Ken's Korner

There I go again. I have had two new jobs this month. Celadon and US Xpress. Of course, I quit one of them already (Celadon) because I can’t work at two places at the same time. Well, they wouldn’t give me a truck. They gave me something they called a truck, but it didn’t really work like one. It’s too bad too, because I really wanted to work there.

It seemed like a good job. They go to some of my favorite places and they even let you choose your load (sometimes). If only they would have given me a real truck, I would still be there. They knew I was a columnist too and I promised not to say anything bad about them, so I won't. There really isn’t anything bad to say about them anyway. My timing was just bad. They really are a good company with some good benefits. They even have a 401K plan that starts on day one. Plus, they offered me a job where I would be home every night. But, since I was local, they gave me the junk of the fleet (and understandably so, after all, I wasn’t going very far).

I guess I’m spoiled rotten. I need things like air conditioning, fenders, doors that lock and an air-seat that holds air. If it wasn’t for that, I’d still be there. Oh, they offered to fix it alright. Two days in the shop for the air-seat and then at least a few more days at the body shop for the fenders and door locks. I just didn’t want to wait around for a whole week, without pay, so I called US Xpress and went to work there the very next day. By the time my truck would have been fixed at Celadon, I had already made $800 at US Xpress. Celadon wouldn’t give me another truck. They said I had to use that one. That’s just the way it worked. I just couldn’t wait around for a whole week without pay. That’s just the way I work.

They (Celadon) told me (and US Xpress also told me) that Freightliner stopped their old lease program. Freightliner used to offer the big companies a 240,000 mile, two year trade-in deal. And many of the big companies were signing on. All of the sudden, they found themselves stuck with too many used trucks, so they changed their lease plan to 620,000 miles or five years. So now, many of the big companies are looking at Kenworth and Peterbilt for better lease options. That old lease plan was probably the reason you see so many Freightliners on the road today. I look for that to change soon. Any truck manufacturer who comes up with a decent lease plan for these big outfits will really rake in some major sales in the near future. So, to all of you truck sales and leasing pros, that’s a pretty good lead I just gave you. I’ll be expecting my commission too.

US Xpress has better health insurance anyway. But they almost made me walk out when they told me about their per-diem pay plan. Per-diem means that a percentage of your pay is paid to you tax free. It’s completely legal and it saves you the headache of itemizing your deductions later. On the phone, the recruiter quoted me one pay rate, that included per-diem. But when I got there, I found out it was not per-diem at all, unless you opt for a lower pay rate. That was a shocker. If I had known the truth before I left, I wouldn’t have gone. But I can’t play musical jobs forever, I have bills to pay. I’ll stay here (for a while).

In the game of musical jobs, the music stops when the bills are piled up. I’ll play again when I get caught up. Or maybe I’ll get lucky and get a book published. Then I won’t have to drive for anyone. I’ll buy my own company and pay my drivers well. And my drivers won't be forced to operate junk equipment - they’ll drive the best trucks on the market.

There is another game I like to play. It’s the alphabet game. You know how so many companies have three letter names, like TSI, FFE, WEL, TSE, CFI and so on? Well, the way you play this game, is you take the last company's name that you worked for and try to change only one letter for your next job. In other words, if you worked for CFI, then your next job has to be NFI or CTI. Get it? I once went from PSE to PST. That qualified as one point in the alphabet game. With my long history of changing jobs and carriers, I have earned numerous points in this game over the years.

All of the big companies have one major problem that small companies never have. They have rules that just cannot be bent or broken. Unlike Celadon, a small company would have gotten me another truck. At a smaller company, everything is negotiable. At a big company, nothing is. The rules are etched in stone and nobody is authorized to change anything, except maybe the president of the company (and he is probably too busy for the likes of you or me). At a small company, your pay is negotiable, but not at a big one. Their pay scale is set. You get a half-cent raise every six months, or so. But at a smaller company, you can prove your worth in a few months and get bumped up to a respectable wage, simply by asking for it.

Another way many of these big companies get you is the old pay-for-experience scam. They offer huge wages for years of experience. But the catch is, they only go back five years. Some only count your last job. Some of them, I wont mention any names, actually wait until you are there, attending orientation, before they tell you that one of your references didn’t check out and they would therefore be offering you a lesser pay than previously quoted. You’d think they'd get that done before you take a two-day bus ride.

I’m getting too good at this, it’s true. I am very good at getting hired. I’m not much for actually staying very long though. Well, that’s not entirely true. My last job, before these two, was a small company that I stayed at for over three years. Well, let’s see how long this one lasts. I already have another one in my back pocket, just in case. Thanks for listening, and don’t forget to check out my website at www.bigcitydriver.com for more trucking trials and tribulations.