Any Good Megas?

No matter where you work it is what you make of it. In my opinion 90% of driver complaints are due to burnout.
Work hard, show up on time and don't hit anything and you will be golden wherever you work.
If you put in your first year with a mega dedicated runs will be available. Swift has many Walmart and Costco runs.
Just learn their system and make it work for you.

 

I never had to fight to get things fixed on the road if necessary.

 

And that's exactly it, in a nutshell.

 

Of all of the mega companies I would say Prime, Inc has the most thorough training. It also is/was the longest miles/time spent driving under the supervision of a trainer. However, most of Prime's business is related to reefer customers, even though Prime pulls dry freight, and has a small tanker division. I would NOT recommend newbies enter the business pulling reefer freight. Pulling reefer adds a couple more complications for the driver to deal with because of that freight and those customers. In my opinion, newbies are best served by entering the industry pulling dry van freight. That freight requires the least attention from the driver. I pulled reefer freight for only the last 14 months. I would jump off a bridge before I ever pull reefer again. Maybe Prime deals with a higher quality of reefer freight and customers than I dealt with. It is routine in the reefer business to wait 2-4 hours, if not double that, to get loaded or unloaded. Then you have the hassle of paying "lumpers" and waiting for them to tell you the price, paying the fee, and them waiting some more to get your paperwork back and your lumper receipt. It was not unusual to have to wait several hours to get a dock door, wait a couple of hours to get loaded/unloaded, wait an hour or more to be told the amount of the lumper fee, and then wait 1-2 hours for the lumper to acknowledge the payment and return my paperwork so I could leave. Lumpers are simply people that claim to be outside employees that load/unload the freight. Drivers are often required to pay by check or online service hundreds of dollars, for which they will be reimbursed by their company. Imagine going to McDonald's drive thru. You have to pay the person at the window for your food and a fee for the honor of taking your order and delivering your food through the window. That is how I see lumpers.

In dry van, it is customary to arrive, back in, load/unload, get paperwork, and be gone is 30 minutes to 2 hours. Wait times at reefers are on a different level compared to dry van. You may or may not get paid for your waiting at customers. The industry has a routine game where the company will pay you for some of your waiting time at some customers but the companies say things that lead the uninformed to think all of their waiting at customers will be paid. It won't it's customary to be required to give 2 free hours of waiting around before any payment is possible. If you have multiple customers for your freight, if the first customer takes so much time you are late for all subsequent customers you will be deemed late and get no detention pay for those stops you didn't arrive at the appointment time.

 

Hey @insipidtoast ... have you asked @Chinatown ?
I sent you a private message mins ago..

 

Reefer adds a lot of extremely annoying aspects to driving. You get a lot of stupid appointment times so you will get stuck looking for parking at the worst times. Those appointments are usually not easily changed. You have to deal with lumpers so you will sit for ridiculous long times at receivers. The reefer 3’ from your head when your trying to sleep is stupid loud and they’re not all maintained well. Reefer means a lot of heavy loads that may or may not be adjusted to make it legal or balanced right to make it ideal for handling. A lot of shippers and receivers are ridiculously tight and you will get a call after 2 hours of sleep saying put it in door 356 and its a nightmare. Washouts can take a lot of time especially if you get rejected and then have to find a washout. The responsibility of checking the reefer is running is annoying. You will be despised at truck stops and rest areas when its setting up to be a quiet night of restful sleep and here comes the whining reefer parking right next to you.

Yeah I know it can pay a little better but its not even close to worth it to me.

 

I've been with Prime as a company driver for a couple years, they're alright. They send me my load message, I head to shipper & then head to the receiver...

No-one bothers me, equipment is in good shape, training was alright, and the money is acceptable.

The people who say they are micro-managed at this company must be doing something wrong, because the only thing I've really ever been bugged about was sending bills in late.