Stay away from [cts] contract transport services - green bay, wi

Sounds like a disgruntled employee who had issues with a company who was holding him accountable to do the job the right way. CTS is a good company and just like others is not perfect. Drivers make a decent wage and home much more than other companies. Problem our industry has is there are those drivers who don't do the right thing and expect the company or other drivers to pick up the slack. Unfortunately, not just a problem with trucking but our society as a whole today. If all this was true I would have to believe you have recourse. Maybe there is no recourse because there is nothing to substantiate your claims?

 

They are the bottom of the bottom feeders!

 

Sounds like you work for them Cowboy, probably in management?

I also worked for them for a couple of years and what the driver said is true, I'm surprised he didn't bring up the "minimum pay sheet" which has been ripping drivers off there for years. Essentially this sheet needs to be filled out by a driver who ends up getting paid less then the 12.50 per hour, which is all you are guaranteed. This actually happens quite often, especially when going on Chicago runs. Many drivers are too tired at the end of there 14 Hour day to fill this out, especially if its only for $20 or so. This all adds up though, which is why CTS makes the drivers fill out the sheet. Its a good source of extra income for the company. Unfortunately this is at the expense of the driver.

Another problem is the backhaul situation, A driver can spend HOURS waiting for backhauls of garbage from Chicago, I myself spent over 5 HOURS on 2 seperate occasions, being told that this load of TRASH was so important I would have to wait, one time resulting in a motel stay.

A big reason they are always hiring is because they have a very high turnover rate among junior drivers. This is because they allow the senior drivers to pick the loads first for the various start times during the day, the crap loads with unpaid extra waits and in crummy areas left to the junior drivers. This could easily be fixed by being on a fixed preplan system, but the company wants to appease a hand full of senior drivers.

 

I currently work for these guys, and thus you will find no personal information about me on this website, and hopefully I can be vague enough so I won't be obvious. I have only been with these idiots for a short time, and it didn't take me long to see that they have no concept of driver respect. They say they will try to adhere to a12 hour schedule (for drivers on their "12 hour slipseat" schedule), but, for me, from the time they have put me on that schedule, almost every week I am forced to use the 16 short haul exemption, and am far too frequently working well beyond that "12 hours". They are masters of telling drivers what they want to hear, and then just doing what they want anyway. It almost feels like you're just a tool for these guys.

No, I'm not just another disgruntled employee, I have tried very hard to like this place, after all, I'm home every night. But let's be honest here, can you think of anyone who would like to 14+ hours every day, for 5 days a week, and only be allowed the minimum 10 hours between shifts because by law they have to? I can think of no one. They seem to love pushing the limits. I have even had one dispatcher tell me "see, you made it..."; on this day, I pulled into the yard with less than 10 minutes on my 14 hour clock. Any driver knows, that's not making it, that is squeaking by.

On numerous occasions I have warned them about loads they are giving me, but the response I always get is to try. And constantly I am right. See, the problem is, they seem to have this "well it works when you do the math" kind of attitude. Let's be real here, this is an industry where "works on paper" is the worst way to think. Again, a good example of this was being told at one point, by a dispatcher, "...well let's not assume the worst here" when I was questioning a back haul I knew would push my clock to it's limit.

I know this sounds like a disgruntled employee rant, but do yourself a favor don't and bother with this company, if I'm seeing things right, I can't imagine them keeping the doors open long term anyway. (Personal opinion with nothing but gut feeling to back it up. What I do know, is I hear lots of rumors of losing lots of drivers and many many contracts, and have heard numerous complaints from shipping/receiving departments about late loads that were late before I was even given them.)

 

You need a job in a bank if you want kush hours. The majority of truck drivers work 14 hour days with no more than 10 hours off. Getting back to the terminal with 10 minutes left is "making it" in my book. I really don't think you're going to gain a lot of sympathy when your only grip is having to work 14 hours a day for 5 days in a row. Hell, that sounds like my schedule.

 

So your one of those individuals that think that this industry should have the drivers work up to 14hrs a day 5 to 6 days a week and to hell with thier life. Well you know what Mr. HOTH2o I've got news for you one of the reasons why there is right now a 30,000 driver deficit in this country is because of your type of thinking, and let me gess you don't have a problem with the wages ether do you! There is no reason for ANYBODY to work 12-14 hours a day NONE! It's people like you that say and do #### near anything to try and get on the good side of management. CTS is a horrible company to work for from what I've heard from their drivers that I see EVERY day and from what I see from their adds looking for drivers their pay "SUCKS" as well, I don't know what it's like out in that Bankrupt part of the country but here where we have a surplus of money I can tell you that $13.00 -$17.00 an hour for what we do as drivers is NOT enough. Oh and by the way the majority of drivers do NOT work 14 hrs a day. Maybe instead of thinking that the trucking industry should work there drivers long hours with little pay and hardly no benefits how about we revise our train of thought to maybe working 8-10 hrs day with a 35% pay increase and a benefit package mirroring managements. How about that!

 

CTS. is not a good company to work yard dog for with no OT after 40 cheap chislers. Unheard of in the Fox Valley , the recruiter that interviewed me up in Green Bay called me 2 weeks after the interview from another company in Green Bay if that tells you anything.