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Estes | Dock to driver

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Ballsout Ranger

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I am all about a person trying to better themselves. I really don' agree with the length of training that these guys are getting but, like all things in life some guys will hit the ground running others will fail with that being said here are my observations and complaints.

1. Dock guy goes thru the training....spends time training on line and city.
2. Because of the high failure and accident rates Safety has stated that these driver most of which will be "utility" or extra board can not run line haul for a period of 6 months and must be in the city for that time. At large terminals this isn't a real issue for us smaller terminals it's a killer. He came on in September this means that coming into and thru the slowest time of the year we have a extra city driver on the streets.
3. This guy is a rookie but, receives a years of service rate, our little rookie driver is making TOP driver pay.

Yes i have seen the proof of pay rate black and white, this isn't a "came from a reliable source crap"

So we have all taken a cut in our hours that way our rookie can drive the city.....at top pay.....yet can not do the job that he bid due to the fact he is a rookie.

Have a great weekend y'all
 
Well if this company did'nt have such a bad reputation out there in the trucking world now for all the different ways of doing things, maybe they would have drivers knockin on the door everyday. Just look at Glassdoor, its sad...I know I am saying it was alot better when I started here..
They have lowered the standards just to get drivers now..
 
FLYINGBY said:
Well if this company did'nt have such a bad reputation out there in the trucking world now for all the different ways of doing things, maybe they would have drivers knockin on the door everyday. Just look at Glassdoor, its sad...I know I am saying it was alot better when I started here..
They have lowered the standards just to get drivers now..
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I'll agree with this company does some weird things hence some of the bad rep things. All companies are doing dock driver programs now due to the shortage of drivers. the pay is up there where everyones is. Here are a few of my thoughts.

OTR drivers really have no idea what the benifits of driving LTL are. They think of the local delivery side of the game only.

This industry is hard to get into. What high school students say I'm not going to college I'm going to bounce around for awhile unitl they turn 21 go to trucking "school" spend a year or two OTR before trying to find a home in the LTL world.

As far as the company having a bad rep I think every company has its good and bad sides.

GO CHIEFS!!!!
 
LTL is the only way to go. College is for those want a life like I have but need a piece of paper to help them. Only they have to pay lots of money to get it. :bananag:
 
mildew said:
LTL is the only way to go. College is for those want a life like I have but need a piece of paper to help them. Only they have to pay lots of money to get it. :bananag:
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The funniest thing about the college thing. Investment and return. Motgomery GI bill paid at the time $550 for me to go to VOTECH Driving school 16 years ago not bad considering before I cam to Estes I was line haul at Vitran kicking $80 a year.

Had I known that LTL paid so well I would have never spent 7 years OTR
 
Ballsout Ranger said:
The funniest thing about the college thing. Investment and return. Motgomery GI bill paid at the time $550 for me to go to VOTECH Driving school 16 years ago not bad considering before I cam to Estes I was line haul at Vitran kicking $80 a year.

Had I known that LTL paid so well I would have never spent 7 years OTR
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LTL didn't always pay good. I remember Overnight wanting to hire me in 1995 and I turned it down after they told me the pay. I checked with them again about 8 years later and they weren't doing much better. I also talked with ABF around that time. Starting pay was .30 something cents at ABF. It wasn't until the early 2000's when these LTL companies started to pour out the cash. Truckload companies still haven't seen the light. I believe I'd collect aluminum cans on the side of the road before putting up with that kind of abuse again but I had to start somewhere.
 
Someone answer this for me. Been here 3 yrs, guy comes off dock, goes thru driver training program, works utility for a yr, then is given seniority over me on last city bid, even though he's only been driving 2 1/2 yrs... City ops mgr says other guy has seniority due to utility time.. Makes absolutely no sense to me. Cant get it straightened out because we have a new terminal mgr who doesn't have a clue and no one else will investigate. Who can make it right???
 
MS Mudder said:
Someone answer this for me. Been here 3 yrs, guy comes off dock, goes thru driver training program, works utility for a yr, then is given seniority over me on last city bid, even though he's only been driving 2 1/2 yrs... City ops mgr says other guy has seniority due to utility time.. Makes absolutely no sense to me. Cant get it straightened out because we have a new terminal mgr who doesn't have a clue and no one else will investigate. Who can make it right???
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There's someone at the home office that would know.
 
Yep, 53' liftgate with swing doors for the next 52 weeks 100% MLK JR Blvd deliveries.
 
Bruno said:
Wow, you made $80k/ yr at Vitran ? For real ? Were you ever home in that year ?
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. Triples to KC drop one meet at Lamoni IA back to KC triple back to Wichita. 662 a night, I did do extras on the weekends when i could. I will agree I worked my ass off that year but, for Vitran $80 was damn good money.
 
auburn2012 said:
I drive a beer truck in Decatur,Al. My salary pay is $725.00 wk wether i work 20hrs or 60hrs a week.
can i better myself at Estes?
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It depends on what you want to do at the company. Extra board either starts on Monday or Tuesday you'll be gone all week and average between 2400 and 3100 miles a week depending what part of the country your in and freight levels. City PD just figure 35 to 45 hours a week at I think $20.50.

I've been here what 9 months to me it's just a different color truck. I think it's a lot of what you make of it and your terminal.
 
If you can get constantly 25 hours or less a week and don't have to do any heavy lifting or unloading, work weekends, holidays, or listen to Tonto telling you where to put the beer, I'd say stay in the beer truck.
 
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