This is my experience with AD Transport out of Canton Mi....
Orientation was only a day, this is a good thing I guess...
Was told all trucks are 2 years or less and all trucks get turned in with the max of 400,000...
After orentation I get a 05 with 425,000... No prob I could really care less about what truck I drive long as it is a good mechanical condition...
(later I find out this truck pulls hard to the right, windshield leaks very bad and water runs down over the fuse box causing bright lights to stay on and other things as such(yes I had to stop and pull breakers) Qual com kept messing up,sleeper curtain zipper was broke so I had no privacy, Cab filters looked as if they never had been changed and a few other issues... none of the above was fixed even after I wrote them up during a PM at canton shop)
I called dispatch a told them I am ready to roll, they said okay they would get me something soon.. The load never came and it took almost 2 days to get a load... There excuse was nobody ever assigned me into that truck..
So I get a 250 mile run and roll..
Then I get another 380 mile run and was to go home with it??? I said I need to roll they said they had nothing for me....
When I was given a decent load with miles it had illegal dispatch times and was a hazmat load on top of that...
This went on for several weeks with the illegal dispatch times with other loads and if I did not except I would end up with 200-300 for a 24 hour period..
December 27 I get a load from NJ to Detroit that delivered on """JAN 5th"""
I called and said I would pick the load up and take it to the Canton yard but I am not going to sit on this load for that long.. The guy said it should be no prob and to call back in the morning to speak with my original dispatch... I called soon as they got in in the morn and they said no prob they would set it up... I called 3 more times cause i did not get any confirmation sent on the qual com the drop had been set.. Well to make things short It never went threw that day.. So now it is Saturday morn and I am still trying to get this thing dropped.. Finlay late Sat night i got it done and was given a load to indianapolis that delivered on the "5TH"... 280 miles or something like that... I went in to dispatch office and spoke to a guy for about an hour explaining to him I need to run that I have already been sitting way to much and need miles... I ended up with a load going to Portland OR.. Finally some miles....
The guy told me that the appointment wasn't set yet so I would need to call my dispatch wednesday after the holiday and set up an appointment for Thursday and it may be Friday before i could get an appointment becuase 2 trucks is all they except a day.. I said great and went on.. Well On Tuesday they called me like 20 time by 10 different people asking me where i was and why I was late????? Not sure what went on there but it seemed nobody believed that I was told that it delivered on thurs or fri and to be there on Wed... I guess this place was a 24 hr and excepted trucks all day long and wanted it on TUESDAY(they was open on the holiday)... by the way I could of not legally been there Tuesday morn, perhaps tuesday at 2300 but not in the morn... The load delivered on Thursday after everything was done....
Okay I sit a day and get a load out of Tacoma WA with an extra pickup in Vernal UT that picked up on Sunday and delivered on Tuesday in Sterling ky
The way they had the times was illegal run and I had to fit a 34hr break in..I get a call the next morning asking me if I knew the 11 AM pickup time on the qual com was eastern time and not pacificI said no I did not and why wasn't I told this information when I called in the night before asking if the company in UT was really going to be open on Sunday, She said all drivers end up thinking its Pacific time (more of a reason they should tell drivers
)
Not to mention I had to chain up going threw colorado, had a flat trl tire on this run as well.. I got several calls asking why I was going so slow, I told them if they could keep the 4 wheelers from bouncing off each other creating repeated backups in areas such as Vail then perhaps I could move a little faster...
After all this I make it on time...
Less then 5 hours later I get a load that I would have to leave then and go pickup to make it on time and drive strait to MI to make it on time..I called them and told them I wasn't able to do it becuase I didn't have the hours at that time.. They said no prob we can change the delivery time but PLEASE GO PICK IT UP... Well all of you know I had been out of work a while and if I said no I would end up sitting with a short run at the end.. I am not even going to tell you how many miles I just had got done driving before this.. I go pick it up and find a place to park ( I really am trying to make this work) They call me telling me they could not change the appointment timeThey said I needed to deliver this load now and I said no i am not I am out of hours.. I told them to find somebody to come get this trl if they needed it that bad, they said they had nobody in the area I said well don't expect me to deliver it... (I had had it at this point) They told me to deliver the load or they will call the cops and report the truck stolen :smt103.. I said fine do it becuase I am not running illegal up to MI.. I went to bed and you would not believe it.. They did report it and I had cops knocking on my door... To make this part short they took the truck and that was it...
This company in my opinion is just as bad if not worse then JB Hunt.. (although JB does not encourage running illegal) So, I can only imagine what is going to be put on my DAC by these idiots
I tried to do some research on this company before going but there was nothing to be found.. After being hired and speaking to OTR drivers I could not find one that was happy working for this company and several told me they was on their way out...
So if you like running illegal with hazmat loads this is the company for you.
If you like spending "a lot" of time on the phone about "each" load you get this is the company for you..
AD Transport
Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by Truckerjo, Jan 14, 2008.
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AD Transport is no better than any other trucking company out there, and in a lot of ways, they are worse. I would love to tell you exactly how I know so much about this company, but not quite ready to reveal my identity. Let's just say inside information is very reliable.
Orientation is only 1 day. They will have a current driver pick you up at a convienent location, to the driver, no matter what time of day is convienent for driver. But dont expect to be able to sleep in that drivers truck, so if the driver picks you up and you are not due to be in the yard until 3 in the morning, you will still be expected to be in orientation at 0700 and do a road test and sit thru all the boring hazmat videos. Then, they cram a ton of information at you at once and your driver manager will be an ### when you dont remember all of it. Oh, and if for some reason you do not get thru orientation, you will be expected to figure out your own way to get home, they will not cover any of the expenses, at all.
Your recruiter will quote you all of the standard reteric that the bosses give them, and in the end, your driver manager will tell you many things that are completely different. Hometime for example...your recruiter will tell you home every other weekend, and your DM will tell you that your hometime is at the discression of the company. And if you happen to be in the area of your house with a load on your truck, it will always be considered as hometime. In other words, if you get home every weekend with a load on your truck, but you want to go home for a trip out of town and do not want to be held responsible for the load, you will be told NO, you just had hometime last weekend.
AD Transport requires that all transits be planned at 63 mph, and every load they give you will be incredibly impossible according to the hours of service, or there will be so much time on the load that you will not get squat for miles for the week.
Lets talk about miles....each DM is held accountable for your miles for the week. This would be great if they didnt quit giving a crap once you get 2300 miles for the week.
Loads...ALL, and I mean ALL of their freight is BROKERed, JUST IN TIME, freight. Some people may ask why this is important...here is the answer. JIT freight is always impossible to run, dont even think about stopping to use the restroom, and forget about eating. You will absolutely break your balls to get the load there on time, and then find out that there was probably a delivery window, which your DM will NEVER tell you, or you will sit for hours waiting to be unloaded. BROKER Freight sucks because you will get to your delivery point and more than likely sit for at least a day (maybe more) while they find another load from a broker that is in that specific area.
Detention pay....the first DM that you get as a new driver, which is always the same person for everyone, and wont tell you what i think of him, will not even attempt to get you detention pay. Other DM's will tell you that they will try to bill for detention, you will NEVER get it. I personally know that the load plannesr bill $35 an hour for detention, you will still NEVER see even a penny of it.
Logs...You only have to match your logs to your fuel stops. Nice so that you have room to play with, but you still better be creative enough to run 2 books, because DOT will stop you for inspections every chance they get. AD Transport has one of the worst safety rating in the industry, and if you dont believe me, log onto safersys.org and look up the company profile for A.D. Transport Express.
Night Dispatch...really dont communicate with your regular DM. This makes a difference because if you and your DM have a plan, Night Dispatch can change those plans to benefit the company, and if you dont go along with it, they WILL put it in your driver profile as a ding.
Equipment...looks great on the outside. Nice and shiny clean...thats because they have a truck wash on site. Under the hood is a completely different story. Once upon a time, longer AD was probably good at getting rid of their trucks before the warrenty was up. Well...when the economy took a crap, they did the same thing lots of other companies did, they started keeping the current equipment. The problem with this is that the mechanics in the shop dont know how to fix ####. Oh, you can write up a problem with the truck, and the shop will either tell you that they cant find anything wrong with it or that they did fix it just to shut you up.
I guess i will end this with 2 final thoughts.
First.........The owner of this company outwardly has the opinion that the drivers that work for him are minions to serve his paycheck and has openly told one driver in particular "you work for me and will do what you are told or you wont have a job.
Second.....Why does a company that only has under 450 trucks and is not adding any more to the fleet, need to have 2 orientations a week?
Afterthought......The back lot has recently been grated and new GRAVEL has been laid and lines have been painted on the GRAVEL. The owner has told drivers on more than one occasion that if they run over the painted lines on the GRAVEL and "mess them up" he will fire them. Really......it is GRAVEL!
If anyone out there reading this wants answers to any more questions, please feel free to let me know.
Good luck in your job search, just end that search at this employer
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Paint on gravel? 
What genius thought that one up? What a complete moron! Why not go get some creosote fence posts and lay them down as stalls? -
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