A&R Logistics Charlotte Terminal

I start training at A&R logistics Charlotte terminal on October 1th. I am looking for some advice, tips and general idea of the company. I know there is a physical aspect to the job but that is what I am looking for. I want to do more than just hold a steering wheel all day every day. I have spoken to a few drivers and have gotten all good reports about a&r but none of those drivers work out of the Charlotte terminal. So far the people I have meet there seems cool. No bad vibes or anything. The hiring process went pretty quick. I filled out the app on a Saturday got a phone call on the Monday. I had an interview and road test on Tuesday. The interview was really short basically I was asked how I wanted to run. They have local, regional and system (OTR). I said I am really looking for a good mix of pay and home time. So we agreed on a mix of local and regional. In that way I would be on the road up to a few days a week and home most weekends as it is all up to me. If I just want to run local and be home every day I can. Or I can be on the road and I really like that. It will give me a chance to learn what will work best for me and my family. I must admit that I missed and grind a couple gears on the road test. Their trucks have super 10’s, 10 and 13 speeds and some of the new trucks have auto shifts I was told. I have driven super 10’s and 10 speeds but it has been 8years since I drove a manual. My last outfit has all auto-shifts. I was feeling bad at first about my shifting in a 10 speed but by the end of the road test I knocked a lot of the rust off and was shifting a lot better. I was nervous about what I was going to hear about the road test. When we parked and he said to me you did good you can drive. I was relieved. I felt a lot better when he told me that he have had a few guys that was so bad he made them stop the truck and he drove it back saying they not going to kill me. I got scheduled for physical, drug test and an agility test on Wednesday. On Wednesday I would say I had a different experience. I can’t say it was bad but it was different. When I got back to the terminal with my paperwork from doing all the tests. I was handed a stack of papers to fill out. Basically a new hire package and was asked when is my start date. I found that to be strange because I was never actually offered the job. But I was just handed paperwork to fill out and I was asked what is my start date. I wanted the job so I found that not bad but very different. I told them I would need time to give my current outfit notice of me leaving and we agreed on October 1st. As far as pay goes I will start at $160 per/day in training which is about 2.5 weeks then off to Atlanta for orientation for a couple days. Not sure on orientation pay. Then $.50 loaded and $.32 empty. A raise in 90 days. A sign on bonus of $5000 paid out in 90 days. $45 load/unload. I don’t want to give out bad information on pay but they do pay for detention, break down, cancellation, a restart on the road and guaranteed pay but I don’t remember the exact numbers so I will have to gave an update on those. They have all the standard benefits like an insurance plans and 401K. All in all I am looking forward to this next chapter in my career. I will try to gave updates as to how everything is going in the coming weeks.

 

I cannot speak for the Facebook page cuz I am not on Facebook but if that's supposed to be about his genitals yeah that sucks. I started this thread to learn and share what I will learn and my experiences with A&R. I have searched for information about this company and it's hard to find anything online. I live in Charlotte and I actually haven't even found anything about the terminal here in Charlotte which I live 10 minutes away from. I decided I wanted to haul dry bulk so I was researching A&R and also bulkmatic. Both companies have terminals here in Charlotte. I interviewed with both companies and I only chose A&R because they have manual trucks bulkmatic are replacing all of their manuals with auto-shift within a year. Also A&R does not have driver facing cameras. The cameras are not a big deal to me because the company I was with have them also it's just something you get accustomed to. I will be posting about my experiences in training along with loads, pay and everything else that comes along with this company. I know many other drivers would like to know that same information.

 

1st week of training.
Monday. I didn't go with my trainer because he started late in the day. I read through the driver manual and had a chance to watch a trailer being washed. Needless to say I learned that you better inspect a wahed trailer. To avoid any contamination.
Tuesday. Started at 4am with my trainer. I assisted with unloading 3 loads and loading 2 loads. My trainer has been with A&R about 15 years so his experience really shows. One thing he told me is do what the driver manual says and you won't go wrong. Don't try to speed the process up by taking short cuts. They will eventually come back to bite you.
Wednesday. Started at 4am with my trainer. We unloaded 3 loads and loaded 2. Same as Tuesday.
Thursday. Started at 4am with my trainer. Same as before we loaded 2 but only unloaded 2 not 3. We got dispatched on a load around 9:30am. We were about 25 miles away from the terminal. The load has to be delivered before 12pm. This is the fun part. We had to drop the trailer we had. Hook up to a newly wahed trailer, go to the rail yard to load it and try to make the delivery window before 12pm. We arrived about 12:22pm. Checked in and was told to go to the silo and set up to give them a sample before unloaded. Easy enough. About 45 minutes later they come to us and say we would not brave to take this load because it is to late and it will hold them up from loading trucks. We need to bring it back in the morning. One thing I learned is you must get them to sign the paper work stating why the load was refused. If you don't you won't get paid for the trip. I also learned how incomplete paperwork will cause you to be short paid. More on that later.
Friday. Since we didn't get to unload that load yesterday and the earliest we could deliver to the same place is 8am we started at 5:30am. This place was one that you had to unload under 6psi. No biggie just takes a little longer to unload. 2nd load for the day we had to get a clean trailer tho load. We got to the receiver that was about an hour away only to be told the are refusing the load due to their silos are filled. Made sure they signed bills stating that. We let dispatch know and was told drop it and grab another washed trailer to load. My trainer decided he is not going to run this load due to the time and the traffic on I-85 South was really bad. So we loaded it and on the way back to the yard his truck got a bad air leak. What a day.
Now things I learned about A&R this week.
Paperwork Paperwork Paperwork. Make sure your paperwork is properly filled out. Make sue you get signatures or write refuse to sign. That will make the difference in you getting paid $22 per/hour or $11 per/hour for detention pay. When a load is refused make sure you get it in writing as to why. Dispatch at times does not use common sense when dispatching you. For example. We were told to drop the empty trailer we had to pick up a washed trailer to load it. Deliver it to a receiver that has an open appointment then drop that same trailer back to the yard and rehook to the trailer we had before to go and loaded it to deliver the next day. That made no sense time wise.
Other driver's laziness will make you have to work a lot harder. Twice for the week we had to empty more than one compartment on a railcar because a driver hooked to a full compartment to pull his load and not emptying the other compartment that was already being used.
Training does not go according to the way I was told. I was told you will be assigned a truck during the first week of training. Train on your truck with a trainer on your second week of training. My trainer told me that has not happened for years now. Drivers end up being sent different places to get a truck after they have finished training with a trainer for 2 weeks. Some drivers actually had it to sit at home for weeks at a time waiting on a truck. Getting paid $160 per day to wait on a truck. I hope that doesn't happen to me but only time will tell. On Monday I will ask the terminal manager about my truck. Now this job will definitely tell you how good of a shape you are in. It is hard work doing 3 loads a day when you are loading and unloading. I weighed myself Sunday night and then weighed myself Friday night and I lost 12 lbs in 5 days. So yeah it's hard work.

 

Well if that's true that sucks. I really have no idea what local drivers make in this area. I'm just getting into running local myself. $160 is not no money at all in my book. My trainer is making well over $300 per/day based on the loads we have been doing.

 

2nd week of training
First I was not assigned a truck during the work week. It would make more sense in a minute.
Monday and Tuesday was pretty much the same started at 4 a.m. and we competed three loads. No problem.
Wednesday. We actually completed four loads. I was told that Wednesday is usually a slow day but last Wednesday we were really running to complete those four loads. I had my first experience with a load that had a very long run and the discharge line was continually looking to plugs. My trainer explained that I had to find The Sweet Spot on the product valve. Which would allow offloading the product as fast as you can without plugging the line. It took a minute but I got the hang of it after a while. Did I mention that it was raining most of the day.
Thursday. What a day. Tropical storm Michael came to town and made the rain of Wednesday seem like a squirt from a water pistol. We started at 5:30 a.m. since we didn't get to preload from the day before to be at the rail yard for 6 a.m. when they open. The rain was torrential. We were soaked from 6 a.m. The funniest thing about wearing a rain jacket in torrential rain is. From the waist down your wet from the rain, from the waist up your wet from sweat. Which makes for an awkward situation where half of your body is wet and cold and the other half is wet and hot. My trainer gave me the advice of getting one of those long rain jackets that covers most of your body. Idk but I see most of my body being wet and hot and a small portion being wet and cold. Anyway we only completed two loads that day. After the second load my trainer said that's it he's done. He has been wet all day and wants to go home. So we did not do a third load even though one was offered. Trust me I was so happy he said that. It's the worst feeling in the world to be walking in soggy steel toe boots.
Friday. We ran 3 loads that went by pretty smoothly. On the last load when we were off loading. My trainer showed me how to clear the line if it plugs up. By vacuuming the product back into the trailer from the discharge line. When my trainer was explaining it to me. I didn't understand cuz I was thinking you did the exact same thing you do when you're loading. You're actually vacuuming the product that's in the discharge line and hose back into the tank. He explained, that usually when you plug, that's where it's located unless the Silo is full. Which has its own problem and it's up to the receiver to make room or designate some place else to put the rest of the product. Sometimes it might be another silo or it might be in boxes. That's what I was told. As well as you might have to wait until they make room in the Silo then you could continue offloading. When we got back to the terminal I went in to speak to the terminal manager. I had to fill out the survey about my trainer and I was given my first pay check. Drum roll please. $639.16 now I pray this is the smallest check I would get from A&R Logistics. A check like that would be a short week for me at my last outfit.
Saturday oh yes Saturday. I attended the yearly mandatory safety meeting. It was held at a local hotel and we got breakfast. One good thing I must say about A&R is that you are paid $78 for attending the safety meeting. This is the first company I ever work for that pay you to attend an safety meeting. Now it gets interesting. At the meeting the terminal manager told me to meet him at the yard when the meeting is over so he can assign me my truck. I have always liked to see those customized long nose Pete's driving down the road. I actually never wanted to drive one. But lucky me. I was assigned a 2005 yes that's right 2005 long nose Pete with a 13-speed transmission, yay me. The only thing I could have said to the manager is "once it holds together I should be okay". I have already been dispatched on my first load for Monday which luckily is preloaded. So Monday morning I have to wait for the shop to open so I can get all the fittings and hoses and everything that I have already signed for but have not received. My adventure starts tomorrow as I take this 13 year old 13 speed Pete to Anderson South Carolina to deliver my first load. Anyone else ever been anxious and nervous at the same time.