(Video) - My honest review of Averitt as a driver

Good video. I've worked for Avrt for more than 15 years. My dad and my brother worked for them before me. It's a good company for me and many drivers stay with Avrt for a long time or until retirement. After enough years, you can even work part-time and keep all of your benefits, which are very good, but not free.

Avrt is best for what I call Boy Scout type of people. If you are a maverick or rebel determined to show everybody how you do things, don't bother with Avrt. They have rules and expectations, all reasonable and clear, and you had better expect to work their way. Following rules protects you from second-guessing and penalties. The company generally has a team of managers, drivers, mechanics, or whomever is involved to make those rules. I've seen them change rules because they didn't work or they hurt driver conditions.

The whole company has "slow trucks" (limited to 65-ish on level ground). Yes, I know you may have seen a Avrt truck going faster. Some of the legacy manual-shift trucks really roll going downhill, while many of the new automatics gain no speed going downhill. You WILL get a slow truck and it will be checked by Qualcom (not Quelcom), or mechanics frequently for how fast it is going. On rare occasions you might have to remind a customer or supervisor your truck is limited on speed and there is no hidden button to make it go faster. Every company I've worked for has had similar limited speed. You make miles by keeping the driver side door closed. Fast trucks simply race from stop to stop and rationalize their downtime by thinking the higher top speed makes up for stopping. It doesn't. Fast trucks don't have dedicated lanes. They go fast until other cars and other trucks use the road. Driving a slow truck means you learn to pass the slow truck in front of you when your truck doesn't slow down on a hill as much, or you get more of a gravity-assist going down hill.

The company is practically broken into multiple segments, think of little islands, all wearing the same uniform but operating in different ways at different pay. It's a big company but the OTR drivers are not getting paid what and how "dedicated" drivers are paid. Heck, even "dedicated" drivers are paid and scheduled according to their particular account, not the same as other Supply Chain Solutions (dedicated accounts). The company likes to use the most current biz-speak. They have Service Centers, not terminals. Just because you know Bob from Chattanooga doesn't mean you have any idea how Fred from BMW is doing. Even the OTR drivers (truckload) are affected as much by their Service Center and region as anything else. Some Service Centers have lower average miles for OTR than others. The company benefits are nearly identical across the company. With ObamaCare affecting large companies after end of 2015, we haven't seen as much change in benefits as smaller companies, but it's not 2016 yet, so who knows. Avrt has generally self-financed for medical benefits and hired Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and now Cigna, to manage the system. But you have choices of the level of Medical/Dental/Vision coverages plus extra benefits like Flexible Spending Accounts, additional life insurance, etc. Retirement is 401k. You and company pay for the benefits you choose. I'm single so I don't study benefits and costs like everyone else. I think company contributes 25% to benefits plus % of company profit to Profit-Sharing/401k

The company now hires newly-minted CDL holders, although how new or how inexperienced can vary from company island to company island. The company runs a telephone Job Hotline that is updated 1-2 times per week indicating job openings for internal transfer. My biggest complaint about the company is they don't race toward the ideal goal I have in mind as fast as I would like. I realize no company, not even if I had a magic wand, would reach that goal. I know I wouldn't run the company as well as it runs now if I were the emperor in charge. I just think any goal short of perfect is not good enough and I never reach my goal for myself, so I try to do better the next time.

Company physical exams for pre-hire and CDL are 2 different things. The pre-hire is somewhat more involved, lift some nominal weight from the floor, jog in place for a brief time, urinalysis (not hair follicle). CDL medical exam is at one of their hand-picked clinics at company expense. That's little more than standard form, and standard exam. There are random drug screens (urinalysis). Last year they started with yearly "Health Screenings" which are quick weigh-ins, BMI calc, blood pressure check, and blood draw, using a nurse or you can go to another doctor/clinic and have them fill out company form. These are optional, but skipping them can boost your yearly medical insurance premium $500. Get the screening and work on any problems before your CDL medical is renewed.

I know most about my one little company island in the dedicated division, not so much about Shuttle (terminal-to-terminal $$$), Truckload (OTR), Flatbed, etc. When picking a trucking company the fit between driver and company is more important than anything else. The most expensive handmade shoes are terrible if they don't fit you. It doesn't matter if they cost 10 times more than "the average shoe" if they don't fit you, nothing else matters.
YOU WILL NOT CHANGE THE COMPANY TO FIT YOU.