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knight trucking

bigrobdog

Well-Known Member
any body know what knight is like good are bad
 
I drove for Knight Transportation in 2007 for approximately 2 months. I will start from day one. I recieved my truck at the Fontana yard where I did their inspection and filled out the proper forms. I had engine oil leaks, bald tires, one of the fairings was on the verge of falling off, the high/low selector would get stuck making it difficult to get into gears. Well, fontana at the time did not have a maintenance facility so they advised I would have to get it fixed while OTR. I was dispatched on my first load to Pheonix to meet my dispacther where I had some of the problems fixed on the truck and also discovered new issues on my way such as the truck was overheating climbing grades and the jake brake wasnt working. These were the minor problems I had with the company.

I picked up a load in Idaho headed to salt lake city upon delivery I went to the Salt Lake City operating center where I checked my truck in for service for some of the issues Pheonix did not fix. They refused to pay for a hotel room, I couldn't stay in the truck cause they were putting it in the shop. I had to rent a car and luckily I had a friend who lived in Salt Lake city that allowed me to stay with him. Knight refused to reimburse me for any of my costs (I had to rent the car cause my friend had no means of transportation). 4 days later my truck was done knight then refused to pay me any break down pay. I told them I had been on the road for 3 weeks my dispatcher advised me that the time my truck was in the shop was considered my time at home. I was then dispatched to Portland, Oregon where when I delivered I sat at the operating center for 3 days where I was refused layover pay due to me expressing I wanted to go home they told me they had loads heading to Washington, but decided since I wanted to go home there were loads available and that means I do not recieve layover pay.

On another trip I had delivered in Los Angeles and then I headed to Fontana to pick up my next load in the macro it said it was supposed to take 2 hours to load my 8 hours later I was finally released it was headed to Portland, Oregon. With my hours up in 45 minutes I headed to the OC and took my ten hour restart. Heading to portland there was an accident on the 5 freeway in southern Oregon. I contacted my dispatcher and advised him between the hold up at the shipper and the accident on the freeway I would be on my 10 hour break when the load was supposed to deliver he advised me "You will make that delivery on your break or you will be service failed". Being a new driver I made the delivery never logging it.

Another issue I had I was picking up a load of dog food headed from Los Angeles to Riverside. When I recieved the bills of lading the load weighed 57,000 lbs. I contacted my dispatcher and told him it was overweight I don't even have to scale it to tell him that. He advised that I will take that load and deliver it or I would be service failed.

Well, this is my experience with Knight Transportation it only lasted 2 months and that was enough.

Good post! Knight has a yard in Katy, Tx., which is about 20 miles from were i live. Your story here is about par with stories I've heard from other x-knight drivers. I have a freind who works for them today and he has hung tough and will have a year in this july. His main complaint was the inability to get proper maintenance in a timely manner, citing alot of the same issues covered in the above post. He refers to his truck as that "hunk of shit" and has his foot in the door with Koch resorces to drive tankers locally. He got his TWIC and Haz Mat endorsement on his own time. The guy who interviewed him said if he could take a year of knights shit they had a place for him. All they did was check to see if he really had the time in OTR and they didnt care what knight had to say about his performance. His driving record is clean. Thanks for your story. Be safe!
 
I had similar experience with Werner. I started in July 2009 and by the middle of October it was time to quit. I wasn't making enough money to pay for being on the road, no less pay for my mortgage or food for the family back home. When I did get loads, they would get me to a location where there was nothing nearby to pick up, so I'd have to sit there for day's on end. I finally got a streak going in October, but ran near out of hours on my route from Denver to St Joe. I called the consignee to tell them I'd be late and they said it not a problem, tomorrow (Monday) would be fine with them. I notified my jerk of a dispatcher that I was pulled into a truck stop in western Nebraska with less than an hour to go on the clock. He finally got back to me that I'd have to wait until Thursday to deliver, that the customer was all upset with me. I called the consignee again to apologize and he said he didn't know what the problem was. They didn't expect the load until Friday, so getting it Monday would have been a bonus. I sent a message to my dispatcher to ask about taking it the next day (without mentioning my phone conversation)and he told me no way. I'd sat around enough due to this jerk, so the next day I took the truck and load to Werner headquarters, I dropped the load off in the proper yard, took the tractor through Safety (passed with flying colors), fueled it up, took through the Wash (the only time I was ever able to take it through a truck wash), got all my stuff out (except for my brand new broom for sweeping out trailers), cleaned the cab from top to bottom (much better than when I got it in Phoenix). Then it was time to drop off the truck and the keys. Called my dispatcher, who told me I couldn't quit (what an idiot). He said I had to deliver the load before I could quit. I told him that since the load was now sitting in Werner's yard, it couldn't possibly be considered abandoned, as it wasn't due for delivery in St Joe until Thursday. He was so upset he gave me to his boss, who tried to tell me the same thing. He finally told me to take the keys to the maintenance shop. There, I ran into Mr. "I'm going to write you up for every little thing I can find and you'll pay for it all". Meanwhile my taxi had shown up to take me to the airport. The maint. guy jumped up in the cab looking like a tackle jumping into the middle of the offense to get to the quarterback. The taxi driver had to drive around the backside of the shop to head out and as we came back around the front, the maint guy came running over to the taxi. He was no longer looking like a mad man. I rolled down the window and he very politely said my truck was the cleanest he had ever seen. If he didn't know any better he'd think I was retiring instead of quitting after 3 months. I recieved a nice letter from Werner regarding my service (no, not a job offer to come back) and about a year later I sent off for my DAC. Werner's comment is that that they would consider taking me back if I were to apply.
 
any body know what knight is like good are bad
Well,Son!, In Vegas it appears that you must have the right last name???, and in 08' I run for bout 2 months, had 3 flats,2 of them in 1 week, I pointed out to the college boy shop manager,before starting out of Phx. his reply was"Oh hell, they got 20,000 more miles left on'em", right !, coming down the Goldconda summit, the 1st one goes,15 miles out of Winnemucca, called the college boy for service,instead of going back to the muc,or sending out the Rapid repair squad!!,he tells me to take it to Elko!,WHAT? that;s bout 75 miles up the road, does that tell U what ur in for,hope that may help, also, beware that SLT/expressway/Roadmaster are in the same lot????,same address???,what's really goin' on? Good Luck
 

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