Pros
Good miles. With the right DM, you *will* run miles. I don’t think I ever averaged below 2500 miles in a week. - Diverse freight. Lots of freight going many *many* different places. - Thermoking Reefer units. They’re quiet and won’t bother you like a Carrier unit will - Open fuel card. You *can* fuel anywhere that accepts EFS. Although you may or may not get a talking to if you ignore fuel routing. - Lots of terminals. - Plenty of trailers. - Dedicated driver retention personnel. Paul in Indianapolis has a position devoted to sorting out driver issues and maintaining retention. - Free rand McNally GPS embedded into ELD - Smart Drive cameras. They will save your butt if something happens outside of your control.
Cons
- Poor fleet management. You can’t just get out of any truck and into another. They’re all assigned to these many different terminals and are almost completely restricted to drivers of the trucks home terminal. This can make locating an open truck a big problem for newcomers. - Poor maintenance. Knight trucks are poorly serviced and sometimes not serviced at all. - Stingy tire care. Bad tire? They don’t want to replace it unless it’s already almost gone or can get you to a terminal that may be hundreds of miles away. - Damaged trailers/trucks. A good half of Knights fleet has some sort of damage. By damage I mean large dents, openings, or hanging pieces. - Poor driver recruiting. Most of Knights drivers come in with 0 experience. They typically destroy equipment within just a few months of employment. You’ll be dealing with that constantly. - VERY poor facilities. Filthy showers. Broken laundry machines. Broken fuel pumps. Broken gates. Etc. - Poor truck security. A Volvo key can get you into every single international or Volvo in Knights fleet. Yes, the Volvo key even works on the internationals. Just wiggle it a little. - lack of trainers. While this is an industry wide problem, Knight makes no effort in recruiting experienced and credible drivers to supply training. - Sketchy practices. Forged registrations, lying to drivers about late deliveries, lying about pay, lying about future prospects. All rampant in Knight companies. - HORRIBLY dangerous Atlanta yard. It is located *literally* next door to a drug hub. You are advised to not leave the yard on foot or you may be killed. A driver had been shot there years ago. Gates are often left open. Gun shots are often heard on a nightly basis. - Filthy trucks and trailers. Knight does not have their equipment properly washed. While some terminals do have a truck wash, it will only spray hot water on the truck. - Trucks are not cleaned between drivers. So if the previous driver was a pig, you’re gonna be the one dealing with it. - Stingy on mattresses replacement. You will often have to argue to get a new mattress for your truck you just had to clean up. They often won’t even have any in stock, resulting in days of lay over. - Poor driver vetting for new trucks. Brand new trucks are often handed to teams. These teams are typically coming straight out of orientation and last less than 6 months. Brand new trucks will be almost completely destroyed (inside and out) by that time, making it nearly impossible to find a truck that’s in good shape. - Poor website. The website is often slow and non-functional. This can make it impossible to achieve your safety bonus (online course requirements) - slow and inconsistent fleet speeds. Some trucks can’t drive over 63. Some 68. It’s a gamble on what you will get. - Idle shutdown. Anything that isn’t a Volvo will shut off over 72 degrees. This can cause sleeping to be an issue in places with high humidity or in the desert when mornings heat up rapidly. - Late loads. Many of Knight Reefer loads are late right off the bat. - Understaffed night dispatch. 2 people work all of Night dispatch for reefer. Hold times extend as long as 2 hours. - Lack of driver “life essentials”. Most trucks lack an inverter, no trucks have an APU, and any truck with a refrigerator has probably been ruined or it’s broken.