Indian River

Can anyone speak to these concerns of mine? I also highlighted below some recent critical comments that jumped out at me.

Are they only hiring drivers with recent experience now (past six months)?
No APU? What if you're in Cali or somewhere else with anti-idle law?
Is it easier to sleep in an idle-ing truck or with an APU? How bout carbon monoxide risk?
Have to have truck turned off at shippers and receivers? Dead batteries? Or can you turn it on periodically? Have to exit truck at shippers and receivers? How often does this happen?
Given these factors, would this be a good setup for a spouse as passenger?
Getting used to driving smooth bore after a career of vans and flatbed?
Main terminal in FL with another terminal in Northeast this guarantees lots of east coast driving? Or can you avoid it somehow?
A minor concern I have: This thread with 230+ pages is free advertizing for them, which gets an above-average amount of drivers interested in one company.
Dairy wait times - how bad?
If I choose to be "based out of" the California terminal will it be mostly milk loads?
Do you get paid for the miles to and from a tank wash?
Paid to wait at tank wash?
How often do you drive around Atlanta?

I also read a couple comments insinuating that "being a good worker" means you'll get better runs. In my experience, that has never been the case. Sure, if you do bad things you'll get a worse deal, but just doing a good job, being on time, safe, not complaining, etc. never meant you get good loads. Get real, you're a driver. It's just random, luck of the draw. At some companies it's even the opposite, the older drivers will sit, because a new driver will be paid less per mile, which means it costs the company a little less to run the same load.

 

I run OTR and the east coast is the area I run the least (unless you count Florida). When I get loads to Florida I usually go northwest or West from there. I have had to go up to Delaware once from Florida but that was a deadhead in order to pick up a load going to Houston so I could go home.

 

Do you need tractor trailer experience to work for indian river I just graduated trucking school and currently driving ready mix trucks i have my tanker endorsement hopefully they do because I don't want to waste a year driving ready mix trucks and not get experience

 

We do have trainers for inexperienced drivers, but you'll have to ask a recruiter about that. I'm not sure if we're actively hiring trainees at the moment.

 

I swear I asked it before. But does Indian River haul hazmat? Also is that listed .60 cpm on the website the only amount of cpm can get? No raises and etc?

 

Don't know the hiring requirements now. You needed 2 years Class A or 1 year tanker when I got hired in 2020. Call recruiter to ask what it is now.

Vast majority of the fleet does not have APUs. Only seen them on a couple Internationals but no clue how many of those they have. Idle for heat or cooling. If in a no-idle state, just chance it like everyone else I see when I park. If you smell exhaust fumes your truck probably has a leak or some other issue. Some customers have indoor loading and unloading and the engine has to be off, same with tank washes. Haven't had any customer with outdoor facilities tell me to switch off. Batteries won't die in the time it takes to load/unload. Of course if you are trying to run high wattage items with the engine off the inverter will switch off. If parked for more than a couple days I switch off inverter and fridge.

Most trucks have a single bunk and it's a twin XL. Depending on body size, two people may not fit on it.

I choose to work the NE, no clue if you could ask to avoid the East Coast, they do have regular West Coast lanes though.

Every other truck company thread here is free advertising, good or bad. Not seeing the concern here. I can only speak for myself but I get nothing for posting here, they don't even know who I am... hopefully.

Never done milk in California, but then I don't go out that way anymore. I ran juice out of Cali and yeast in, but that was back in 2020.

Paid miles to and from tank wash, no pay for waiting there.

Never kept track of how many times I have been around Atlanta. Delivered there 3 or 4 times.

The pay differential between new and old drivers isn't enough to warrant making anyone sit because the new driver is cheaper. The new driver that hasn't yet learned the way things operate, which customers can deliver early etc, will be at a disadvantage to the experienced driver. That's how it is at other companies I have worked for also.

 

Any drivers live out of TN? There a drop lot there for IR or they arrange a trailer drop at a customer and allow you to bobtail tractor home (as long as it's a secure approved parking location)