Nussbaum Transportation in Normal, IL

Nussbaum has been a great company to me they respect you as a driver and they tell u the way it is they shoot it straight. Nice and well maintained equipment home weekends ( and they mean it) always have extra freight if u wish to work the weekend and have the hours to do so great pay what I like is I'm guaranteed 800 dollars a week which is real nice on the shorts weeks. I've been here 4 months now and I'm very pleased with them. Josh is recruiter and is a very nice person and will do anything to help a guy out. Every driver I talk to here is about like me they are pleased with nussbaum they are not perfect by no means but no company is but they do care for you as an individual and respect you family and the time u get with them

 

I just signed on with NB as a company driver. I feel very fortunate and blessed to be offered the opportunity to work here since I really think their deal is #### near unbeatable, especially for us 'proven' rookies with about a year of experience. Everyone I've talked to at Nussbaum has been super nice which common sense tells me to question but in this case it seems very genuine. Its the first time I ever talked on the phone for hours with any company recruiter (trucking or otherwise) not because I had to in order to get hired but because I really enjoyed the conversation and Josh made me feel very welcome. For my part, I already feel that this is the right decision and one I will stick with for the rest of my career...

-Pay: sliding scale averaging .45 cpm before .05 cpm potential bonus, GUARANTEED $800/wk. even if you run into delays and problems as long as its not your fault (I know of no such guarantee elsewhere in the industry). PTO $160/day
-Hometime: Home 45 weekends/yr. if you want to be, guarantee still applies
-Benefits: Instant 4% 401K match from date of hire. Good insurance (no really, I was a bit shocked). Vacation time is the standard week/year arrangement.
-Technology: All the latest technology including APU's and actual refrigerators standard on their trucks. Newest Qualcomm tech. E-Logs (I've only used E-logs and personally I like them). Spider-wire tech instead of chains (much easier to use). Trailer tails and side skirts for better mpg.
-Trans: Fully automatic fleet. I'm used to a manual trans now but I'm not complaining.
-Attitude: Safety focused. They don't run illegal. They do believe in micromanagement through PeopleSoft (meh, a small price to pay) but that also makes communication much better.
-Dispatch: Mostly comprised of ex-drivers... good deal

They expanded their hiring area a bit from what I was told. I live north of I-80 and they like where I live. New hiring area includes most of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and some of Nebraska. Their HQ is in Normal, IL and they have about 300 trucks total (they are relatively small and therefore very selective about who they hire, you need one year OTR exp. though I have just a little less and can't have any DOT REPORTABLE accidents or violations in at least 3 years)... hope that helps. I might be able to give some additional feedback once I'm on-board for some time but I've heard nothing negative AT ALL from anyone about the company so I'm expecting the smile to stay on my face

 

Scoots, thanks for the info. Please keep updating us.

 

Just an update... Everything is as it was promised. I really like it here and they just increased the minimum to $925/week. They obviously expect their money's worth so expect to run hard and unload when asked to do so (usually tires or windows). Unloading pays very well. Typically I'm home one or two days each week... long enough for a 34 then back to it... 45 hours seems average. I'm averaging about 2,500 miles in 5 days and factoring in load times that leaves very little downtime which I like cause if I'm out here I'd rather be getting paid. Pay seems to be in the $1200/wk range unless something happens like a breakdown, layover, etc. but even then you are protected by the minimum guarantee. These guys really do care about the driver- they keep you moving and get you home. In the interest of a balanced review the only things I don't like are running super singles and no smoking at the terminal (its OK to smoke in the trucks but frowned upon). l can't think of anything else to complain about and smoking is bad for me anyways. Great people. Great trucks. Great treatment. Great pay. Health conscious. Safety conscious. I would revise my previous post and say not only am I fortunate to be with this company, I had no idea of just how awesome this company is. Just an example of what I mean by great treatment... During orientation I stayed at a four star hotel and got a king-sized bed, refrigerator, cable w/ all movie channels, mini bar (I don't drink but yeah it was that nice) and stove in my room. I didn't share a room with anyone (even though there were two of us) and chilled out in the hot tub most of the day. When I got to orientation the first question they asked is if I was happy with my accommodations. I have yet to be treated with anything less than absolute respect by dispatch. Overall, I give this company an 11 out of 10... they are one of the few left in this industry doing the right thing and taking the right thing to the next level. They treat me better than I'd treat myself.

 

I've been here about a year and a half now, and am still happy with my decision to stay here. If you want a "better" job, you're going to have to take the risk of running illegal, or take the risk of signing on with a private carrier that might outsource your job when they need to correct a budget. At Nussbaum, everyone is willing to answer your questions. Phone calls get answered in less than 10 minutes(unless it's nights or weekends). Bonuses have a breakdown that explains EXACTLY why you got what you got. There's really nothing that happens in the "Back room" here. The 6x2 Freightliners we run may not have that warm and fuzzy feeling of running 10x8, but I have yet to get stuck from it. It's part of the reason my 2015 is running 9mpg and still being broken in.

 

Where do you park the truck on home time being you live in the Chicago area? Also what do you mean by 6x2 and 10x8?

 

Running Super Single tires. You only have 6 instead of 10.

 

I am not living in Chicago at the moment, so I have no idea where our drivers up there park. We run super singles, with a single drive axle and a tag on our tractors(6x2 6 wheels with 2 getting power). Most people run duals and tandem drives(10x8 ). You can dump the tag and fully lock up the driven diff if you get stuck on any of our tractors running 6x2. A lot of people complain about it, but it's a good chunk of why we're getting the fuel mileage we do.

 

How fast do you guys run to get your bonus

 

Would also like to hear more about the company. Very interested.