Frustrated With My Company!!

So I went to school with CR England on January 1st. I got my CDL 6 days later, did orientation, and was out on the road by January 15th. I love this career. I started doing this because I have some financial goals I am trying to reach in the next 3 to 5 years....

My frustration about my current situation is the company itself....

I am almost at 6 months (I've had 3 days since 1/15/17 off...all the other time off was a rolling reset ) I don't ask for time off because I'm out here to drive miles. I manage my time very efficiently, I get a lot of miles in...especially with being governed at 60/62, I am on time 99% of the time, blah blah blah....

All that being said, I don't understand how a company like this can afford to have such a blatant disregard for how they treat their employees. Office employees have been rude several times, I was broke down a total of 1 week out of the past 3 weeks and was paid $50 for layover, im on my 3rd truck in 3 weeks, I have spent countless hours in the past 3 weeks getting trailers fixed because no one can afford to sit and wait with broken equipment and only get paid $25 a day, at $25 a day its like they are encouraging drivers to just drive broken equipment....

I understand that in this business you will have good weeks and bad weeks, equipment breaks down over time...

I am having a very hard time staying with this company right now. After 3 weeks of very little pay I was asked to pick up a load yesterday that a driver was supposed to,pick up the previous day and was told I would drop it at one of our yards because it would need to be rescheduled. I agreed to dropping it in the yard in Illinois but let them know I was waiting on a load to salt lake city because I had a medical procedure being done in 2 days.....

After I accepted the load I was told to drive it to its destination in Wisconsin and that I am a work in appointment.... I have now been here for 11 hours which is all unpaid time because the load was late before I even picked it up. I have to sit here for another 1 and a half hours because no one at After hours in my company can give me an authorization to pay the late fee they are demanding before I am allowed to leave.....

This is like a normal occurrence here. I am so frustrated right now!! This is just like the icing on the 3 weeks ive just made it through. Ive been telling myself that every other big company is probably just as poorly managed as this one with the same kind of problems, but every day its like the frustration just keeps getting worse. I hate bad mouthing anyone. I made my mind up that I would start with this company with an open mind and form my own opinion. The opinion I have so far is that I should have listened to the reviews online because I am struggling right now. I am going to try to make it another 3 months, but I'm getting to the point of snapping. I can make more money at McDonald's than I have averaged the last 3 weeks....

Any advice??

So I went to school with CR England on January 1st. I got my CDL 6 days later, did orientation, and was out on the road by January 15th. I love this career. I started doing this because I have some financial goals I am trying to reach in the next 3 to 5 years....

My frustration about my current situation is the company itself....

I am almost at 6 months (I've had 3 days since 1/15/17 off...all the other time off was a rolling reset ) I don't ask for time off because I'm out here to drive miles. I manage my time very efficiently, I get a lot of miles in...especially with being governed at 60/62, I am on time 99% of the time, blah blah blah....

All that being said, I don't understand how a company like this can afford to have such a blatant disregard for how they treat their employees. Office employees have been rude several times, I was broke down a total of 1 week out of the past 3 weeks and was paid $50 for layover, im on my 3rd truck in 3 weeks, I have spent countless hours in the past 3 weeks getting trailers fixed because no one can afford to sit and wait with broken equipment and only get paid $25 a day, at $25 a day its like they are encouraging drivers to just drive broken equipment....

I understand that in this business you will have good weeks and bad weeks, equipment breaks down over time...

I am having a very hard time staying with this company right now. After 3 weeks of very little pay I was asked to pick up a load yesterday that a driver was supposed to,pick up the previous day and was told I would drop it at one of our yards because it would need to be rescheduled. I agreed to dropping it in the yard in Illinois but let them know I was waiting on a load to salt lake city because I had a medical procedure being done in 2 days.....

After I accepted the load I was told to drive it to its destination in Wisconsin and that I am a work in appointment.... I have now been here for 11 hours which is all unpaid time because the load was late before I even picked it up. I have to sit here for another 1 and a half hours because no one at After hours in my company can give me an authorization to pay the late fee they are demanding before I am allowed to leave.....

This is like a normal occurrence here. I am so frustrated right now!! This is just like the icing on the 3 weeks ive just made it through. Ive been telling myself that every other big company is probably just as poorly managed as this one with the same kind of problems, but every day its like the frustration just keeps getting worse. I hate bad mouthing anyone. I made my mind up that I would start with this company with an open mind and form my own opinion. The opinion I have so far is that I should have listened to the reviews online because I am struggling right now. I am going to try to make it another 3 months, but I'm getting to the point of snapping. I can make more money at McDonald's than I have averaged the last 3 weeks....

Any advice??

Have you let your dispatcher know about your concerns? From what you are saying you seem to be doing everything that is expected of you and not complaining. I recommend that if your dispatcher cant address your concerns, keep going up the chain of command until you get results. If you trained for everything at CR England then you most likely are under contract with them. We always recommend that no matter how tough it is, stick with your original company for BARE MINIMUM of 1 YEAR. It takes AT LEAST that long for them to recoup their investment in training you. Anyway just address your concerns to your dispatcher and if you still get no results, move on up the chain until you do get results. COMMUNICATION is the major key here. Let them know your concerns, but stay PROFESSIONAL and RESPECTFUL at all times. If you have a GOOD ATTITUDE when you do address your concerns to them, more times than not they will be addressed. Anyway stick with it and stay safe out there.

Hi Patricia.

The first thing I've noticed is that you haven't mentioned a word about anything prior to these past three weeks. So were things going fine with the company and now you've hit a string of bad luck? It sounds like that's the case.

You said:

Office employees have been rude several times

Am I crazy to think you weren't exactly approaching the situation from a bubbly and pleasant demeanor yourself? I realized almost immediately in my career that office personnel can not handle anyone that comes at them square and straight. I used to just speak my mind plainly and say whatever I was thinking and feeling, and I didn't see anything wrong with that. I wasn't cursing or insulting anyone, I was just telling it like it is.

It turns out you really can't do that with office personnel most of the time, especially if you don't know them already and have some sort of a rapport with them. So if you're talking to them when you're frustrated, you're normally going to get a very cold response. I had to talk to office personnel in the way I would talk to a kindergarten class. Only then did I start making headway and begin working through problems with them. That was a tough lesson I learned early on. They are relatively fragile people when compared with blue collar types. You can't say things like you'd say them to another truck driver.

Listen, you're going to have stretches like that where everything seems to be working against you. It happens to everyone, and it's flabbergasting sometimes. Maybe you've heard the expression, "Everything happens in 3's," well that seems to be true. I would go six months without seeing the inside of a shop one time and suddenly I'm in the shop three times in two weeks! Suddenly I can't seem to go 10 miles without another problem.

Other times freight would be amazing for months at a stretch, averaging 3,000+ miles per week, and then suddenly I'm struggling to hit 2,400 for a few weeks like the economy just hit a wall. Then it kicks back in like nothing ever happened. Sometimes it's a software issue or the company is changing accounts or something of that sort, sometimes you never do figure out what just happened.

I would recommend keeping your eyes on your long term goals and understand that there's going to be hard times and bumps in the road. There will be times your equipment seems to go to junk, the freight quits on you, your dispatcher doesn't seem to be themselves, the company changes policies and makes a mess of things for a time - it all happens no matter where you work or what type of freight you haul.

I always have a policy that I never make major decisions during emotional times. It's easy to just chuck everything in the garbage, give your company the finger, and move on. But is that really going to help you in the long run? And is that really a permanent move you want to make, or is this temporary situation just frustrating you.

Wait until your truck is running great for a week, the freight is strong, the weather is sunny and 75 degrees, and you just had a great breakfast and then decide what you want to do with your career. If things are going great but you want to move on, then that's probably the right choice. But moving on always seems like the right choice during tough times, because when you're frustrated you just want to do something to vent those frustrations.

We all feel that way sometimes so we're totally cool with you coming here to vent and get a little advice. My personal advice is to keep your eyes looking way down the road and let this temporary situation pass. I think you'll be glad you did.

I have had issues the whole time. My paychecks have been wrong consistently as well. Its frustrating to have to call payroll every week and then wait to get paid. The past 3 weeks have just been especially frustrating with all the breakdowns on top of everything else......

I can tell you that I do communicate my concerns in a professional manor when I have issues. I was in customer service a long time before I started trucking. I always wait until I'm calm before I call. I always treat people with the same respect I would like to be treated with.

I am trying to stick it out. I feel like this company treats people however they feel like because they are churning new drivers out so quickly and often, that everyone else is replaceable. I took the train the trainer course my 1st week of breakdowns because I had the time and I enjoy training....plus better pay helps, but I kind of feel like training ppl that are just going to quit in 1 to 3 months is kind of a waste of time.

The payroll issue I rarely talk about, but I can tell you that every major carrier I ever worked for, including the now defunct TRL and Great Coastal, and the still thriving US Xpress, consistently messed up payroll. It drove me nuts, too, because I couldn't help but notice that not one single time did the mistake work out in my favor. Never once. Probably 100 times over the years I had to call in because something was missing that should have been there, and never once did I accidentally get paid for something I didn't do. Pretty amazing coincidence, isn't it? It didn't take me long to figure out I had to watch every nickel coming in like a hawk. I never had any problems getting paid once I called in to report something missing, but obviously I shouldn't have ever had to call in to begin with. So I know what you're saying. That's always been an issue, and if you're a conspiracy theorist I don't have to explain what it seems is going on with that. I don't know a solution to it, unfortunately.

You totally nailed one of the huge issues with turnover. It's really crazy, especially at the carriers with training programs. And I can totally see how the office personnel, the driver trainers, and the range instructors would just become disheartened and disinterested after a while, especially if you're the type to really give it your all and do your job with pride and professionalism. These large carriers get this non-stop river of disinterested, needy, entitled, lazy applicants come through thinking they're going to casually saunter their way into this career if the company proves they're good enough for them. It's ridiculous. People hear that truck drivers are in demand and many of them instantly assume they're holding all the cards and they can play the field like they're a celebrity. Of course half of them wind up on a bus home the first week, and many of the rest move on for one reason or another within a month or two. They obviously have no idea what it takes to do this job at a professional level. So yeah, I can totally see how the office personnel at these companies would become jaded after a while. What's the point, right? Like you said, who wants to put their best into helping someone when there's a 90% chance that person won't be around in 60 days anyhow? It's disheartening for sure.

You've already been there six months and I don't think their contract is very long. It's like eight months or something like that, isn't it? We always tell people it's best to stick with your first company for one full year, but in the very least you want to finish out your contract strong before you consider moving on. It's going to put you in a much better light to be able to say, "I completed my training, I completed my contract, I put in my very best effort on the road the entire time I was there, and now that I have some experience I'm simply looking for a better paying opportunity."

No one would fault you for that. You fulfilled your end of the bargain, you gave them your very best, and you're hoping to make more money if a better offer becomes available. Just finish out that contract strong and see how you feel when it's completed. A lot can happen in the next few months. You might learn about some small, specialized division they have which suits you perfectly and pays really well but is only reserved for drivers with a little more experience. You might get moved to a different dispatcher and a new truck and suddenly you're blasting out 3,000+ miles per week consistently and life is grand. Who knows? But it isn't much longer before that time arrives. It's always best to make sure you've exhausted every option with the company you're with before moving on and starting over at the bottom somewhere else.

I appreciate the advice. Im feeling much more calm now that I've vented. My contract is 9 months so I just have til October. I really wanted to be with my first company for a year, so hopefully things start getting better. I'm hoping to get into the flatbed division hauling pods before I move on so I can add that to my experience.

I'm just going to keep driving and hope for the best....

Not only hope for the best, but continue to try to find people in the offices that can help you out. It's a huge company. You're going to find all sorts there. All you have to do is find one person with a little bit of authority that really knows what the company has to offer and can put in a good word for you. You know there's people there that will care about your situation and can do something to help you.

Start talking around to other drivers that have been there a while and go into the offices to meet with people. Meet your dispatcher and the dispatcher's boss. Ask about load planning and how that works. Ask about special divisions within the company. Tell them your situation. Tell them how you feel. And most importantly, tell them you'd love to stay with the company for the long term if you can just find the right fit and get yourself into a solid position.

You have a few months. There's no question you have the time to find some good people that can help you out. Maybe you'll find the perfect fit for the long term, maybe you won't. But that strategy right there will be the surest path to finding out just how many opportunities the company might have for you. You'd be surprised at how many little special divisions there are at these huge companies that almost no one knows anything about. Old School, one of our long time moderators, works for an awesome special division within Knight. Even the guards at the company's terminals have turned him away because they didn't realize those special divisions existed and they they thought he worked somewhere else. They wouldn't let him in!

So really do some snooping around and ask a lot of different people for ideas. You'll hit just the right person before long and a list of opportunities will be made available to you that almost no one knows about.

Hahaha.... I made it 3 miles from my next pick up and 1 of my trailer airbags exploded!! Could all these airbag issues I'm having be weather related?? Now that its warm outside....

Hahaha.... I made it 3 miles from my next pick up and 1 of my trailer airbags exploded!! Could all these airbag issues I'm having be weather related?? Now that its warm outside....

Wow. That's a bad break right there again!

No, the temperature outside should have no impact on that, really. You haven't mention any other airbag issues, specifically. Now I don't know exactly how they regulate those systems, but if you're blowing out airbags it's possible there's a sensor or valve or something in your tractor that's not regulating the pressure properly. I'm really not sure. But I'm not sure if I've ever had an airbag blow out on the tractor or trailer. I probably have any just don't remember it. I can remember having some brake chambers go out though.

I would call breakdown, or I'm guessing you already have, and ask them about that specifically. They very well may know what's causing that, or if you're just on a run of bad luck.

Hang in there girl, 3 months can feel like an eternity sometimes, but, you will see the light, CR Englan unfortunately doesn't have a good rap, or at least that's what I read from them, but you will get your chance if you can endure this period in your career.

Hahaha.... I made it 3 miles from my next pick up and 1 of my trailer airbags exploded!! Could all these airbag issues I'm having be weather related?? Now that its warm outside....

Wow. That's a bad break right there again!

No, the temperature outside should have no impact on that, really. You haven't mention any other airbag issues, specifically. Now I don't know exactly how they regulate those systems, but if you're blowing out airbags it's possible there's a sensor or valve or something in your tractor that's not regulating the pressure properly. I'm really not sure. But I'm not sure if I've ever had an airbag blow out on the tractor or trailer. I probably have any just don't remember it. I can remember having some brake chambers go out though.

I would call breakdown, or I'm guessing you already have, and ask them about that specifically. They very well may know what's causing that, or if you're just on a run of bad luck.

Hahaha.... I made it 3 miles from my next pick up and 1 of my trailer airbags exploded!! Could all these airbag issues I'm having be weather related?? Now that its warm outside....