Do mega companies put new drivers in challenging situations?

if you a re told "sure, we will get you off it", beware that they may never tell you when.

if after (say) 1 month of still on that account, start looking for another job, then when you find one, tell them and this is the reason why you are leaving...maybe then they will transfer you, or show you the door.....

 

I guess my move would be to ask them how badly they need my time, labor, and professionalism to run the Walmart account. While you may be an employee, you were put on a certain fleet that suited you. It’s a two way street. They want to change the game, they need to make it worth your while and put their money where their mouth is.

They pay enough money, they won’t have any trouble getting and keeping drivers on those dedicated accounts that have lots of negatives.

 

Sadly money isn't everything, it also depends on how much company values and treats employee and is willing to listen to valuable input from drivers.

 

If you have a good MVR and a year experience, Crete/Shaffer is not a bad company at all. The driver pay is good, the trucks are maintained well, and there is plenty of freight.

Without a year experience, you will have to spend some time in a trainer's truck. Roughly 1 week for each month less than a year I think, but it is a more complex calculation then that. I waited till I had more than a year experience before coming here, so i could avoid time in a trainer's truck.

Our trucks have fewer bells and whistles than a lot of megas. No APU, but we do have opti-idle. The fleet is moving to autos, but most new drivers are still getting manuals. Most of our trucks are Freightliners and Internationals, but we are starting to buy Kenworths too, recently.

I have reviewed the Shaffer side here. If you have more questions, I will do my best to answer them in PM rather than derail a thread here.

 

Actually, enough money can make all problems go away. But setting that fact to the side, true that money is not everything but the first point still holds true.

 

Coming from a WM private fleet driver, trust me nobody wants to, or gets paid enough to deal with all the issue on that account.

Yes, astronomical amounts of money can cure just about anything. But nothing us poor saps working for a living will encounter.

With all the headaches of otr, plus getting the squeeze from upper management, constant nagging, and bickering gets to be enough. Lots of good 10, 15, 20 year+ drivers are saying enough is enough and taking an "early retirement" or going local.

 

75 cpm, minimum trip length 200 miles, $100 per stop plus benefits package. They probably have roughly those figures baked into the driver cost when they negotiated the contract. They just need to loosen up their grip on their revenue and what rightly belongs to the drivers. (Figuring a Dollar General type account)

 

when you search for another job simple, just ask right out.."do you have dedicated accounts or customers"?

if they ask why, tell them, you'd rather be OTR.

simple.

 

No, they pretty much just put the general public and the rest of the truckers out there in challenging situations. We try to keep them from crashing into us after 17 glorious days of training.