The Walmart Skinny v2020

MilkyJay · Oct 22, 2020

Treputt said: ↑

So you backed into a trailer or rolled through a stop sign during onboarding and got micromanaged straight home...gotcha.
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I actually laughed so hard at this lol

ScaniaLW · Oct 23, 2020

Congratulations to the first Wally driver to reach 5 million safe miles, Loveland CO.

RubyEagle · Oct 23, 2020

Congratulations to him. What an achievement!

9691Guido · Oct 23, 2020

ScaniaLW said: ↑

Congratulations to the first Wally driver to reach 5 million safe miles, Loveland CO. View attachment 349668
Click to expand...

Way to go Warren!!!!! I have seen him at the return center in North Las Vegas 9195.

9691Guido · Oct 23, 2020

Loveland resident becomes first Walmart trucker to drive 5 million safe miles – Loveland Reporter-Herald

brtecson · Oct 24, 2020

Warren Greeno is the man! Congrats to him

c3324 · Dec 4, 2020

Should I expect both a urinalysis and hair follicle test at onboarding? If it’s both I’ll wait to get my hair cut...

mxpx148 · Dec 4, 2020

c3324 said: ↑

Should I expect both a urinalysis and hair follicle test at onboarding? If it’s both I’ll wait to get my hair cut...
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Urinalysis

Don1965 · Dec 17, 2020

flightwatch said: ↑

Today was my last day, so I figured that I would write my 2-year review of Walmart. Let me preface this post with what I stated in my original Walmart skinny post: Walmart Transportation is unlike any other trucking company out there...mostly. And I will get to that in a bit. Also, these are my experiences and opinions. Things can vary greatly from DC to DC.

Pay: Yes you can make decent money. I don't think that's really disputed. $84k in the first year? I don't know about that. I didn't make that in the First year...or the 2nd. And every driver I talked with said pretty much the same. $70k-$75k is more likely what you can expect to make your 1st year. Now, certainly, there are 1st-year drivers are making the $84k a year...and then some. But those drivers are the exception rather than the rule. They are the ones that extend every chance they get (work 6 days and take 1 day off) and work their logs to maximize their workweek. The nice thing about Walmart is that you get paid for EVERYTHING. Sleeping, waiting, dropping and hooking, etc. Insurance is ok. Not great. Not terrible. If you want to insure your entire family, be ready to pay a significant amount of money out of each paycheck. The 401K and stock options are amazing. Vacation is hit or miss. Yes, you get a decent amount of time off annually, but you accrue it throughout the year. And it can be extremely hard to get time off as they only allow 10 drivers off at a time...and the old guys like to take A LOT of time off.

Trucks: The trucks are a mix of Peterbilt 579's, Kenworth T600's, Cascadias, and some LT's. The PACCAR trucks are getting cycled out though unless you are at the Sanger, TX DC. Then you might get a new Peterbilt. The rest of the fleet is primarily Cascadias. They have the full safety suite in them: Blindspot assist for the truck and trailer, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, and lane-keep assist (although Walmart has decided to turn off the lane-keep assist for some reason). Other than the safety suite, the trucks are pretty basic. They do have refrigerators, and they have inverters. But the inverters have a timer that shuts them off after 2 hours. You then have to wait for 8 hours before the inverter can be turned back on. All the engines are rated at 400hp. And all the trucks are governed at 65mph. There are Lytx cameras in every truck. They supposedly only face outwards, but there is a camera that faces inside. They say that camera is turned off, but there's some debate about whether that is true. Regardless, the cab is mic'd, and everything you say or do can be heard.

Slip seating: It sucks. There's no other way to say it. Either you deal with it or not. Slip seating a sleeper truck is not fun, but it's how Walmart keeps the private fleet profitable.

Here's where my personal opinion kicks in:

The micromanagement is unbearable. I have never worked for a trucking company that micromanages their drivers as badly as Walmart does. They do it under the purview of safety, but it's beyond safety. The problem with Walmart is that they are too big. The bosses have bosses who have bosses who have bosses. And somewhere way up there, there are a few people who have never seen a semi-truck other than as an annoyance coming up with ways to keep the drivers "safe". The drivers that have impeccable safety records and are supposedly the best of the best are treated like 1st-week drivers at a training company. Go 73mph down a mountain even though the speed limit is 75mph? Get written up for breaking Walmart's speed limit. Hit your brakes too hard because that car cut you off? Get written up because you should have anticipated that car cutting you off. Hit a deer? Get prepared to sit in the safety office for 30 minutes filling out accident reports and arguing with them about how you couldn't avoid the deer and therefore shouldn't have to pay for the damages. In other words, people that can barely drive their cars the 5 miles to work every day are more than happy to write up drivers with millions of miles for perceived violations based on an eight-second camera clip.

Now that that is out of the way...

I mostly enjoyed my time at Walmart. I was hoping that it was going to be my final trucking job. But alas, I couldn't stomach what it is becoming. I am afraid that, before too much longer, Walmart is going to be no better than your average training company. Albeit with better pay and home time. There are some very good things about Walmart. It is a very rewarding place to work if you are the type of person that is happy with being micromanaged. If you aren't, you won't be happy.
Click to expand...

Don1965 · Dec 17, 2020

flightwatch said: ↑

Today was my last day, so I figured that I would write my 2-year review of Walmart. Let me preface this post with what I stated in my original Walmart skinny post: Walmart Transportation is unlike any other trucking company out there...mostly. And I will get to that in a bit. Also, these are my experiences and opinions. Things can vary greatly from DC to DC.

Pay: Yes you can make decent money. I don't think that's really disputed. $84k in the first year? I don't know about that. I didn't make that in the First year...or the 2nd. And every driver I talked with said pretty much the same. $70k-$75k is more likely what you can expect to make your 1st year. Now, certainly, there are 1st-year drivers are making the $84k a year...and then some. But those drivers are the exception rather than the rule. They are the ones that extend every chance they get (work 6 days and take 1 day off) and work their logs to maximize their workweek. The nice thing about Walmart is that you get paid for EVERYTHING. Sleeping, waiting, dropping and hooking, etc. Insurance is ok. Not great. Not terrible. If you want to insure your entire family, be ready to pay a significant amount of money out of each paycheck. The 401K and stock options are amazing. Vacation is hit or miss. Yes, you get a decent amount of time off annually, but you accrue it throughout the year. And it can be extremely hard to get time off as they only allow 10 drivers off at a time...and the old guys like to take A LOT of time off.

Trucks: The trucks are a mix of Peterbilt 579's, Kenworth T600's, Cascadias, and some LT's. The PACCAR trucks are getting cycled out though unless you are at the Sanger, TX DC. Then you might get a new Peterbilt. The rest of the fleet is primarily Cascadias. They have the full safety suite in them: Blindspot assist for the truck and trailer, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, and lane-keep assist (although Walmart has decided to turn off the lane-keep assist for some reason). Other than the safety suite, the trucks are pretty basic. They do have refrigerators, and they have inverters. But the inverters have a timer that shuts them off after 2 hours. You then have to wait for 8 hours before the inverter can be turned back on. All the engines are rated at 400hp. And all the trucks are governed at 65mph. There are Lytx cameras in every truck. They supposedly only face outwards, but there is a camera that faces inside. They say that camera is turned off, but there's some debate about whether that is true. Regardless, the cab is mic'd, and everything you say or do can be heard.

Slip seating: It sucks. There's no other way to say it. Either you deal with it or not. Slip seating a sleeper truck is not fun, but it's how Walmart keeps the private fleet profitable.

Here's where my personal opinion kicks in:

The micromanagement is unbearable. I have never worked for a trucking company that micromanages their drivers as badly as Walmart does. They do it under the purview of safety, but it's beyond safety. The problem with Walmart is that they are too big. The bosses have bosses who have bosses who have bosses. And somewhere way up there, there are a few people who have never seen a semi-truck other than as an annoyance coming up with ways to keep the drivers "safe". The drivers that have impeccable safety records and are supposedly the best of the best are treated like 1st-week drivers at a training company. Go 73mph down a mountain even though the speed limit is 75mph? Get written up for breaking Walmart's speed limit. Hit your brakes too hard because that car cut you off? Get written up because you should have anticipated that car cutting you off. Hit a deer? Get prepared to sit in the safety office for 30 minutes filling out accident reports and arguing with them about how you couldn't avoid the deer and therefore shouldn't have to pay for the damages. In other words, people that can barely drive their cars the 5 miles to work every day are more than happy to write up drivers with millions of miles for perceived violations based on an eight-second camera clip.

Now that that is out of the way...

I mostly enjoyed my time at Walmart. I was hoping that it was going to be my final trucking job. But alas, I couldn't stomach what it is becoming. I am afraid that, before too much longer, Walmart is going to be no better than your average training company. Albeit with better pay and home time. There are some very good things about Walmart. It is a very rewarding place to work if you are the type of person that is happy with being micromanaged. If you aren't, you won't be happy.
Click to expand...

I work out of Sanger,Texas the pay for your first full year should have been 80000 plus

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