok, here it goes......this is going to turn this thread in a whole new direction......brace yourselves........I am a teamsters union member at my current position. Not a public company. A smaller private company but big enough. The reason I'm leaving is the contract we just signed. Here's the deal in a nutshell....

The company just shut the doors last year on one of their facilities after they voted no for the second time on their contract offer. They were basically told...."vote no and we will shut you down" They weren't joking. 300 plus union members lost their jobs. That work was then moved into another non union facility. An outside carrier was then contracted to handle that work. Throwing all facilities the occasional bone here and there. How? I'm not sure how but they got away with it. Fast forward to our recent contract "negotiations"? No negotiations about it. We're about the same size as the facility that was shut down. Now the fear of God is in everyone. Took the first offer thrown at us for fear of the same happening. And I think most everyone believed it would happen. This company would spend millions to prove their point.
On the contract we opened our doors to other facilities to come in and take loads out. They can basically not call me on a day off and give the work to a part timer with three months of service in from a completely different facility. Our facilities are close enough to each other for another driver to bring an empty trailer in and take work out. I am guaranteed 8 hours a day and that's about what I've been getting. Meanwhile for the last 10 years I've averaged at least 15 to 20 hours of overtime a week. I cannot afford to live on a 40 hour paycheck.

Wage increases.....40 cents a year for next 5 years. Which at the end of the contract would put me at $25.32 in the year 2020.

Vacation time.....under new contract only 4 drivers allowed off at the same time any one week. I will not see another Thanksgiving or Christmas vacation week. Or any prime week at all. Even though they use plenty of outside carriers to handle the workload around the holidays anyway.

Schedule......One Saturday and Sunday off a month. This is after almost 18 years of employment. I'm lucky to have two days in a row off at all. Only 5 guys with Monday through Friday time spots available on the schedule. This is with 45 drivers currently on the schedule. And those guys won't be retiring for another 8 to 10 years

401k plan.....The Great Recession cut my 401k in half or more. Granted the stock market has come a long way since then but when will this happen again? Could be tomorrow.

All this and I get to have a driver facing camera staring at my stupid head all night long. The camera was the final straw.

Plenty of other issues but this has been too long already. I've just had enough. Time to move on. ABF might not be the answer. I don't know. Just need a change. If ABF hires me I'll do my job and hope for the best. If not....on to the next. Or a complete career change altogether. Won't get a honeymooner out of me. Just a guy looking for something different. No offense to you guys at all. You've paid your dues and trust me I totally understand
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I am left in shock. Yep, I'd leave that place too and for now working conditions are all relative. For the most part they suck for drivers everywhere, some places more than others and they might suck less at ABF. It looks like your wages are better than ours but with no OT it would cramp your style. Good luck on your new direction and keep us updated.
 
ABFer said:
I am left in shock. Yep, I'd leave that place too and for now working conditions are all relative. For the most part they suck for drivers everywhere, some places more than others and they might suck less at ABF. It looks like your wages are better than ours but with no OT it would cramp your style. Good luck on your new direction and keep us updated.
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Thanks ABFer. I'll keep you posted
 
If ABF would go to driver-facing cameras, I think that would be my final straw , too.

But I would stick around for at least a month and make them think twice about those cameras. I don't believe there's anything that says I can't drive while wearing a red rubber nose and my multi-colored Afro fright wig...........

I believe I could also spend that last month teaching whoever monitors those cameras the finer points of truck driver swearing..........These pencil-necked desk jockeys come out on the dock and "hell" and "damn" their way around.......with the occasional "M......F.....".......just to reinforce their virility .......Well.......maybe those driver-facing cameras might vastly increase their vocabulary,......and show them the proper, manly way to curse,......instead of that weak, sickly, milquetoast mumbling the office jockeys regard as "swearing".........

I know swear words of six syllables,.......I know Spanish swear words that will start immediate fights........I know swear words so bad,....that if I was to utter them,......you'd have to go get re-baptized...........Go ahead and put that driver-facing camera in, and between my fright wig and salty language,........I know I'll have some memorable You Tube videos......
 
canaryinthemine said:
If ABF would go to driver-facing cameras, I think that would be my final straw , too.

But I would stick around for at least a month and make them think twice about those cameras. I don't believe there's anything that says I can't drive while wearing a red rubber nose and my multi-colored Afro fright wig...........

I believe I could also spend that last month teaching whoever monitors those cameras the finer points of truck driver swearing..........These pencil-necked desk jockeys come out on the dock and "hell" and "damn" their way around.......with the occasional "M......F.....".......just to reinforce their virility .......Well.......maybe those driver-facing cameras might vastly increase their vocabulary,......and show them the proper, manly way to curse,......instead of that weak, sickly, milquetoast mumbling the office jockeys regard as "swearing".........

I know swear words of six syllables,.......I know Spanish swear words that will start immediate fights........I know swear words so bad,....that if I was to utter them,......you'd have to go get re-baptized...........Go ahead and put that driver-facing camera in, and between my fright wig and salty language,........I know I'll have some memorable You Tube videos......
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There's no other reason for that driver facing camera besides straight out harassment. They claim to be using it as a "coaching tool". How can a guy that's never driven a truck in his life coach me on how to do it? The camera is supposed to be triggered after certain events...hard braking...sudden weight shift etc. There's also a road facing camera with it. That's no big deal. Protects us in certain situations. I thought about driving around naked for a while and trigger the camera as much as possible. I'm not even sure who monitors this stuff
 
It's another "liability" tool, ......so that in the event of a severe accident, they could shift most, if not all...of the blame on the driver,.....instead of the company having to shoulder the blame because the driver is the "agent" of the company......

At the funeral, they could tell your widow that your actions were the sole cause of the accident,.......so be prepared for the lawsuits from the other people involved ........Good luck in getting the company to release those tapes to your lawyer to prove otherwise.......at least until they've Photoshopped them.....

"Coach", hey? I like that......when some company official tells me he's going to "coach" me to do a better job,......I always give them a deadpan look and say: " Jerry Sandusky was a coach.".............just to let them know ...... there's "coaches".........and there's.......ahhh... ....."coaches"......

Gets under their skin real well,..... Especially if they were a Penn State graduate.....
 
HD-28 said:
How can a guy that's never driven a truck in his life coach me on how to do it?
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First I am totally against cameras
i don't care what direction they are facing, as far as coaching I would rather a safety maggot than another driver. A driver coaching a driver is a conflict. Just because the safety maggot has never driven does not mean he does not have the knowledge to do so and be able to see what went wrong, for instance, I have the knowledge to paint cars, I don't have the skill but I can look at a paint job and tell what went wrong. Let the safety maggot earn his pay, question everything, ask for advice, ask two or three times to make sure you have it all straight. I would bet after paying you to be a pain in the ass
it will become a non issue.
 
In my experience most of the safety maggots have been former truck drivers. I know that A. Doggy Pyle's current guy was but I do not know how prevalent that is elsewhere in the industry today. ABF used to have a retired NYS Trooper for our region but he got the company :2437:a few years ago. I do not know the current guy's background.
 
HD-28 said:
There's no other reason for that driver facing camera besides straight out harassment. They claim to be using it as a "coaching tool". How can a guy that's never driven a truck in his life coach me on how to do it? The camera is supposed to be triggered after certain events...hard braking...sudden weight shift etc. There's also a road facing camera with it. That's no big deal. Protects us in certain situations. I thought about driving around naked for a while and trigger the camera as much as possible. I'm not even sure who monitors this stuff
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Then they fire you for not wearing the proper uniform. Don't get mad get even. Next time they force you to drive a piece of crap, bring along a tube of valve grinding compound, squeeze said tube in to oil filler neck, & flush said tube with a quart of oil. Be sure to bring food, drinks & toilet articles. You might be somewhere for quite a while till the wrecker shows up. One more thing, there will be no rebuilding this block, unless they still put liners in the cylinder walls. Besides, doesn't ABF need to replace most of there fleet? 900,00 to a million miles on a city truck can get expensive being in the repair shop more than on the street. In fact you might be doing them a favor by saving them money. Just a thought. von.
 
joes bar and grill said:
First I am totally against cameras
i don't care what direction they are facing, as far as coaching I would rather a safety maggot than another driver. A driver coaching a driver is a conflict. Just because the safety maggot has never driven does not mean he does not have the knowledge to do so and be able to see what went wrong, for instance, I have the knowledge to paint cars, I don't have the skill but I can look at a paint job and tell what went wrong. Let the safety maggot earn his pay, question everything, ask for advice, ask two or three times to make sure you have it all straight. I would bet after paying you to be a pain in the ass
it will become a non issue.
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I retired in December of 2015. The 4 previous years I used my own DOD 460 Dash Cam. 1 in my pick-up & 1 in my city tractor. It saved me a false claim against me in a minor accident in my pick-up. Best 200.00 I ever spent. I would have taken a dock bid if they would have put a camera facing me in my tractor. I had a complaint called in on me & I took the SD Card of that time frame from the camera, saved it to a memory stick, brought in to work, plugged it in to a USB Port on the TM's computer & proved that the accusation against me was false. Looking forward I don't mind. What I don't like is having no control over the camera. And the people looking @ the image for the company are very biased & subjective in favor of the company. With Insurance carriers pushing the issue & the hassle from management it becomes a stacked against the driver. One of the many reasons a veteran driver feels like he is in the 4th race @ Aqueduct, nag, nag, nag. von.
 
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