SPD (Smokey Point Dist.)

I was hauling into Miami and they tried to get me to get my twic in florida, and I had an Alaska license.
I waited and got it in Alaska, and the only time I ever showed it to anybody was only once and because I insisted they look at it, I paid for it. I let it expire and have no plans to ever get another one.

 

I'll chime in, yes I'm back at SPD, was there a little over 5 years the first time, left for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with the company and after saying no for a couple years I came back. I was back on the road for exactly a year to the day and now I'm driving a desk and running the Specialized/Super-load/Wings program.

I can't speak to the salary program, the team I was on and now supervise is paid way differently than the rest of the fleet. Same with home time etc. Due to the nature of what I hauled it was difficult and unpredictable to schedule home time however I knew that when I signed up. For OTR drivers however the company will go out of its way to accommodate requests for time off provided you don't ask to go home 2 days after you come off home time or ask to be home day after tomorrow and your headed the opposite direction 1000 miles away.

As @stwik has said, if you haul what they give you, go where they ask you and don't pull out the diva card, it's a good company with good equipment. If you have an issue, pick up the phone and keep going up the chain all the way to the top if you need to. Don't become another Facebook rambo who airs out all your grievances on social media then says nothing when asked by management how things are going. If you don't tell them, number one they won't know and number two they can't do anything to try and fix it.

Is it a "perfect" company, not by any stretch, if it were there'd be 2.5 million drivers lined up at the door. However it's a great company that like EVERY other company has its quirks and issues.

I've seen a lot of people come and go. 95% of the "problems" they have with the company can be fixed by fixing the person looking back at them in the mirror.

In the end, this is big boy trucking, they're not going to hold your hand. A lot of what we haul can be challenging from figuring out how to load it, secure it and wrap a porcupine with cellophane (tarp it).

 

Most are taking longer to process because of the grade of background check they run on you.

Some want to go as far as your grade school teachers...

Just sayin

 

Could’ve been me and my old truck...






We run... condo Freightliners, Volvos, Kenworths and Internationals. Automatics and 13-speed manuals. Drivers can pick auto or manual when they start... they try but it’ll come down to whatever is available at the time. We have some mid-roofs... and we have T800s in the wing program @catalinaflyer supervises.

Edit; we have a midroof 579 and a W990 on order for a team... but for the most part... condos.

 

Starting out, your gonna be in a condo Volvo, Freightliner, Pro-Star (LT I think they're called now) or a T-680 Kenworth. Might get a mid roof but highly unlikely. We have some T-800's, a couple T-880's and a few W-900's. You have to work your way into those as they're either heavy-haul/super-load or just old drivers in those. I think the last Pete in the fleet is being taken back to Arlington right now for disposal. It was in my yard today and I just permitted it towards Washington with a 14' wide.