I have worked there for 2 years now they are a good company and reward hard work.

Pros.

Family owned
They will keep most of the promises made.
They say you will be home 2 days a week and that is true home friday night/ saturday morning and out sunday night monday morning.
90% Back hauls they only pay per their PC Miler in the office
Local oppertunities avalible
Good Health Care Plan ( continued mine even though I am in Iraq) so that my family will be covered.

Cons

Pay is IMO abnormally low. I don't know if they have changed the pay rates in the last 8 months, but before I left a company driver with 1 yr or less experince would make at most .32 cents per mile.

The Local dispatchers will hound the local drivers to take paper loads on their days off because there are more loads than there are drivers.


Indifferent.

their website says that their fleet is 98 and newer, can't comment on that as when I left they had just started getting the newer trucks. when I left I was in a 00 volvo. I did see though when I was home on R and R that they did have alot of new trucks on the road and had 2 new volvo day cabs in the lot waiting to get into the body shop for paint.

Mechanics is another indifferent situation. for the most part they will work on your truck the minute that they get the write up about it. but they are severly over worked under paid and did I mention over worked.... I started out in the shop with those guys and feel their pain. I always make sure to keep some extra ice in a cooler with some gatoraides on the really hot days for those guys. less problems getting my truck fixed if you take care of the guys fixing your truck and show them that your willing to turn a wrench or two to help em get you on the road.

I was looking at the school they run and I was wondering about a few things.
1. what was a typical week like for you after you were with them for a few months(where did you go, what kind of loads,did you have to wait at companies alot, or maybe a bad week
2.i hear they don't have qualcomm system, was it a big hassle to check in ( were you on hold for long and have to wait around for calls back)
3.do they have heaters in the cabs for winter and are you able to have the A/C on sleeping
4. Home time, I read your home fri night-sun night . Is this a 34 hour reset or is it typically closer to a full 48.

any info would be great Thanks

I did go through their school, you will sign a year contract with them, if you choose to go that route. the weekends off is closer to 48, but its simply for a reset for your logs. before I left the regional runs typically went something like this for an example: you would pick up your load in one of 3 places, the terminal yard, the werehouse, or what used to be the IP Paper mill( they just changed ownership while I have been gone and I can't for the life of me remember what it is) and you will drive to where ever usually a day or two, get unloaded and go to your back haul, then back to the yard to drop your trailer. you then get your next load and in 10-12 hours are back on the road with your next load. this will keep up from sunday night till friday night for the most part. that is how it is the regional drivers have steady loads, the local guys espically the bark guys like me are the ones that are always scraping for loads and we too will take the odd paper load for a bit of extra cash.

No they don't have a qualcomm system, it isn't hard to check in though, someone will always answer the phone m-f, and sat till noon then after that they have a 24 hr 1 800 number that goes through to who ever is running dispatch that week after hours, me since the bosses son was my supervisor I would call him direct on his cell. now what they won't tell you is that they won't reimburse your cell phone bill but at the end of the year if you keep your bills and figure out what percentage is used for work it is a tax write off. as for the waiting around for call backs I never had to wait long. at most usually 5 minutes. and that was because there was something wrong and they had to pull the head mechanic in from out in the yard to take the call.

as for the cabs yes they are heated/cooled, though they don't work very well sometimes. they pretty much leave you to run the truck. another thing that they won't tell you is that they do have guys that will wash your truck for you, you are responsible for keeping the inside clean, if the mechanics have to clean inside your truck to work on it or the boss sees that its really messy and has the truck washers do it, it is 20 dollars out of your pocket and it only takes 30 minutes to do it TRUST ME I used to do it!!!!

thank you for the reply. It helps to hear from someone who's been through the experience for info they don't mention.

there was one more thought, in referance to the qualcomm question as well. most of the trucks are fitted with a gps transiver so that if there is a load that they need to be picked up they know whos in the area already and they look to see whos closest, so that they can call em and ask them to pick up the load. but it will also show if your screwing around and not working.

thanks again. I like the idea of them being from the local area.
well anyway we'll see what happens