Using Driver Relations as a decision maker

[paullud]

I know this can be dangerous but I was thinking, if you are looking for a new company you could call the Driver Relations department to see the type of response you get to weed through all the ads. If the company your looking at has an email address or voice mailbox that no body bothers responding to, or you have to wait 30 minutes to get through you know you have a company that doesn't care about drivers. If someone answers right away or has a voice mailbox but get back to you in a reasonable amount of time you know they have your concerns in mind and care about the drivers. I'm wondering if anyone tried this and if it worked out.

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[ATeam]

I know this can be dangerous but I was thinking, if you are looking for a new company you could call the Driver Relations department to see the type of response you get to weed through all the ads. If the company your looking at has an email address or voice mailbox that no body bothers responding to, or you have to wait 30 minutes to get through you know you have a company that doesn't care about drivers. If someone answers right away or has a voice mailbox but get back to you in a reasonable amount of time you know they have your concerns in mind and care about the drivers. I'm wondering if anyone tried this and if it worked out.

I would not rely on this as an indicator at all. It makes sense on the surface but much goes on beyond a phone or e-mail response. If you did rely on this as an indicator, you might cheat yourself out of a great opportunity.

When Diane and I were brand new to the industry and decided on FedEx Custom Critical as our carrier, we called a recruiter for information. He did not return the call. We called and e-mailed many times after that and were ignored every time. We turned to fleet owners for information and got on board with them. We later learned that the recruiter had been fired.

Had we used your approach, we would have concluded that the company treated its drivers poorly and was one to avoid. It turned out, however, that the company was one in which we had a great run, a lot of fun and a prosperous eight years.

Don't judge a company by how it treats its applicants. There is more to the story than that.

 

[paullud]

I would not rely on this as an indicator at all. It makes sense on the surface but much goes on beyond a phone or e-mail response. If you did rely on this as an indicator, you might cheat yourself out of a great opportunity.

When Diane and I were brand new to the industry and decided on FedEx Custom Critical as our carrier, we called a recruiter for information. He did not return the call. We called and e-mailed many times after that and were ignored every time. We turned to fleet owners for information and got on board with them. We later learned that the recruiter had been fired.

Had we used your approach, we would have concluded that the company treated its drivers poorly and was one to avoid. It turned out, however, that the company was one in which we had a great run, a lot of fun and a prosperous eight years.

Don't judge a company by how it treats its applicants. There is more to the story than that.

I wouldn't use this as the sole determining factor but I would take it into consideration. If I am looking at a few companies that are relatively equal on pay, miles, and benefits I would then take this into consideration. Of course that is how I rank things but others may put driver treatment up higher, quite frankly I'll drive for a company that calls me every name in the book if the pay and miles are better. I think some people are frustrated a little easier by it.

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[xiggi]

My guess is that takes part in a lot of decisions about who a person signs with.

 

[BillChaffey]

Well I know from personal experience if the Head of Driver Relations speaks to you as if your a child and you don't like it. Your gone in a heart beat. Clearly easier to replace a van. Then the time & money expended in training a person for Drivers Relation's.

 

[paullud]

Well I know from personal experience if the Head of Driver Relations speaks to you as if your a child and you don't like it. Your gone in a heart beat. Clearly easier to replace a van. Then the time & money expended in training a person for Drivers Relation's.

Was it the way you expressed that you didn't like it? It seems that once you respond to them the way they treat you so many just get uppity.

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[BillChaffey]

Not to beat a dead horse. I used a ugly, rude, bad, dirty word to a dispatcher. And I used it about four times in thirty seconds .
The dispatcher instead of calling me back after I had delivered sent a note to the head of Drivers Releations complaining. He in turn called me the next morning and dressed me down as if I were in pre school caught whizzing in the bushes.
He ended his comments to me with "I'm not to happy with your language" I responded "I'm not to G ****ed happy myself" "Your fired"

 

[TJ959]

Back when I had a "D" truck I attended a recruiting seminar for Landstar. I decided to go with their program and the recruiter gave me their imposing paperwork bundle. He told me not to try to fill it out mysel because if anything wasn't right it would lengthen the already tedious processing of the paperwork. He gave me a phone number and a name to contact at the home office to walk me through it. I made repeated attempts over 3 weeks to make contact. None of my calls were returned and no contact was ever made with this person. I got the recruiter involved and he claims he got the president of the company involved but nothing ever happened. My local agent got involved as well but in three more weeks nothing happened. I figured that if this was how things were handled at Landstar, I had better opportunities elswhere and voted with my feet. I may have missed a good opportunity but there was no evidence of that at the time. My local agent was really ticked off at both them and me. They were real short on "D" trucks in this area and he said he would have done the paperwork himself. Heck, I could have done it but I was told not to do it.

 

[mcavoy33]

Back when I had a "D" truck I attended a recruiting seminar for Landstar. I decided to go with their program and the recruiter gave me their imposing paperwork bundle. He told me not to try to fill it out mysel because if anything wasn't right it would lengthen the already tedious processing of the paperwork. He gave me a phone number and a name to contact at the home office to walk me through it. I made repeated attempts over 3 weeks to make contact. None of my calls were returned and no contact was ever made with this person. My local agent was really ticked off at both them and me. They were real short on "D" trucks in this area and he said he would have done the paperwork himself. Heck, I could have done it but I was told not to do it.

After 3 days of waiting, I would have just done the paperwork myself, you can't expect someone else to do the work to get you ahead in life.

 

[TJ959]

Thanks for your opinion but I don't agree. I was trying to do things as my prospective carrier wished me to do. I have never asked others to do my work for me and I never will. Maybe you have seen that pile of paper they require and maybe you have even filled it out but I wasn't going to, if they were pretty sure I wouldn't do it right without their input. I can assure you there was no shortage of carriers willing to sign me and my truck on without wasting my time. I was even able to fill out their paperwork without someone holding my hand. It has been my experience that if you want to do business with folks, don't make it hard to do so. ..... I guess you had to be there.