Some Advice for drivers looking at NCI-National carriers

it would be advisable for people looking at nci. to have a few hundred dollars when they start with nci. the reason is. once a week renewable advance. orientation ends on Wednesday afternoon. if the shop is ready. you will have a truck that day. if not then it will be Thursday. in order to get the once a week advance on the card by Friday night at midnight. driver must complete first load with empty call by the renew dead line. if not. it will be a week before it will go on the card. you can call in and get a personal advance. the orientation pay works like the advance. it's $250. more good news. drivers just got a 8.5% raise in pay. there no more split pay. it's a strait .38 cpm loaded or empty for company drivers. l/p and owner ops have a choice between mileage or percentage. I think milage is .98cpm. and percentage is 75% gross of the load. hometime is one day for every 6 days out up to 4 days a month. hometime can be banked and used. but company drivers must turn in the truck at the yard to have more then 4 days off in a row. miles: so far it looks like the miles are there. most long loads come out of the plants going all over. and they get what every they can coming back to the plant. wait times at the plant looks long. by the time you get there. it's more like 10 to 12 hrs. which work out great for getting a 10 hours break. if it's longer. they will put you up in a hotel for the night. and they do give plenty of time to get the load where it is going. do they have loads with bad etas? you bet! but they rarely come from the plant. they are loads that a driver has messed up. either by getting in a wreck, over sleeping, or damaging a trailer where the load had to be taken off. and they had to send another driver to recover it. and from what I have seen. if a driver is on here whining about miles from nci. that driver is probably lazy and just doesn't want to work. what are the trucks like. the t-700 are very nice thanks to the policy of no modifications to the interior of the truck. the t-700 are 10 speeds. they are paccar mx motors. or a redesigned n-14 cummins. and they do pull great over the hills and mountains. right now the entire fleet is being upgraded to the t-680's that are coming fully loaded with automatics, thermo king apu's and installed refrigerators. and they are leasing the brand news as well. and the whole fleet will be the t-680s by june. so right now is a perfect time to start working at nci.


orientation: it's self paced. done in 2 1/2 days. drivers are put in there own room at the best western. everything you need is with in 2 blocks of the hotel. the hotel shuttle takes you to the terminal and back. meals are like this. breakfast at the hotel. lunch is from the mom&pop restaurant down the road. really good food. dinner is a choice of subway or aspen creek. there is only $10 on the cards. but the food is really good at aspen creek. the tests are open book in orientation. and consist of 8 videos 4 offline. and 4 online. the road test is a trip around the block and a 45 degree backing.


what to bring to orientation
non laminated social security card. if you don't have it. you need to get your butt down the the s/s office and get a new one.

twic card if you have one.

pass port if you have one.

10 years work history. plus w-2s pay stubs. it helps show real proof of employment. and it prevents past employers from saying you never worked for them. I had that very thing happen to me.

crash bag as I call it. pretty much the basic things you need to pick the truck up and be out on the road for 2 weeks.

they will send a bus ticket to bring you to orientation in irving,tx. every one else in my class flew or drove. how that works. they will reimburse up to the amount of the bus ticket. if you drive it's .25 cpm.

to give every one some idea. the rarely send drivers back home from orientation.

what are they looking for. drivers who aren't afraid to work hard. and drivers willing go to the north east.

for those who have read the other blogs about nci. orientation is run by some one else. nci went through and got rid of most of the people making the company look bad to drivers and customers. pretty much gave it a face lift. and to be honest. from what I gather. there not looking to hire anymore people like this.

and to end this on a good note. nci does seem like a good place to work.

 

ok, I told the good. it's time to start giving honest details about this company.

miles are average of 2500 a week. when you can get them. there are no weekly advances. lf you call to ask for a personal advance they whine about you asking for it. so scaling loads and paying for tolls. is hard to do on such a small check. for me it's working out to be $200 a week take home net. that really sucks. night/weekend dispatch are nthe nearly non respondant to messages or phone calls. day time dispatch are nearly as bad. can't ask to get an appt. reset due to lacking hours to deliver. they also tax the perdeim. so you pay 7% more in taxes. nci drivers are the only ones that got a pay increase. and you can tell that everyone else is unhappy about it. so don't look to get treated too well. nci isn't a very good place to work. truthfully. I wished I would have came here to work. what I stated above. is what they say they are offering. and what they are doing now. this blog here. is how it's all unfolding. so stay tuned. I imagine there will be more to add. to the thread.