Thinking of going to Heartland when I complete a year at CRST in September.

My buddy works for them and lives paycheck to paycheck.
You can do better driving for that grocery warehouse in Miami, I think it's Associated Grocers.
FFE has a terminal in Miami.
Better yet, get a tanker job.

 

You can do worse but you can do much better. Several friends of mine over the years have worked for them. More CPM, less miles...it all evens out. The real downside is the home time. A 34 hour restart a few times a month and that's it. Drivers out of Jacksonville Fl spend their life in New England. Carlisle drivers spend their life in the southeast. By going regional you cut your pay significantly. They also have lots of nit pickey rules and are big on micro-management. Their not for everyone. Heartlands one of the companies on here that is represented from both sides of the fence so there is lots of info here.

 

Only real micro management is with use of tolls and fuel stops. I tend to get fuel changed if I don't like the stop. But tolls they are picky about. Otherwise routing is all on the driver, they don't pick routes, or suggest them in most cases. I run Columbus regional. So end up in the Northeast allot, but I live south of Buffalo in NY. So I live there also.
Really they are on a Dispatcher by Dispatcher bases. Some are great, some are not. You get lucky or screwed. If you have a bad one, try and work it out with the dispatcher, if it cannot be done, then change.
I have seen allot of idiots come into the company the past few years. They don't know how to read a map or route themselves. They cannot work their clock, so waste hours and short themselves on loads for the week.
So this is the area a good dispatcher can make or break a driver. If you suck. They will not help you get better. You will just loose money and miles. They are not a training company, so don't have time to train drivers.
You can either do the job, or you cannot.
Many cannot. They come from training company's that hold their hand. Route them. Plan their clocks for them etc. Drivers that are use to this type system will not make it at Heartland without a steep learning curve.

 

If you value your integrity, your good work history, and you wish to move on to better pastures in the future, I'd think twice about it.....Or better......A dozen times before you even think about it.
1) They have a culture of pure mechanization---whereby they treat their drivers as machines. They want to extract from their drivers every drop of sweat or blood they can, without much input into the lives of their drivers. It does not matter if your spouse is ill, or an emergency has taken place, or if the driver, himself, is ill....All they care about is the bottom line. Fleet managers have a board, and if they fall under a certain percentage, out the door they go. And it didn't matter that Heartless would preapprove my my husband's time off-----they always figured out a way to take him to another geographical area----far from home, so as not to give him his time off. Mind you, he would only come home once every four weeks. Even when he was out for longer than three months, they would still give him a hard time if he asked for time off. Or.....Let me put it this way. He was always told yes, ahead of time. But when it came time for him to come home, he'd be told that the needs of the company preceded the needs of the driver. As a spouse, I found myself having to call the company to plead and beg them, to allow my husband to come home. As a disabled spouse, I needed him to be home at least once per month, on a Friday, in order to see my doctor. That didn't matter, either. Knowing that my husband would be driving, they would tell me they would not speak with the spouse of a driver, by which time it would be too late for my husband to come home. This happened every time my husband was due to come home. In a few words, they are a snake with several heads: One head is the safety Dept. always at the orders of the Operations Dept. Once they want to get rid of the driver, the Operations dept. (Jay or Clilff) PH: 1-800-523-4859) will get in touch with the safety Dept., (1-319-626-3350)who will get in touch with HR, which are one and the same? to see how they can find the slightest reason possible, to do so..... Trust me, once they find something.....They will make it impossible for you to be hired anywhere else. It is happening to us, as I'm typing. I could understand their actions, had my husband been drinking, or doing drugs, or if he had had an accident. None of these things apply to my husband. Yet.....They will go to extraordinary lengths, willing to spend dozens of hours if necessary to ruin a driver's financial and/or honorable life.
These people are worst than the mafia. They don't play games, and they always make an offer that the driver can't refuse. But.....Whatever
the offer is, it will ruin the driver's life. For many years to come....Your good record with no incidents, no accidents, no violations no citations------All out the window---Just like that---In a day or two. More than 25 years of perfect driving? Never, ever been involved with the law in any negative manner? None of those excellent records will mean anything to any prospective employer. HeartLess, as they are called by their drivers, will make the driver's life one pure, unadulterated living hell. Don't fall for the high rate miles they pay, either. They make their drivers drive through back roads for even hundred of miles in one given week, just so that they don't have to pay for tolls. They treat their drivers like garbage in such subtle manner, making their drivers feel as if they are really beneath them. Not ever wanting to meet the driver in person, or even talk to him if he happens to be around. Did you ever feel like you wanted to meet your fleet manager, or his boss? FAT CHANCE!! GOD forbid..... A driver is not one of their own..... Although I bet you all---My husband has more education than they do. (My husband, Has a Masters Degree in International Relations and National Security Studies.) He is well spoken, he presents well. My husband drove for 2.5 years under such conditions, with the most horrible directions possible. How many drivers does it take to file a law suit against this company, for what they do to their drivers? Anyone? I'm so willing to take them on!!!! I will do all the leg work necessary. Why? Because with such a perfect driving record, one should be able to find work in this industry. Yet, I don't know what they have told prospective employers, to make this an impossibility. How can they classify "A logbook violation" as a "Falsification"? I will do whatever is necessary to rectify this error. My reputation (and that of my husband's) is the only one thing we have left here.....I will not allow them to take that away. And.....Is it NOT against the law to prevent a person or a company from ruining one's professional reputation and from earning a livelihood? Any lawyers out there? Again!!!! i will do all the leg work. How many drivers out there, do we have, for a law-suit?
As for their terminals, I can tell you they are at the bottom of the barrel. Filthy, extremely old, and one feels as if upon taking a
shower, one has to disinfect the entire place. How fitting that the driver's quarters have been left to the hand of GOD. I am most positive no manager has ever gone down or up---whatever the case may be, to see if things are clean, or in working order, or falling apart? Or perhaps they need to be changed or improved? Again.....GOD forbid one of those "managers" sets foot in a place sooooooo much beneath them. The snakes at HeartLess Express have to answer for what they do to their drivers. This must stop. I/we will use everything that the law provides and is within its boundaries, to address this issue. They (the snakes) have venom in their fangs, but I/we have persistence and a fiery will to do what is right. How many good drivers, driving for HeartLess Express are in the same predicament?

 

Your husband has "Masters Degree in International Relations and National Security Studies" but has been a truck driver for 25 years?

Not that there aren't college educated truck drivers out there. There certainly are, but not with such specialized degrees. Why is he not working in the field for which he studied?

Then, of course, your untrue statement about the terminals, which I mentioned in another thread you commented on.

Were you a team driver with him? How would you be privy to ALL the terminals and their conditions?

My spidey sense warning light is flashing "BS".