Halvor Lines
(800) 579-2114
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Salary
Halvor Lines offers its drivers the following benefits:
- Flexible home time that fits the driver's lifestyle
- Assigned, late-model tractors
- Industry-leading pay, including longevity and experience incentives
- Paid vacation based on average annual earnings
- 401K retirement program with company match
- Passenger and pet program
- Additional compensation, including stop, downtime and layover pay
- Company-paid IdleAir
- Several drop and hook locations
- Onsite workout facility and health and wellness programs, including fitness and nutrition coach
- Tractors equipped with latest technology with an emphasis on safety and driver comfort
- Installing EpicVue Satellite TV with DVR in Company cab
- Truck driving Owner/Operator opportunities and Lease/Purchase program
- Tuition reimbursement available for recent driving school graduates
- Health insurance
- Dental
- Group accident insurance
- Life/AD&D
- Supplemental benefits
Reviews Review this Company
- Pros
- Clean, well maintained equipment usually 5 years old at the most. Company has increased number of terminals in recent years.
- Cons
- Pay is low compared to similar companies. Mileage bonuses don't allow for much time off. Dispatch is disorganized and sloppy.
If you need to start your driving career somewhere, they are not bad in that respect. Their micromanaging will keep a new driver out of trouble, but will drive anyone with experience insane. It is just average compared to most OTR companies. The pay has improved recently but is still low compared to similar companies. It used to be terrible until about 4 years ago. Dispatch is disorganized. They are also vindictive and play favorites. Miles were never called consistent for me and I went above and beyond to make myself available. Equipment is slow and far too underpowered, but is well maintained overall. Bonus program is a gimmick, and merely brings your pay close to every other average larger OTR company. Base pay is extremely low. When you actually do run big miles.and make them and yourself money, they act like taking more than 2 days off after busting it for 2 weeks is some sort of blasphemy. The company is focused on maintaining it's false flag "glamorous image", while treating maybe 20% of drivers with decency and respect, and shafting the rest of the fleet. They try to push the whole "family image", but in the end they are just another trucking outfit, they will use you and lose you as they see fit. It is not the worst place in the world to work, but there are far better choices.
- Pros
- Cons
Family owned and runned business. Trucks no older than 2014, most are 2017 or newer. Trailers are being replaced with new trailers wbile they remove old ones out of service in waves. Trucks come with fridges and sat tv eith nfl package and dvr's. Pay, as of April 2018, has increased a lot. A first year driver can see a payraise at the end of their first six months. As far as miles, i avg about 2700 per week. They do ask you for home time dates every other week and work to get you home. If you live near a terminal that helps a lot. Main terminal is in superior wi with additional terminals in inver grove hts mn, soutj bend in and soon a fourth terminal (probably oct) in rosemont mn. Most of the traffic is oh, pa, ny, nj, md, in, ky, sc, ga, ms, ark, tx, ks, mn, il and mo. Some loads to sd, ks, co. Trucks underpowered because they are governed at 65 and geared really low. Company makes you pay a share for insurance. First year drivers not afraid to work hard can make 42k plus bonuses to somewhere arround 45k in their first year.. uts a good company to start out with to learn the business. There are still a lot of old timers driving at halvor, some very fruendly and willing to talk and answer q's.
- Pros
- Get equipment lots of effort into keeping everything clean and shiny dot likes that
- Cons
- Catching #### for leaving your truck idling in the winter time when they claimed the bunk heater would work all night and consistently waking up at 2 in the morning spitting icicles. And yes I had the batteries replaced and still had the same issues.
It is a good company to start out with if you get the right dispatcher. However if you're like me and get stuck with a certain dispatcher that they won't get rid of for some on God for seen reason you can expect to be sitting at shippers for 2 to 3 hours everyday and get stuck in Chicagoland doing the big triangle back to Minneapolis and then back up to Duluth only to get sent back out again because you haven't had any miles. But that was a lot of being stuck with the wrong dispatchers overall I think it could be a good company they just need to do some house cleaning maybe they will maybe they won't just try to keep your head above water and if they pull garbage like that don't stick around as long as I did.
- Pros
- Very well-run company, nice people, great equipment.
- Cons
- Pay is on the low side (I think).
Good, well-run company. They keep you busy, and have a lot of big, dependable shipping customers who will send you all over the eastern U.S. (usually not including congested urban areas. . . but sometimes). I started with them in November 2016 as a new driver out of driver school. Everything has been great. Orientation was well-organized and helpful; they put me up at a really nice resort hotel for the week. The driver-services staff I met were super nice and helpful. Training was fine; normally this is four weeks with an experienced driver, who teaches you some of the ropes. The equipment is phenomenal; after just a month or two they put me into a brand new Volvo, where I took the plastic wrap off the seats. Maintenance department is top-notch. They have good terminals in Superior, WI and in the Minneapolis area. There's another in South Bend, IN that I haven't seen. My driver manager and the dispatching department are extremely skillful. I almost always have the next load assigned to me before I finish the last one. Almost all communication is electronically, through the Qualcomm system or email, which I love. My only complaint is with the pay. My recruiter dangled $.41 per mile in front of me as if that were the normal pay rate. It turns out that $.41 is the max that you can earn if everything goes right. Your base is $.32. To get to $.41 you would have to work your ass off (six days a week, 14 hours a day, or consistently get the juicy west-coast runs), have absolutely no incidents involving damage to equipment or other remediation, have no violations, and buy fuel only when and where they tell you to. The bottom line is that I'll make about $40K this year instead of $55. I'm so new to this industry that I don't know if that is good, average or bad. . . but I was sort of planning on the higher number.
Salary Surveys Take a Salary Survey
- Pay
- $52,000 per Year
- Position
- Company Driver
- Trailer Type
- Dry Van/Reefer
- Years of CDL Experience
- 5+ Years
- Location
- Superior, WI
- Pay
- $42,000 per Year
- Position
- Company Driver
- Trailer Type
- Van
- Years of CDL Experience
- 1 Year
- Location
- Pay
- $35,000 per Year
- Position
- Company Driver
- Trailer Type
- Van
- Years of CDL Experience
- 1 Year
- Location
- Duluth Minnesota.
- Pay
- $40,000 per Year
- Position
- Company Driver
- Trailer Type
- Dry Van
- Years of CDL Experience
- 6-11 Months
- Location
- Superior, WI
Discussion
Halvor lines info please
As a student they are good to start out with, much better than any of the bigger box mega carriers. I am assuming you will be with one of the trainers for at least a few weeks?
Hometime could be sketchy for you at times...when they say they run east they usually mean OH, PA, NJ, NY, MD..and remember unless its a major break down they want all truck services covered in Superior.
Pay is a little low in my opinion even for a student, If you get good miles and don't destroy things you will get whatever their safety bonus has turned into today, was an additional .04 per mile when I was there. Rand McNally short miles and electronic logs of course.
Most equipment I remember being under 4 years old for trucks and under 500000 miles, trailers probably 5 or 6 years old max. Trucks are underpowered but as a whole pretty reliable. They used to be strictly Kenworths with a few freigtliners, now i see a little bit of everything.
What I did not like was all the politics and cheerleading BS that goes on there. They seem to be more concentrated on their community involvement/company image/"get the fat truck driver back into shape program" versus actually getting the majority of their drivers big miles and making them big money.
They want everyone to think they are still an elite fleet, in my opinion they are just so-so overall. If you choose them get your year or two in and move on. If you like it there, Better you than me.
I left their at a bad time for the trucking industry, the housing crash 2008 or so, when a lot of trucking outfits bit the dust. So maybe they have changed since then, but as an experienced driver i would probably not one to come back unless i had to.
Halvor lines info please
If they have steady freight heading to your area home time every 7 to 10 days should be no issue.
The issue most of us had was with reloading on the east coast, the loads from there going to he midwest dont pay good...and like most companies they depend a lot on brokers...so thats where we ended up laying over a lot and waiting.
If you deliver in NC and they cant find freight that day they could just send you home, which could work to your advantage. Keep in mind they wont pay you to drive home, only the miles between your last delivery and next reload.
When I worked there they were not nearly as strict as some companies were with out of route miles to get you home. That may have changed but I am just telling you the way I remember it.
Halvor lines info please
All I can tell you is my experiences from over 8 years ago, so things may have changed, hopefully for the better. There have got to be at least a few of their drivers on here who can fill you in.
Outbound loads from Superior, if lots of loads are available you are given a ** cough, cough** ... "choice" of outbound loads.
Your reload is whatever they can find you, usually heading back toward Chicago, Minneapolis/Saint Paul, or Duluth in as direct of a way as possible. Sometimes you may have to reload out east, deliver in Chicagoland, reload in Chicagoland, then deliver up in their neck of the woods.
As I said, its been over eight years. The majority of their freight at that time went to the states I already mentioned.
A good chunk also went to Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia too...but dont plan on going there every week.
The longer runs like Laredo, Florida, California, Pacific NW they liked to save for the teams and the brown nosers. Thats not to say you will never get to go there...just telling it like I remember it.
BTW I only did vans and reefers when HL still had reefers, never flats. About the time I left a lot of the flatbed guys were fighting over van loads because freight was so slow...
No you would not absolutely have to go directly back and forth to NC...but keep in mind that if you are sitting in Superior and want to be home in 3 days, common sense tells you not to take a load going to Texas or Florida.
Halvor Lines-Good/Bad?
They would be a decent fit for a rookie in my opinion, and far better than the huge mega carriers. You will have to go out with one of their trainers for a few weeks or more if you are totally new to trucking.
Electronic logs will keep the DOT out of your business for the most part. they run fairly safe equipment, and have their reputation built on that.
Be flexible (shouldn't need saying in this industry), be willing to run east and Canada as 80% of their freight goes there with vans, reefers, or flats. There is no forced NYC or Quebec loads (at least in 2008 there wasn't), If I remember right nothing was totally forced. But don't plan on a gravy run to California every week, remember you are there to work and make the company and yourself money.
Stay away from the whiners, complainers, terminal rats and truck stop lawyers they have working there and you will be fine. Keep the left door shut on focus on doing your job.
Sometimes backhauls/reloads/broker freight can be spotty so like I said be flexible. If you live close to Duluth they have a lot of short haul stuff too (Milwaukee, Des Moines, Chicago) so you can take time off here and there if the big mile loads get slow.
If you live close to the twin cities you have many more options available.
Halvor Lines-Good/Bad?
They're a good company to drive for. They get u home on a weekly basis and u can make decent money. Just don't listen to all the negativity from other drivers. Make ur own opinion on the company. Take the loads dispatch offers,buy their fuel for their Trk where they say to buy it and things will go good. Good luck to ya!