Saia VS ...

So... Against better judgement, I actually accepted the job from SAIA back in June. Spoiler alert.... The worst employment decision I've ever made.

Details in case it helps anyone considering the company. I left this week after just 2 months. Here's my scoop.

First, the good.

The job is pretty easy overall. No dock work or such.

As a daytime p&d driver, it's not uncommon to have your run cut. Why is this listed as a good thing? Because many times you're offered a day time line haul run in place of your delivery route. Paid at max rate, so you come out ahead on pay and labor. I had a run cut basically every week I was there and the day time line run I usually ran paid around $440 for the day including set building and breaking. Max hourly by comparison was $30.63 at my barn.

The bad...

Your runs get cut. I know it's listed above as a good thing and it can be, but... It's just as common to have your run cut and have no line haul run available. Also, in general. The line haul situation is odd at SAIA. I pulled empties as often as loads in line haul. Basically I would often take a set of empties to another terminal a couple hours out, swap them for a loaded set and pull to a different terminal, and then quote often pull another set of empties back to my home barn. Occasionally I would pull a loaded set back, but it was less common than empties.

Terrible communication. Both our OM and TM are terrible. They clock out around 3pm and if you need anything from them, you can forget about it until they clock in the following day.
No direction or instruction on tasks, which can be good, but you also aren't given info necessary to complete certain stops.

Route max sucks. This is the android based routing program they use. It would often try to have me deliver freight 12 or 13 hours away. Difficult call here in areas you aren't familiar with. I would plug in my own gps and have arrival times vastly different. An hour or more to the same location.

Shady practices. I had a roaches out pallet jack that resulted in me taking a spill at work. Nothing serious but it caused a light sprain that resulted in an initial 4 days light duty. OM sent me back to the DR 2 days later after calling the DR office to try and get restrictions lifted. The FR extended me out 5 days on light duty, possibly to send a message to OM. SAIA offered "transitional" light duty work at $10/hr. Which is a buck below minimum wage. ######## all around really. Had OM not acted a prick and tried to pressure DR I would've been back in 3 days. It wound up being 7 or 8 at terrible pay.

This was actually when I decided to put in for another job and basically just worked out. Admittedly I didn't give notice to SAIA and just left the day before my new gig. I didn't feel an obligation to leave on better terms considering their business practice.

The guys that load your trailer don't think about you having to unload it. It's usually loaded stupidly and unnecessarily inconvenient.

Zero times out of ten would I recommend SAIA.

 

Out of a truck (mostly, but sure I'll get windshield time this winter), doing technician work for Amerigas. About a buck less per hour than SAIA but OT kicks in after 40 so an overall net gain of annual salary.

Found I didn't miss class A work as much as I thought I may have, so don't mind switching out to a pickup or occasional bobtail/short truck