The Walmart skinny

On boarding & Orientation is the same thing, right or is it something different?

 

i know during on boarding your not 100% hired. i went threw the old system. you need to ask some of the newer folks

 

If it's the same as it was, you have to pass onboarding to get into orientation. Don't think you learn peoplenet in onboarding for example.

 

It is basically the same thing... You will have 2 orientations... 1 with onboarding in Bentonville, 1 at your DC you run out of... The previous comment is correct... Onboarding is basically testing to see if Walmart wants to hire you based on skills.... I just went thru it about a month ago... In my onboarding class there were around 66 people... At the end of the week, only 58ish were hired, rest got sent home... For my DC alone in my class there were 6 people hired... 2 of the new hires already quit after being fully hired. With that said... Onboarding testing is just a slack version of DOT testing... For 3 days on each day you will do 1 backing, 1 pretrip, 1 road test... And repeat each test each day for the first 3 days... Generally the classes are large enough that they split it and merge it with first orientation, so half will be doing the tests before lunch, half will be doing orientation, which is the standard, sexual harassment training, company policy's, driving policy's, etc.. after lunch each half swaps, those who were in class are now testing.... Again this rinses and repeats for first 3 days (Mon-Wed)... On Thursday they again give those who are struggling a little more help with the testing (again they just do it the DOT way but call it the Walmart way) and the rest are finishing more driver class work, usually hazmat, and driver fatigue stuff... At the end of Thursday everyone goes home.... If you flew there, then you will go back to hotel for Friday flight home, those who drove, can stay again in hotel and leave friday... Everyone at that point starts orientation 2 at their DC they were hired for that next Monday... Orientation 2 is photos for ID, uniform stuff, bank stuff, etc. Then you are usually with a trainer on Wed for 1.5 weeks (with weekends off). Then on your own.
Now let me explain what slack DOT testing means.... They don't expect you to know the the names of all 105 components for a pretrip.. you can say I'm inspecting that hanger thing there to make sure it's bolted on tight and not broken... They are cool with that. But yes generally you do all parts of the pretrip. Most have you explain the air brake check test, if you cant explain it, then you do it.... The road test and backing test are self explanatory, as long as you don't run a red light or hit anything your good... With that said... Day 1 (Monday) they say, today is your day to show us what you know... Then even if you fail, on Tuesday, they show you "the Walmart way" which is just a refresher of the DOT requirements (in regards to pretrips). Backing and road test there is nothing to do "the Walmart way" just do it the trucking way... Only the pretrip stuff is DOT/Walmart way. (My class at end of day 1, they said out of 66 people, they would have only hired 8)- most either hit a trailer backing up or failed the pretrip... By the end of Thursday, about 58 were hired as I previously said....

 

My experience from being hired 1 month ago:
So I have determined every experience will be different due to each DC does have its pros and cons... My DC is heavily involved in helping a nearby DC that has problems... So since we are helping them we naturally encounter those same problems.... The biggest issue is loads... The last couple days I have been assigned loads that are not ready and have sat at the DC for minimum 3 hours. This in turn has caused me to not be able to finish the load (multi-store stop) and I have to finish hitting the stores the next day... This in turns puts a huge hole in my pocket... So I am definitely not happy about it... That being said I understand the DC we are helping just recently became fully operated by Walmart, prior it was fully operated by a 3rd party company. So I suspect this will eventually calm down and become more efficient, however, I can very easily see that taking 1-2 years... So I can't blame anyone for this, it's just a matter of opinion if you feel you should quit over this or xfer to another DC... I am still on the fence about it... My other experiences are typical learning curve stuff. My ADP for being on my own and still learning is $325. I can see that going up higher given the other DC we help a lot becomes efficient... With that said, I am not happy about the necessity to work 14 hours a day to get that amount of money... Do I/You have to work a 14 hour shift, of course not. You put in your time when you want to start.... But thus far I've had to in order to get that kind of ADP... I can again easily see that getting higher with less work hours the more stores I go to as I do realize I spend about 10 min to do routing per store, so naturally the more stores I go to and become familiar, the less time spent on routing.. so easily if you hit 5-8 stores a day and 10 min a pop for routing... That's over an hour saved in due time... The sweet spot stats I've come to learn is hitting minimum 400 miles a day... Typical that will involve 4-5 stops. That will usually be the $300 ADP mark.. With that said, I've quickly learned the more miles you run, the less money you make... One day I hit 550 miles... My ADP for that day was just around $250... Another consideration I've have to account for was travel time... Naturally Walmarts are everywhere... So 70% of the time you will not be on the Interstate for longer than 30 min, rest of it are back US highways or county roads which means slower speed limits. So a typical 65 mile trip that naturally is 1 hour will easily turn into 1.5 hours with stop signs and red lights and slower speed limits. So with all that you are working 5 days a week 14 hour shifts. Since I'm a stiffler for learning the ins and outs of everything I have easily done 16 hour days... Just didn't log it... Again Walmart is not forcing this. I have been on my own for about 3 weeks. I can be on duty when I take my showers if I want, Walmart will not care. It will eat your clock for your 14 hour shift though... But being on duty is what accrues your PTO so yes use it when you can. As I mentioned it can be hard to even hit 350 miles a day which is typically just under 6 hours of straight drive time.... The last 2 days have been 14 hours and barely over 200 miles.... Again that's barely 3 hours of straight drive time... So you can't look at it that way anymore like most truckers do.
---So my final thoughts... As a driver who is suppose to relocate his entire family up here as that was my choice with the impression Walmart was going to pay me 86k/yr which after talking with other drivers who been here a long time is not going to happen... I am actually on the fence about staying or not. I can see I will make more money than I have with any of my previous jobs, but just not as advertised. Well with the new pay comes the new tax bracket, and new location means now state taxes and some cases city taxes... So all that more money puts me back at making the same I was before.... So I have not decided if it's worth it to me and my family yet. I have not found a place to live yet so have been living out of hotels on my weekends and searching for rentals. I have options, but still trying to find the right one for my family... again your experience will be different, can be worse, can be better... I am out of 6824 in Grove City, OH. We help out 7012...

 

I have no concern about my skills & i should do fine, i just hate to quit my current employer before i know WM will hire me or not. Thanks for all the info from everyone it`s been very helpful.

 

You never know when the safety manager will be watching you.

 

My main concern is that my company went with auto`s back in 2012, therefore i`ve not driven a manual transmission in a long time. How does Wal-Mart trainers deal with drivers that might not shift very well or haven`t driven a manual?

 

As long as you show you know how, you can get familiarize yourself with it in time. Guys here been driving for decades and still grinding gears.