Heartland Express, Inc. - Coralville, Ia. - Truckers' Trucking Forum | Message Board

Justadriver · **^ Top** #1 01.02.2007

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!

Ledbetter · **^ Top** #2 01.02.2007

Hmmmm, good info.

I remember I talked to a manager in a yd 3 or so years ago for info. Only had to ask 1 question. I will only drive a Condo, do solos get Condo's? He said, "No, solos get the Flat-tops, Teams only get the Condo's."

I turned around and left.

harleydog · **^ Top** #3 01.13.2007

My school really talked up heartland. I am glad to see your post onn what they are really about. No heartland for me.

notarps4me · **^ Top** #4 01.13.2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by harleydog

My school really talked up heartland. I am glad to see your post onn what they are really about. No heartland for me.

I don't remember Heartland taking students. Seems like you had to have OTR exp. to get on with them.

MACK E-6 · **^ Top** #5 01.13.2007

Well, if the first poster is right, and I have no reason to think otherwise as of yet, then it's no wonder they have to take students. No experienced driver worth his salt will put up with that crap. I certainly wouldn't.

Burky · **^ Top** #6 01.13.2007

heartland has one of the worst reputations in the industry that I know of for leaving a driver sitting at a customer for hours waiting to be loaded and then wanting that driver to deliver the load after they are legally out of hours. They do pay well, but that money is not easily earned.

And this is not a company that I would ever be able to recommend to anyone. Just too many negatives to ever give them a thumbs up. Heartland has been described as the closest you can get to working in a factory and still be behind the wheel.

pro1driver · **^ Top** #7 01.13.2007

Quote:

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)

that's not really good pay,(

) i mean after all, at "up to 50¢ per mile, that's not too many miles.............a company can "offer" to pay you "up to" $1.00 per mile, but if the miles ain't there, id' rather work for say 40¢ per mile, and get the miles a Heartland driver isn't getting.......

i work as a yardman/supervisor, i work just under 9.5 - 10 hours per day, and my "gross pay" is just under $1,000.00 per week, and no road aggravation, etc,etc...........looks like i'm doing just fine over a Heartland driver, any day......

right about now, i'm thinking the original poster "justadriver" is really, "just a recruiter"..............

that can be "about" 1900 to miles per week..............who can survive on that out there on the road..........??

good-bye, Mr. Recruiter..........(at least i think you are...?) telling us the real truth.......

notarps4me · **^ Top** #8 01.13.2007

A lot of that may depend on the driver and where he is dispatched out of. When I was a OTR driver I parked at an airport near my home. There was and still is a HL driver that parks there. He is there every week end. I have talked to him seveal times about his company he said that they get him plenty of miles and that he has not had any problems with them. I knew a driver that left my last OTR co. He left to go with them. I seen him one day back in the yard and asked him what happened. He told me that a lot of perks he had he lost when he went with them. Like tolls and such, free showers from the drivers pay back card. I have never driven for heartland. I have heard a lot of negative about them and some good, but was shocked about the students. I never knew of them to be a training company. The ads in the paper here say no students.

easyrider · **^ Top** #9 01.14.2007

Whats the big deal routing yourself. I do it and I'm a rookie its not that hard.

MACK E-6 · **^ Top** #10 01.14.2007

Some people just don't know how to read a map, I guess...

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