Any Info about Heartland Express??

I guess your brother in law found out about why it is called heartless.If you're single and dont care about all the BS you can make some money there but you wont get home much.everything you posted was ABSOLUTELY true about them.If he was regional then it is expected of him to NOT run the toll road.and about not returning their truck to them they definetely would deduct the money.they are a short to medium haul company and they are really disorganized ,such as only having less than 3% of their drivers on dedicated and to get that you have to have a lot of years with them.It was many a friday my fleet manager started looking for a load to get me home , and i ussually was about a 1000 miles away.also they want you to match the Qualcomm with your logs.Unless of course you got a fedex or sears and these usually pick up at 2200 hrs or later and you have to run that 200-275 mile run.which screws up the day you pickup and the day you deliver.thats why the miles are so low .

 

What a silly trucking company...caring about their customers.

 

i sometimes talk to heartland drivers when i get a chance and it hasnt changed.

 

This is such BS and happens at almost all the big companies. Some are worse than others. On those runs you are usually also forced to sleep at the shppr/recvr to get in your SB time. Then you usually have to rush to get to your next load so you can't take a shower or sit down to eat. This is the kind of thing that drives turnover and causes people to leave the profession altogether.

 

they are just a huge company and letting it go as it is.they dont care about turnover. all they care about is keeping someone in the drivers seat.and getting their favorite customers taken care of.the other trucking companies you see at the same shippers that heartland insists are their best customers are mostly Swift and some Werner,JB and Schneider.The only difference is heartland pays a little better.

 

My step father works for heartland. He doesnt really have anyting bad to say about them except he doesnt always get the home time when he requests it. The pay is pretty good (able to build a pretty nice home and pay for some brnd new cars) and the equipment isnt too bad.

 

doesnt get the home time?,what dont got no balls to tell them when he NEEDS to be home. Oh wait, thats why I left Heartland,all they care about is the driver being in that truck away from home.the money isnt all there is in life,to me family comes first.

 

I drove for Heartland for about 6 months in 1996.

I was being paid a decent per mile wage (I don't recall what it was) but my take home was less than I had ever made driving for anyone (about $400 week).

The reason is because Heartland has LOTS of real short loads. And even more wait time to pick up your next real short load (and repeat the process).

And, they have LOTS of drivers who are also sitting around waiting for their next short load (less than 250 miles).

And, if you get stuck in Coralville, you can expect to shuttle trailers to their customers in Cedar Rapids (about 15 miles one way).

AND, to add to your waiting around, you are required to go through the inspection lane each time you leave the terminal. Which can add an hour to your travel time on busy days.

The aggravation and low pay made it a miserable place to work.

Additionally, I hired on from Texas and told them I was very flexible about home time and had no problem running wherever they needed me.

So, I ran from the midwest to Massachusetts for 3 solid months. I requested a trip to Texas after the 2nd month of runninng Boston (area). I finally got a Texas load (3rd month) when I refused to turn in any more paperwork.

For which I got to meet one of the VP's of the company. A very nice fellow but extremely chea... frugal. He is a nice guy but he's also one of the founding members of Heartland and why Heartland has more cash on hand than any other trucking company.

The peope are friendly and professional but the waiting around and short trips make it a very miserable place to work (unless you do not need an income and have nothing better to do with your time).

I do not know how they are today, but that is how they were in 1996 and why I would apply for a job at McDonald's before I'd waste my time with Heartland.

 

Anyone have any info on their salaried positions out of, say, Carlisle, PA? Seems pretty good on the surface...$1000/Week and if you would run more miles than what you would make based on mileage pay, then they pay you what you would have made for those extra miles over the salary...Really interested in any info/experience someone has on this? Tho I suspect any of those drivers making that every week probably are too busy counting their money to post on here.....

 

I used to see a salary driver out of carlisle and he was always screaming about the miles being way high,in his payplan he didnt get anything extra.and he used to ##### about the crazy hours to go sit in a dock to move the load 3 miles.he used to say that heartland always kept his hours used up.I dont know ,With the green miles pay there you should be able to do better being regional.But whatever you decide remember not only does that equipment belong to them but after you start your tailside does too.