CRST Malone reviews

Hi everyone I'm Michael, 26 years old and I've been in a lease purchase with Malone since June 12th.

I already know.... save it. OMG they suck what're you thinking, haven't you heard the stories, Lease purchase really???

Now let me tell you the truth.

I run with a lot of freedom, we have a load board with between 350-1000 loads posted on it at any given time, and about 50 agents working with us that we pull freight for. I have a fleet manager who I rarely speak to and don't need to to be successful.

I have a 2013 cascadia for $375 a week and 185 a week trailer rental. EVERYTHING minus windshields is covered bumper to bumper until September 2017 on my truck. After that I will enter a different period of maintenance. Afterinsurance everything my weekly expenses are 918.74 a week, before fuel.

I know what you want to hear, MONEY how much money right? Since getting my truck on June 12th and taking three weeks off one vacation, two for the loss of my wife's father. Not counting this week.

I've ran 19,798 miles including deadhead miles, and I've generated $39,629.55 worth of revenue. Average weekly bring home before setting aside for taxes 1250-2600

How? I am an extremely motivated greedy son of a gun who is after every dollar he can get, NYC, east west I don't care I run everywhere. I keep myself pre planned, and give excellent customer service. I am willing to tarp, chain and strap anything that will fit on the deck or get permits for what doesnt. I can be home every weekend if need be. The reviews on here before me failed because of to much home time, a nagging wife asking when their coming home and bad BUSINESS decisions. I have a 7 month old daughter and an amazing supportive wife at home, failing isn't an option. Multiple combat tours didn't make me a man, I only grew up faster. Men take responsibility and take care of their own. I love my family and want to be home, however I grew up with little, and letting them go without isn't an option. So I try to get through the house every couple weekends.

If your interested I will try to keep in contact with what I'm doing weekly and how I'm making out.

MALONE is my favorite company in the three years I've been driving commercially.

Thursday I picked up two steel coils taped in Savannah GA paying $700 on 270 miles to Marietta GA. Unloaded same day and slept in Commerce GA at the TA. Loaded Friday morning in Jefferson GA for a load of Kubota tractors paying $850 on 393 miles to Lynchburg VA and went home until Monday. Delivered Monday and picked up no tarp pipe in Lynchburg VA paying $2700 on 1262 miles going to Kearney NE to finish the week. Delivered yesterday and started my first load this week. Grand Island Nebraska to Heyburn, Idaho no tarp plastic pipe $2163 on 920 miles. Currently in Snowville Utah for the night at the flying hook.

Hope you follow, feel free to hate and down on me. Theirs a 100% you never step foot under my table to eat, therefore your opinions are only words. 

May high rates bless you,
Mich

Thought I would share my experience and thoughts since I've been here, as there isn't alot of info about CRST Malone. 

Why I choose Malone;

1.   I had only run tanker up to hiring on here and wanted to stay with something a little more physical than swinging doors.

2.   I wanted a walk away lease option in the event I didn't like flat or being an O/O.

3.   I like the fact they have a "full warranty", yes I pay .15$ per mile but I haven't had to worry about any repairs thus far. Which was something I didn't want to have to learn while learning a new job and trying to find freight. Not everything is covered more on this later.

4.   At the time I thought I could run mainly Texas... later on I realize that's not possible, more later.

What I wanted was to get the experience for flatbed, being OTR and learning freight lanes. I felt that this was the best place for me, it may not be for everyone.

Orientation; 
Orientation was supposed to be 4 day's in Oklahoma City, turned into 5 day's. With that said some advice before going to orientation. 

If I had to do it again I would have had my recruiter verify all my employment and ensure I was hire-able Before I left to orientation. The reason for this is one O/O was booted on the first day by safety, on the 2nd so was someone else for something on there record, on the 4th day (I believe) there was a guy who sat at our table who said he had everything checked before coming and what do you know he was cut, told to come back in 3 months when what ever it was dropped off his record. 

The bad about orientation there was only one instructor and most of her time was working on getting things verified, asking drivers for info they already provided and numerous other task's including training us how to strap, chain and tarp..Oh My.

I started orientation on October 26th;

The first day was the basic stuff do more paper work, drug test, watch a video or two. The second day we watched another video I believe and did a little trailer work. The third and 4th day were fairly much the same. I came from a construction management background before driving truck and felt the whole process was disorganized and confusing. 

A word to the wise check your attitude at the door, if you've done flat OR Think you know flat work keep it to yourself so those of us that don't know have the opportunity to learn. One guy in our group knew it all and at one point I asked him to be quite as he kept talking over the instructor, this lead to a later confrontation which ended with the threat of both of us being booted.... we later kissed and made up but haven't kept in touch I wish him the best.

I'll post more later

Okay try and wrap up the orientation stuff;

Unpleasant surprise,

You are not paid for orientation, if there was a bonus offered when you sign up you ( at least I did) will get 50$ on Tuesday and part of the rest on Friday. I received 50$ and than 700$. 

However, you are charged 100$ (50% of weekly) rent for your trailer even though you don't have a trailer or truck yet (if doing a lease purchase). You are also charged for the weekly portion of some of your expenses like 2290, securement equipment etc. 

I point this out because the add and recruiter said no payments.... no Truck payments for 3 weeks. That is the rub it is Truck payments only everything else starts before your really even hired. Additionally, the Truck payment 3 week deal includes the week you're in orientation.

Some trucks were at the yard, mine wasn't so they got me a rental card and added 170$ for fuel to go get mine which was in Dallas. My trailer was supposed to be with the truck but it wasn't.

So since no one knew where it was I deadheaded from Dallas to San Antonio for the weekend and get everything in the truck. They found my trailer at a drop yard 8 miles from where I picked up the truck on late Monday afternoon. 

They pay all the motel fee IF you room with someone else, if you want your own room you need to pay half the rate, which was around 30$ a night.

Some guys were put up for the weekend after orientation because they didn't have trucks. I can't say for sure but having been in management for years, it appeared that those who didn't have a plan or crappy attitudes were left without trucks. However, I can't and won't swear to that, as said before check your attitude at the door.

Lastly, if you come to any company broke and think you'll make money being an O/O.... You're wrong. You need at least enough money for two months bills at home AND enough to fill your truck full of fuel AND enough money to cover yourself on the road for at least 3 weeks. Any less than this and you stand a good chance of failure. 

Securement Training
Do yourself a favor if you never pulled a flat, go through either JJ Keller online securement class or Alabama Coil Securement certificate program (https://metalcoiltraining.com/). You don't have to but it greatly increases your knowledge of proper procedure. As stated before the training you receive is very basic and just enough to make you dangerous, imho.

Inspecting your Truck, Trailer & Securement equipment.
You will receive a sheet of paper for each of these that you need to file out and report any damage or deficiencies. It is important to take your time and check everything and note even the smallest of issues. If not you could end up paying for this lack of detail down the road. This is a 2 edge sword because at the same time you're trying to get on the road to earn some money.

However, go through everything related to your securement equipment no matter how new it looks. If your tarps are torn or just heavily used request new ones you're paying for them. Double check your straps, as an example I had some straps that were brand new I checked 3 of 4 and then found the fourth was cut beyond use about 20ft in from the end. I payed for this and have to pay to replace. 

Order a tarp repair kit, your going to need one.

The trailer wasn't bad but I have had wiring issues that have caused me to be late for loads and drop some loads. I'm not sure I would have caught this at the time as much of the problem is corrosion which is hard to see unless you take wiring apart. Trailer rent, yes rent, is a whooping 200$ per week. 

The truck I received is a 2013 Cascadia with a DD15. You do not have a choice in your truck, however if you don't like it they say you can request a different truck. They were letting guys get trucks through Quality Leasing, I don't know if this is still the case.

I am fairly happy with the truck I received, one of my concerns was having a 10 speed and this concern has proven to be a real concern. I didn't like 10s in the oilfield and I don't like them OTR. I look forward to being able to buy my own truck with a 13, someday. So far I havn't had any real issues with the truck. I have it it the shop for poor fuel milage and hopefully to have an overhead done. 

The .15$ per mile warrenty, so far CRST has been very good about getting things repaired when needed. A overhead is not covered under the warranty, However I was told that if recommended by a dealer or approved freightliner repair shop they would cover the overhead. I talked with the main tech at freightliner and with almost 500K he said it needed one so I'll see what happens. 

As far as I can tell you don't receive any of this maintenance money back if you leave, so use it to your advantage and keep your truck running smooth as possible.

Since I've been here I've meet drivers who have been here anywhere from 2 months to 15 years, almost all are happy and appear to be doing good. The only real complaint I have is in orientation they tell you to stay in the box which is a line from the Texas border north to the Illinois/ Wisconsin line straight across to the atlantic coast and cuts back across North Florida just about the Tampa area. 

This is the area they have freight and I can not disagree with this area having loads, but I live in San Antonio and have wondered why they would recruit from an area they don't have much freight. Really peeves me because getting home and out again is costly. 

The Load Board and approved brokers;

There is an approved brokers list but unless those brokers have public load boards getting access to any private or login required load boards good luck. It is very difficult to have your FM provide any information to sign up. I have been trying to get access to the CHRobbinson load board and can't even seem to get access to that even though I've pulled loads for them and they are approved. When you sign up you have to have the address that malone used to create the account but my FM doesn't seem to know what address was used.

Malone load board is very basic and is simply a list of loads and contact numbers. You can not set alerts, search is a real pain, simply put it is barely usable and is so basic that finding loads off there is an exercise in patients as well as a complete waste of time. Yes, the loads pay better off this load board. I think it is important when starting that you find a load where you want to go and find a load that is available the day you get there, or at the very least take a load to a place that has several loads listed the day you are looking at the load you want. If you see a great paying load you better check your destination for loads if there aren't any within a 100 mile radius you're going to DH for that next load. Remember this cost you fuel and .15$ per mile. 

Being from Texas at first I didn't think much about DH since everything is a drive in TX anyway, this has come back to haunt me later on and now I pay more attention to my DH.

Word of Caution, sometimes the load on the board isn't really there! I commented on another post where someone was saying the same thing and slightly disagreed with the OP, however this has turned out to be true. I had a situation where I parked early for a load in the morning only to find out that the load canceled, before I knew this I called the same broker (crst malone broker) to ask about a different load that's when he said the load I'd waited for had canceled, he said the other load was good to give him time to get the load sent to Qcom. I said okay grabbed a bite to eat. When I came back still no message (I should have called) so I head out to pick up this load. I drove 80 miles and stopped to check something on the trailer. I thought I would call the broker he tells me that load has canceled also, So I drive up the road to find a safer parking area and start looking. I see 4 loads 25 miles from my current location, none of those loads where available. A couple of considerations, 
1) Don't move without a load confirmation 
2) The brokers are brokering loads so sometimes the owner/broker finds a truck to haul the load. 
3) The malone load board is behind sometimes so that load could be gone already.

Your FM

Your FM isn't your babysitter nor your dispatcher! You are in the big leagues now baby act like a man. If you expect your FM to find you loads talk to the agent & book the loads, then you should go back to driving company. 

I say this as a result of a guy I meet in orientation. We have since become good friends, however he left after about 3 weeks. He has told me that his FM wanted to book his loads and hold his hand for the first 60 days. I understand why he was leaning on his FM so much that's what the guy said to do. 

In the end it hurt him more than it helped. Most of the FM's have 35 or more drivers and just can't babysit everyone. It's your job to run your business for profit, not theirs. I described the area's that Malone has freight so use that as a guide. If you stay in these area's and plan ahead you'll do fine. If you sit at the house waiting for that perfect load or take a load out west or southern Florida you're going to enjoy lots of DH and cheap loads... good luck with that. 

In my next Post I'll talk about setting yourself up to track your expenses and stay organized on the road.

They still have charged me for repairs even with that 15cpm they get (it's on my statement). I haven't bothered to ask them what that was all about because I'm leaving anyways. Learning freight lanes? Is that what it has come to? The key to success is to work harder in areas far from your home, go home much less, and hopefully get people to like you enough to throw you a bone every once in a while? You can have it... I'm working harder by securing freight and making 1/3 what I'm used to. The funny thing is, I LIVE in an area that is so called a "good freight lane ", and I still see where this leaves much to be desired. It sounds like a silly ploy to me. The company is doing bad so in a desperate attempt to assure drivers that there is still a way to make a living they use a term like "freight lanes". I have a better term for them, "total quality logistics".

The company is decent. If you understand you're responsible for finding your loads, either from the company load board or calling our agents. Your Fleet manager can assist but its really on you. The big issue right now is freight has been crazy. Some weeks its been fantastic, others its slim pickings.

I was told i was hired was told that motel was provided drove 188 miles to orientation the was told i have to sleep in my truck for the 5 days of orientation in Rockport Indiana no truck stops close by no shower facility on my third day of orientation I was told that they were releasing me because of my work history even though they had 3 weeks before I came to orientation to do all my paperwork now I'm out of the money it cost me to drive there and to eat i quit my job to come here and I was told I was already hired and 22 days before Christmas I have no job at all they can do is say sorry