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Can anyone give me any info on Panther? Are they a good company to work for etc.? Any thing anyone knows or has heard about them,would be greatly appreciated... Thanx!
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My understanding is Panther went from a $6 million company to a $60 million company in three years. They got to be doing something right.
Have heard that Panther II drivers pay a premium for their Qualcomm. I think it's like $175.00 a month
Have heard that Panther II drivers pay a premium for their Qualcomm. I think it's like $175.00 a month
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first out,I havent driven for Panther,but ,considered it for awhile,checked up on them,most drivers seemed happy,but I dont know how,tho their rates for a b-van were good,as Phil told you,they pay through the nose for qualcom,must purchase their insurance from Panther,(including freight ins.)I heard of people making big ol paychecks,but was left wondering how much was take-home after being nickel,dimed to death. This info is all second hand from someone who never drove for them,talk to their drivers,but try to read between the lines,.....remember,misery loves company,right?goodluck,78
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Qualcomm rates for Panther are 35 a week, or 140 a month. They USED to be a much better company than they are now. They are very fair as far as rate per mile, deadhead, empty moves, etc. but sometimes is doesn't all come down to the money. Dispatch is a nightmare - very few people really know what's happening and you get put on hold eating up those cell phone minutes while they figure out why they just paged you four times for the same load.
They also have WAY too many trucks. Any company that needs to run orientation two times a week has two things: 1. Too much turnover & 2. Too many trucks.
They also have WAY too many trucks. Any company that needs to run orientation two times a week has two things: 1. Too much turnover & 2. Too many trucks.
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My husband and I drive for PantherII as a team. We make very good money. Granted, dispatch is a pain, but that is true with most companies. We own our own truck, and our weekly deductions from panther is less than 200 a week. If you are willing to run and not constantly turn down loads you can make very good money as we have. We average $2000 - $4000 a week after deductions, and sometimes more. If you would like more info please contact me at [email protected] I will be glad to try and answer your questions. I am looking for a couple to drive for us with panther, do you know anyone?
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You make $2000-$4000 a week. I stay in service. Repeat stay in servie
and no way do I even get close to your figures.
and no way do I even get close to your figures.
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If you stay in service and don't make 2 to 4 grand a week as a team, you need to change companies! My wife and I can do that and be home most weekends.
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My husband and I run as a company team for an o/o leased to TriState, which in short means we make a smaller % than an o/o, and we still average $1200 week. We do stay in service 95% of the time, but we average 1-2 days total a week either waiting on a load, or waiting to pickup. If you aren't making at least 2k/week as an o/o team, I'd be picking up the phone to the competitions recruiters now.
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PantherII is the first company I went out with.It takes them a min. of 3 to 5 weeks to send out the payroll.My first payroll was 512.00 for 7 days,second was 1900.00,third was 582.00,the forth was 777.oo,the fith was 814.00,the six was 308.00,the seventh was 389.oo,gross pay,that is staying in service all the time and this is all i averaged running illgally,good luck just shop aroud before you buy!!!!
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After signing on with Panther II, i can tell you that dispatch is hard to get a hold of, and they are very unorganized. Also, they like to cancel loads after you are rolling twards the shipper. This really blows, since you have invested time in trip planning and have given up your position on the board, once you started down the road.
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NO, Panther II is not a good company to lease on a vehicle. I tried a D unit and an E unit. The Escrow is too big, weekly out of pocket expense is outragous, and it takes 5 - 8 wks to get paid on trips. You will go broke fast.
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Panther ii is not a bad company ive been with them for 1 year and some change now. They do need some work though in their dispatch and their start up cost is so much that for someone just starting out you better play the state lottery so you can get enough cash to run. I currently have a truck for sale that is set up for Panther ii but selling it to someone and telling them how easy and quick it is to make money would be lying. Panther ii does have what they call the drivers board that consist of 10 or so drivers that meet and relay the problems that we have to the upper management. But who knows whether those problems get addressed. If panther ii is listening quit putting on drivers in this slow time when you cant keep what you got running. Just a little tip its not complicated.
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My husband and I run B unit team for Panther II, we are very happy there and we do bring in between 2,000 and 4,000 a week when in service. We have been with them almost 2 years and have seen the company grow from 250 trucks in May of 1998 to over 600 tuucks as of January 2000. We run really good. Your first pay week will take about 5 weeks to get and in most cases you get a zero pay because of the deductions they take out (ie. Physical and Drug screan, qualcom deposit, permits, ect.) but every week like clockwork you get a paycheck, which I will praise their payroll department, very few errors and correction of thoes errors are very easy and it usuall turns out to be dispatch forgot to put you in for the extras. After the inital decuctions our weekly deductions are less than 200 a week. Panther does have a quartly meeting of a drivers round table, my husband and I hold a seat and they do listen to us but as with any company it does take time to impliment new things and we are seeing some of our ideas comming into play. Dispatch does have its problems but I see an effort to make it better and as of the 1st of this month they moved into new offices and Management has made some investments that over the next 30 to 45 days we should see a big difference. If you would like further info please fell free to E-mail me at [email protected]. I am home off the truck until Feb. 27 I will be able to respond quiclky before then.
My husband & I drove for an O/O whose truck was signed on with Panther. They don't have many good team loads. My impression of them for a single driver, however, is good. My husband drives for them now as single and he makes as much money by himself as we did when we were both out. Truck grossed about 4k-5k in good weeks & 2k-2.5k in slow weeks. You had better have your finances in "apple pie order" because it is a long time before your first check. They come every week like clockwork after that first week. There are hotspots you need to know about that are specific to Panther. Problems with dispatch are in the process of correction even now. Dispatchers are on the most part helpful, because the problem of having too many "hands in the pot" is being resolved. They will tell you there is no forced dispatch. But anyone who drives for Panther knows the story of the cursed Michigan 100 mile d/h to get 70mile load. They don't have much out west. You can get a load to Texas but have to empty move back (usually to Lebanon TN). They need to get some salesmen out west and work up some business out there. I hope I've been helpful. My question is: Is Panther going to sign on too many trucks and become another outfit like Roberts?
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Panther is growing as a company. As someone stated in an earlier reply, they have gone from a 6 million dollar company to a 60 million dollar company in 3 years. Great for them. I don't however see many of their o/o's bank accounts growing at the same rate. I've been leased to them for a year now and they are head and shoulders above the other 2 companies that I have been leased to. (CTX and TST Expedited).. However like all companies, they have a lot of stuff to work on. I'll list the pros and cons as I see them in my humble opinion.
Cons:
1) They have a huge turnover in both owner operators and in dispatchers, which indicates to me that they don't treat the dispatchers much (if any) better then they do the o/o's.
2) They don't seem to care whether you (the o/o) can make a profit on the load that they are offering you, only that you cover it and make some money for them. In all fairness on this one, since they do have such a huge turnover in dispatchers, these rookies probably don't have the capacity to be able to tell whether you can make a profit on it or not. So maybe they are just ignorant as opposed to uncaring.
3) As someone else stated, their initial startup costs are huge and they do nickel and dime you to death every week. Generally, it doesn't matter when you are running your ##### off, but it sure takes food off the dinner table for the kids when freight is as slow as it is now.
4) They blow up your pager when they want you, paging you 3 or 4 times in 30 seconds or so for the same load. Obviously, no one told them that most of these pager programs come with a set amount of pages every month and that after that you pay per page. This is pretty annoying when you expect your pager bill to be 46 bucks a month and they have racked up 40 more bucks in senseless repeat pages.
5) Their computer tracks you at 47 mph and they bug the hell out of you via Qualcom and pager if you fall behind that. (Don't plan on running hard to create some nap time figuring out how far out you are from the consignee and actually stopping for a couple of hours for a little siesta, you can be sure that you'll get a ton of messages asking you what's up and to get your ##### moving..) Seems to me they'd leave you the hell alone and allow you to do your own thing once you've covered a couple of hundred loads for them and only been late once or twice..
6) When their freight is slow it's dead and you can expect to run 5 or 600 paid miles in a week without anyone feeling bad about it but you.
7) In my opinion they are striving to be too much like Roberts, and in the process they are alianating their o/o's. Lot's of weeks go by when I try to avoid phone contact with dispatch because I hate being treated like a number. I try and do all my business with them via Qualcomm. At least that way it's just text being passed back and forth and the folks in dispatch are far less likely to act like a smart ##### over the QC then they are on the phone.
Pros:
1) When their freight is hot it's hot. If you have the ability to pick and choose and find that fine line between turning down too much and pissing off dispatch and taking a ton of loads that you can't make a profit on, you can make good money during their good months. Better have a good budget and savings account though because you'll need it through the winter. If you can manage to stay in their major freight lanes you can do great with these guys.
2) They recently tacked on a fuel surcharge which will be effective March 1. It's on a case by case basis and I'm sure they won't charge their contracted customers much if any, but they've promised to pass on whatever they get to us and with the way that fuel prices are now, any little bit will help.
3) Their pay is always accurate and on time. Over the course of a year, I've only had one paycheck that was late and from what I can tell it wasn't panther's fault, the mailman got me. Also, there have only been 3 occasions when I had to call payroll to get something corrected and the folks in that department jumped at the chance to help.. (Dispatch could take a lesson from these folks)
4) When there is an upcoming holiday, they throw the first in first out method of dispatch out the window and try their damndest to get everyone home.
All in all they are my favorite among the 3 companies that I have been leased to. Not that I'm not forever searching for a bigger and better deal. I'd sure like to find someone out there that could offer me some dedicated freight from detroit out to somewhere and back every couple of days, but until that happens I guess I'll tough it out with these guys.. God knows it costs way too much to switch companies..
Hoped this has helped.. Like I said it's just one guy's opinion..
Cons:
1) They have a huge turnover in both owner operators and in dispatchers, which indicates to me that they don't treat the dispatchers much (if any) better then they do the o/o's.
2) They don't seem to care whether you (the o/o) can make a profit on the load that they are offering you, only that you cover it and make some money for them. In all fairness on this one, since they do have such a huge turnover in dispatchers, these rookies probably don't have the capacity to be able to tell whether you can make a profit on it or not. So maybe they are just ignorant as opposed to uncaring.
3) As someone else stated, their initial startup costs are huge and they do nickel and dime you to death every week. Generally, it doesn't matter when you are running your ##### off, but it sure takes food off the dinner table for the kids when freight is as slow as it is now.
4) They blow up your pager when they want you, paging you 3 or 4 times in 30 seconds or so for the same load. Obviously, no one told them that most of these pager programs come with a set amount of pages every month and that after that you pay per page. This is pretty annoying when you expect your pager bill to be 46 bucks a month and they have racked up 40 more bucks in senseless repeat pages.
5) Their computer tracks you at 47 mph and they bug the hell out of you via Qualcom and pager if you fall behind that. (Don't plan on running hard to create some nap time figuring out how far out you are from the consignee and actually stopping for a couple of hours for a little siesta, you can be sure that you'll get a ton of messages asking you what's up and to get your ##### moving..) Seems to me they'd leave you the hell alone and allow you to do your own thing once you've covered a couple of hundred loads for them and only been late once or twice..
6) When their freight is slow it's dead and you can expect to run 5 or 600 paid miles in a week without anyone feeling bad about it but you.
7) In my opinion they are striving to be too much like Roberts, and in the process they are alianating their o/o's. Lot's of weeks go by when I try to avoid phone contact with dispatch because I hate being treated like a number. I try and do all my business with them via Qualcomm. At least that way it's just text being passed back and forth and the folks in dispatch are far less likely to act like a smart ##### over the QC then they are on the phone.
Pros:
1) When their freight is hot it's hot. If you have the ability to pick and choose and find that fine line between turning down too much and pissing off dispatch and taking a ton of loads that you can't make a profit on, you can make good money during their good months. Better have a good budget and savings account though because you'll need it through the winter. If you can manage to stay in their major freight lanes you can do great with these guys.
2) They recently tacked on a fuel surcharge which will be effective March 1. It's on a case by case basis and I'm sure they won't charge their contracted customers much if any, but they've promised to pass on whatever they get to us and with the way that fuel prices are now, any little bit will help.
3) Their pay is always accurate and on time. Over the course of a year, I've only had one paycheck that was late and from what I can tell it wasn't panther's fault, the mailman got me. Also, there have only been 3 occasions when I had to call payroll to get something corrected and the folks in that department jumped at the chance to help.. (Dispatch could take a lesson from these folks)
4) When there is an upcoming holiday, they throw the first in first out method of dispatch out the window and try their damndest to get everyone home.
All in all they are my favorite among the 3 companies that I have been leased to. Not that I'm not forever searching for a bigger and better deal. I'd sure like to find someone out there that could offer me some dedicated freight from detroit out to somewhere and back every couple of days, but until that happens I guess I'll tough it out with these guys.. God knows it costs way too much to switch companies..
Hoped this has helped.. Like I said it's just one guy's opinion..
if your hubby is making as much as you say then he is running illegally and it will only take time before nikki in logs finds out and cans him!!
she has done it to very good drivers i know. i work as a team for them and was the second highest paid last year and we averaged $3800.00 for the whole year. so i think it was either a farce statement or you just got 2 checks that made it over $3000.00 last year and you wanted to show it off. the average for singles was between
$1800.00 and $3000.00 for the year. just a little factual info for anyone else reading thats wants realistic numbers.
she has done it to very good drivers i know. i work as a team for them and was the second highest paid last year and we averaged $3800.00 for the whole year. so i think it was either a farce statement or you just got 2 checks that made it over $3000.00 last year and you wanted to show it off. the average for singles was between
$1800.00 and $3000.00 for the year. just a little factual info for anyone else reading thats wants realistic numbers.
bret i don't even know if you knew who i was responding to but the response was to blondie who stated that her hubby makes that much running single. i never said that it couldn't be done but that it wasn't realistic to dream the big dream of making that much money driving single. last time i checked the gross for single was between
$105k + $135k last year. i guess you accept all loads also right? go where no one else wants to cause they know better. staying in service on the weekend isn't worth it cause thats when most of them quit cause they get pissed cause they're sitting and wondering why. i guess thats why i get told that i don't know how to run my business sometimes cause i won't sit unless i know i'll get something in the next 24 hours or so. but, as long as it works for you keep sittin in those truck stops on the weeken and i'll be at home thinking about ya. and remember that you are the dispatchers dream, you by the book guy you!!!!!!!!
$105k + $135k last year. i guess you accept all loads also right? go where no one else wants to cause they know better. staying in service on the weekend isn't worth it cause thats when most of them quit cause they get pissed cause they're sitting and wondering why. i guess thats why i get told that i don't know how to run my business sometimes cause i won't sit unless i know i'll get something in the next 24 hours or so. but, as long as it works for you keep sittin in those truck stops on the weeken and i'll be at home thinking about ya. and remember that you are the dispatchers dream, you by the book guy you!!!!!!!!
All I said was, "that it is possible", not probable. I don't average those numbers by any means, because I refuse to live in truck stops and accept everything that is offered to me. After talking with many Panther drivers, it seems that this years revenue numbers are far below those of last year. Some of the loss comes from less work as a result of all the units that they have put on. Many drivers are only offered a few loads a week at best.