Sleep Anea mostly a scam - Reviews

  • Overall
  • Home Time
  • Equipment and Maintenance
  • Dispatchers and Managers
Pros
770 a week
Cons
Rejected two year medical card, I think they lied about whatever it took to hook me up to a cpap machine everyone I talked to was on one.

We live in a very censored country so I have to keep my review very delicate. My review summed up it was good overall I considered the overreaching invasive unnecessary policies specifically sleep apnea in general made me leave I'll never come back since it's pretty average. Typical day at work I'd basically wake up get a load assignment do a pre trip inspection pick up the load get to the receiver then deliver the load set work time for the next day do a post trip then sleep. What I learned mixed with some workplace culture. The training overall was great. I didn't really have any problem aside from very minor things anyone experienced can fix pretty easily. Setting my own times to run was refreshing. I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know it's pretty basic what I went through. Wake up get a load at the time you set. Sometimes dispatch would try to adjust the times by shaving off a couple of hours which was really annoying I found the best remedy would be just ignore their times and drive when I would want to drive. I can't help it there's over burdening ELDs that force me to shut down when I'm wide awake and as a result I can't sleep so sometimes I start later than 10 hours I have to sleep. Management I felt like their objective was to let me know how lucky I am just to have a job and clean water. That was pretty much it. They were nice overall. Workplace culture There was a combination of people they were really nice humble people in general. I liked being able to know I could walk up to a fellow driver and he/she would help me and I them. The hardest part of the job. My 2 year medical card was rejected by the company Physician (Anyone with a CDL knows what that means that's a huge deal). The in house Physicians basically to my understanding told me if I wanted to keep my CDL/Job I would comply and take the in house sleep study and accept the cpap machine all provided in house even though I said I'm not tired during the day I don't snore etc non of that mattered. I should've been disqualified for a sleep study test just from that, but apparently only BMI and neck size matters. BMI was created over 100 years ago shouldn't be used to diagnosis anything same with neck size, but there I was being diagnosed with potentially sleep apnea and they were discussing surgery BEFORE I even tested it was a surreal experience. I was told I have a narrow airway by the company Physician but my outside Doctor later said I don't have a narrow airway. It's easy to predict my experiences based on just that. After my 2 year medical card was rejected down to I think 3 months (which is just infuriating) and basically jeopardized my CDL at that point, so I later on had to leave I'm not going to tolerate forced sleep apnea cpap machines which I don't need or have I tested negative with an outside company which apparently the Physician refused to accept its commonly known why but I can't post anything detailed because again it will be censored and my comment not allowed. All of that could’ve been prevented by just accepting my valid 2 year medical card from my Doctor but that was the hardest part to me, so to recap not accepting my valid 2 year medical card and exposing me to additional testing I don't need or want for something I don't have was the hardest part and was the reason why I left later on. The most enjoyable part of the job I would say would be the pay. Since I was able to set my times to drive I brought stability to my check even though dispatch would try to alter my times etc I knew when I could make money and when I wouldn't be able to. The freedom to basically ignore everyone else turn my phone off set my times to run most efficiently proved in my steady weekly checks. I knew that when I woke up I would have my assignment ready to roll. Dispatch would get annoyed but do I really want to play who's the boss and explain to them rush hour traffic means more accidents which means less utilization on my clock everyday or simply turn off my phone and get my assignment I chose the latter. The less I was in contact with dispatch the more I could accomplish. I would've done even better if I could've picked my assignments but the most enjoyable overall was pay and the stability I brought by utilizing my heavily regulated clock efficiently.

Currently Employed at Company: No
  • Overall
  • Home Time
  • Equipment and Maintenance
  • Dispatchers and Managers
Pros
Get to see the country, terminals are nice especially LA (I almost want to go back just because of that terminal) you get experience I guess
Cons
pay can be $20 a week even during guaranteed pay time of $500/week, $6k contract, forced teams is like torture.

Half of the equipment is decent. I was supposed to get a brand new truck but then I ended up forced teams in a 3+ year old truck 400k+ miles. Me and my forced partner used to joke about the truck being a secret unlock-able vehicle on like GTA. The truck was solid actually. I had less problems with that old cascadia truck than I did with brand new trucks *coughs international* My biggest check pretty much the entire three months I was there was like $500 that's team driving because of the supposed guaranteed pay period. They always tried to sell teams as paying more when in reality it didn't. I knew it immediately they'd say something like 34 cpm split is more than 34 cpm as a solo I'd be like no wait that's less, but everyone else seemed to follow along and I think they believed them. I mean I didn't have a choice the recruiter I had he told me there was a pool at the facility I trained at (there was but it was filled in with cement) there was a shuttle bus (I never seen it one time we actually huddled together to share ramen noodles during training and I guess there was even some guy that died of a heart attack died on the stairs at the hotel I stayed at) my recruiter said I could go solo after training, I'd make $900 a week (depending on me personally how I ran) pretty much everything the recruiter told me wasn't true, my short lived three months experience left me with a lifetime of stories. I did see pretty much the entire country in like a month that was the only neat thing but I was away from family. After training which was very rushed it was hard to get actually into a truck to train and if you didn't do precisely as the trainer said they'd yell at you to get out of the truck as if it was bootcamp (the older experienced guys anyway) but trainees are REQUIRED to sign a 1 year contract or pay for training. They'll take anyone but they make money regardless. When I was in FORCED teams AFTER training it is HORRIBLE sharing a tiny space with some random stranger. I had two partners the first one didn't even have a CDL lmfao Idk how he somehow made it into Phase 1 of training without a CDL I felt nauseous when I found out at the end because he was driving on mountains where the cliff was very steep and he was going very fast which was terrifying to try and, "sleep" through that. The very last day oh he said he didn't even have a CDL which means he skipped training with a permit. I had my CDL during phase 1 supposed to be a requirement for Phase 1. I think I drove maybe 3000-3500 miles a week I'm not sure but my pay never hit over $500 I remember driving all those miles but I also remember when my two different driving partners were driving they would listen to the radio full blast which is hard ot sleep when someone's jamming to Michale Jackson on 24 on the stero while you sleep. At first I was courteous and I didn't do the same back but the last week I did I listened to Michael Jackson at 24 volume myself and I could see finally my driving partner learned maybe it's not good to jam to music while someone is trying to sleep. It was pretty crazy pay was low equipment was hit or miss loads were sometimes impossible to back into which if it came to that I had to do the backing. I was so sleep deprived that I knew if I wanted to get sleep I had to get everything done as fast as possible so I would do the hard backing for my partner, but we were both Phase 2. When I finally had enough and was threatening to quit the DM held the contract over my head threatening to sue. As if I cared lol I told him I get my own truck or I walk. I never agreed to train or to do forced teams. So I left.

Currently Employed at Company: No