Why Wal*Mart has been good for me.

I started my driving career in 1974 as belly dump driver in San Diego, moved on to OTR in 1976 as a company driver, then became an owner-operator in 1980 and remained in that status until 1991 when Wal*Mart decided I was good enough to work for them.

Back then Sam Walton was still the big cheese and the hiring process was about on par with getting a job with the FBI or CIA. The minimum requirements were 3 years/300,00 miles, no tickets, no preventable accidents, not more than one non-preventable accident and a good, clean, steady work history. The reason I compare the hiring process with a high level government job was the amount of hoops I had to jump though. In 1991, Wal*Mart was THE PREMIER DRIVING JOB to have and those who did the hiring absolutely knew it! The application form was the easy part. The hard part was going though the several interviews beginning with a driver screening committee composed of 3 senior Wal*Mart drivers, then with an operations manager, next on to the safety manager and finally ending up with the terminal dispatch manager after taking the Orion personality test. After making it though all that scrutiny, I was subjected to the most thorough, rigorous road test possible and ended the day with a very tough physical exam. A week later, I was offered the job so I guess it turned out OK.

Although the biggest question you want answered is about the pay, I am bound by the company ethics not to personally discuss it, however a former Wal*Mart driver on this forum named kentucky24 does point that all out in pretty much complete detail . Since this is my first post, I'm unable to post the link to that thread but if you look up the thread he posted, you'll see what it is .The pay is pretty darn decent, that I can tell you!

Among the pay benefits, we do receive throughout the year 6 paid holidays, a paid safety day off every 90 days for no tickets or accidents, plus a weekly drawing for a paid day off for no work comp claims at our local dispatch office. On our anniversary date we receive 2 personal days, 6 sick days, 1 week paid vacation after one year, 2 weeks for two to six years, 3 weeks for seven to fourteen years and 4 weeks for fifteen and over years. At the 20 year mark, an additional benefit of a cash payment of 1 week's salary is paid every year forward on top of the 4 weeks vacation. Plus if you manage to work the entire safety year of November 1st to October 31st, you will receive a safety bonus equivalent to 2 weeks wages paid out about 3 weeks before Christmas during the annual driver banquet.

Wal*Mart does have the reputation for treating their hourly associates at the stores poorly and paying them under what other similar jobs pay, but since I really have little experience at what goes on at the store level, am unable to comment on that.

What I do know from experience as a Wal*Mart driver is I'm treated very, very well and do earn an extremely good living. I have a really nice, well maintained tractor and am never asked to run illegally or drive in unsafe road conditions. I was once the mushroom at the bottom of the pile here but being here for 18 years has put me in the position where I can work Monday thru Friday and choose whatever set run I want. New hires will most likely not be assigned a tractor and will probably have to work weekends and run wild unless they can get on one of the many programs available. Programs vary from each dispatch office.

This job has changed a lot over the years as we have a ton of inflexible rules to adhere to now. Sometimes I feel management treats us drivers like 2 year olds with their huge pile of rules, but unfortunately that's part of what goes on with an ever expanding company. I am always treated with total respect by management however and the open door policy really works when we don't see situations eye to eye. 3 times in 18 years I've used the open door policy to upper management in Bentonville and 3 times upper management eventually saw things my way.

Wal*Mart Private Fleet is by all means not perfect, but it is still a pretty darn good place to earn a decent living. If any of you choose to try this place out, I'm sure you'd like it here too.

 

The #1 reason why Wal*Mart pays well is so they can attract the best drivers they can. It's all about keeping the stores stocked with merchandise with drivers who get it there on time, without crashing, hopefully every time. Every time one of our trucks get in an accident, whether it's our fault or not, lawyers want to reach in Wal*Mart's deep pockets for the motherload.

 

The Swift trucks you see are dedicated contract trucks for the grocery or remix freight. Wal*Mart drivers used to not haul any groceries at all until the last couple years. All of the grocery DC's used to be 100% manned by either Swift, Schneider, Great Wide etc. but Wal*Mart is slowly phasing them out and converting them over to our own trucks. We're in year 2 of a 5 year plan of the phase in.

 

Sure thing Kinghunter. Back in 1992 Wal*Mart bought McLane Trucking plus several distribution facilities from Southland Corporation because they wanted to get into the grocery business. Several years ago Wal*Mart sold off McLane and began contracting the grocery work out on a 2 year basis. This hasn't really worked well as our contractors were not giving the customer service that was necessary. This along with the fact that Wal*Mart had shifted from building just regular retail stores to building Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets. The key to Wal*Mart's success is the ability to keep stores stocked at will with it's own equipment and with someone else running the grocery side meant that Wal*Mart didn't have total control. Thus the over all 5 year plan is for Wal*Mart to completely run all aspects and move away from dedicated carriers. On June 9th of 2009 Wal-Mart took over full control of 9 grocery DCs in the western states. We're still using dedicateds like Swift but slowly moving in our own trucks as business dictates.

As far as trucks go, it was just announced that with the exception of the California terminals, all new trucks will be full size sleeper Peterbilts, Cascadias and Prostar Internationals. Out west we seem to be just getting new Petes lately but that could change. California enforces the 65 foot length law on secondary roads so those guys will continue to get the little sleepers.