The Walmart skinny

You should post more on personal experiences rather than speculation and what you overhear from other less than informed drivers.

 

I thought that was included, but here is a simplified version of the last 4.5 months with Walmart. (For real quick version, scroll to last few sentences). 1st and for most observation... Walmart is just indeed another trucking company, you are just a number to fill a seat. Now with that said. Walmart is the most efficient trucking company I have come across. Once you get use to your region (they do not have local drivers, all drivers are regional, some grocery DC have day drivers but the most I have ever seen at a DC was 3 day drivers.) ... Your region and get use to inputting your time accurately into the truck system (they use peoplenet) you will 95% of the time keep moving... Say your store delivery is 15 min away and before you leave you input your time accurately... You will literally get your next load/move en route to that store 15 min away... Very rarely have I had to sit for more than 10 min waiting for next movement and that then was my fault for not knowing the system yet... With that said you occasionally may have to wait for a load to be ready to go at a DC or a 3rd party, but again that too is occasionally. Not uncommon enough to say it's rare, but not common enough to say it's common... If you can keep up with that line of thought... If you want an accurate number I'd say I wait maybe 5 hours an entire month for a load to be ready or a number of loads to be ready, but 5 hours top... You do make your own paycheck. You can only work 8 hours a day if you want or like most trucking companies you can work the 14 max which is what I do. The best way to describe this situation is the Walmart way which is what you will quickly become acquainted with as ADP or average daily pay. This is what most drivers strive for before they choose to end their day. Walmart implemented this for easy math sake as well as most trucking companies should adopt.... It's listed on your online stats when you are verifying your pay "activities" such as your number of drops and hooks for the day, etc... I see most drivers tend to relax and stop for the day when they hit between $275-$300 each day... I shoot for $350 on weekdays and $450 on weekends as you get paid more per mile on weekends... And more often than not I hit it. For the first 2 months my paychecks (biweekly/every 2 weeks) avg 2400-2700 gross. After that I was familiar with a lot of routes and the computer system in the truck and now I gross 3400-3700. I am still manipulating my routine to see what works for me as each driver will/should to his/her own liking. So I do see higher paychecks eventually, but not much higher.. and I don't see anyone else being much higher either... I do have seniority enough after 4.5 months to get a schedule which means an assigned truck or trucks. I am choosing to not get on either of those because I like my schedule as is which is what was given to me when I completed my training with a DC trainer. The other guys who are left from my hire class are all on schedules with assigned trucks. I slip seat every week to keep my schedule. This is my choice. However the only schedules that have been made available to me are 5/2 5/3 rotations. Meaning on for 5 days, off for 2, on for 5, off for 3, repeat.. I am choosing not as that means $700-$1000 gone per month, but you do get an extra few days off. This highly appeals to me and may you, but I need the $ right now so am holding off... I plan on being eventually getting on a 5/5, but not for a few years. I suspect after 1 maybe 2 years I will be wanting to go to 5/2, 5/3 rotations. As for where you travel too... As mentioned all drivers are regional, and regional to Walmart is a fair distance, I'd say 800 mile circle from your operating DC, with the furthest I've traveled being 550 miles away. Rarely is it 500 miles in one trip, but it does happen. There has been a number of times that I've stayed within 200 miles and drove over 500 miles in one day. That sums up my thought on experience. Feel free to ask anything.
For a super quick summary... If I had to do it all again, I would. Despite I am one who relocated from another state and that took time and a lot of money, I am happy with the decision. Like with any company there are a lot of dislikes and Walmart is not for everyone... 12 people were hired for my DC alone, after 60 days, only 4 remain. I have only seen 2 others since the 60 day mark. Again I don't take stock in rumors, but it's said they left by choice, most of them... The turn over rate is high at Walmart just like any trucking company... But not as high as the average trucking company... Benefits suck, but that's due to the Obama Care, not Walmarts fault. If you are not tech savvy, you may not like the computer system at all in the truck despite it's the easiest I've encountered and much superior than Qualcomm, though like anything has bugs.

 

I have a phone interview tomorrow afternoon with a WM recruiter, what`s the next step after the phone interview? Any advice or tips for the phone interview would be appreciated.
What`s the timeline after the phone interview if or when they decide to move forward with my app?

 

Just be yourself, answer questions honestly, and remain positive. If everything goes well, you'll probably get a conditional offer of employment at the end of the phone interview.

 

yea they can read threw the bs super fast. also dont lie on anything. if you did then dont go forward. they will dig into that sore

 

How did it go?

 

If anyone knows what type of schedule extra board drivers are running out of Mount Crawford,Va let me know. Guessing 5-2 but would like confirmation.

 

yes

 

I know you are paid to sleep in the truck but do you guys get per diem

 

Our pay is not broken down as such to state how much per diem is.. our pay stub breaks down as such (sample):
AD: 10
HK:10
ST: 4
LU: 4
AR: 1
LO: 4
Mileage: 2200
Weekend mileage: 800

Something like that... each acronym is an activity which you can guess with decent accuracy to their meaning ie, LO it's lay over (sleeping in truck), AD is arrive and drop, so on... And each activity has a certain dedicated pay such as AD is $10.25, HK is hook and is 8.50... therefore if you arrive at a store or DC you will make $18.75 guaranteed pay. Naturally that is just a basic concept and there is sometimes more to it than that.... So don't base your decision from this little example... For real accuracy... In the last 5 days I have in combination of activity, wait time, mileage made roughly $1808.00...