Beacon Transport

And their drivers are obviously articulate and well spoken.

 

Some details would have been nice, but seeing how poorly this post was written I'm glad it was short. My question is why anyone would work for a company that only pays .31 cents per mile anyway, that is worse than minimum wage in trucking dollars. You can bus tables at a restaurant and make those wages and be home everyday with a life.

 

Well if the trailer brakes are froze, how is that the owners fault??
Drivers set trl. brakes after running in cold slushy roads and the brakes will freeze to the drums.
# 1 rule in winter running DO NOT SET THE TRAILER BRAKES..Just set your tractor brakes after you sit about 10 /15 mins and let them cool down after using them.
Plus just don't park and walk away from your trk. set a bit and then move foward or back a bit as your tires are hot and will melt into the ice or snow and then your stuck.
Airlines froze up, well put in some airline anti freeze in your system and keep your air tanks drained.

 

Maybe I'm strange but when I sit all day I try and get some sleep so I can drive all night. Truckin' ain't a 9 to 5 job. Quit your snivellin and man up.

 

Hey u should call Kevin Knight and work 4 him,he loves his drivers and cares about them.He would love a great driver like you,also tell Kevin you want to run out of Carlisle,Pa terminal.you will love it there.Cant wait 4 ur next post.

 

I worked for Stan Pritchett at Beacon Transportation outside of Nashville, TN in late '07 until March of '08. I was an OTR driver and had years of experience walking into the job. What attracted me to the job was that the main terminal was close to my home, thus ensuring ample hometime.

From the start, I noticed that Beacon's shop wasn't too enthused about keeping the trucks maintained and the mechanics spent more time working on their own vehicles rather than working on the company's trucks and trailers. That seemed odd since Stan's office was in the same building. Then I found out that anything task other than a tire swap or oil change was sent to the local Volvo dealership and only under the approval from Stan.

I saw plenty of trailers that had tires just the minimal legal tread depth. All of the tractors ran retread's on the drives - even the new trucks (they would bring them into the shop, swap tires and sell the new tires).

The worst part of dealing with Beacon was the constant sitting waiting on loads. In my driving history, I've been late on appointments LESS than 3 times over 10 years. It is my montra to NOT be late reguardless of what the situation. Still, Beacon Transport would NEVER predispatch any driver and wait until an empty Qualcomm message was sent. Then you waited. And waited. And waited. Sometimes for 20 hours. Then at the 23rd hour, they would send a load assignment that had a pickup time 30 minutes away and you are 90 miles from the location. We all know the drill. Dispatch waits until the last minute to see if a bigger fish will swim by and go with that. The problem is the truck and driver has sat idle for a day without producing ANY revenue.

The last week I drove for Beacon, I left their terminal in Nashville on Sunday night for a morning delivery outside NE Atlanta. On Wednesday morning they had a load ready to come back to Nashville. I parked the trailer in the yard, pulled up to my pickup and started to unload the truck. The recruiter/safety officer (Tony Davidson) came out to my truck and asked me what I was doing. I said "I use this truck to make money, not to park. If a black truck doesn't make me money, than I need to find another color of truck to drive".

I left Beacon on good terms (I never burn bridges) and wished them well. Since March of 2008, they've nearly lost their Bridgestone Tire account several times and Bridgestone has cut production back. Beacon typically hauls for Bridgestone, Michelin, and John Deere. Their website lists Coca Cola and Toshiba as customers, but they lost those accounts more than 5 years ago.

If you are a new driver and have about a year experience, then Beacon might be a step up from Werner, Swift and the like. If you are a quality, experienced driver, don't waste your time..... unless you like watching parking lots for days at a time.