Ashley Distribution

Let me start by stating the obvious..no trucking job is perfect or even mostly good....trucking is full of inherent problems both with the industry itself and the stresses of driving for a living. That said, I want to post what I have learned about this company and as I can, my experiences as a new hire. My background: I came into trucking in my late 50's. I worked in the building trades for most of my life climbing (sometimes by my raw fingers) up to the place where I owned a small homebuilding business. I was blessed with being able to work in something I really loved, I've built a lot of houses for some really nice people over the years. Short part of the long story is that I closed up shop after the housing bubble burst and I needed to find another way to make a living.
My 1st trucking job was with Schneider as an otr driver. After about a year I was ready to move on. As it turned out Schneider took on a flatbed account for a glass company close to where I live so I transfered there and pulled a flatbed with crated glass to construction sites mostly in downtown metro areas. About the same time I moved to the glass account I applied to Ashley and was asked to come in for a road test. After thinking about it I decided to give the flatbed a year and see how it went. A year turned into 2 and a half. I left Schneider earlier this year, took some time off and applied with Ashley again a couple months ago. Anyways that's my back story.
I've been around a while and I can tell you this is not your average trucking company. I am really impressed. It is a very large and growing privately owned furniture manufacturing company with both company owned and licensed stores that sell their product. They have a 600 plus fleet of trucks with drivers that move product to the stores and in and out of their production plants. They also use private carriers they contract with. We were told in orientation they want to expand their truck fleet by several hundred drivers.
I'll try to update this thread a couple times a week.

 

The trucks all have apu's, refrigerator/freezers and 1500 watt inverters. You can bring your own 700 watt microwave..there is a cabinet for it. The Volvos are 780's and 670's. They also have Kenworths. I was told the trucks are rotated to new every 3/4 years. The seem to have a really good maint. System. When a trailer comes into one of the factory/shop yards the driver pulls it through a post trip stall where a tech signs off on it before it's dropped.
Orientation is 3 1/2 days. It's in Arcadia wisconsin their corporate hdqts.they fly you in on Monday, starts Tues and finishes Friday about noon. No trainers here, they want 1 plus years experience I think it used to be 2 yrs or more.