walmart is the best driving job i've ever had

Just a quick update, I completed my pretrip/road test and physical yesterday. Everything went well except the driving portion of the road test. The safety man had a few problems with my driving style. Lol.. He passed me anyway. I guess I need to conform my driving style to Wal-Mart's policy.
I'm still not 100% sure if I'm going to take the job. The pay is about what I make now, actually probably a little less. The schedule is better 5 day work week vs 6 where I'm at now. The medical insurance isn't nearly as good as what I have now. I'm not bashing, I'm just comparing. The atmosphere was much better there and everyone was super friendly just like everyone else has stated. Living in a truck will take some getting use to.

I have been at my current employer for 14 years. (Union Ltl company) I'm very concerned about my current employer's long term viability. Its not YRC. I hope I'm not passing up a great opportunity. Just label me as undecided. ..

 

didn't like your driving style huh lol. well at least he cut you some slack and passed ya. im not sure if they will like my style either. I also run LTL home every night off on the weekends. been with my company 13 years. top seniority at my terminal and get 4 weeks vacation and an extra week of personal days and sick days. I was pretty torn about if I wanted to pursue this or not myself,be giving up a lot. but after talking to the other drivers there, im gonna take the chance. I figure no matter how bad the economy gets people are always gonna shop at walmart LOL.

 

I thought y'all were a little nutty to even consider giving up a ltl job for wallyworld in the first place but I'm not up to speed on these staying gone all week company's anyhow. It was just a short time ago I found out wallyword pays better than your average swift driver. You've got to factor in being gone. Your gone from home because the company requires it. You should be getting paid for everything you do.

 

Sounds like you have it pretty good where you are at. I don't have it like that even after 14 years. I'm a "Road Driver" which means a minimum of three lay overs a week. Only 1 day a week off. In my case it's Saturday. Sometimes held in the motel for 24 hours or longer. Yes I get paid for some of that layover time but not all of it.

For me its not all about the money. I made 79000 last year at my current job and most guys there made a lot more than that. Just think about it, if you work 6days a week and max out your hours, a guy will make a lot of money. You won't have much of a life. At walmart I can probably make close to the same amount in 5 days and have a little more home time.

As far as the road test goes, make sure you go slow as hell when making any turns. Apparently they dont want you to shift gears while turning and pulling out in traffic until you get straightened out.

 

ya its a pretty decent set up I have now im domiciled 200 miles from my terminal so only have to deal with them once a week. I was hired in as a driver manager when they opened the terminal in 2001 use to have 3 drivers under me and had my pick of the runs. but things got slow and now its just me down here everyone else works out of the terminal. use to get 60 to 70 hrs a week now just 40 hours and 1 line haul run a week. so you made quite a bit more than me last year just 60000 here. so walmart for me would be a pay raise.

 

you would be crazy to give up that sort of seniority. It would sort of lateral $ wise and sleeping in a truck. You tested the waters, now go back to the LTL gig. No hard feelings!

 

Before going to work for Walmart Transportation last August, I had been with UPS Freight for many years. I worked Monday through Friday, home every day, off every weekend and holiday. I was at the top of the seniority list too. But, when you dig deeper, you see how CSA has exposed some large deficiencies at these large LTL carriers. This applies to many OTR carriers as well, but that is not a surprise and I am focusing these comments on LTL carriers in general. Most of the negative part of working at a place like UPS Freight was the fraud that occurred below the surface.

The biggest CSA deficiencies at these LTL carriers today are Hours of Service Compliance and Vehicle Maintenance. Why would these 2 categories be a problem when after all, most of their drivers are home every day? Because it is a mutual benefit to the drivers and carrier. More work done via log falsification and less money spent fixing the trucks. Do the drivers at these companies know just how much amnesia the managers of these carriers get when an accident or serious violation occurs? Go have one and find out. You will be twisting in the wind.

On January 29, 2014, the EOBR mandate (Electronic On-Board Recorder) is expected to be published in the Federal Register. Once the rule is published, there will be a 60 day public comment period, which will end on April 1, 2014. A final rule could published by the end of 2014, with an effective enforcement date beginning 2 years later, which would be by the end of 2016 or early 2017. So, what does this mean? A more honest accounting of actual Hours of Service instead of the falsification version that exists today. Every time I have heard an LTL driver speak of how much money they make, log falsification is normally a part of the profile. While at UPS Freight, I was not just a driver. I was also doing auditing of drivers logs and conducting driver training, as well as a part of the safety committee. UPS Freight has multiple tracking devices in their equipment. Satellite based for actual tracking and cellular based tied to pick up and delivery. The drivers did not have access to this data, but in my position, I did. In general, line haul drivers were not falsifying their logs as bad as the drivers doing local P & D, but still falsifying to avoid 11 and 14 hour violations. The more I exposed log falsification, the more resistance I was receiving from upper management. The EOBR will make driver's HOS more transparent and much harder to falsify. In addition, Vehicle Maintenance will become more integrated into the EOBR to flag more violations, even though current inspections being conducted have already exposed how poor the condition of many LTL carriers equipment is currently.

Below are the current Hours of Service Compliance and Vehicle Maintenance CSA scores for 6 of the biggest LTL carriers on the road.

FedEx Freight: HOS: 17.2 VM: 45.7
Con-Way Freight: HOS: 20.6 VM: 19.5
UPS Ground Freight: HOS: 48.9 VM: 52.2
YRC: HOS: 38.3 VM: 69.4
Old Dominion: HOS: 42.9 VM: 41.8
ABF Freight: HOS: 24.2 VM: 49.6

Walmart Transportation: HOS: 0.4 VM: 4.7


The coming EOBR mandate will not impact us here at Walmart because we already have them.....they have been in place for a long time. For the LTL carriers (and OTR carriers) who base their bottom line on fraud and make-believe safety, your days are numbered. In the near future, your current business model will not fly. The carriers who take safety as serious as Walmart has done for many years will flourish. The pretenders will be a distant memory.


Mike (mruffin), coming here to Walmart Transportation is not just another job. It is a culture unlike any other. You have only seen a glimpse of here from the outside looking in. If you really want a career and not just a job, you are heading down the right path pursuing a position here. Once on the inside, you will see why thousands of people apply, yet only a small percentage are hired, and very few leave voluntarily. It really is different here. Do what works for you, whether it be here or elsewhere. The ankle-bitters here who like to brag how good their job is now, fine, go brag somewhere else and check back in a few years after the EOBR mandate is reality.

See, I did not join the Walmart team just to make a buck. I came here to be a part of a real culture committed to safety....that just happens to pay very well! I will put our safety record at Walmart Transportation up against any carrier in the USA any day because we are second to none. That is a fact with data collected by the FMCSA to back it up!

 

You nailed it Tom! I got a random DOT a couple months ago and they DID look me over, they found nothing of course, and said we're the easiest trucks to inspect.

 

Just keep in mind, there is a huge adjustment coming from LTL. Way different mindset.... this is where I came from. Be open minded & if you go for it, allow time for a learning curve; etc. After a while, it is good and like NYVET said, we generally have a good go of things with DOT, etc.

 

I'll admit wally drivers do get the pop bottle eye wear, freckled face, buck tooth award. Y'all keep us up to date on every new change that's ahead. " America needs change!"