Danny Herman Vs. Crete. Suggestions? Honest feedback needed.

Just in case there might be others out there who are curious about joining DHT and what the hiring process is like, as well as the orientation, I’d like to start a detailed overview of my experience so far.

I have been hired as an OTR solo driver at a base rate of .44 CPM. Plus a monthly bonus should I hit 12,000 miles. I’ve yet to see how easy this is to hit just yet. There is also a quarterly and yearly bonus in there too, I believe. I am being paid 300 dollars for this orientation.

My recruiter was Sally Tugman. She works out of the Mountain City, TN terminal and has been great to work with so far. Great communication and just an all around pleasure to speak with. Once I was approved for hire, I was sent a series of videos to watch via e-mail. Some were accompanied by small tests, but it was nothing too complicated. DHT calls this process “on boarding”, and you must complete these tasks before your orientation. During this process you’ll fill out your I-9, banking information, and other things of that nature. Also, should you want to take your truck home with you during your home time, be sure to discuss this with your recruiter as there are contingencies regarding this and it will need to be approved by the operations department in Mountain City. I’ll use my situation as an example- My home terminal is Phillipsburg, MO. A little over 200 miles to my home address. This alone, to me, would be enough justification to take the truck home because I know that I wouldn’t want want a long trip to the truck back and forth from home. Too much work having to move my stuff around. However, I was told that because I’ll be staying out about five weeks at a time, they will allow the truck to be parked at my house during home time. I won’t say that these contingencies would apply for everyone, but they did apply to my situation. What I’m basically trying to say is, if you plan on taking the truck home, be sure that it’s discussed beforehand.

DHT booked a rental car for me through enterprise close to where I live, and I arrived in Lebanon, MO at the Super 8 motel one day prior to my orientation date. All paid for by DHT. Pretty smooth process, no complaints here. My Orientation has taken place at the Phillipsburg, MO terminal just 5 miles outside of Lebanon. The first day was just an average company orientation. Safety and maintenance videos and the like. We started at around 8:30 am, and were done at 1:45 pm with a two hour lunch from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. Make sure you have your CDL, social security card, medical card, and a long form copy of your last DOT physical.

Phillipsburg is a small terminal. I was the only one in orientation. Joined by Mountain City and El Paso via video conferencing. I will also mention that the orientation itself was all done by the folks in Mountain City. Myself as well as the guy in El Paso basically just starred at a television screen all day. Aside from a small amount of paperwork.

Some guys that run the shop there at Phillipsburg came to the hotel after orientation to get the rental car, and will be picking me up in the morning here at the hotel for my second day of orientation starting at 8:30 am. I’ll be loading up all of my stuff in the shop vehicle and storing it inside the home office of the terminal until I am placed in a truck later that afternoon.

Will be speaking with my dispatcher tomorrow for the first time, as well as getting my road test done. I was told that it is very possible I’ll be receiving my first dispatch tomorrow, also. I’ll update this thread in the near future on the second day as it comes around.

 

I’d like to know more about this too. If things go the way that I hope they will out here, I’ll be looking into it myself.

The only thing that I could think of to add to your question though would be I have seen several trucks with the letters “SO” in front of their regular truck number, but I’m just speculating. Might have to run one of those guys down and chat for myself. The rest that I see that are just regular truck numbers.

 

I’d like to know more about this too. If things go the way that I hope they will out here, I’ll be looking into it myself.

The only thing that I think of to add to your question though would be I have seen several trucks with the letters “SO” in front of their regular truck number, but I’m just speculating. Might have to run one of those guys down and chat for myself. The rest that I see that are just regular truck numbers.