Perkins Specialized Transportation, Inc. - Indianapolis, In.?

Well I just signed on to Perkins last week and picked up my lease to buy truck on Friday. While I am new to this company as a driver, I am not new to anyone who works there. I can assure you that most of the people who work the front office are people who I've been working with for between 10-17 years from many different companies and backgrounds. These are top notch people all assembled under one roof. As a lease operator there is no 9-5, there is no home time every night, and no goofing off out on the road. It is hard work and as a driver, staying out for 3-weeks at a time is standard practice if your gonna make it. If you have a family or want to be home every night this business is not for you. As for claims that Perkins forces NYC and the eastern seaboard that's ridiculous and not true. All the drivers that I attended orientation with all headed for the west coast and I didn't hear a complaint one. The equipment is top notch even the older trucks that are part of the lease program are clean inside out, mechanically sound, and are setup for the work we do with them. The shop is old but the mechanics are professionals and the guys in the front office are professional as well. Guaranteed this job is not for everyone but for those willing to put forth the effort, the work is here but you have to be willing to do the job. This is not some small mom and pop trucking company from the 1950's, everything here is high tech right down to the Qual-Comm. Right from the go Perkins makes it clear that they do not hire newbies or those with low experience. This is a professional operation and only those who have been in the business for a while will make it at this company. So if you are professional minded, and already have the experience as a trucker and willing to work hard then you will be happy here. To all those naysayers out there I suggest you keep on looking because you will not make it here. On the other hand, if you're a million miler, not afraid of work and willing to stay out, you'll be happy here. As for the driver managers, I answer to 3 of them and they are great to work with and personable. I have not once been treated like some interference and any question I had they willingly helped me through it. So what it boils down to is this, you act professional and you will be treated as a professional, plain as day. For the right drivers, Perkins Specialized Transportation is a good company and a good home for a professional highly trained driver.

 

Perkins specialized will promise you the world at orientation BUT...I have been running the wheels off my truck, never come home and yet have not been paid in over 8 weeks and counting. I lost my home, car, pile of bills to choke a horse. i couldnt even pay a $200 dollar cell bill. check out the rip off report on perkins specialized transportation. they are bound to be litigated. every driver i was in orientation with has quit. they find ways to keep you in the hole. every once in a blue moon they throw you a little money VERY LITTLE. i can show anyone who wants proof of what im saying my settlement sheets just reply and i will work out a way to show them to you. cash home section just says zero's all the way down. they want you to survive on cash advances. laura, andy and all you lying losers, how do you live with yourselves. i worked at swift first and they are really bad, but perkins makes them look like a position on the apprentice. you've been warned!

 

Driver, I can't honestly say I know what your situation is/was, or what division you worked under but I stick by my former claims. Granted I am not home every night but I usually manage to get to the house on the weekends. As for settlements, the first month was a wash like I expected (just starting out and all) but I have been running positive settlements for many weeks running now and that is after truck payment and all deductions. There is still money coming to me every week and I rarely if ever need to use the cash advances but if I do they are there.

This particular job is ideal for a single only person with not a lot of responsibility at home but the key word here is "Work-O'Holic". Not every load is the greatest nor pay's the greatest but in this business you must take the good with the bad because if you keep refusing loads (regardless of circumstances) then the driver manager will stop working with you. I am pulling down about 13 loads a week average and running my butt off but I am bringing positive settlements each and every week.

I have heard a lot of bad stories about Perkins but in all honesty I have not been able to substantiate a single claim. The loads are there but you as a driver must treat yourself as a business and run your ### off or else you loose. Make of it what you will but I am telling you straight up, it's working for me and I am the happiest I have ever been in all my 26 years of driving and I don't see a slow down coming anytime soon.

 

Your work ethic and common sense are impressive Jab. You seem to go with the flow. I'm a wannabe driver but I've done a good bit of research into different carriers. I'd never heard of Perkins until this thread. Because I'll be a new driver about the time CSA 2010 hits, I look hard a carrier's safety scores. I think that's important, especially for new drivers. I'm not sure it matters as much to veterans. Bottom line: Perkins Specialized has some of the worst SAFESTAT scores I've seen. Their ISS-D Recommendation = INSPECT, ISS-D Score: 100. I've never seen a 100 for an established (200+ power unit) carrier. Is this an important issue to you, as a veteran driver?

 

I've been truckin with Perkins since November 2007 and I'm still here, still alive, and makin it.

I've seen all the negative talk online about Perkins. Most can be attributed to what was going on at the time of the complaint.

Perkins is a specialized company, hence the word "Specialized" in it's name. We do blanket-wrap, office furniture, kitchen cabinets, school furniture, store fixtures, tradeshows and exhibits.
Early in 2008 the housing market saw the bottom fall out of it. This affected new constructions and remodels. Consequently, it affected most of our major customers, which affected us.
Then, in the Spring and Summer 2008, we had the fuel crisis. That hurt EVERYBODY in the trucking industry.
We started to recover by year's end. Andy saw an opportunity and picked up a flatbed operation, to diversify the company.
But then came the Great Recession of 2009! Some pretty big players within the trucking industry folded and threw in their cards! Not Perkins.
Yet, it was a hard year for everyone.
When I started here, it was approx. 300 trucks, all dry van. Now it's about 250 trucks, split evenly between dry and flatbed.
Our front office staff is now only a third of what it was.
The company has had to streamline itself in order to keep competitive and stay in the game.

Someone brought up Safestat score and the company's safety rating.
If you dig deeper and look closer, you'll find that it's nearly 100% attributed to DRIVER LOGS!!! Typically, it's the deciding factor on whether or not we pass roadside inspections. And yes, I've had my share of O.O.S. for logbook violations. But I've also passed some too.

Honestly, I've seen both good and bad times with this company. I can truthfully confess that I've seen a $2000+ settlement in a week. But I've also been $3500 in the hole and had my maintenance account $8000 in the hole.(fan belt busted and overheated the engine)

Hey, I saw plenty of empty spots in the truckstops and rest areas last year! And had many conversations with company drivers that were only getting 1000-1500 miles per week, at 30CPM or less!!! Plus, most of them company drivers had to take a pay cut and were forced to stay out longer, to keep their jobs.


Here, let me put it this way.........PLEASE don't come work for Perkins!!!!

That will ensure that you won't take any of that good paying freight away from me.
I don't want anymore in-house competition.

 

I agree. Obviously I was not part of this company through the hard times as I had another trucking gig at the time and I struggled yet made it through. In this frame and time I am busier and happier than I've been in 26 years. I have a nicer truck that had problems initially but much better now. The work flow never seems to slow down and in fact had to slow my driver-manager because they forget that we must shut down for 10-hrs at a time for sleep. The rates seem right were they should be and 90% of the customers are great to work with and I enjoy delivering for certain customers which makes the job easier when everyone gets along and is on the same page.

I've heard many horror stories and continue to hear things and I have yet in three months now been unable to substantiate any of the claims made. Could've something been going on here before I joined Perkins, maybe it's possible but right now in this time and moment I don't see any anything happening within the company that would cause flags to be raised. If you are the kind of driver who likes to work hard, and have good people skills, then you will do okay here as I am proof. I get positive reviews from #### near every customer I haul for and some customers go a little overboard with the flowers but I ain't complaining. The way my days begin and end all starts with me and my attitude. All I can say is I am very happy with my experience here with Perkins and don't see that changing anytime soon.

 

When you lose your home, savings, respect from family and have to take your toddler to go stay in a shelter. Because of your spouse working at Perkins for 2 months. That's an indicator that the people that own the company are nothing more then low life lying criminals. My husband worked day and night going across the country many times a week. NO PAY! You will lose everything. You will only make money off of the Advances that you get. PEOPLE ITS TIME TO FILE A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST THESE CON ARTIST. You are paying for that beatiful building in Noblesville, IN and for the beautiful homes of the owners and his family members (brother, daughter in law) who work there. The daughter works in payroll (surprised) her name is Lisa

 

I forgot to mention my husband is not new to driving driving almost 15 years and an O/O in the past before Perkins. We have had some very good financial times while he leased his truck to other companies where he grossed 13,000 a month. But leasing a truck from Perkins you mind as well kiss your credit, reputation, and family responsiblities goodbye. Because Perkins has no intentions of paying you but using labor off of the backs of driver contractors to make their millions and pay for that beautiful builing in Noblesville. ****** GET OUT OF PERKINS NOW IF YOU ARE DRIVING FOR THEM, YOU WILL NOT HAVE A PAYCHECK NEXT WEEK*****

**** THe post from ***jab8283*** is actually an employee from the office of Perkins lying and pretending to be a driver*** Because as any real driver in the seat will tell you. NO Money NO Pay all Work and no Home time. Basically working for Free for months at a time. You might make $200.00-400.00 every once in a while.



*****jab8283 is a fake**********

 

So, you're husband went from being an O/O and leasing his truck to companies, to a lease-purchase contractor???
Uhhhh...............why???

And I find it hard to believe that you were so well, financially. But two months after going to Perkins, you were living in a shelter. Common sense tells us that something is amiss.
Perkins is not a forced-dispatch company. They offer you a load and tell you what it pays. You can turn it down. But if you accept it and don't like what it pays?? You got yourself to blame.
BTW, I went through orientation with Perkins two weeks after they moved into the Noblesville bldg. and it was bought and paid for way back then!

Andy's kids are barely Elementary school aged. So I don't know where you came up with daughter in law. Everyone knows that his brother and SISTER both work there. But so what? They're qualified to do the job, they do it, and they've been with Perkins longer than Andy!


Listen, I admit that I'm not making the kind of money that I was making at the end of 2007 and early 2008. But the economy and industry just aren't the same as they were then. And this CSA2010 thing is putting the crunch on ALL trucking companies.

Perkins is now running Elogs on the Qualcomms. That's put one helluva cramp in my style. But I'm adjusting to it.
That's the name of the game now though, isn't it?

You gotta be streamlined, efficient, and able to adapt to change.

I am and I'm still here and I'm still making money.



A couple other points I'd like to inform on.

Andy was a self-made millionaire BEFORE joining Perkins. He also owns other business interests outside of Perkins. In other words, he don't need to get rich off of Perkins or anybody else.


Also, you don't file a Class Action Lawsuit. It's not even possible.
A Class Action Lawsuit is an amalgamation of several similar, Individual lawsuits, but can only be authorized by the court.
So if you feel that you've been wronged? Then you go file your Individual lawsuit.

 

Well here I am now in my 9th month with Perkins Specialized and honestly I still have nothing negative to report on here yet. My settlements have averaged in the $1,500-$2,000 a week range for many many months now so no complaints there. My truck has been running tops since my second month here and still runs like a champ. Maintenance fund is still in the positive by a thousand and honestly I don't touch it because I don't need it as I pay for my "A" and "B" services out of pocket.

The only flipside to this report now is there was a huge falling out in the flatbed division which hasn't affected me yet but I am seeing signs that this will be affecting me in the near future. Over 90% of the flatbed division is gone and joined up with a another carrier and I am one of the holdouts from that division. The reality is the 90% that left Perkins including management, dispatchers and drivers also took the customers with them to this new company and I am working with one of only 3 customers left over and these customers have informed me that they too are making the switch which means I will have no more work.

Perkins is going back to being a van freight only company once again as it were before taking over this flatbed division a few years ago. How this will affect me is the truck I am in this "lease purchase" deal with only has four months left on the lease after which it converts to a payoff where the truck actually becomes mine. However since there is no more work and the remaining customers will be making the switch to this new carrier, I might not be able to see the end of my lease so that I can pay it off. I am a flatbed specialist and cannot do anything within the van division so needless to say I am being affected in a very bad way by this. My only hope is that the president and vice president of Perkins will see how badly this will affect me and offer me an early out buyout offer so I can keep this truck. I am hopeful that this will happen because I am too invested in this piece of equipment and don't want to leave the company without it. That is my only worry at this point.

Still to this day I have nothing negative to say about Perkins and honestly don't know what the fallout was over but truth is I am part of the group that left and I must soon join them because that customer base that left just so happens to be my customer base which I've been a strong part of for 18 years now so I have no choice, I must soon leave Perkins but I am hoping Andy Card will see it in his heart to offer me an early out buyout offer so I can keep the assets I've worked so hard to own because this is the best truck I have ever had in my nearly six years as an owner-operator and twenty-six years in the trucking industry.

This is more than likely my last posting as a leased driver with Perkins and my experience here has been a good one and I have nothing negative at this point to speak of. I reckon what it boils down to is this, a drivers experience with any motor carrier is only what he/she puts into it. In my case since I have been servicing the same customer group for 18 years (albeit various carriers) is this, I treat the customers well and offer them the best service I can and regardless of which carrier name appears on my doors, I run the business as if it were mine. It's not the customers fault that we've switched carriers on them so many times in recent years but the fact that they stick with us as a group no matter which carrier we happen to be part of at that time is paramount. I'm sorry that things didn't work out for Perkins but if anything this will allow them to focus more on their long standing van division which has been in business since 1914 and I wish them well. The flatbed division troupe will continue to thrive and maybe someday we will find a home that will be permanent. I have less than one month left before I have to make the jump and hopefully my next posting once I'm with the new carrier will be as positive as this posting. This is because I still have a $2,500 escrow plus my $1,000+ maintenance fund and I only owe $300 out of my $1,800 tool fund for straps, ratchets, chains, binders and the rest of the equipment. I have enjoyed my time at Perkins but now it's time to move on and join the rest of the troupe.