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Originally Posted by Justadriver  FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE HIRING AT HEARTLAND EXPRESS FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS 1. Heartland pays higher than most other companies. When they say up to 50 cpm, they do mean it. 2. You will get a good paycheck, usually around $700.00 deposited, every week (dry van, company driver) NOW, THE BAD NEWS 1. They do not provide routing. 2. After a few months of driving, they will start to ask you to commit to the load over the phone without an opportunity to look at a map. If you ask them to send the info on the computer, they get angry. 3. If you respond to a dispatch by saying you cannot make the delivery on time, and do this a number of times, they will start to threaten your employment, and will eventually terminate you for “freight refusal.” Naturally, if you agree to the load and deliver it late, they will fire you for that too. A high percentage of the loads they dispatch were loads another carrier failed to cover, for whatever reason, thus this is how they can charge a higher rate, but the delivery time remains the same. So you will be dispatched on a load, for example, at 3:00 PM that should have been picked up at 10:00 AM, and they just expect you to drive it straight through. This is the normal dispatch. Driving straight through every day, is no life, no fun, not humane, but this is how they expect you to earn the $200 per week extra that the other companies are not paying. 4. You should know that Heartland claims it has a 60% turnover rate. 5. Heartland has a bad reputation, so they have to pay drivers $500 for every recruit they bring in, and have “driver recruitment goals“ begging drivers to bring in “at least one.” There are some greedy drivers that do this, even though they are not happy with the company themselves. 6. Fleet managers are low trained and inexperienced in the trucking industry. They do not know what the drivers are going through and they will NOT speak to you or recognize you as a person. 7. Try to find a ‘happy Heartland driver.’ Try to find one driver who has been with them a month or more who is happy with anything at Heartland. I doubt you will find one, or he is a liar. 8. They want you to fuel at their own facilities 80% of the time, but they only have about five terminals you will use in the country. Naturally, the loads they get for you do not take this into account, so you will have to stop and call the fuel department and explain why, and get a PO# for every outside fuel stop. If you pass a terminal, you are required to stop and fuel, but the FM’s trying to meet a $$ goal will send you a message demanding you pass it by to save time. 9. They have no concept of 14 hour day. They will run you 12 hours to delivery, then give you a known “long delay live load, or a long delay live unload from a yard and expect you to drive illegal after load or unload to get off the property and sleep on the street or exit ramp, or wherever you can, and that’s just one more day without a shower, and a good meal. 10. You will go without a shower for two to three days at a time, all the time, because they don‘t route you with any slack. Bring some hand towels and those “handy wipes” things because poor hygiene is also affecting your health. ADVICE If you decide, even after reading this, to drive for Heartland: 1. Get a laptop and routing software, such as MS Streets & Trips. A must have because you will have to route yourself. 2. Keep a backup plan for the day you have to bail out, or find yourself terminated unexpectedly. 3. Prepare yourself to be talked to like a dog, and make yourself like it as long as you can. 4. Use personality and try to cajole them into giving you better loads, but this isn’t going to work in the long term. I challenge you to show this to 10 Heartland drivers and ask them if anything above is not true. Then decide for yourself. As a former HL driver, I want to warn other drivers what they may be in for if they hire with this company. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! |
First let me say that I have never driven for Heartland and never expect to. When you read my second point you will understand why.
2 Things
#1 Just don't call them on the phone; there is a quelcom in the truck for a reason use it to YOUR advantage. You should only need to use the phone if it is more convent for you. Such as a breakdown or unexpected delay. For you new drivers out there this is an important point. I don't care what company you drive for. If it isn't in writing it DIDN'T happen. Make them send the load plan across the Quelcom so that there is a record. Back before there were on board computers it was your word against the displacers. As long as the dispatcher was making the company money the company would always take their word over yours. With on board computers you have a record.
The D.O.T. pulls those records when they do a company audit. By law the company has to show those records when requested. If you are prone to running off the books this can come back to bight you in the butt. Every time you set the air-breaks the Quelcom records the time, and location of your truck. If you are in an accident or your file is pulled by the D.O.T. in a company inspection, and your logbook doesn't match the Quelcom data your screwed. By law that data MUST be kept for 6 months, and made available to the D.O.T. You can get a logbook fine for something you did 4 or 5 months ago.
On the other side of things, if you make the dispatcher put EVERYTHING on the OBC you can prove to the company, D.O.T., and even a Court Of Law EXACTLY what you were told to do. If you are fired for refusing to haul a load that you cannot legally haul. You WILL be able to get unemployment while you look for another job. You have the right to subpoena the Quelcom records.
#2 I would never work for Heartland based on the way their recruiter talked to me the last time I talked to him. It seems he got pissed off because I had talked to him a year before, and he sent me an application. I didn’t send it back, for reasons that were frankly none of his business. He was down right nasty with me on the phone. I figured if they speak that way to someone who is looking to maybe come to work for them. I certainly didn't want to work there. BTW the job I was thinking about applying for was a regional position.
Just my 2 cents
Storm Crow 
05.06.2007
Armodin Storm Crow
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