Decker

I did the reefer account back in 2023, but I left on real bad terms. What do you want to know?

 

Bad terms? Care to share? Good miles? Customers? What's it like working there?

 

Sorry for the wait: I was trucking. Had full days yesterday and today.

So, I left on bad terms, but it was mostly my own emotional instability at the time, so I can't blame them for that. There were definitely things Decker could have done better, but they're not necessarily a bad company (at least for reefer: can't speak towards the flatbed side).

Miles were pretty okay-ish for a being out for about 10-12 days, but it was a lot of sitting. I have since learned that this is typical of reefer, but sitting obviously takes away from time you could be moving. I was rarely preplanned, but they normally gave plenty of time to deliver loads without running up your whole clock. I mostly ran the Midwest and along I-80, along with some Southeast, although I went all the way out to Seattle with my trainer (I requested that I wanted to learn mountain driving). Decker has a terminal in Missoula, MT, so reefer drivers based out there do a lot more Western states than I did. Most common states I was sent to include Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois (Chicagoland mainly), Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, and sometimes Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan. (Ohio and Michigan were the furthest east I was sent while I was there, although if I had stayed longer I could see potentially being sent to Pennsylvania every so often). I was once given a load to Dallas but that ended up being a relay, I went to Tennessee and Mississippi once, and I took a load to Idaho and Colorado when I stayed out longer. Again, on the reefer account I saw a lot of I-80, particularly from Chicago through Nebraska.

Decker does a lot of meat loads (at least they did in the first part of 2023), so I was at Tyson a lot. Tyson was always a drop and hook, but for some reason the trailers I was picking up often weren't ready, and sometimes it took a while for them to be ready (like a day or so). This was quite annoying, since something like 30% of my loads were Tyson. However, this is more an indictment on Tyson I suppose rather than Decker. However, Decker did some groceries loads, and I remember sitting at those places for a while too: the Walgreens near Toledo was particularly egregious and took over 18 hours to live unload me. I would say it was about 65% live load/unload and 35% drop and hook (mostly Tyson and Hy-Vee) when I was there. Don't know if those numbers are accurate for most Decker drivers or now in 2025; that was just my experience. (As an aside, Hy-Vee is one of their main customers, and I loved those loads.) Occasionally I would do "dry" loads where the reefer was turned off, but I didn't do those that often. Sometimes I had a load of something random, but I mostly carried meat, groceries, crops (potatoes out of Idaho), and foodstuffs.

I had a young child at the time (I still do, but she was even younger then), so hometime was *really* important to me, and Decker didn't always get me home exactly when I asked. This was probably the biggest frustration and the main reason I ended up not staying there. I also butted heads with my driver manager a lot. When I was hired on, I was given a driver manager, but he quit like a day later, so I was probably just foisted onto the other driver manager without them really expecting it, and that ended up becoming an issue later on. I wish I could remember my cpm, but I honestly don't: it was probably in the mid 50s range. I don't remember because I almost always relied on the guaranteed minimum pay, which was $1000/week at the time, so that probably tells you enough about the pay. However, I didn't usually stay out longer than 10 days or so (because my hometime was so important); if I had stayed out longer, I might have made more than the guaranteed weekly minimum of $1000.

My favorite part of working at Decker was the trucks. They kept up the equipment very well, even the trailers, and I miss that Peterbilt (not the Paccar engine, but the sleeper and driver controls definitely). They provided free CB radios, free Satellite TV, and free wifi in the trucks, along with fridge, microwave, inverters, APUs, etc. Trucks are governed at 65 on pedal and 68 on cruise, which was plenty for me. (SmartPass up to 70 would have been nice though--they didn't have that.) My biggest gripe along these lines is that Decker has driver-facing cameras, although I was never bothered about anything. And they have all the annoying nanny sensors in the truck that a lot of other carriers have. (Automatic braking, lane assist, etc.)

I didn't think about it at the time, but their main terminal is in Fort Dodge, IA, which means if you need to go there for some reason, it's pretty out of the way and it feels like it takes forever to get to. They'll still find freight around there for you of course, but now that I'm at a company with a main terminal in a larger city, I see how much more convenient it is if I need to have my truck looked at or something (or if I want to stop for the night somewhere other than a truck stop, if I'm in the area). Decker does have a terminal in Hammond, IN (near Chicago--pretty small, but there's some maintenance there I think), and they have a major terminal in Missoula, MT. I think their flatbed division is based out of Alabama, more or less.

After all this, I know it seems like I've talked it up, and that I'm an idiot for having left--and maybe I was. But the hometime thing really got to me, and even with staying out longer than I expected, I was only bringing home $700 and $800 checks every week after taxes and benefits. I finally quit when I had an issue with a receipt for a $600 lumper fee and they waited over 10 days to finally say that I owed them for that fee, which would have been most of my weekly check. I didn't handle myself well either at the time, but being asked to pay the $600 lumper fee over a week after the load had been delivered was the final straw after only making $50K gross a year and typically not getting home on time (and constantly arguing with my DM about the stupidest things, although some of those were on me). I don't know if it's better or worse now; on their website, I don't think Decker is even advertising a guaranteed weekly minimum for the regional reefer account anymore, so maybe they did away with it. I do remember the flatbedders there liking it more than the reefer drivers though. Probably a lot less waiting on their part, haha, and they had a Midwest flatbed account that advertised home on the weekend for two days and a weekly guaranteed minimum of $1450. (I was actually planning to switch to that before things went south with the lumper fee.) Don't know if they still do that Midwest flatbed account, or what that's like. If Decker didn't hate me and wanted to give me another try, I would only go back on the flatbed side, not the reefer division. But I probably would not go back to Decker, even if we were on better terms, because hometime is still really important to me.

Anyways, hope this offered some insight. They're not a bad company by any means, but it wasn't good enough at least in reefer for me to stay very long, so take from that what you will. Maybe it's the right company for you... or maybe not.