Walmart.. who was it?

Well the money is good but most drivers I hear are a couple hours at least from the DC they drive out of. A job to have is with Lance Shyner if you leave wherever they are out of.

 

I'm with Walmart and have a little insight into the reason we seem to be hiring so much.
Biggest reason; cost. We've found it to be considerably cheaper to have our own private fleet than to pay for dedicated. So there was a huge effort to make driver hiring a priority around here, it is waning now, but we're still planning to hire a considerable number this year.
Other factors of course go into this hiring though, as mentioned previously a lot of our drivers are coming up on their retirement age, because our turnover is very low compared to the average company, retirement is the main way we lose drivers.
We have very strict hiring policies, so yes filling seats can be tough to do. Also safety is a huge deal, you may have heard of a pretty infamous fatal accident involving a Walmart driver a couple years ago, so there are people who get termed for safety infractions, but I would hardly call the fireable offenses minor safety issues.
Long story short, it's a good company to drive for. If you are the rebellious type it's probably not a great fit, but we do still have very strong pay and benefits compared to most true trucking companies.

 

That sucks.

 

I remember when they had that fleet of cabovers, it was a top shelf job.

 

I've been at a Walmart DC doing dedicated for almost two months now and spoke with a few Walmart drivers. They all seem to like it, from the 100% drop and hooks, home every or every other night and newest equipment. One guy I spoke with had a royal blue freighliner with a 3 mil safe mile sticker on it. Asked him that's what, 27 years or so with Walmart? I half seriously said, you must be a millionaire by now, he laughed and said he's about half way. For me, the money wouldn't be worth having to follow all of those EXTRA rules..

Might be a little different depending the region but most of their drivers I see are older, clean cut white guys 50+.

 

There is a lot of misinformation here, and this is just one. My husband is a current driver for Walmart.

Yes there are cellphone usage rules, but they are hardly strict. No texting while driving is a Federal rule, so that is an immediate fire, as it should be with any carrier. You can talk in 10 minute intervals while driving up to 60 minutes in a day. You can talk as much as you want when not on the drive line. Do not talk during rush hour traffic.

They will only get your records (previous 3 days) if you get pulled for a random alcohol test (not random drug test) or if you have an accident. Period. There is no general monitoring of phones. Yes, some drivers got fired because they thought they would skirt the rules by having a second phone that WM didn't know about. That is dishonesty, and dishonesty is THE biggest fireable offense.

They do not have camera's yet, but will be testing them in a couple of markets early next year. They are testing both in/out and out only. It is a 6-month trial using 2 different companies.

WM is hiring a lot due to mass retirements. As some have stated, their fleet tends to be an older one, so high numbers are retiring due to past hiring peaks. They are also fazing out a lot of dedicated, as it costs them more money to do. They are even taking back a lot of dry groceries from their grocery DC's due to issues with outside carriers. This all adds up to more hiring. Actual turn-over is very light.

If you are a wild child, WM is not for you. However, they are actually very easy to work for, and hard to get fired from. They don't just fire you willy nilly. You have to get 3 steps in a short period of time, which are also hard to get. They do not fire older drivers, and you can work there as long as you can pass a 1-yr physical. It is still a great job. Are there irritations, yep. Is it perfect, nope. For the most part you are treated with respect and make good money. The vast majority of rules are common sense.............. but don't lie. They will give you many outs if you lie, but if you insist on your lie you will get fired.

 

Sounds a lot like GSF , great job , you just need to be a grown up to understand that part.