why the hate?

[oldslowchevy]

i have noticed that many of you seem to dislike jb hunt swift and a few other larger carriers. why? is it because most of the teach guys like me how to drive? or is there other reasons?

being new to all of this and reciving good answers will from you all is the only way a guy like me that has any with no other way into this industry i need a little help to make the right choices

[JEEP JERK]

i think its because driver abuse.i could careless and don't have time to hate any of those companys but what i hear is they run the balls off of you for 30 cents a mile and hire anyone who can hold a wheel.i don't if thats true just hear say

[SevenOfNine]

Many of the big carriers do tend to under pay and over work their drivers. Mostly because as sad as it is........they can.

The driver turnover for otr is huge and most times otr drivers have no union to protect them.

The biggest reason is.........otr drivers just accept the low wages,the long hours and they give too much of their time FREE to the carrier,in other words they don't get paid for things like, waiting for a load,getting the truck washed,fixing any small repair on the truck.

These large carriers are good for a newbie to gain the much needed experience to go on to the better jobs,perhaps LTL.

[shaken_spider]

It basically boils down to a numbers game. They are some of the largest employers with the most number of drivers.

If one company employs 17,000 and the next one employs 1,700 - of course the one with 17,000 is going to have more people belly-aching about them!

Then it gets to be a "follow-the-leader" game. "Well I heard so-and-so say they did this or so-and-so said they did that"

When you're choosing a company you have to do the research and find what a good fit would be for you. It's hard to get an unbiased opinion from some former employees or hear-sayers.

The best thing you could do to determine which company to go with is to first research their website for factual information, then go down to a truck stop near you and talk to a few of their current drivers to get a look at the company thru their eyes.

[pcuthbert]

I agree with the others here telling you it is a numbers game.

The thing to remember is that the big companies are generally always busy. This may mean that they pay you a bit less, but you do "go the distance".

Some of the firms that pay significantly more may have slow periods that the extra income is intended to help you through.

Definitely research the companies you are looking at. The large ones will have a better support system to help you get the load delivered.

Consider, if you worked for Mom and Pop trucking out of say, Winfield Alberta, and you broke down, it could be a week or more before you got rolling again. With a big, recognized company with numerous terminals, you could be rolling again if a couple of hours.

No matter which way you decide to go, you need to know what to expect.

Driving a truck can be a lot like a marriage. Give and take on both sides, but the company has more options than you do.

[pro1driver]

Originally Posted by oldslowchevy

i have noticed that many of you seem to dislike jb hunt swift and a few other larger carriers. why? is it because most of the teach guys like me how to drive? or is there other reasons?

being new to all of this and reciving good answers will from you all is the only way a guy like me that has any with no other way into this industry i need a little help to make the right choices

well up to now, no one gave you the reason why some of us hate JB Hunt, Swift, and perhaps some others. but here it is in a long drawn out nutshell.

ever heard of CDL MIlls...?? you know, schools that just push out newly licensed CDL drivers that can't really drive...??

well basically, JB Hunt started that craze many years ago, and got caught big time by Uncle Sam..

you see, what JB Hunt did was hire people, train them to drive, get money from the Fed's. with me so far...??

but the drivers they were training were having more wrecks than a demolition derby.............

as a result, many of us came to loath JB Hunt for having a "driver mill operation" of sorts. NOW, JB Hunt was putting names on the list for drivers that NEVER EXISTED, and the Fed's caught them red-handed. JB Hunt got fined big time. in later years, JB Hunt pretty much stopped recruiting from schools to concentrate (they said) on thier current workforce and up the pay scale and experience levels.

today, JB Hunt is better than years ago, but the stigma of the "driver mill" still exists today.

as for Swift, pretty much almost the same story, with some twists. what Swift will do is hire someone, train them, then say after 2-5 months, offer that "still a rookie/newbie driver", a job as DRIVER-TRAINER.........now, if that ain't the blind leading the blind........

so you see, most of us "old timers" know that you gotta start somewhere/someplace, but we really just don't have any respect for companies that promote "driver mills", no more than we respect "driver mill CDL schools"..........

it ain't got to do with numbers.............

this is why it is........................