Southeast Milk Inc. Bellview, Fl

IRT can't keep up with the loads. If SE Milk lost contracts with dairies then they may not have enough loads for the drivers they have.

 

You don't. Only time I use my TWIC is to enter the port of Wilmington in DE to pick up juice.

Maybe they have Cordele drivers doing other stuff. I heard Cordele also hauls food grade oil (Canola, Peanut etc) with pump equipped tractors. If that oil is coming off rail cars, then maybe a TWIC is required to enter the rail yard.

 

Hey OP and others, I worked for SMI out of Montezuma, GA back in late 21, early 22. It was great, the pay was pretty awesome (.62 cpm) but the benefits were garbage.

The Bad: My biggest gripe about the company was the fact I couldn't stand the dispatchers out of the Belleview terminal trying to get me to run every last second out of my 70 before my 2 days off. This was a never ending problem i encountered before my 34. They would insist that I could go to the RO plant in Baconton a hour and a half away, drop the load, grab the empty and pull it back a hour and a half, drop at the wash station and then bob tail back to the terminal, with 30 minutes total time on my 70.
The trucks they have are super nice, Kenworth T880's, BUT they have the biggest piece of garbage motor they could ever but into a truck, the PACCAR MX13 with a whopping 430 HP. Look forward to doing 35 mph on the interstate ALOT because the engines are not strong enough to pull 50,000 lbs of milk. Now, i understand thats ALOT of weight, but i had a International with a different company that had a Cummins X15 455 HP that would pull like a freight train and actually maintain, if not gain speed climbing steep hills in Virginia with 60,000 lbs of steel beams doing oversized flatbed loads. The collision mitigation system on SMI's truck have almost caused me to roll over 3 or 4 times due to just rain blocking the sensor and causing the truck to automatically brake for no reason. I would be cruising at 69 MPH on I-75 N near the 4-75/75 split in Macon and it would just slam on the breaks and cause a surge. SCARY!
When I was in training, it was local, but I had to drive a hour home and a hour back. 8 hours was spent at home, and I was fine with it. After training, i was out 5 out of the 6 days on my 70 running 2 loads a day from Quitman to Publix in Dacula and sleeping at Dacula. #### started going down hill in Feb of 22 when the dispatchers called to inform me everyone in Georgia was going OTR. I told them I signed up for local, was doing regional, and that i would not do OTR, like staying out for weeks at a time. They told me everyone that works in Georgia had to go OTR. I ran for another week or two until they tried to force me to spend my 34 in Florida when they know those two days you have off, are your days off. The previous management (Rick) would reiterate this point to them. New management took over and everything went to hell. The real icing on the cake for me was when i discovered my coworkers were still gling home every night. Owner Operators also started taking most of us company drivers work and we get left with the #### loads of going to Memphis TN and Lakeland FL, when they get to run two loads a day to Publix in Atlanta and go home. Our terminals started having garbage bags of trash thrown at the back of the trailers in our drop yards that company drivers were expected to pick up and dispose of in a huge green trash can 100 yards away.

My trainer and I have talked a few times since I've left and he has 15+ years with the company and he is worried about getting laid off before he gets his retirement. Charlie, the Montezuma terminal manager was one of the best leaders I had the pleasure of working for, but I knew he couldn't help me in my situation because that man was working himself to death, working 7 days a week for a month straight.

The Good:
SMI has a awesome training program and the drop and hook stuff was really awesome. I know some of these super truckers on here are gonna #### on me for saying this, but the Smith System training was some of the best training i ever recieved and has saved my ### plenty of times.

I hate that things went so poorly for me and for others that worked for them, but Indian River is probably will be a better opportunity. I talked with a lot of those guys and everyone I talked to seemed to really enjoy it there.

 

We probably crossed paths. I worked there from Nov 2020-May 2022 as a local driver out of Orlando, and peak season 2021-2022 I volunteered to go OTR, so I was in Baconton a lot. Started out going from FL-TX and then later on up to MI. I made GREAT money for the short time I was OTR, as a local driver the pay sucked, but the hours were there, sometimes maxing my clock out. After going back local around February '22 things were starting to slow down, we were promised a new pay scale for the new year, which kept being put off. The beginning of May '22 They started not having work for us, 3 Orlando drivers, and I was having to use my PTO just to get a decent check. Then one day to my surprise they laid all of us off and closed the yard. I heard we weren't the only one's getting the boot. Months later I heard from an co-worker/friend and he said he was laid off too. He was probably with SMI for 15+ years. I heard recently from a friend who used to pull their trailers a while back, that SMI was bought out by ETC.

 

Sorry for the late response, just seeing this now. It was different for us in Orlando than any other terminal. There were just 3 Orlando drivers sharing 2 trucks, my shift was from 0300-1500 but most days we worked closer to 14 hours than 12. The other shift was 1500-0300. The other terminals there were many different start times. Due to Orlando not having a terminal and we were at least 1.5 hrs from anyone else, so we seemed to get the most hours, we started with an empty deadhead to Avon Park (sometimes Belleview) where a lot of the farms were. When I 1st started there were about 10 farms in that general area Avon Park picked up from.

I averaged 2 loads a day if I was loading. If it was D&H maybe more. Majority of the time I delivered to Publix in Lakeland. Working out of Orlando we reported to Avon Park, but we were sent to where ever we were needed, sometimes Belleview and sometimes Okeechobee. I kind of liked that because it was different work all the time. If I was dispatched to Okee, I would p/u 1 load and take it to Miami and then deadhead to Orlando and done for the day. But because of the distance and traffic I would still work 12-14 hours.

 

ETC. But that is just what I heard by one a driver who used to pull their trailers.