My experience at holland enterprises

@hotrod1653 You said you would consider Hoffman Trucking out of Jamestown, ND. Do you know what lanes their reefer division runs, or just general info about them? Their website doesn't give much details, FMCSA said they have around 100 trucks but I'm assuming that's for all of their divisions, not just the reefer division.

 

Were they somewhat considerate when they sent you anywhere, but especially to the Newark metro (or anywhere in NJ), so that you had enough time on your clock to always get out and get to a rest area or truck stop a few hours away? Or did they expect you to wait overnight at warehouses in places like NJ?

There was one guy on this thread, who years ago said he quit in part because they would run him so tight.

And when you were there did they have a lot of drop and hook dedicated freight, or was it mostly live loads/live unloads?

 

Many if not most OTR companies typically run their average driver Monday through Friday, giving them the weekend off. And on some out and back runs if they hustle, they can get back a little early and get even more than two days off or if they’re little on the lazy side and slower, they might only get a reset in. it doesn’t take scientist or genius to calculate that out over a year period of time. I will never work for a company that has a 7 to 1 strict ratio. Yes, occasionally I don’t mind staying out for 21 days or something and only having three days off. You are literally working as a slave if you do that non stop…And it will burn you out. I don’t care who you are. Drivers can do it intermittently, and there are drivers that stay out there for months at a time, but if you’re not getting the proper ratio of days off, you will burn out. If you stay out for three weeks and you only get three days off that starts the hour that you go off duty all you’re gonna do is go home, probably do your laundry, run an errand or two and then on the last day start getting ready to go back out. You’re not gonna get trucking out of your system for a few days doing that. It will sneak up on you one day. you’ll start noticing the “to do list” never gets crossed off appointments are broken all the time, that dentist appointment, that doctors appointment that you needed to have? Never happens, you’ll start missing bills, mail is piling up a foot high on your kitchen counter, the roof leak in your house has now become a major if you have a girlfriend or a wife, she’s probably seeing someone else at this point, lol you get the point. I never understood these companies that will literally keep a driver out for a month and then give him three or four days off. That’s just insane to me. I’ll stay out there for six weeks. That’s kind of my limit. But if you keep me out there for six weeks, I’m gonna expect some extra time off. What ends up happening is drivers will do this for as long as they can stand it and then they’ll quit to get their days off. To catch up on life. To get things done. Because they feel trapped. I get it, OTR work, true work is a lifestyle, but you still have to get away from it every once in a while for more than just a reset after being out there for weeks at a time.

 

I can’t speak to how it is now, but @Anonymousproxy can…


When I was there 9-10 times when I would go to Jersey, NYC or Boston I knew what my bounce back load was. I’d either end up in Bethlehem, PA (Off Jersey and NYC if I went in) and out of the Boston area I would end up in Vermont or New Hampshire where the bulk of the shippers had overnight access.

I didn’t do many D&H in the Northeast, I actually had the same trailer for upwards of a few months at one point.

If the shipper didn’t have parking, then yes I’d let them know what my hours looked like and we could plan it out from there. They usually reimbursed reserve parking, if you didn’t abuse it. Most of the time I hauled Barry Calibut (Ben And Jerry’s) when I started there waaaaaaayyyyyyy back when, when I would go to Boston.

I almost looked at those long loads out of Vermont and Jersey as a reward for going into the City and up to Boston, I have no problem doing that. Just another delivery imo.


Anyways I hoped that answered and helped you a bit.

 

Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to type that out. This helps out a lot, I appreciate it.

 

Anytime. Hopefully it helps with a decision for you or someone else. They really are a great company for the ultra long haul trucking side of things.

 

I’ve had a couple of crazy loads but some how I managed to pull them off. Usually they haven’t been too bad. Recently I picked up st a place in Newark nj(fun place…. Not!!!!) I had to double park on the street while checking into shipping and waiting for a dock, and it was a bit scary with all the drug addicts & bums walking around, there was no driving past the place because there was a 12’1 bridge just past the shipper. It was a busy 4 lane street and watched 2 trucks fly up and then had to back into the shipper’s driveway (all foreign trucks) to get turned around. I got out of there with 2.5 hours left on my block and shut down near the on state line.

after a year here my only complaint is few of the dispatchers could use some better communication skills. Other than that not bad.

 

I’m still with Holland. I have been with them since May, 2024.

My experience has been positive. Is Holland a perfect company? No — Am I a perfect driver? Nope — However, that being said, Holland is a good fit for me and my goals..

Moving on…

I’ve never been cheated out of ANY detention, layover, Or home time — in addition, I’ve also never been home late.

Again, this is my experience. I’m not saying that others that may have had negative experiences aren’t true. However, given what I’ve experienced, this can’t be only unique to me.

So, it’s hard for me to believe that if a driver has done what they’re expected to do, that Holland would cheat them out of any monies owed.

That being said, Holland does hold divers very accountable and they do have high standards for their drivers. This is probably due to the fact Holland isn’t a training company. They offer no training or refresher courses. I’m pretty sure they still require a minimum of 18 months OTR experience. So, as an experienced driver they expect them to run safely and efficiently, and on time with pickups and deliveries.

We do run recaps. Which, again, doesn’t bother me, but I know some drives like resetting and if you request, Holland will allow that if you communicate that to them. By running recaps you can expect to run 3200+ miles a week easily.

I can say without a doubt that If a driver at Holland manages their time, can run safely, and efficiently, it’s easy to make over 90K per yr, while having decent home time. But then again, every driver has a different perception of what “good home time “ is.

Our main running lanes are I90, I80, and I94. We do run I40 and below in the sunbelt but I would say it’s about 65% northern lanes and 35% in the sunbelt.

In addition, we don’t get ANY fuel solutions. However, we do only fuel at Loves. There isn’t any micro managing. No fleet messages telling drivers to do common sense things. I’ve gone weeks without hearing from them other than load assignments. I’ve NEVER arrived at a shipper with the wrong pick up time or the wrong pick up number — same at receivers.

Holland uses a regional dispatch model — therefore, a driver isn’t assigned a fleet manager. Holland has the lower 48 divided into 9 regions with one dispatcher per region. You’re preplanned 99% of the time the day before your delivery from the rejoin dispatcher in which you’re delivering to.


It’s fair to point out that Holland uses Samsara for dispatch and ELD which is very user friendly IMO.

Our running lanes are fine with me because I really don’t like running the sunbelt. Now, given the fact of running northern lanes, I’ve NEVER been asked or expected to chain. I’ve sat out bad weather a few times Reno waiting to cross Donner, without any problems or pressure from operations to get moving beyond my comfortably level.

Moreover, Holland doesn’t allow drivers to run west of Denver on I70 in the winter time. They do pay the driver the routing to avoid and they pay practical
On all others.

Another thing about Holland is that for a reefer company I NEVER sit. I’ve only run one Tyson load — which was brokered — and that’s the longest I’ve got detention for, which was a day of layover because of the amount of time. And I’ve never run a Tyson load since.

Holland primarily hauls frozen — 0 to -20 — or goods the require temps— 33-60 degrees — We don’t haul any produce or meat.

Also, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been to NJ or the NE in general. I can also say that the average length of haul is 1500+ miles. I’ve maybe only had 6-7loads under 1k miles and that was because of home time or to get back to our primary lanes.

Also, since we haul a lot of frozen product ,we seldom have to get washouts. I think I’ve gotten 3 since my entire time with the company.

Moreover, you won’t see any Holland drivers on Bonehead truckers or on YouTube posting videos day-in and day-out asking for referrals by hyping the company up — At least I haven’t.

Quite frankly, after driving 8-11hrs , the last thing I’d want to do is spend hours making and editing videos to post. Look at how many people are on YouTube posting videos every day attesting to how wonderful PRIMEinc. Is. Where do they find the time if they where making all this money and working the majority of the day?

Over all I’d give Holland an 8.5 out of a high score of 10. That being said, be advised this company isn’t for folks who don’t want to run. I believe most loads are timed with a 50MPH transit time.

I will say they definitely know how to utilize a drivers hours. I’ve never experienced too much or too little time on a load. For example; my current load I picked up in Prosser ,WA on Tuesday July, 1st @ 0700 and delivers Monday July 7th in Virginia Beach, VA @ 0800. In total it’s a 3105 miles ( this includes my empty miles). Not too bad at all for a one pick and one drop on a holiday week.

Lastly, this load isn’t the exception. It’s the norm.

 

I failed to mention since this is always a hot topic amongst drivers — There are NO inwards facing cameras.

In addition, Hollands shop personnel replace the factory fridge ( Frieghtliner Cascadia) with a stainless still dorm style refrigerator.

The trucks are no more and 3 yrs old and run 68MPH and they have SmartPass allowing for 70MPH every 12hrs.

The trucks also come with 32inch smart TV and free Satellite radio. The driver also has the option to have the passenger side seat removed for more space.

Trucks are assigned to the driver prior to coming to orientation. My understanding is that a truck
assignment is based off of their CSA score and driving record. In other words, the better record one has, the newer the truck. This is what I’ve been told by some veteran drivers at Holland.

There is a $500 deposit which is taken out at $25 a week and returned to the driver if they decide to leave the company and this is contingent on the satisfactory return of the truck.

The recruiters are Laura and Eric. Both helpful and friendly. Holland isn’t a mega carrier and while they do have some turnover it’s nothing like others.

Be advised, one of the very first questions I was asked when I talked to Laura was “ are you able to stay out a minimum of three weeks”. This is because of the longer length of haul.

If you have any other questions feel free to PM me.

 

That extra 2mph with pass smart would be nice for all those other trucks governed at 67 or are governed at 68 but have worn out tires so they're down a fraction of a mph. Normally I wouldn't bother passing in those situations but an extra 2mph would allow me to do so.