I have been working for Express 1 for two months now and I am very impressed with the load offers that I have been given and with the way in which I have been treated. The Express 1 team has been able to keep me moving with a reasonable amount of miles and they have managed to pay me a very good rate per mile (anywhere between 95 cpm all the way upp to 126 cpm depending on the weight of the load). Yes I have gotten some pretty lengthy loads into my "Chevy Express G3500 Extended Cargo Van" because I do not have a sleeper in it and "Jenny" in the load planning department has been able to find me some "longer" loads. So, when I do work, I am paid what I need to be paid.
Another thing that I enjoy about Express 1 is the pay scheduling. If I complete four really good loads by friday and get my bills into trip pack by 18:00 friday night, I will recelive a complete paycheck by the following friday. Express 1 does not hold back any pro's! In fact I had a paycheck at the end of my very first week, just seven days after orientation. They never mess up any detail of what I am to be paid. Every bouns, deadhead bonus, as well as detention time or whatever else is agreed upon is itimized and paid on time with no haggling or hassles. Also, if load planning tells me i'm getting a sprinter rate, the load pays me a sprinter rate! Everything matches up at the end of the week and that gives me a great sense of confidence in Express 1's commitment to their independent contractors.
Another plus about Express 1 is the fact that they will offer me 50 dollars to deadhead 140 miles on an NLM load and they once offered me 75 dollars to deadhead 138 miles on a higher paying load. Jenny will call me and offer me deadhead without hesitation "if there is money in the load for it" which is a far cry from other copanies that I used to work for where I had to haggle, fight, and cut throat for every bonus. It just makes things easier knowing that you have a dispatch team that understands the current situation out here with regards to higher fuel prices. Now there are times when they tell me that there is not enough money in the load for deadhead pay! But, that was only one time, and the load was 2069 miles! So, I deadheaded 186 miles to pick up an 2068 mile load with four days on it. There was no hesitation from me when they said they could not pay deadhead. I simply thanked them for the load and hauled butt to the pick-up in, Nogales Az.
Express 1 also has a lot of resources to find loads for their drivers. This includes their partner carrier department, email department, and internet customer department where they bid on loads that are posted on several different load boards. Express 1 also has a major account with maytag whirlpool that provides their fleet with a lot of "call in" loads. They also have a very liberal monitoring system. They don't micro-manage you after you accept a load offer. I have had to manage my time wisely in the past and I have always managed to make it to the shipper and consignee early. Most of the time I am loaded or unloaded before my scheduled appointment time (and on whirlpool loads I am there as fast as time and traffic will allow me to get there) because regular customers "in my opinion" deserve super-service! But like I said, Express 1 does not sit there and send you a message if you are running up on your protect time. They will let you "the big boy" call them and let them know if you are not going to be able to make it on time. With that being said, there have only been two times that I have run right up on my protect time and that was due to being loaded late.
Express 1 is not swap happy like some carriers are. I was offered a 2068 mile load two weeks ago and there was 4 days built into the load. No one in dispatch even bothered me after I picked the load up. In fact, Jenny told me that the load was mine and that the load had been booked as a solo load and nothing was going to change that. My only responsibility was to get the load from ,Nogales to Detroit by the protect time. So I got to plan out my own route to, Detroit and determine where and when I was going to drive! Also
Express 1 does not have any load boards. This means that you as a driver are not required to sit in a certain area in order to receive a load offer. I don't have to worry about losing my board position when I move my van to the other side of a truckstop parking lot. Express 1 dispatches all of their loads based on "dwel time" which means that it goes by vehicle capacity first and then by how long the drivers have been sitting. I think this is very good system to use because you never lose your "dwel time" when you move your truck to another area or when you turn down a load offer.
The only downside of partnering with express 1 is that a lot of the longer runs are given to teams with sprinters. Yet, despite this, I have been able to break away from the pack and find me some really decent loads. I got a load from, Springfield Oregon all the way out to, Calabasis California. The load paid the truck 1200 dollars for 849 miles worth of work. The linehaul rate was 1.00 plus a 26 cpm fuel surcharge, 52 dollars in detention time, and another 75 dollars for deadhead to the shipper. The kicker is also that this load was booked as a sprinter load and all I had to do was remove that little hook on the back of my van where the doors latch shut. By doing this I was able and fit a 49 inch tall skid into my van. So, being far from the pack proved to be a great recipe for success. In any case, this is an honest review of Express 1 and the great team of drivers, load planners, dispatchers and everyone else who is on the express 1 team.
Another thing that I enjoy about Express 1 is the pay scheduling. If I complete four really good loads by friday and get my bills into trip pack by 18:00 friday night, I will recelive a complete paycheck by the following friday. Express 1 does not hold back any pro's! In fact I had a paycheck at the end of my very first week, just seven days after orientation. They never mess up any detail of what I am to be paid. Every bouns, deadhead bonus, as well as detention time or whatever else is agreed upon is itimized and paid on time with no haggling or hassles. Also, if load planning tells me i'm getting a sprinter rate, the load pays me a sprinter rate! Everything matches up at the end of the week and that gives me a great sense of confidence in Express 1's commitment to their independent contractors.
Another plus about Express 1 is the fact that they will offer me 50 dollars to deadhead 140 miles on an NLM load and they once offered me 75 dollars to deadhead 138 miles on a higher paying load. Jenny will call me and offer me deadhead without hesitation "if there is money in the load for it" which is a far cry from other copanies that I used to work for where I had to haggle, fight, and cut throat for every bonus. It just makes things easier knowing that you have a dispatch team that understands the current situation out here with regards to higher fuel prices. Now there are times when they tell me that there is not enough money in the load for deadhead pay! But, that was only one time, and the load was 2069 miles! So, I deadheaded 186 miles to pick up an 2068 mile load with four days on it. There was no hesitation from me when they said they could not pay deadhead. I simply thanked them for the load and hauled butt to the pick-up in, Nogales Az.
Express 1 also has a lot of resources to find loads for their drivers. This includes their partner carrier department, email department, and internet customer department where they bid on loads that are posted on several different load boards. Express 1 also has a major account with maytag whirlpool that provides their fleet with a lot of "call in" loads. They also have a very liberal monitoring system. They don't micro-manage you after you accept a load offer. I have had to manage my time wisely in the past and I have always managed to make it to the shipper and consignee early. Most of the time I am loaded or unloaded before my scheduled appointment time (and on whirlpool loads I am there as fast as time and traffic will allow me to get there) because regular customers "in my opinion" deserve super-service! But like I said, Express 1 does not sit there and send you a message if you are running up on your protect time. They will let you "the big boy" call them and let them know if you are not going to be able to make it on time. With that being said, there have only been two times that I have run right up on my protect time and that was due to being loaded late.
Express 1 is not swap happy like some carriers are. I was offered a 2068 mile load two weeks ago and there was 4 days built into the load. No one in dispatch even bothered me after I picked the load up. In fact, Jenny told me that the load was mine and that the load had been booked as a solo load and nothing was going to change that. My only responsibility was to get the load from ,Nogales to Detroit by the protect time. So I got to plan out my own route to, Detroit and determine where and when I was going to drive! Also
Express 1 does not have any load boards. This means that you as a driver are not required to sit in a certain area in order to receive a load offer. I don't have to worry about losing my board position when I move my van to the other side of a truckstop parking lot. Express 1 dispatches all of their loads based on "dwel time" which means that it goes by vehicle capacity first and then by how long the drivers have been sitting. I think this is very good system to use because you never lose your "dwel time" when you move your truck to another area or when you turn down a load offer.
The only downside of partnering with express 1 is that a lot of the longer runs are given to teams with sprinters. Yet, despite this, I have been able to break away from the pack and find me some really decent loads. I got a load from, Springfield Oregon all the way out to, Calabasis California. The load paid the truck 1200 dollars for 849 miles worth of work. The linehaul rate was 1.00 plus a 26 cpm fuel surcharge, 52 dollars in detention time, and another 75 dollars for deadhead to the shipper. The kicker is also that this load was booked as a sprinter load and all I had to do was remove that little hook on the back of my van where the doors latch shut. By doing this I was able and fit a 49 inch tall skid into my van. So, being far from the pack proved to be a great recipe for success. In any case, this is an honest review of Express 1 and the great team of drivers, load planners, dispatchers and everyone else who is on the express 1 team.
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