Interstate Distribution Company - Tacoma, Wa.

That $600 week would be gross not net

 

LOL. Maybe you're right but I just might take my changes.

 

I'm looking for recent 411 on interstate dist in Tacoma WA looking for a fair company

 

It has been a year since I was there...IDC is a team company..Solo's get leftovers...Good equip....Newsletter says they are getting rid of Volvo's going with Kenworth/Freightliner...newsletter also say some changes coming for the future...Probably not good for the employee...You won't get rich there...

 

Just talked to fleet manager in Tacoma Wa...the reason the contract carriers (owner/operators) arent getting paid is things arent looking too good for the company...(maybe shutting down?)...just beware!

 

Im sure a fleet manager would know the financial status of a company. Really? C'mon now. This is a company with many accounts, new equiptment all the time, and some very loyal drivers. I wished it would have worked out for me, but, i had a bad dispatcher and couldnt get any help. Its a shame because all in all they are not a bad company. And i guess it would help to be a team. They are more team driven. But beautiful terminals, trucks, etc.

 

I have a friend, too, who was a fleet manager for IDC and he told me all sorts of stuff about how bad off the company was but I don't really buy it. I worked for the for 3 years up to Sept '10, both solo and team. A lot of times as a solo I got some crap loads, like grabbing something with awesome miles just to relay it to a team..aarrggh... BUT, as a team, we also got some really messed up loads. On the flip side, both of those were infrequent and the company is using new software that enables them to get preplans to you more effectively. There were times where we had preplans for the next 2 loads while we were still on the first one. We were easily getting 6000 miles. As a solo, I rarely got less than 2800 mi/week. They also have a team board now for those wanting to really run hard, make some awesome miles, and stay out 3 weeks or more, and have hazmat.

My only complaint is the time it takes to get repairs down. There were times I was down for 4 days waiting to get into the shop. We had continuous problems with our truck that seriously cut into our miles for a few months. We ended up taking our issues to the VP of Ops and our problems was solved with a new (new to us) truck. Moral of the story is: If you have probs and do nothing, nothing will get solved. You have the right to change fleet managers if you can't work with yours.. and when they talk about the "open door" policy, they mean it. All it takes is a walk up those stairs.

They really are a great company to work for, but you gotta take responsibility for your own welfare. I don't work there anymore.. but if I went back to driving they would be my number 1 choice. In fact when we quit, they sent us each letters saying that we were appreciated and invited back to a big green truck at any time.

Hopefully this is helpful to someone

 

Knight recuiters promised me hometime and I believed it because I lived on one of the routes, and I did get loads past the house but never enough time to stop. My dispatcher always told me that she had a lot of loads though my hometown in cue, but never any with any extra time on them. I got Thanksgiving day at home, and that was the only day I had at home in 6 months. Seriously! I only stayed 6 months so as to try to keep a little bit of decent work history, and this, of course, is the trap design, IMHO. But this was only 1 of my many complaints. The pay was the old bait and switch routine, i.e. promised X cents per mile but in reality a couple of cents were not there on pay day, but had to be earned as a bonus after 3 months, but even then it wasn't there because (only then was it explained) you had to comply with all the requirements on a Jesus sheet ( I call it that because only Jesus is perfect enough to pass). The requirements included getting an impossible MPG, recruiting at least one driver per year that would stay at least 6 months or longer, never be late with a load, and much much more. I rank Knight as the worst of the 5 carriers I have worked for in my approx. 16 years on the road. Now I understand that Knight has gone LTL as much as possible, so you can expect to hump a lot of freight, and the lumping pay is peanuts (unsalted, lol). I'm just sayin'.

 

Hello GungHoGal
Thanks for inviting me to ask you some questions about IDC. I did have some questions, I hear IDC is pro team driving, but would they hire a team straight out of CDL school? my wife and I plan on going through school together at UCC. I don't know enough about the trucking industry yet to ask the right questions, but from what I gather IDC sounds like a good company to work for.

 

I loved working for IDC as both a solo and team.. they always treated me/us really well. The bad thing is that they hire with experience only... I don't really know if thats bad actually (except for your situation) since its probably the biggest reason that they have one of the best safety ratings in the industry and we never got bothered at the scales very often. My suggestion would be to get your CDL and go to work for a large company for a year or so then start working on IDC.

a few things to consider:

Make sure that the training company uses either qualcom or preferably DriverTech communications and has over 100 trucks. My boyfriend had 14 years driving exp and it was a booger trying to get him on because his companies were smaller and didnt have a satellite based communication system. The biggest thing is to keep your nose clean.. no accidents and tickets.

Be prepared to throw chains! There are a bazillion philosophies out there about chaining up. A lot of guys will say its not worth it.. and find a place to hide out. Some will say that you chain to get yourself out of a situation, not into it. IDC will pretty much expect you to chain up and go if the roads are open. They will NOT, however, ask you to put yourself in danger or drive past your ability. I admit that chaining is a major pain in the ##### but once they are on and moving, I always felt a huge relief to be moving again. I drove solo most of last winter and had to chain up 5 times.

They really are team hungry. When we quit, we had several phone calls asking us to stay and even got a nice letter telling us how much they valued and appreciated us and invited us back at any time. Kinda leaves ya with a warm and fuzzy feeling lol. They now have a board for teams that want to really run hard and stay out for at least 3 weeks at a time. On that board you will always be preplanned at least a week in advance which is reeeaallly nice.

Anyways.. I hope I gave you some good information and things to consider. If ya have any other questions, just holler. What I will tell you will be from my own personal experience with them... not that " Oh well.. my brothers brothers-in-laws uncle worked for them and he says..." bs. Good luck to you guys!!