The Walmart skinny

I’m set to head for orientation soon. Be working out of Grandview, WA
CAN you tell we what ELD system they use?
Does everyone start out with a mentor for at least a week? And is that out of my DC?
Is it possible to view a drivers company handbook online!
Thanks!

 

no. they will toast you in a quick minute for posting a company on wm stuff if its traced back to you. dont never give names or anything major away on here. there have been others look at it.

 

what info you need

 

You will have a mentor for the first week, it will be a driver from your DC who will have volunteered for it so don't be afraid to ask any questions. I cannot answer your question about ELD's as they still had Qualcom when i retired so when it comes to peoplenet 'i know nothing' as Sargent Schultz would say.

 

The system is peoplenet and it takes some time to get use to. Literally when I got Qualcomm down it was switched over and I can tell you now Qualcomm was way better. No random freezes, no random outages. Peoplenet was an issue not sure if it still is.

 

Most Walmart uses peoplenet which is overall they best device I have encountered for logging. It has some bugs yes, but overall functions fine and is 100 times better than QC. However that is only for the next 6 months as ELD is being forced by the feds and peoplenet goes out the window for logging anyway... I don't take talk seriously, but there is some sense to what I've heard so far and that is.... The new systems eat your clock like butter and is calculated to cost the avg Walmart driver they estimate $1.5k-$3k per year, but to counter act that as it's not Walmart drivers fault that Walmart is supposedly in the process of coming up with new pay system to bring it back up, some theories are bonus pay for every month your not in an accident or some other pay increasing method... I don't buy that last part as we already get a safety bonus for just that... Safety and wouldn't avoiding accidents be part of safety? But either side is gossip, the only thing that holds to unfortunate possible truth is the loss of income because of the ELD stuff.. example complaints are confirmed is arriving at a store to do a drop and hook. Even in reverse it kicks you onto drive line. So you back up to drop a trailer, post trip it, unhook, pull forward and go back to drive line for 30 seconds to get under the next trailer, hook it, pull up a few feet and then pretrip that... We don't know what the repercussions are yet as DOT has not pulled anyone over yet for a log inspection... But the chances the post trip was even logged is unlikely as the truck probably just thought you were at a red light or a stop sign and kept you on the drive line... So through all that you only have maybe 5 or 7 minutes to post trip and pretrip actually logged? That would never hold up in court... So because of this drivers are having to wait for the truck to realize it's not at a red light and finally kick on duty and then wait 12-15 minutes after just wasting 12-15 minutes actually swapping trailers so your normal 15 min to drop and go just turned into 30... So give the fact the average driver does 6 drop and hooks per day that's 3 hours minimum, and given half that is wasted waiting for the ELD to kick to on duty that is nearly 2 hours per day loss in income... If you get the system down after practice I can maybe see 1 hour loss per day... But 5 hours per week at say 45 weeks is 225 hours per year loss... So that's a 225 hours your working free... So as they have quickly realized... Rolling out the new ELD stuff in more of the fleet they are realizing problems outside their initial testing DCs they didn't expect. But again all of this is gossip... But again which one most likely holds truth? 1. ELD costing drivers money? Most likely true due to common reasoning. 2. Walmart coming up with a new pay scale? Highly unlikely also again common reasoning, most drivers know Walmart does not spend money unless it is either getting more money in return or tax deductible...

There is no company hand book. And yes your mentor will be of your own DC and will be for 1-2 weeks depending on how he/she feels your handle of things. I caught on quick and only had a mentor for 3 or 4 days. Out of my hiring class there were 12, only 4 of us remain after 4 months (started back in april I think so 4 or 5 months).

-my first impressions... These are my opinions only... At orientation they push the feeling of respect for drivers, the care for drivers, etc... This at that time is very true. You will meet some of the driver division head bosses who most were in fact drivers, what they don't tell you though (but should be able to read between the lines of you have good judgement or if higher than normal smarts) is the bosses you meet make no rules and have no say on procedures except when it's needed to say yes or no if your within policy. But they are good people, you don't at anytime meet someone with proper power in Walmart, unless you consider these guys that can indeed fire you to be people of power. Orientation however is not your normal orientation... This orientation is fully to test your driving abilities and proper DOT pretrip abilities, as well as time for background checks to complete. Every day your there (only 4 days unless you need a 5th) you are driving, backing and inspecting... Not all day, but once a day then typical company policy videos for drivers... Sexual harassment, fatigue, etc... Lunch is typical trucker food every day, pizza, chicken, etc... At the end of the week you leave with an admiration of Walmart for how they do things. It's how it should be. Then you go to your DC and go to work... After the first 45 days if it takes you that long, you realize the only 2 differences between Walmart fleet and any other trucking company is Walmart is more efficient and the staff are more friendly, that is it. You should by that time know you are in fact just a number and $$ to Walmart. They will try to work with you on days off and what not as that falls under the friendlier part. But they are just like any other trucking company otherwise, except they do not try to deceive you like some companies do. With that said they will not put effort into keeping you. They know another driver is behind you to take your place. So just be cautious...
Yes I am one of the 4 still driving for Walmart out of my class.

 

you p

you punch work flow correct and your pay will be the same if not more. i havent had a issue with my pay yet. i check my punches and check my intransit. correct what needs corrected. theres alot of folks that arent tech friendly. those are the ones having the problems i see

 

this is such bad advice. so far from the truth. total bs, fake fake fake. any wm driver would correct you too.

 

I have no issues at all in being corrected. I am not on the new ELD system. Peoplenet workflow and intransit are not the new ELD thing that is being pushed. I am on those and have no issues except a few minor mistakes I correct at the end of every week but only 2 or 3 at most need correction... I do not know what they are calling this new ELD devices or system, I just overheard a few talking about it in PA when I was there as they apparently just launched them there.

 

As well as I mentioned I don't take gossip serious, but did express proper reasoning should it be true. Despite that Ntransit just launched and is still launching in some parts of the fleet, from my understanding again this new ELD system is something all together different and new (though probably ties to Ntransit and/or workflow in some fashion naturally). And again I have no issues in being corrected as I do not know all especially with only 4or5 months under my belt... As of now my ADP (average daily pay) with the current system of the recently released combo Ntransit and workflow, is $352.