Knight Transportation Reviews

Pros

Excellent equipment, nothing older than a 2008. Very well maintained. Local dispatchers that know you, not dispatched out of corporate by someone you've never met.

Cons

Be prepared to be gone from home for AWHILE. My average trip out was 6-8 weeks and home for 5 or 6 days. Of course, this was on Refrigerated side, so dry may be different.

Advice to Senior Management

Try and get drivers home more. Or if they stay out for 6 or more weeks, let them take more than 5 days off. Also, paid holidays would be nice.

Pros

Late model equipment to drive. Good maintenance program as long as the driver follows up on due dates (milage for service) A good training program for new drivers coming into the industry (Squire) Good miles as long as you communicate with your driver manager. Company stability and growth in the industry.

Cons

Not all of the terminals are up to the quality of the overall company (both in personel and physical aspects) Midlle management, Customer service personel, load planners, and driver mangers should be better educated to what drivers deal with on a daily basis. ie: not all routes are the same, not all loads are the same, there are many variables that affect the time factor in getting a load to its destination. Company personel need to be more aware of the variables.

Advice to Senior Management

Work on training and incentive programs designed to reduce turnover in office and middle management which will in turn reduce driver turnover. Audit individual terminals by contacting drivers from those terminals, it is easy for management to look into a drivers performance, contact those drivers who are doing a quality job and get thier opinions on where things could be improved, some of us may have some very good, completely realistic ideas for improvement.

Pros

Counter to what many have written on this website, I believe that Knight Transportation is a good enough place as any to start a career. I don't have a sense of being locked into this industry at all as many have stated.

The training provided by Knight is decent enough, it most certainly is sink-or-swim which will create some turnover right off the bat, however if you are a quick learner with the will to seek out new opportunities within the company, you will be acknowledged for your mentality.

Cons

Unfortunately, while I mentioned that you may be acknowledged for your work, you are rarely going to be rewarded. Bonuses are based on "market growth" and even while one manager may have absolutely stellar market growth compared to another, bonuses are very often static. There is no reward for a manager who wishes to go above and beyond their required duties to help secure freight outside of the plain dry-van variety.

Everyone complains about being underpaid, however Knight salaries are typically about 10% below the average for comparative salaries in the field.

NEGOTIATE VACATION TIME BEFORE YOU SIGN. Knight has a very "fine print" method to their vacation pay. New hires are not given a single day of vacation for close to a year and a half unless you work an extra weekend or a "comp day" such as one of the 3 or so holiday's a year Knight actually acknowledges. I started in the spring of 2010 and will not be officially awarded vacation days until the first of 2012.

Knight is a fantastic place to get the customer relations, brokerage, spot quoting and "think on your feet" training that you need to succeed in other industries. Learn the ropes here and move on to a different industry such as shipping, warehousing or a global logistics firm.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay the entry level managers better and provide fairer benefits, this will lead to better customer relations which in turn will allow the company to grow each market more successfully.

Pros

Lots of down time and lots of time to think about a better job with better playing long haul miles.

Cons

Always financially struggling, and the worst part about Truck Driving, can't get a second job to make the ends meet.

Advice to Senior Management

Nashville Magagement, the driver that starts hauling the load, should deliver the load to destination, no more drop & hook.

Pros

Financially stable company, if you work hard, you will have a job. Co-workers are great and have a general good attitude towards each other. Insurance is good and reasonably priced for single individuals.

Cons

The bonus program is unattainable. There is no raise program - even for cost of living. An OR of 80 is a good goal but it is often achieved at the expense of its operations staff. High turnover is the biggest detractor here. If you have transportation operations experience, look elsewhere. Your work will not be appreciated and once you finally do get into a groove of doing your job, you will be inundated with reports that have to be generated along with running 35+ trucks.

Advice to Senior Management

Show FINANCIAL appreciation to the employees you have now. High turnover in operations is resulting in high turnover in drivers, both of which are costing you dearly. There will be a mass exodus of operations staff should the job market ever turn around.

Pros

The people I worked with in middle management were cool. Respect for the truck driver...I was not always the most friendly dispatcher in the world nor did I always say the nicest things, but now that I reflect upon this period in my life I understand the hardships drivers go through and just how important their role in our society is...although I will never return to this industry, forever endeared to my heart are those drivers I worked with and an experience I will never forget.

Cons

The pay sucked, the stress level was high, the rewards were minimal, opportunity for real professional advancement was terrible, there was a lot of hypocrisy, and there was a culture of incompetence. For college graduates considering a career in trucking logistics be very careful, unless your degree limits you to this field I would recommend looking at an entirely different industry. What you will find is that you will be expected to work every 3rd weekend (both Saturday and Sunday) as well as most holidays. You will also find yourself working an average of 11 hours per day 5 days a week and the pay just is not worth it. This industry also does not translate well into other industries if you decide to try your hand at something else, so for most that start in this industry most will also finish in it. This is why I say to be very careful about choosing this industry and if you're already in it, get out while you're still young. Trust me.

And to all the drivers, yes you're getting screwed. There is always pressure not to pay you your layover, extra drop pays, driver loads/unloads, etc unless you complain. In fact we were told explicitly to do just that, so you got to speak up!

Advice to Senior Management

Promoting people that have never run a truck, such as strictly formerly customer service managers, to the corporate planner positions is just plain dumb. And maybe you already know this, but there are a lot of dumb and incompetent people working in your middle management positions.

Pros

Equipment is newer because of leasing.

Cons

Low pay(something goes wrong you get the blame pay drops to minimum) Very young middle management most of whom have never driven a truck full time so they have no idea what we deal with during our 14hrs nor do they care. Most terminals very small and not well maintained aka not cleaned, fuel pumps broken down, washer/dryer take your money but take hours to dry, etc. This company will make you burn your 14hrs in line to get into a terminal due to the fact that they want each person to gage every tires pressure immediently upon entry. In other words they micro manage you to death and then blame you for everything so they can drop your pay to the starting/lowest. Also anyone who calls in and complains that you did not move over to let them on the freeway will be added up till they once again can drop you to the lowest pay.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay the driver by the hour and provide something like a 2 week on 1 week off type schedule so we can have a life outside that truck!

Pros

They help you be successful. I like the way the show me my performance compared to my peers. If you want to be the best you have to measure and surpass the rest.

Cons

Need to feel more free to get home when and as long as I need to care for my family responsibilities. They do well but could be better.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep communication with drivers. Tell us your challenges and goals. we will help you get there.

Pros

Leaders are extremely disciplined. Recently taken big steps to improve growth and revenue. Commitment to customers and stakeholders.

Cons

Lack of transparency of planning to meet company goals. Poor expectations of time management. Employee reviews are done in poor evaluation. Mentality is living in past successes much of the time.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employees. There are ways to work just as hard by generating empathetic attitudes and providing comfort for the employee while building confidence for them.

Pros

Great experience if you work hard and learn to operate like a well run profitable business, learn as much as you can then go somewhere else to get paid.

Cons

The company makes money, you will not, but that is ok. Think of it as grad school.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep making the hard choices.