Anyone Heard Of Lobos Interstate Services?

I'm on www.fundme.com . Click on 'browse' and scrool down. There is a picture of me and my cat to the left. Guys on here recommended to go there for support. Anything helps. I'm crossing my fingers that I get food stamps tomorrow. On a side note there is no way I'm going into my second trucking job broke and hungry. I won't be homeless so if anyone feels too bad about my situation please don't worry. Tough times though. I'm done talking about Lobos unless someone has questions. Time to move on! If any of yall need a place to stay i have a nice apt in southern NH. 75 minutes north of Boston and less than 20 minutes to the ocean in Maine.

i have a nice apt in southern NH. 75 minutes north of Boston

I might take you up on that! I've always wanted to go by and see my town, Errol, NH

Yes, sorry I meant "Charles" not Chris. I apologize for the slow responses here this week. I've been pretty swamped with other work and I'm transitioning to a more consultative role with Lobos' marketing and PR rather than direct involvement. I have relayed everything that's been happening here to the owner, I have spoken with other employees within the company who were involved with the situation, and I think I have a pretty good picture of what's been happening with everything. I can tell that this certainly isn't the horror story Charles is making it out to be, though I can sympathize with the frustration and disappointment of coming out to a job and then it not being something you're interested in and having to drive back home. I get it, that really sucks and I'm sorry you haven't been reimbursed yet. I'm doing what I can on my end to get things moving more quickly but unfortunately I personally have very little control over that. I can say that claiming this experience has given you PTSD or forced you to go looking for handouts is making you look a bit like an ambulance chaser here. I'm not saying this to be mean, I'm saying this to point out that you're not helping your case. The most you would be reimbursed is around $300 as that's the most expensive bus ticket we typically see (and it is made clear on the phone that if you drive yourself we will reimburse up to a bus ticket as long as you provide fuel receipts) so if $300 - $600 was going to break your bank then you were going to be in financial hardship no matter what happened as anywhere you go to work is probably not going to pay you for at least 2 weeks, some places 3.

Once again, I see a post that was not supportive of the anti-lobos tone was removed. It does appear that anyone that isn't Lobos that disagrees with the comments or the moderator of this forum gets their posts removed and anything that could possibly make someone that isn't Lobos look bad is swiftly removed as well. I am clearly involved in PR so I get it, but you can't do that and then claim to take a moral high ground of promoting only the truth. That may be one of your main goals, but you also have the goal of making yourself look good, which is understandable.

Obviously I want to make the company I work with look good, and more than that I want them to genuinely BE good as well. I've personally made great efforts to do so and, even though I have never had a lot of direct control over policies, contracts, etc. I've worked very hard to fix things that were obviously broken and clear up things that were unclear. Even now that I am working as a consultant I'm frequently urging courses of action that will make things better for everyone. That doesn't mean that these guys are Bond villains sitting in big office chairs sinisterly plotting the downfall of every aspiring CDL driver. Everyone who works at Lobos is genuinely trying to do a good job and provide a good service to the customers. While you may not like some of the decisions the business owners make the people that work in this office are genuine, hard working people. Things will constantly move forward and improve, students and drivers who come in months from now will have better systems and things than people right now; it's just the nature of growth and improvement.

To address some of the other comments. Yes, a $10,000 termination fee is a pretty intimidating number, but when it's explained it makes a little more sense. First off, the easiest way to not pay that is to simply give 2 weeks notice that you're quitting. That's one of the easiest things in the world to do is pick up a phone and say hey this isn't for me, I'm out in 2 weeks. The other things to consider are that when someone quits without notice, that means the truck is sitting with either a single driver or no driver if it's a solo. So the company has to pay to retrieve the truck, get it to a driver or a driver to it, get hit with loss of payment or fees for late deliveries, especially if it's a team load, which means hurting relationships with brokers and shippers AND receivers, plus there could potentially be damages to the truck when someone with a grudge decides they're going to damage or vandalize the truck and/or trailer. All of those expenses add up pretty fast. So that amount is planning ahead for all of those potential expenses and/or losses of revenue (because if the truck makes no money or negative money then none of the companies get paid for their services, the driver doesn't get paid, and the companies end up eating any negative revenue to make it so the co-driver doesn't end up owing money instead of making money). So the $10,000 fee is there to cover that kind of scenario and getting out of the contract is incredibly easy so unless you're going into it with a plan to try and screw people over, it really shouldn't be that scary. You're welcome to disagree with that if you like, but that is my take on it and what's been explained to me about how the contract works in this area.

I'll post more next week as I've run out of time for today, but I will keep everyone updated on the situation and continue to point out what I think is mud slinging, exaggerations, or valid points (because despite all the drama there have been some valid points in this thread too which have improved the way Lobos operates).

Charle's situation sucks, but Lobos is right to say that it is pretty ridiculous to insinuate that experience was going to cause him PTSD and it is a valid point that most companies aren't going to pay for your return trip home. While it is pretty unfair and downright ****ty of Lobos to be withholding his trip to Utah reimbursement, I have to agree that just like every other person that comes on this forum bashing a company they were unsuccessful at, Charles seems to be making his experience into a greater horror story than it actually was.

Lobos is wrong to refuse to supply a contract before potentials go out there. Obviously that puts people in an unfair position. There are clear problems with their program and I dont think it would be wise for any driver to jump into a lease agreement right out of school. But that said, they have taken the advice here amd made significant improvements to their website. They no longer claim the schooling is free (which really irritated me) and they are no longer hiding the fact that leasing and a contract are required.

Some users on here have copies of contracts and pay stubs and whatever, so maybe I am too uninformed to be speaking on the subject, but this whole thread seems to have gotten way out of hand.

Once again, I see a post that was not supportive of the anti-lobos tone was removed.

Interesting...my post was removed. The one where I told Charles to get over himself? Whatever, it's not my forum. But seriously, I doubt Charles has PTSD because of all this or that a 73 year old man would've died if Charles hadn't given him a ride. And, if driving 5000 miles is so traumatic, why does he want to be a truck driver?

Lobos Interstate Services may not be a great place to start your career but Charles is just trying to get attention at this point.

No. I'm not tryimg to get attention. People are getting it all wrong. I love driving and the ride out to Utah was fun. Being nearly broke and driving back Sucked. I could have gone on a 10 day cruise and gone out every night and wouldn't be as broke as I am now. When you 2500 miles from home and have just enough cash to pay for fuel it's scary. If a tire blew it would be impossible to get home financially.

I'm getting better and I'm glad Lobo posted on herè. $300.00 is ok. The sooner I get it the better because I can barely afford to get groceries. I wanted to delete 2 or 3 of my older comments but you can't do it here.

Once again, I see a post that was not supportive of the anti-lobos tone was removed.

Interesting...my post was removed. The one where I told Charles to get over himself? Whatever, it's not my forum. But seriously, I doubt Charles has PTSD because of all this or that a 73 year old man would've died if Charles hadn't given him a ride. And, if driving 5000 miles is so traumatic, why does he want to be a truck driver?

Lobos Interstate Services may not be a great place to start your career but Charles is just trying to get attention at this point.

I've kinda stayed mute on this thread.

No accusations or anything - but Charles has only been on this board for 2 weeks now. Likely found us through a google search on Lobos, and has a bone to pick with them. And is using this board as a platform to try and publicly shame Lobos into some compensation. And is sometimes a little over-dramatic in doing so.

Now, the beef may be legitimate - and the practice of a 51 page legal document for someone walking in the door may be daunting for a layman. The terms of the contract might not be something that a new driver would want to obligate himself to either.

It's not up to this site to moderate a dispute between a failed driver application and a carrier. If we want to discuss Lobo's business practices, so we can recommend to members that they steer clear of them, cool - that's what we do here.

Sorry Charlie - I'm not sending any $$ to your gofundme - because, well - I JUST DON'T KNOW YOU. And I do plenty to "pay it forward" to my fellow driving brothers. While I sympathize with anyone in that financial situation, this just reeks of "online panhandling" to me.

Rick

Yes, sorry I meant "Charles" not Chris. I apologize for the slow responses here this week. I've been pretty swamped with other work and I'm transitioning to a more consultative role with Lobos' marketing and PR rather than direct involvement. I have relayed everything that's been happening here to the owner, I have spoken with other employees within the company who were involved with the situation, and I think I have a pretty good picture of what's been happening with everything. I can tell that this certainly isn't the horror story Charles is making it out to be, though I can sympathize with the frustration and disappointment of coming out to a job and then it not being something you're interested in and having to drive back home. I get it, that really sucks and I'm sorry you haven't been reimbursed yet. I'm doing what I can on my end to get things moving more quickly but unfortunately I personally have very little control over that. I can say that claiming this experience has given you PTSD or forced you to go looking for handouts is making you look a bit like an ambulance chaser here. I'm not saying this to be mean, I'm saying this to point out that you're not helping your case. The most you would be reimbursed is around $300 as that's the most expensive bus ticket we typically see (and it is made clear on the phone that if you drive yourself we will reimburse up to a bus ticket as long as you provide fuel receipts) so if $300 - $600 was going to break your bank then you were going to be in financial hardship no matter what happened as anywhere you go to work is probably not going to pay you for at least 2 weeks, some places 3.

Delay, delay, delay by Lobos. Another tactic used by dishonest companies.

FACT- Charles requested the reimbursement March 2. 17 days ago. Will Lobos ever do what is right? Does Lobos have one small bit of honesty? Lobos said they would reimburse. Or will they just drag it out, so Charles gives up?

Transparency (this thread) is the best thing in the world.

Charles,

I thought that this just happened but apparently it was a few weeks ago, maybe longer. You are now stating that you barely have food for groceries. My question is, Why are you not working somewhere? Don't give me the crap about there is no work. I am 47 and the longest it has taken me to find work is 3 days. Might not be the job you want but it feeds you. Have had plenty of those too. $300 is not going to cure your grocery problem but for a short period of time.

Transparency (this thread) is the best thing in the world.

I don't really know what to think about this thread - I've remained silent on it because it seems like a train wreck to me. Charles is melodramatic, and Lobos is stubborn as hell. I mean some of the things that Lobos has been accused of are standard things that happen at many trucking companies. One of those being that sections of the building are locked up so that drivers can't get in there - that is not uncommon, but in this thread it is presented as something that Lobos is doing wrong. And there is nothing wrong, illegal, or uncommon for a business to have a "shell" corporation with no physical address or location to it, another accusation leveled against Lobos.

I think Lobos has a major PR problem, and I don't doubt that it is due to their shady practices. Any time I see a company so willing to defend itself in the face of such abject evidence against them it is troubling.