A couple more reps are quitting next week, long term seasoned strong reps. The new technology they are implementing for sales is not being accepted well , nor the large cut in the car allowowance and cell phone reduction. Seriously Train, sales has been gutted. The new hires are a joke. Just think what would happen if we had 50% turnover in city drivers. Productivity would drop by a mile, missed pick ups, returns, deliveries per hour etc. Have read and re read Keylon's letter, it is so full of holes. Keylon is blaming everyone but himself, rather like Obama blaming Bush for the weak economy still after six years. This increase in technology is good but it is not going to make a damn bit of difference in the profit of this company. PJAX went from 48 million in revenue in 1999 to 178 million in 2006 not because of technology, they did it with great service, smart linehaul, great city drivers and top shelf sales folks.
Central Transport | Chris Keylon is a coward
- Thread starter runawaytrain
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A couple more reps are quitting next week, long term seasoned strong reps. The new technology they are implementing for sales is not being accepted well , nor the large cut in the car allowowance and cell phone reduction. Seriously Train, sales has been gutted. The new hires are a joke. Just think what would happen if we had 50% turnover in city drivers. Productivity would drop by a mile, missed pick ups, returns, deliveries per hour etc. Have read and re read Keylon's letter, it is so full of holes. Keylon is blaming everyone but himself, rather like Obama blaming Bush for the weak economy still after six years. This increase in technology is good but it is not going to make a damn bit of difference in the profit of this company. PJAX went from 48 million in revenue in 1999 to 178 million in 2006 not because of technology, they did it with great service, smart linehaul, great city drivers and top shelf sales folks.
trains right ,Keylon and his band of bandits are cowards. they will come up with aplan to cut our pay to save our jobs while they continue to collect their fat pay and benifits.when they jump ship they leave with a golden parachute and when we leave we get whatever unemployement pays.If we get lucky and find something this jackA will move on to screw something else up and get PAID.
People like Keylon, are good at talking big and pading their resumes have no clue what they are doing. you can see it in his letter already passing the blame on to the he replaced. don't you think before he took the job he would have come in and revued the company and said hey guys here the mess your in and this is what I'm going to need to fix it .We are going to need to get more investers or more money out of investers to do all these things and in about two years we maybe will start showing a profit. No he walked in and said I'm big guy on campus now and hired a bunch of yes people to pump his ego up and said lets start spending on everything except what we need most. get me a shinny new office ,some overpaid vp,s and let the "troops" sales,drivers,dock workers "eat cake". I bet the company even pays a country club dues for him.
had enough
pErSoN oF iNtErEsT
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chris letter is damage control to the office people nation wide, he must try to keep the remaining people together before the mass exodus continues. he might have good intentions but he definetely has no clue on how to make it happen. i do believe that Dave McClinon is running the company behind close doors, keylon is only brought out to make a comment on the closing of west terminals while interlining, cut a video for the bottomfeeder workers and write a letter to the red shirts. if vitran fired him that would mean another shake up at the top and would scare the industry and shareholders away, not to mention they would have to pay him the remainder of his contract. they just let him show up and go through the motions, basically a conversation piece.
runawaytrain
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As anyone that has read my post over the past year you know I blame Gaetz for our current struggles. From the days of Overland very little was invested back in this company. Just stupid purchases of struggling trucking companies. These companies should have been integrated but they were left to rot. Gaetz dug this hole by not reinvesting in technology to bring them out of the stone age. The company made money from 1999-2006 because they didn't reinvest. There is no excuse in the world why we didn't have scanners 10 years ago.....NONE!!!! Now Chris Keylon has to spend millions to catch us up from the lack of reinvesting by Gaetz....It's not all Keylons fault. Like I said however he screwed up big time by not being a negotiator in keeping some of those seasoned sales reps...He should have been more pro-active. Its hard to recover from that kind of loss. My suggestion to him is beg and plead to get some to come back. Just a few would help. Sales is in shambles and that is on him. Biggest mistake he made without a doubt.
had enough
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vitran should have stopped purchasing companies after pjax, they spread themselves too thin afterwards. could have strengthened the company and then expand.
Vitran | Annual and Quarter Reports
This company made money after 2006 and the losses experienced were a fraction of what is being seen today. The historical numbers are public and open for all to see. I for one do not believe we would be seeing these kinds of losses if Keylon wasn't in charge. I also agree however that Gaetz played a huge part in this company's failure.
This company made money after 2006 and the losses experienced were a fraction of what is being seen today. The historical numbers are public and open for all to see. I for one do not believe we would be seeing these kinds of losses if Keylon wasn't in charge. I also agree however that Gaetz played a huge part in this company's failure.
runawaytrain
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And the reason we are losing the kind of money we are is because we have fell so far behind the OD's and SEMF lines of the LTL business..It takes big money to catch up from the years of neglect....Keylons only big screw up was not doing everything in his power to keep those seasoned sales reps. We lost to many customers and that's on him. He's the President and its his job to know how important good sales people are....That mistake is totally not acceptable and should even possibly cost him his job if he can't find a way out of the mess he created.
outwheeler
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where are you chris
:Emoticon_digging:
:Emoticon_digging:Unfortunately, that mistake may cost a couple thousand people their jobs. How many employees are there in the US?
Technology is great...but it can't drive 500 miles a night in crap trucks... Nor can it bust a$$ all day doing p&d... They forgot to spend millions on the talent that gets the job done...what do the big boys do? That's right, they pay their drivers. No drivers.. No Vitran!
runawaytrain
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Sadly that is very true. I'm guessing around 2500-3000 far too many to pay for a mistake that they had very little to do with. In the final analysis when its all said and done Chris Keylon will be the reason we didn't survive. Of all the improvements he made and positive things he did they were all laid to rest with one critical mistake. Not retaining those sales folks, what money he saved on their expenses was far outweighed by the losses in accounts. Many customers stay with us only because of the relationship they had with their reps, and its the same with drivers. If this man jacks with our pay structure in the up coming months by taking one DAMN penny he will see drivers leave in a mass exodus to the competition like never before.....Thus driving the final nail in our coffin. And although many may stay on a temporary basis because it will be going into the slow season. Once the spring and summer rolls around they will be gone so fast your head will spin. After 5 years of a pay freeze there will be no stopping it.....And in the words of the movie Titanic....."But this ship can't sink" ......... She's made of iron sir I assure you she can and she will, it's a mathematical certainty.
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Not_wanted
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maybe if they would have used them tablets to give raises to those who got the job done, and none or a reduction to the clock strokers,,,,,,, drivers like me may have tried to ride it out to see where it goes. my old place only has 50% of the p&d of a year ago, and just more than 1/3 of linehaul,,,,, which in the long run works out since freight volume is down so much,,,, but,,,,,, what kind of people are the drivers who are left? the kind that no one else wants to hire,,,,,,good job CK,,,,,,i left and never looked back,,,,
runawaytrain
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I will ride it out N>W<......Not for any other reason than its a easy job and they treat me fairly. Why leave until I have to. Why leave to go to a company that I have to work my A$$ off? When and if this company goes out I will start over then. I have a perfect driving record...no accidents...no criminal history...nothing on my DAC report or DMV.....Perfect CSA score.....Great references....My CDL is my ticket out of here when its time. I'm not lazy but I'm not stupid either. It's one thing to leave when you have to. But its entirely another thing to leave because of what may or may not happen. There is BS everywhere you go and guys that come on here and say the grass is so much greener and they are happier than they have ever been doesn't change anything for me. Good for them and I'm happy that they found a better way of life. The Train has always said and will always continue to say..."Happiness is an inside job." This place sometimes frustrates me but it can never change who I am inside. None of us are guaranteed tomorrow. Yesterday is gone. All I have is today. And that's good enough. Its not always easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. And I know many of you hate it when the Train starts to philosophize....Sorry, I shall go away now.
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Not_wanted
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for someone in my position, i made the right choice, less than 5 years at vitran, and my small market here would be flooded with drivers if they closed their doors, unless i wanted back on long haul for weeks at a time.
runawaytrain
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And I understand that. Everyone's story is different and drivers must determine what's best for them personally. I personally have very little to lose in the D-FW market and I can afford to wait it out. The LTL market here is probably the best in the U.S.
I believe the number is right around 3500 USA employees counting the loss of the west coast.
I agree wholeheartedly Train, you just made me a little happier this evening to reflect on the glass being half full rather than half empty. Thank you!