Heartland Express, Inc. - Coralville, Ia.?

Thats been my experience at all the OTR company's I have worked at. I can not count how many times I delivered a load in the A.M. sat a couple of hours then DH 3hrs somewhere else sat a few hours more getting loaded and had to drive another 400-500 miles to deliver on time. With the new hours of service I don't see how drivers can even see their log books clearly let alone write in them with the lack of driving flexibility. Theres miles out there that I don't even remember driving because I was probably to spaced out from lack of sleep or irregular sleep. It's even harder on the west coast were the speed limits are lower then in most places.

I will say however that I don't need a company to route me and can tell about how long a run will take and how I should take it without the company's help and if you run your hours and the load is late and they fire you for it. It is pretty easy to prove to another carrier that you put the work in by keeping your log books for 6 months like you should be anyway.

If your making $.50 a mile and taking home $700 either you have some garnishments or getting low miles. My last OTR job at May trucking paid me $.37 a mile and I made more then that take home.

 

I see they pay,has anybody drove for them?

 

Check the horror story forum, you'll find good and bad.

Kinghunter

 

I drove for them in the early mid 90's for a short while, midwest regional out of Columbus Oh.Less than 2000 miles per week. Lots of sitting all day to pick up a load going 250-300 miles. They told me no east coast, nothing further east than Dubois and Carlisle Pa. I was in Philadelphia or New Jersey weekly. I wasn't impressed by them, and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. If I was given a choice between them and JB I would seriously consider JB.

 

I worked for them for a year and a half. When I first started, it was great, home time and miles were there, then they dropped there avg. miles down to 2k (YOU SIGN A FORM SAYING YOUR AWARE OF THIS) then the miles hit bottom. I was getting around 1700 wk. Well I located a new job and told my dispatcher I was quitting after I got my safty bonus.....2 days later with just 2 weeks from my bonus they fired me! They couldn't even do it at the olive branch location so I could get a ride home, they screwed me in atlanta. Told me they would get me a bus ticket, just had to pay for it out of my last check! Just another big company without a HEART(land).

 

Heartland express will leave you stranded. They told me to clean out my truck 500 miles away from my home terminal where I received my orientation and picked up my truck. They were also unable to get me home for my wifes surgery with a weeks notice and I also broke a bone in my hand and had to work like that for three days before they would let me go home to see a doctor. I also had to threaten to quit to get home for christmas and I got stuck out for thanksgiving. This company does pay well that is true,but heartland does nothing for there drivers anything they do is for heartland.

 

That describes 95% of the companies out there....

 

I just left Heartland after a mere 6 months. I have to agree with everything that was just said! I had better than average pay checks and was looking like I could make 58k if I stuck it out.

Now here is what you missed of the bad things. this company doesn't deadhead east so if you are trying to get home and live 80 miles east of your last delivery most likely they will deadhead you 200 miles west to pick up some thing that goes 300 miles east for 2 days later. I fought this ridiculous practice threatening to quit 3 separate times twice getting home as late as 3 days. I only need home once a month so they missed 50% of the time for me.

They can't keep dispatchers working out of Carlisle for one reason or another. They expect you to make deliveries over your 14 hours even if you can't sleep at the customer. They dispatch you on loads were you have to hit a dock during your break.

They pay short miles and in some instances they even pay to the wrong city to offset the cost of tolls to certain shippers.

I went over my 70 because of one of those deals even with gps and knowing what the actual milage was I still got stuck because they had no address just the city and when I got to this shipper it was 3 towns further for 36 miles round trip unpaid and still 35 miles under payed for a grand total of 71 unpaid miles. I ran on average 2800 hub miles a week and they payed 2300. If I went home every week end the payed miles would have been closer to 1850 per week.

I called the terminal manager on that and was told maybe I don't know how to read a map! That was the last straw. Good pay is not the end all be all. Try and find a Heartland driver thats been there more than 1 year out of 2600 and see what percentage you get.

They do have the best mantained equipment. The cost is every 2 weeks you lose a days pay for a simple grease job and every time you enter a yard you lose 3 hours for a trailer inspection.

The most important thing for me is their fuel set up makes it imposibble to get a free shower every day. I was out of pocket $20-$30 a week in shower expenses alone.

If you want Cash on your comdata there is a 3 dollar fee that you can't get around. If some thing fails on the truck like a tire, you are married to it till you get to a terminal. I had to swing a tire to 3 seperate trailer racks before I got it dropped off.

I now work for Barr Nunn. I can see things are more driver friendly here but I'm not sure if they have the miles or can get me home yet.

 

BUMP-just making sure everyone see this thread!

 

I guess I thought part of this post was kinda funny - what did drivers EVER do without laptop computers, routing software, satellite radio, GPS, etc etc etc? Oh, that's right, get out a Rand McNally road atlas and route your own route!!