FLS Transportation Reviews

This company nurtures and encourages, but to a limit. Leads are not generated, and no hands-on guidance nor direction is provided by immediate superiors. If you do not have a book of business or an idea of what market you want to target, you will not be able to succeed. Each division and section of the company has its strengths and its weaknesses, but from the top down, the weaknesses far outweigh the strengths. Having been a sales executive, branch management provided zero support, and absolutely no encouragement of any sort. The cut-throat approach to training does not allow a newcomer any hope of finding strengths in this already hard-to-approach industry. Work ethic is strong, but management capacity for time, the time of others, and the management of individuals and staff, is severely lacking, to say the least. Staff is poorly maintained, they are given limited tools to grow, and unless another member of staff is willing to sacrifice their own time (and ultimately money) to encourage and grow the newcomers, there really isn't any way for the individual to thrive. Their quoting system and booking system is also inherently flawed. The executives are told to focus only on building new leads and on-boarding new companies. This process is problematic, as the pricing for various lanes is commonly higher than the competition. It is very difficult to get good pricing without calling carriers directly, which was frowned upon. Lastly, the upper management structure is nicely assembled, however most are completely detached and unaware of daily operations, and consequently at time of termination have no idea what the individual may be actively working on. There is an ongoing trend of firings without warning, nor reason within this company and it is a deplorable way to operate. Ultimately, if management were better trained, and capable of accepting criticism from others, things would change for the better. The lack of training from superiors, and the lack of volition to improve as leaders, instead of bossy/tyranny is the ultimate downfall of this company. Management's inability to maintain an approachable attitude (one where profanity isn't sprinkled upon every other sentence) and lack of normal delegator skills are what make this company a very stressful and unpleasant place to work.

*Deceptive "bait and swtich" recruitment & employment tactics - Higher salaries between $60-85K are offered to lure in successful and qualified candidates, however from what I've seen, all candidates part ways on their own terms due to the following: *Terrible credit: Big name and reliable carriers alike have blacklisted FLS Transportation due to 45-60 day payment and / or failure to pay all together. This makes for a shotty carrier foundation at best, which in turn instantly takes FLS Transportation out of contention when it comes to winning or losing business to direct competition. With this in mind, how are you supposed to set yourself apart from competition when you can't even get the basics (credit) under control?? Check D&B Rating or Hoovers - both show "HIGH RISK CREDIT" *Poor management & leadership: Branch is managed by old friends who run the office (Chicago) as if it was their little clubhouse and not a respectable operation. There is no accountability or hustle on behalf of carrier sales team as or Managemen whom come in at 9AM, 10AM and some times 11AM at their own leisure. In an industry where the early bird gets the worm and every little bit of hustle counts to set yourself apart from your direct competition, a successful Customer Sales rep is doomed from day-1. Under these conditions, in the frequent absense of management, how can an individual be expected to succeed ? Carrier sales morale is non-existent and sense of urgency just isn't there. *High Turnover : Due to terrible credit and poor management, a Customer Sales rep will jump into this role and will fight an uphill / losing battle at which they will either part ways on their own terms or FLS will choose to part ways while hijacking each customer sales rep's book of business. Since this is a relationship driven business, many of the hijacked accounts end up dormit or spoon fed to a revolving door of new Customer Sales reps only to find out that FLS can't move their freight due a certain loyalty to a specific Customer Sales rep which parted ways with FLS. If one was able to generate a business opportunity with new, existing or spoon fed business, that opportunity will be shot down due to lack of a carrier network stemming back to terrible credit and a poorly managed Carrier Sales Team. *Bad Mouthing & Undercutting Fellow 3PL Competition - Management members of FLS- Chicago have been in the industry for a while, however they continueously bad mouth their previous employers due to parting ways on bad terms of having been "let go". From what I understand there was an ugly legal battle that went down after the a Management member breached some form of a non-compete agreement with his previous employer. People make mistakes, but those mistakes seem to persist to present day..... No lessons have been learned here. Inaccurate / Untrue claims: Several of my colleagues both past and present have received communication from FLS - Chicago and from recruiters who are outsourced to place "qualifeid" candidates into Customer Sales roles. Recruiters and FLS - Chicago claim that they are a financially stable company with upwards of $40MM in revenue..... If this was true, D&B and Hoovers wouldn't have listed them as "HIGH RISK" from financial perspective.... Furthermore, upon reviewing several of the Glassdoor survey's from employees before my time with FLS, I have come to the conclusion that the reviews are not only accurate, they are dead on! None of the problems have been fixed or even addressed for that matter - they continue to plague FLS to this day. TO SUM IT UP: FLS Transportation Services, Inc. is a dead end. There are alot of opportunities out there with innovative, charismatic and financially stable companies. Don't fall into this dead end trap.