Abilene Motor Express - Richmond, VA

Make sure you double-check what you are told by this company. I thought I checked them out thoroughly but I was wrong. I was with them for 4.25 months and finally got fed up and left. (Under good terms and can go back, if I choose).

(In August, 2006, they had sold 49% of the company to US Xpress).

If you live outside a certain radius (say 75 miles) of their home office of Richmond, VA, expect a headache on your part in getting hometime. All their freight originates from the Richmond area. You can rest assure that you will be back within 2 or 3 trips. Even if you fill out a "hometime request" sheet within 7 days of your request, they wait until the last minute to approve it. I had no problem with my first request but all the ones afterwards was a headache to get approval. I would give 10 to 21 days advanced notice. The Operations Manager would say "I don't have a crystal ball to see what loads we'll have to get you home on that date." Even with 4 days left until I wanted to be home. I did get home each time ontime though, just a headache for the process.

The Ops Manager asks you to get a Dentist and a Doctor in Richmond, VA for your needs. And also tells you to schedule these appointsments on a Wed. or Thurs. If you won't do this and use your own from your home area, to schedule these on a Tues. or Wed. I told him that I'll use my own and will take whatever day they give me. Luckily I didn't need to see
them.

This company pays per diem (I'm not a fan of per diem). Recruting Manager said $0.12 per mile on all paid miles. WRONG !! It is $0.085 per mile on average. I say average cause they use a supposedly Industry wide calculation for per diem according to the Payroll Manager I talked with. My per diem ranged from $0.072 to $0.085 per mile.

No pay for Orientation or transportation to Orientation. They pay for single hotel room but no place to eat except a fast food place. You are forced to sign a sheet saying you are responsible for part of repair cost on your truck or trailer (up to 50%) if involved in an accident whether your fault or not. (Yes, believe it or not). Luckily I didn't have any accidents while I was there but an O/O did with their trailer (Low Clearance) and I don't
know the outcome but I never saw him again.

Recruting Manager is a retired 1st Sargeant of the VA State Police. In orientation he said you better know how to log and do "Magic" with it meaning you run illegal a lot. He also told us the "tricks" when confronted with DOT and law enforcement to lessen the violation. That was ok to hear and to me was just common sense. If you don't mind a lot of "running
illegal", you won't have a problem. (Their ISS-2 score is 98).

If you like the I-95 corridor north of Richmond and the Northeast, you'll love Abilene. They do pay extra for Northeast ($0.05 per mile both empty and loaded) once you cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge. They do have drivers who get these loads that want them. (They have a lot of drivers who don't mind the Northeast). If they are short drivers for these loads; guess what, you get it. Now I don't mind the northeast but not all the time. And yes, they do go in and around NYC. Also into Manhattan but with a straight truck supposedly. They do have a straight truck but I never saw it used for Manhattan, only on other trips.

Their two main customers in Richmond seemed to always wait until the last minute to get loads ready. (They are drop/hook at shipper.) When they were, you have to hustle to get them delivered on time; usually overnite (I prefer to drive in daylite hours). You better know how to get deep sleep in the daytime. Plus the Consignees were new stores being built that were most of the time hard (but not impossible) to manufeur around or stores that were in business parks or Strip Malls.

When outside the Richmond area for any load, they use a nationally known broker service mostly. They also use others which are connected with Trucking Companies. I'm not a big fan of broker loads even for company drivers. And also with loads, don't rely on the directions on the QualComm. I had to call almost all of the customers to get directions or better ones cause it wasn't in the QC. Also had to use the Internet when no phone number available to get directions. I submitted new or updated directions to Dispatch but I noticed if they got in the QC, they were edited and not very detailed. Just trying to help the next driver is why I was detailed on directions.

If you are at Richmond yard and your truck needs work, expect to switch trucks to a temporary one. They had 2 when I was there which were Volvo 660's. I used one of these only one time for 5 days. Never again. Rest of time I told them I'll wait for my truck. They didn't like it but oh well. I had a good truck and outside of that one time, the rest was just the truck needed a PM.

Pay was not good; $0.26 empty, $0.32 loaded. All drivers start at this level no matter your experience. I got the miles though; 3000 to 4300 paid (Odometer miles were 3270 to 4690) a week for solo.

Now I know this is a lot to digest (if you have read this far) but I do have two good things to say about Abilene. 1. Their trucks are O/O spec'ed with 12-speed Meritor Freedom Line Auto-Shift trannys and governed at 73 for solo and 75 for team. They have Volvo 780's and Freightliner Coronodo's and Century Class with Signature Edition interiors and side-mounted exhaust. 2. Their trailers are great. Not once did I have to get them repaired. And lastly, they run virgin tires all around; trucks and trailers. They won't buy or use retreads.

 

My beef with them is they won't change. Case in point; push-button combination locks on the 2 office doors in the Dispatch area. If you need to talk with the office, you had to ask for the phone extention # and call. You ask them to come out from behind the door and they wouldn't.
I'd rather talk face to face than on the phone with my employer and their co-workers.

Dispatch was a thick piece of glass with a metal louver ring to speak through and a small opening at the bottom center to receive or submit your papers. They hardly ever came out through the door to talk with you. And it was very hard to hear them while talking with you through that glass, even with hearing aids that I wear (turned up).

Also with Dispatch, they didn't like to hear that you haven't slept during the daylite hours cause you slept when normal people sleep during the nitetime hours when they give you a load at 6PM and it has to be 500 miles in the morning. These types of dispatches happened only at the Richmond yard. And I and most of the other drivers had been on the yard since the previous day. (( I will drive at night when needed but under my discretion, not theirs. I had with Abilene in the past (driven all night) and I'm surprised I made it in one piece sometimes)). Just watchin out for me, the equipment, and motoring public.

It would have been better if I didn't have to come to Richmond so often but like stated originally, a driver will always return to Richmond within 2 to 3 trips cause that's where their top 2 customers are based out of (Metro area). I knew that before accepting employment but didn't realise it was going to be a pain. When I'm out on the road, I like staying out 3 to 5 weeks at a time and not go through the home yard but maybe once a quarter.

Now with US Xpress in the door with 49% ownership, things will get worse. They have an option to buy the other 51% in August 2010. If US Xpress does with Abilene as they have done with Total Transportation of Mississippi it will occur before August 2010. (US Xpress now owns 85%
of Total as of September, 2006. Total forgot to read the fine print buried in the contract).

Again, the President told me to my face that I can come back at anytime. He didn't like the idea that I was leaving cause he was loosing a good driver as my record reflected. He was very nice and professional and so was I. Even the CEO (His brother) was troubled that I was leaving but understood.

PS: Correcting a typo from original post. Their ISS-2 score is 98