Any Menards company drivers here?

Menards does have one company tractor that I know of .
It's a 4 axle cascadia with a 3 axle flat bed ...leased from Ryder in Omaha.
It is based out of the valley Nebraska DC .
I think he told me he only runs in iowa and Nebraska.

 

I used to deliver shingles to Menards stores, out of IKO in Chicago. The Menards DC trucks never had to wait.
I might be sitting in the parking lot, behind 3 other carriers, but if a DC truck showed up, they went right in.

 

I used to deliver loaded trailers to Eau Claire and d/h either loaded or empty. Easy once you figured which gate to go to.
Delivering to stores was great. They let you park overnight and start unloading early.
O/O rates suck.

 

I agree, this should be unsettling to most of us here. Ok, they go from O/O's, to poorly paid company drivers to MEGAS? Sounds like a progression for failure. This is Menards we're talking about, one of the biggest retailers in the country, having transportation problems? Tip of the iceberg, folks. Mileage can be ok in certain situations, and you might get 1st dibs at unloading, being a company truck, but what about that 74 vehicle pileup up ahead, and you sit for 7 hours, not a dime.

 

But that 74 vehicle pileup is going to stall 85% of cdl drivers behind it, not just the Menards driver. I wonder what kind of an hourly pay cdl job a brand new driver could get?

 

That's true, but doesn't make you feel any better at the end of the week. Hourly jobs are very rare today. For example, I turned down a postal job, and he offered $25 /hour including benes. I've been out of the loop for a while, but that seems like an average wage today. The only other place you'll see by the hour jobs, are city deliveries, maybe a dump truck, county truck driver jobs, but short haul stuff. With all the garbage today for anyone going over a state line and the delays that involves, it didn't take companies long to figure out, by the hour was a losing game.

 

There was a poster a few years ago on here by the name of Home Town Hauler I believe. He was a driver for Menards out of Eau Claire. He delivered to different stores around the upper midwest.

 

I’m guessing a brand new cdl holder is going to have to accept a per mile job first until he gets some verifiable experience. Even with a local delivery he’ll probably have to start on the docks and work his way up. He might be able to start right out driving a dump truck but I think he’ll either have to know somebody there or as a stranger they’ll put him to work but he’d make more money driving per mile for a mega.

 

That, or percentage, which is kind of like mileage. The thing about percentage, if you hustle, you can make so-so money, but you have to throw caution to the wind to do so. Dump trucks are generally percentage, because they don't put on a lot of miles. It's why those cowboys drive the way they do.

 

A lot of the local jobs I see now, have straight time up to 50 hrs. 1 1/2, after that. I like 1 1/2 after 8. Used to do 60 hrs in 4 days. Paid 72 hrs.