Expediter Services leaving E-1

mcavoy33 · Aug 18, 2011

skipr4520 said:
i generally dont reply to any topics, but i have been reading for some time on here and see alot of negative info bout Expediter Services (E.S.) and FDCC and I, personally, would like to add some input about both Expediter Services AND FDCC from MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE with both of them. As for Expediter Services; This is the FIRST company that I have ever worked for who has stood behind the drivers 100%, without hesitation. IF you ever have an issue with them OR FDCC, all it takes is ONE PHONE CALL to your E.S. dispatcher/Liason and within minutes the issue is resolved, no matter what the issue is. Also, I have never worked for an owner who DIDNT have an attitude problem or is rude no matter what. Here, at E.S., I have NEVER received attitude, smart remarks, rudeness or "Sorry, ur on your own"!! They have helped me everytime I have needed it and the phone calls always end with "thats what we are here for, if u need us, call us" and that goes for all the departments as well. HENCE, the "Never Stand Alone" policy E.S. advertises is 100% ACCURATE and I cant complain AT ALL. As for FDCC, i could type a message about them as well, BUT IT WOULD MIRROR IMAGE what I just said about E.O., so, if you are looking for an AWESOME FLEET OWNER and a COMPANYwith a GREAT STAFF that DOES stand behind what they advertise, put in an application and come join the rest of us that are PROUD of whom we work for, we'd L-O-V-E to have you. FYI; I DO NOT work in the office of E.O. or FDCC, I am a driver, 12 1/2 year veteran with T/T and Expedite, PROUD of what I do and PROUD of whom I work for. All I ask is that you remember 1 thing, when questionable, ask the LAMB, NOT the WOLF. Motor Safe to all and God Bless You and Yours.

skipr,

Some of us really appreciate your replies. But please don't let a few internet posters dissaude you from helping those of us who want more information. It would be sad if you allowed them to stop you from providing one of us with knowledge who might work for a lousy carrier with the opportunity to work for ES.

But one of the reasons people assumed that you might be an office worker was your statement in blue & red above. Do you have authorization as a driver to tell people that ES would love them? It sounded like you were recruiting on their behalf.

skipr4520 said:
first off, i could agree that it could be a "wolf in sheeps clothing". secondly, i could agree that "every other company i have worked for....." but, this is MY experience, NO ONE ELSES! YOUR experiences may vary from mine or it may be the same, irrelevant. i have been driving OTR 12 1/2 yrs in an 18 wheeler, but am new to a short expediter truck (4 months) also, yes, i am new to this site AND I dont "generally" reply to topics, as i said, BUT these are MY experiences. YES, ALL carriers/fleet owners.....are generally nice in the beginning and do what they have to do to get you on board, but AFTER that, MOST companies/dispatchers.....could care less to E-V-E-R hear from you again and if they do, its generally for a negative reason, not a good reason. Does the company u work for call you and tell you "your doing a great job and keep up the good work?" Or, do they only call or qualcomm you when your late or doing something wrong?! I AM NOT an office worker, E.S. staff, FDCC staff or whatever, I am a team driver happy with my fleet owner. At this point, as long as i have been employed by E.S., I have YET to have ANY TYPE of bad experience with E.S. BUT, as i said twice previous, this is MY experience with them, no one elses. If the person you work for is or has been giving you "attitude" or "always hateful" then its time to move on to one that doesnt, as I have done. I dont get the attitude when they have had bad days, we all have bad days, E.S just doesnt take it out on the drivers. Anyone can say what to bout E.S., they have that right, BUT some peple just like DRAMA in their life, I dont. Some people always SLAM and pick apart other peoples posts just to keep the drama going irregardless of the topic. If you really want to know how a E.S., FDCC driver truly feels, ask them in person when you see them.

However here is my concern. You've only ever been expediting for 4 months but your tainting all expediting companies as bad dispatchers when you have probably never worked for another expediting company besides ES.

I think its a huge mistake to label your bad experiences in the OTR industry as the same as expediting companies. Expediting companies rely more on customer service and they need to treat their drivers better, which is probably a big factor in why ES treats you good compared to all those other bad companies you worked for, because they have to in the expediting world.

Yes after a month or two, the owner of my company told me that he was just talking with dispatch and that they were impressed with how great a job I was doing.

But the reason ES is getting flack is because we lack information, then a bunch of you and came and made 1 post then took off. There are people on this site who are not happy with their carrier for whatever reason, some of them might be interested in ES but on EO, we really value driver feedback and if you make a post and run, its harder to give any credit to your feedback.

If you really believe in ES and want to return the favor of how nice they have treated you, then stick around and help educate others about ES

jjoerger · Aug 18, 2011

We started with ES. Drove for them for about 8 months. The only negatives I would say are the truck washes could be more frequent and the PM's done on a consistently scheduled basis.
Pay was always correct and on time. Everyone was nice and professional. Paid for our hotel when the truck was in the shop for a warranty issue. Paid for hotel and rental car to get to orientation. Gave us $1000 bonus after 6 months.
I consider them an honest group of people.

Turtle · Aug 18, 2011

skyraider said:
2400 views 98 replys only 98 can type

Whenever anyone comes back to read any new replies, it's another tick on the view count. Refreshing the page adds one, too.

jimby82 · Aug 18, 2011

I've been following this post, and there seems to be some confusion as to how ES "works." Now keep in mind, we just started driving an Expediter Services truck, and are totally and completely new to expediting. We are driving one of their Red Kenworth T600 trucks. (2007 model, 478,000 miles, Cat C-13, 10 speed Ultrashift)

(We drive for FedEx Custom Critical so your mileage may vary)
ES is our fleet owner, nothing more (just like every other fleet owner out there)

We are on the 40/60 pay. We get 40% of what the load pays, ES get 60% and keeps 100% of the FSC, and takes care of all Fuel, Tolls, Fuel Taxes, Maintenance, Qualcomm fees, Escrow.

We each have $34.50/week deducted for Occupational Accident Insurance - this is our only deduction. -

ES does not tell us what loads to take. They are there to suggest areas that we may want to move to in order better our chance of getting a load. We are not forced to move. That is completely up to us.

They ask that: we stay in service 75% of the time, have less than 30% deadhead and have a load acceptance of rate 70% each month.

We have had some work done on the truck. Each time, I called, told them what was wrong, and they told me where to take the truck. Everything has been fixed.

Everyone I have talked to in the office has been polite and friendly, and have solved any problems we have had right away.

We have an APU, and are given a T-check card to purchase fuel and oil. Prefer we stop at the major truck stop chains for fuel, and take the trucks to T/As for PMs.

Are there some things I would change? Probably. Wish we could chose the 60/40 plan, but that is not an option. Truck sleeper is small, but it is a Kenworth, and we don't have to yell at each other going down the road. We cleaned the truck when we got it, but at least I Know it is clean.

Are they perfect? No. But so far, they have followed through on everything they told us from the beginning. We don't ask for much and treat the truck like it is ours. So far so good.

(Oh, and for all you conspiracy buffs, yes, I joined EO almost 3 years ago, and created a series of "bogus" posts detailing our journey into expediting over that time frame just to get this plug for ES in. Crafty, aint we? Not to mention the androids we sent to the expo masquerading as "us")

Oh, and FedEx Rocks **Pom-

-Pom**

davekc · Aug 18, 2011

Just based on this thread I think some of the confusion comes from some drivers making 35 percent and some making 40 percent.
Maybe that is a carrier issue? No idea.
One can give some extra benefits including personalized wake-up calls if the fleet owner is keeping a additional 5 percent.
The other side is folks who purchase a over-priced truck through them (based on eo ad) and participate in some discount program that is roughly 200 a month or close to 2400 a year. Again, one could give some nice discounts if they charge the owner operator that kind of money.
Just a thought since most are already provided via the carrier.
Just an observation with no first hand knowledge. Just basing my thoughts on what has already been posted.
Like anything, it depends on what your expectations and wants are.

paullud · Aug 18, 2011

jimby82 said:
(Oh, and for all you conspiracy buffs, yes, I joined EO almost 3 years ago, and created a series of "bogus" posts detailing our journey into expediting over that time frame just to get this plug for ES in. Crafty, aint we? Not to mention the androids we sent to the expo masquerading as "us")

Oh, and FedEx Rocks **Pom--Pom**

I knew it, they even paid people to go to the EXPO as you, your biggest mistake was admitting it here. Thanks for the response, now for the personal question, are there any numbers you would be willing to share such as miles, rates, etc.? You don't have to answer if you don't want to, it just seems the complaints I hear are about pay mostly.

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jimby82 · Aug 18, 2011

Give me a bit Paul.

We've only ran 2 loads so far, and been sitting for a day and a 1/2 getting some things worked on. Once we get a few more runs under our belt, maybe

paullud · Aug 18, 2011

jimby82 said:
Give me a bit Paul. We've only ran 2 loads so far, and been sitting for a day and a 1/2 getting some things worked on. Once we get a few more runs under our belt, maybe

Well hopefully so far it is working out well financially, you do have a big advantage being in a same household team.

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mcavoy33 · Aug 18, 2011

davekc said:
One can give some extra benefits including personalized wake-up calls if the fleet owner is keeping a additional 5 percent.

Can you tell my carrier, I don't want the personal wake up calls anymore. They need to realize that there is more than the eastern timezone and calling me to seewhy I haven't checked in when I'm sleeping cuz my drop is in the central timezone.

davekc · Aug 18, 2011

mcavoy33 said:
Can you tell my carrier, I don't want the personal wake up calls anymore. They need to realize that there is more than the eastern timezone and calling me to seewhy I haven't checked in when I'm sleeping cuz my drop is in the central timezone.

I will pass the word.

Turtle · Aug 18, 2011

Aren't all times Eastern in this business (with most carriers, I mean)?

Every clock I've got is set to Eastern, except the Droid which will set its own time by the towers.

paullud · Aug 18, 2011

Turtle said:
Aren't all times Eastern in this business (with most carriers, I mean)?

Every clock I've got is set to Eastern, except the Droid which will set its own time by the towers.

Actually running off of eastern time only seems to be unique to expediting, in the TL segment we were given the time based on the local time zone.

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Turtle · Aug 18, 2011

Since this is Expediters Online, and we're all expediters here, I had thought "in this business" would have implied "expediting". My bad for not being more clear. Sorry.

paullud · Aug 18, 2011

Turtle said:
Since this is Expediters Online, and we're all expediters here, I had thought "in this business" would have implied "expediting". My bad for not being more clear. Sorry.

I thought about that after I posted.

Posted with my Droid EO Forum App

mcavoy33 · Aug 18, 2011

Turtle said:
Aren't all times Eastern in this business (with most carriers, I mean)?

Every clock I've got is set to Eastern, except the Droid which will set its own time by the towers.

In the past week, I've been given 3 drops for 7 am. I've been at the drops a lot earlier but was told when I was dispatched that I couldn't drop till 7 am (cuz they were closed). One was in Chicago, another in Auburn, AL and can't remember the 3rd but everytime a dispatcher called me to see where I was. We don't use qualcalm so we check in when we arrive and when we leave.

When I asked before about the drop time, I was told it was local so I just assumed that all my times given were local to whatever timezone I'm in.

jj214 · Aug 18, 2011

My interest is always piqued when I see 114 comments to a posting. Reading all of them reminded me of the childhood game of passing the secret, where you whisper something to the person next to you and they repeat it down the line and you are amazed at how it gets twisted by the time it gets to the end. What started as a good luck wish, took a variety of twists and turns. I had to go back to remember what the posting was about. Something like the career we have chosen. Never know where it is going to lead. Always interesting, sometimes entertaining.

nightcreacher · Aug 19, 2011

I was with fdcc in a tractor for 20 some years.what I liked,Most of my years were less than 140000 miles,if a team got paid mileage ,they would have starved. And we ran team,for all those years.Dont know about the flat rate,but I just dont see them moving you around much empty.

Raymond Expr · Aug 19, 2011

Ok lets address this issue

First of all if your not on that side of the fence and eating the grass, then you cant judge the flavor to what your eating.....

We drove for Exp. Ser. as a fleet drivers, we did so well that we bought our own truck and running under their O/O program, with Panther.... we are currently on track for a 250k year.. so say what you want.

What i hear is someone bought out E-1 for 150mil. ok lets look at it in a business prospective. If i invested 1550 mil. in a bussiness, i will want a return on my investment. so if i drop my contract rate to be more profitable, my return comes back to me faster, no questions asked, basic business rules of profit...

Just recently E-1 dropped their rates, why would i leave 30, 20 or even 10 trucks on a fleet who will keep dropping rates to be competetive.... I to would go to a carrier who already has a proven track record with my services.

And who are you to judge if trucks, or drivers are qualified to be on any fleet if you cant even run your own truck profitable.

Lets all look at the big picture here... its all about making money, as a fleet, and as drivers....

If you drove for Exp. Ser. and did not make any money, then shame on you, as there is an abundanceof support for you....

As one of Expediter Services top team trucks, both on the Fleet side, and now on the Owner Operator side, and it has been advised to all trucks having a hard time. to contact us as well as other trucks that were doing well, and we could possibly help, if you didnt take advantage of the opportunity, then shame on you, but STOP putting down EXPEDITER SERVICES, because you, (you run the truck, not Exp.Ser.) cant make any money.....

Stop and think about it.... You cant have large numbers of trucks with carriers, if you dont have the drivers to drive them. Sounds to me like someone is making money, and its not just the fleet owner.

Raymond Express

Raymond Expr · Aug 19, 2011

Ontario Van Man

When did you get your last info...
Expediter Services just went to Owner Operator Program in Jan.2011
before you spout off find out what your talking about, and keep in mind a fleet of 30 gets more done than a fleet of 1.