My Jobs: Knight #1

Knight Transportation,
Phoenix, AZ
is a 48 state carrier that operates regionally with terminals and drop yards, all over the country. The main terminal, and my base was in Phoenix AZ.

Knight has over 2,000 power units and over 5,000 trailers. They haul only dry freight, in 53 foot dry van trailers.

j11a.gif (6030 bytes) Knight Transportation

Getting the job
As I was nearing the end with Schneider, I was talking to Knight drivers where ever I could find them. On the CB radio, or at the fuel pumps of truck stops, I asked them all the same questions. "Would you get home, if you lived in Fresno, and does Knight pay for your lumpers working there?" Every driver told me yes. So I called them.

It was on the day I quit SNI. I was down in Los Angeles. I called a recruiter at Knight and told him about the problems I was having. He assured me that I would not have troubles like that working for Knight. He faxed an application to my wife at work, and when I got home I filled it out and faxed it back to him. He needed a couple days to go over it and check my references, and then he called me and asked when I would be ready to come to work.

He made a reservation for a flight from Fresno to Phoenix and told me when to be at the airport. There was a ticket waiting there for me and I flew to Phoenix for orientation.

I started working for Knight in December 1999. The reason I chose Knight was because they promised to keep me close to home. They kept their word. They gave me a dedicated route right off the bat. I was home every other day and off on the weekends. I would leave home on Sunday evening and go to Bakersfield to meet a driver from Phoenix.

Then run all night to the Bay Area or other Northern California location, deliver in the morning then reload somewhere else and then head back to Bakersfield to meet another drive that night.This would continue all through the week until Friday afternoon. When I reloaded up North, I would go home with the load and not leave again until Sunday evening.

For a while it was good, but the long hours and not getting home much made me look for greener pastures. So I went into training. The money was good training. I took new drivers right out of school with me in the truck for four weeks at a time and taught them what they needed to know to driver a truck Over The Road. I would get home every other weekend and was making much more money. Not only was a paid more per mile, the truck was turning more miles because I got paid for all of the miles, even the miles my trainee drove while I slept!

The Good Points
There was allot of good things about this job. I was making good money when I was training students, I drove a nice truck, and got to take it home with me on my time off. I was getting home as often as I wanted and didn't have any hand unloads. In other words, I did not have to unload my loads. I would drop them or the customer would unload it themselves or Knight would pay whatever the the lumper was charging for his services.

There was no forced dispatch. I had the right to refuse a load if I did not want it. Most jobs force you to take what they give you or you will get fired. The list goes on and on. I am very impressed with Knight, and enjoyed working there.

The Bad Points
The only problem I could see is that I had to work around the clock 7 days a week. After a while it gets to you. My trainee would drive while I would sleep part of the time. You can't really get any sleep with I trainee driving, or anyone driving actually. The constant bumping and noise will keep you awake. After a few days of not getting good sleep will make you crazy after a while. I was getting home every other weekend for 3 days. It was what I asked for.

Why I Stopped Working There.
Things were going just fine until I was offered a local job making allot of money. Well, I was making allot of money doing this, but I was working around the clock 7 days a week for it. I was only getting home every other weekend. I jumped at the chance to have more home time so I left. They were not happy about it, but what could they say? No? I left in August 2001 and worked local for a while.

When I first started in 1999, Bengee was my dispatcher. He was a cool, and level headed guy to work for. Then he got promoted to Fleet Manager. That is when he started to go down hill.

As a manager, working his way up the ladder, he forgot about the little guys that work for him and primarily thought about his future rather than getting us home more, or tossing us a little extra money here and there. Basically, he looked after his own interests more than mine and that does not make a good working relationship.

I don't really hold it against him, but it makes it harder to make a living that way.

Bengee

Dave became my dispatcher when I went to training. He was gold. He saved good loads for me. Almost all drop and hooks, no touch loads, and had something for me before I was empty, so there was no down time unless I was at the house.

He seldom told me where to go. He would ask me where I wanted to go, and when it was time to go home, he gave me a load straight home and asked me when I was coming back.

Dave was the finest dispatcher I have ever had. We had a great working relationship. He could always count on me to go the extra mile and get the job done, and I could count on him taking care of me when I needed him to.

Dave

Mike was the head of the Training Department. He was my training supervisor. He would assign me a trainee and I would report back to him with my trainee's progress.

He was a very cool and easy going guy to work for. We got along very well.

His guys are very lucky to have him.

Mike


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