Just finished my week in Bentonville, AR

Look, I'm the first person to admit that the retail side of walmart, and the corporate decisions for sourcing chinese garbage, have lowered the public opinion of Walmart as a whole. Furthermore, the caliber of clientele at most walmart stores has become a funny talking point, and point of overall ridicule, so I GET IT. We've all seen the documentary about how Walmart moves in to poor areas, forces out small businesses to monopolize the supply chain, etc. I'm not a fan of A LOT of what I see in the media OR in the stores.

However, as a 5 year truck driver who has experienced the ups and downs of small fleets, growing pains, uncertainty, IRS misclassification, unsafe equipment, unrealistic or illegal expectations, etc. I had to see what Walmart truck drivers REALLY experience. So I applied.

I was contacted within 30 days by a recruiter who carried out a phone interview to confirm my qualifications, get a feel for my demeanor/aptitude, and finalize my application process prior to scheduling my seat at an onboarding event.

After all the online forms were complete, I was scheduled for a a DOT physical and drug screen.

My background, and my 30 previous months of driving experience were closely reviewed and fully verified.

Once that was done, I was sent a flight itinerary with round trip airfare. I was scheduled to arrive in Bentonville on sunday.

I was greeted at the airport by uniformed Walmart truck drivers and shuttled to the Walmart property for intake.
I was given a badge, $100 prepaid debit card, and I signed a few more forms...

I was then shuttled to the hotel along with a dozen other candidates (very small group compared to the 75+ that usually make up a group)... We were each given a private suite which we would vacate on friday.

I won't go into much detail about the testing/evaluating of candidates but I will say that over the course of the next 4 days we weren't expected to know anything that a self respecting, competent truck driver shouldn't already know.

Attitude was very closely monitored and critiqued, just as carefully as the candidates skillset.

At the end of the onboarding event, I was left with a few decisions.

Will I be able to keep my phone from distracting me?
Will I be able to tolerate those dash cams?
Will I be able to consistently allow extra time for a thorough pretrip and post trip inspection so I can maintain integrity and a perfect safety record?
Will I be able to keep my opinions regarding Walmart's anti union ways to myself?
Will I be able to adapt to new expectations in order to keep one of the few trucking jobs in the industry that offers REAL retirement, advancement, and STABILITY?

It won't be easy... I'll certainly experience culture shock, and I'll feel guilty for working for the side of Walmart that gets taken care of the best, while my retail family struggles for hours and are often treated poorly as in-store associates.

All that aside, I'm a truck driver. I'll be getting paid VERY well to do a job safely and efficiently. I won't be asked to speed, cheat on my logs, drive through fatigue, or operate in unsafe conditions.

I'm willing to at least take this job for a test drive, and if it's all BS I'll be the first to call them out so other GOOD DRIVERS don't get hosed, but if it's real... I'm bringing every last good driver I can find along for the ride!