Averitt Express, Inc. - Cookeville, Tn.?

Tar-Heel Native,

I got on with Averitt at the end of May this year. Since it looks like you are only looking for general information I will try and give you the overall good and bad as I saw it.

Orientation, Good. Nice hotel, paid $300 + mileage to Cookeville TN (if you drive). Breakfast at hotel is ok and they fed you lunch but dinner is on your own. 3 days of orientation filling out paperwork, taking test on information covered, and general get to know stuff.

Pay, Fair. If you are a student driver with no experience you get $400 a week in training for 5-6 weeks of training time. Afterwards you get in the low .30 cpm range. I think it was .33cpm. After three years you can top out at just over .40cpm but I have no idea where you go from there.

Benefits, Good. BCBS, Dental, Vision, 401K....all the good stuff. And better yet the insurance is affordable for family coverage. I had one company tell me they charge $126 a week for family coverage and that I was getting a good deal. Averitt is in the $25-$30 a week range for insurance cost on a family.

Hometime, Fair but get the truth first. There seems to be this idea that Averitt drivers are home every weekend. Well, some might be, and I know that some recruiters and publications try to say it but it is not true. According to Averitts own manual they try to get you home once a week for 24-48 hours. You are not guaranteed weekly hometime. You are not even guaranteed a 34 hour restart. While I did get home on the weekend it was midday Saturday and I barely got enough for a restart. If you think you are getting weekends home (meaning two nights sleeping in your own bed) you will be dissappointed.

Trucks and other equipment, Good. They have Volvo's and Peterbuilts and everyone I saw stayed in good shape. Most trailers were decent but you could see signs of wear and abuse. But they were ok overall and got the job done.

Company terminals, Fair. In orientation I heard so much about Averitt having the nicest terminals. Especially in Knoxville and Nashville. Well I never saw Nashville but I was not overly impressed with Knoxville. They had some nice touches but it was nothing spetacular like they try to say it in orientation. And not all terminals are as equiped as those two either.

Company communication, POOR! During my time with Averitt I saw some of the poorest communication I had ever seen. For example, we were sent a load to go 200 miles in 2 hours. Told dispatch no way we could make it. They told us no problem they would arrage for a late pick up and to start out. Well about 4 hours later we arrive at pick up to find that no arrangements were made by Averitt for a late pick up and that nothing would happen till Monday. To top it off Averitt sent a 2nd truck to pick up the same load! We were then left to sit for 6 hours with no response to repeated request for guidance. Finally, we were allowed to deadhead home....after going 200 miles opposite home, to get a load that dispatch was to arrange for late pick up that did not get done, and waiting 6 hours doing nothing, we drove 9 hours home to arrive mid day Saturday. Just barely enough time for restart before leaving again.

Alot of company requirements. You must wear their uniform. And you will pay for it through payroll deduction. No long hair, no facial hair, no tatoos showing, no other hats or clothing other than Averitt approved uniforms.

Future opportunities, ????. I really don't know. During my time there I was told that they move 8 people a week from their truck load division to local or dedicate runs. My math says that is just over 400 people in one year. Now they say they move 25% of their drivers from truck load to local or dedicated. I don't remember exactly how many drivers they have but I don't believe the math works out. If I recall they have 3,000 to 5,000 drivers so moving 400 a year will not work out to 25%. Also, I spoke to a 15 year veteran with Averitt that claims their internal hiring for local positions was only done because Averitt ran off a lot of experienced drivers by starving them for work and giving miles to less experienced/cheaper paid drivers. I don't know this personally but I did meet alot of experienced drivers who said they lacked miles and work or they were moved out of their dedicated run back into truckload.

One other thing. Averitt advertises sometimes as a regional position. At least that is what I applied for. But when I got there to orientation I found out that the SE regional encompassed all 28 stats that Averitt runs in. Not what I call a real regional run.

Hope this helps. If you have more questions let me know.

 

I will be starting with Averitt soon and would like to know if I made a good Choice or not ? I will starting as a regional Driver.

 

Anyone know anything good or bad about Averitt ? I want to hear what your expierence with them is or was, or if you've heard anything about them . Thanks.

 

dont ask that here...you will get more confused and not know what to think!

 

mascmo; I get out of bed confused, so it won't be anything new for me ! I'm just looking for some imput ( good or bad ) on Averitt .

 

haha...yeah same here! good luck

 

I have done some temp work with them and have enjoyed it. Like runs they can't cover and call me up and ask if i want to run them for a week or two. It's good money and i have had a chance to talk to a few of there drivers. They seem pretty happy.

 

One thing i did like was they way they take care of there trucks. I don't like how they "prefer" you get fuel at there terminals. Kills the points on fuel cards.