Profile For GrizzlyMan

I am right there with you. I'm a western regional with Wilson and will become an Ashley driver at the beginning of the year. I've been with Wilson for 2 1/2 years. When I first started, we hauled a LOT of Ashley freight. Like you could almost guarantee you'd have an Ashley load every week. Once they opened their Tacoma terminal, we stopped hauling as much, and it slowly turned into more and more Ashley trucks hauling their own loads.

Over the years I've talked to a lot of Ashley drivers. They typically seem happy and don't want to leave. They like to brag about their pay and their benefits. I had seriously considered jumping ship and going to Ashley not too horribly long ago.

I'm a lease driver and love everything we have here. When I came to Wilson, I had planned on only staying for just a year. (There's a big back story to that, but it doesn't pertain to the current situation.) I didn't expect to make much on the lease. I did the lease specifically to have as much control as I could for my one year. I have over 20 years experience and had no intention on letting a company control me. I was stunned to actually truly enjoy working for Wilson and I have made far better money than I expected. Thus why I'm still here.

I've been around a bunch of trucking company acquisitions through the years. I've either worked for companies that have been on one side or the other of it, or known people that have been through it. Sometimes it goes really badly. Other times it works out awesome. I think this has the potential to be really, really good. I expect company drivers to really come out ahead. Ashley claims they want us to continue on exactly as we've been doing. They don't want to change our freight contracts or anything. According to them, the only thing that is going to change is the name on the sides of the truck. That said, there will be changes. They will see things they think need changed. It could turn out badly. I don't think it will, but it's possible. We've had a really good thing here. I don't know how much it would take to screw it up. And it could get screwed up even with the best of intentions. I'm sad I'll no longer be a part of Wilson, but I'm cautiously optimistic about the future with Ashley.

I don't have a distribution center within a reasonable distance to me. My closest one is 200 miles away. Good old Grandview, which is controlled by Swift. Next closest is Hermiston, which is around 275 miles away from me. My closest Wal-Mart store has no room to park a truck. The next closest store is crime central. I refuse to go near it. I have a friend that drives for the private fleet out of Apple Valley, CA. The last time I had looked, the closest distribution center that was hiring was Red Bluff, which is 600 miles from me. I do know the Sparks one is hiring big time. The private fleet is taking it away from Swift.

I see there are a couple people on this thread that work for Wil-Trans/Jim Palmer/Wilson. I figured this might be a safe place to ask a couple basic questions. I'm planning on coming on board mid-July. I'm currently on worker's comp and that's when I'm expecting to finally be released to work again. I'm leaning towards doing the western 11 thing. I'm actually looking seriously at leasing. I know people say leasing never works, but I successfully leased before and had my own authority for a while. I know the leasing game well. That said, I'm mostly interested in how orientation and everything on that works. I'll be doing orientation in Missoula, as I live about 20 miles away from Wilson's Pacific, WA terminal. Which hotel do they use? What are the typical days of orientation and what is it like? How do they go about assigning the truck? What kinds of things should I be prepared for?

Now I'll basically give an overview of my resume. I've been driving since 2002. I've worked for Schneider, Stevens, a small company (five trucks), JCT, had my own company for a while, and for the last three years I've driven for Estenson Logistics. Most of that time I was a local driver. From July until I got hurt on January I had what to me was the ultimate dedicated run. My first run was to Missoula/Great Falls/Butte and back home empty. My second run was eastern Washington/northeastern Oregon/northern Idaho. I consistently pushed towards the edge of my 70 every week, but had two days off. It was 2400 miles a week with up to 40 stops. My gross pay was bumping $1800 weekly. Estenson lost the contract in March (after I got hurt) so my position no longer exists. My injury is going to permanently reduce my ability to do some things. I ruptured my biceps tendon in my left arm and it can't be repaired. Most of the local jobs I can pick up at this point are either driver unload and/or very low pay. I don't want to go back to spending 3-4 months at a time on the road. I don't expect to bring in the kind of money I was making, but I need to be comfortable while making what I need to make with the ability to run the crap out of my clock when I want. Everything I have read says Wilson fills the bill. I had considered running PNW heavy haul. (As you can see in my profile pic, I'm familiar with running 105,500.) It just doesn't seem like quite enough flexibility, the trucks are stripped down and older, and I don't need to be home every weekend. I've been enjoying reading the blogs and would love every bit of insight into the company possible. Thanks guys!