Near my home, there used to be the old building of HSN – the Home Shopping Network. They have since relocated to a large high tech glass building on the other side of town. I mention this because at the old site, drivers used to park their trucks there while on home time for the holiday or on weekends. All the structures were taken down and the lot is quite large.
You could park back there and it would be off from the main road and relatively safe. No problem for a few years. But then, someone, somewhere got a bug up their posterior and complained to the city and the developer of the site. I say developer, but any improvement of the site soured when the real estate market went bust.
The usual threatening no trucks allowed signs went up and an “evil” tow service was given permission to remove any vehicle that parked there. During Thanksgiving or Christmas, even July 4th, there would be as many as 5-10 rigs parked there, neatly in a row, for a few days. All the drivers appeared to keep the place clean. It didn’t matter. This location is about the third I’ve seen that has been “closed” as a possible parking location for big trucks. If you live here, and your company does not have a nearby terminal, you have a problem.
The Tampa Bay area, after years of being a relatively friendly truck town, is now a “deliver it and get out” city. Outside of town, on I-4, there is a Flying J with about 5 truck spaces – it’s really a gas station for the local RV’s – across the street, there is a T/A, that is not that old, but is small – 25 trucks – hard to park in, fills up fast and early and is, like many other trucks stops in the Southeast, someplace to avoid. I’ve witnessed several accidents and fist fights at this place since it opened up. If it were twice the size, it would still not be large enough.
As you drive east, closer to Orlando – a totally unfriendly truck city – the only parking is at the Love’s, but this location also fills up fast and early and is usually a frustrating place to get in and out of. There is another Flying J north on I-75, out of Tampa in Dade City, but guess what? It fills up fast and early and is not a fun place (as if any truck is) to pull into. That’s it as far as Tampa Bay truck parking is concerned. The old highway 301 truck place that has an old fashioned decent restaurant is long gone. So, unless you’re lucky enough to find a tow company with available truck parking nearby and pay $15 a night for the privilege or you have an agreeable shipper or receiver that will let you stay overnight on their property – good luck with that – plan your trip here accordingly, but be prepared to deliver and leave or be towed.
As I do every morning, I head over to craigslist.com to take a look at what is available job wise. I thought you would appreciate this job “ad” posted by someone who appears a “tad” upset about a local carrier – CTL. Coincidently, I took a job with CTL years back and I can report to you that this “ad” does not exaggerate about the work conditions there. CTL is subsidiary of COMCAR Industries out of Auburndale, FL and of course, if they disagree with my, or the ad’s, assessment of their company, they’re more than welcome to submit a response.
CTL Distribution (will screw you) (Tampa, Fl.) Date: 2011-06-29, 4:58PM EDT “If you are working for this sorry company start looking for another job before it is to late for you. If you are looking for a job don’t apply to this company. This place will screw you every which way they can and then try to keep screwing you after you are gone. For you idiots who are working for them and everything seems to be going great, you better watch out for that big screw. When the time comes and they used you up, don’t bend over or turn your back, just run like hell.” The compensation listed states: pennies on the dollar.
I was looking over the latest top blogs list according to Time. One of them is called the Consumerist Time/Blog/Consumerist and I suggest you check it out. The 7/1 posting by Ben Popkin is called “Whose $100 Million ATM Receipt Is This?” Do you think we might exclude a truck driver? I think so. The post mentioned that whomever it belongs to, must be confident in the financial institution with that kind of money because the FDIC only insures up to $250,000. With that kind of cash, you would think the bank would waive the $2.75 withdrawal fee. The Time list can be found here, TIME BLOG LIST/LOTR. They apparently forgot Life On The Road.
My last item is from Zach Investment Research Zach/Top 5/LOTR – they list the top five companies in the “trucking industry” as measured by relative performance. Looking at the names on the list, Zach obviously casts a wide brushstroke when referring to the trucking industry. I don’t think of Hertz or Ryder, for example, as a “trucking” company. Do you find it interesting that of the two on the list, Con-way and Werner, one of them has a pretty decent rep for how they compensate and treat their drivers and the other, a miserable one. We all know which one is which. Right?
1. Arkansas Best, ranks first, with a gain of 3.24%
2. Ryder System, second, gain of 3.08%
3. Con-way, gain of 2.94%
4. Hertz Global, 2.33%
5. Werner Enterprises (uggg!), 1.84%
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