Choosing between different schools [Need opinions].

Bison is a big company with terminals across the country.

Really, I wouldn't worry about finding a job. Like I said - those driving schools are farm teams for fleets. They will find you the job. And yes, fleets visit the schools - on occasion. More of a job-fair kind of thing.

 

At OTTA in Mississauga, we only had two companies come talk to us in the two months I was there--Cisco and Schneider

 

You need to really flesh out those numbers. We have had a number of drivers come over from bison that bailed midway through their 2 years. They own you those two years. If you can handle that, and the low pay, two years accident free you can go anywhere you want.

 

I don't like the idea of mixing training and employment. BTW, some companies will hire a new driver and then provide a partial tuition reimbursement after a year of safe driving.

Also 13 weeks of training sounds good - BUT spending extended amounts of time with a trainer is difficult at best (sleeping in a small cab with another guy is just not fun - unless you're a military guy and then I guess you're used to that sort of thing.)

Slip-seating a highway truck can also be brutal. I've seen some pretty smelly and filthy individuals driving trucks. Also, long-distance driving is much easier if you have a truck set up the way that you'd like. Things like a microwave, a good water supply, spare food and tools will make you life a lot easier. You're going to have to scrimp on all of the above if you slip-seat.

I won't even mention the joy of landing a beater of a truck - or maybe just a bad mattress. All things you will have to deal with if you slip-seat.

If I was to do it all over again, I'd still choose a school and then choose a company. But that's me.

 

Whe I was at TTCC we had 3 Companies send reps and there more who came to different groups later while we were in the trucks. That Bison money doesn’t sound very good, I was making better than that by the second month of driving solo. Mind you Im doing heavy flatbed which is harder work but for me its about the money. Contrans has a 6 week training program and they graduate the trips and loads as you gey more experience, I wont be able to haul to the US until I have a year under my belt and I think the same goes for pulling B trains.

 

Also no contract or commitment but I am signed up for the one year transport apprenticeship

 

As a former Bison driver, who did DFP (and bailed), I would avoid Bison at all costs; unless its comes down to Bison, Challenger, Arnold Brothers or TransX. Being in Ontario, you have tons of options, that will be way better than Bison. Hyndman Transport for example, I had a bad experience with one of their recruiters, so I went to Bison back in the day instead. The friends who went to Hyndman made more money, drove better non-slip seated trucks, and had better runs. Hyndman advertises a base rate of 0.36cpm to Bison's 0.39. But the lane premiums and such, your average at Hyndman is closer to 0.47 while Bison is 0.43.

The DFP program, has to be one of the biggest scams going. If you went to a decent school, you will MAYBE do 6 weeks of training, then go slip seat for 8 MONTHS!!!! (they say 6, but add 2 more months, since you did well in Training, go figure eh?) at 0.33cpm. The trucks are junk, and filthy, Bison has no cleaning or detail program what so ever (or even a washbay at the terminals). In Training you get paid net $640/week salary, once you go slip seat, expect 5/3 schedule making roughly 5-700net a week for that 8 months. Some weeks will be worse, since they will burn off your 70 in 4.5 days, so you have a bunch of extra days off during the pay period.

Once you get an assigned unit and a raise, its not much better. Since the truck doesn't have to be back for someone else to drive; they can dick you around endlessly. expect 500-800/wk net, maybe 1000 if you get a solid 5 day plan at the start of the pay period. Just be aware they are going to share your assigned truck with everyone and their dog, sometimes people will be waiting for your "assigned truck" with all your stuff in it; as you roll into the terminal. You will also be run ragged, the travel times are never doable, so most guys are taping a bottle to their dick and eating while driving from a cooler beside the seat.

If you survive the 2 years, they will try and not pay you your pay hold back escrow. This happened to every single DFP I know, and its just downright shady. They gamble too see if you know what the payout is supposed to be, half it, and claim it was an "account error" if you #####.

They will literally say anything to get you in the seat, and keep you there. They told me I could go turnpike early, get dedicated runs to Cali, AZ, NV, that I could get on a Pacific NW short haul fleet and make 1500/wk net, etc etc etc. All Lies, not one driver, DFP or not with less than 5 years of taking their dick, would ever get anything but open board OTR or OTR Reefer. Reefer fleet is a disaster, which claims to pay more, but trust me; its not worth the headache with how they run things.

Also if you bail, expect to get sued and have collections sent after you, for whatever amount of money they decide you somehow owe them.

Quite the introduction to trucking I tell ya.

If I had to do it all over again, I would not have done Heyl or Bison.

I would have gone to the same amazing school, and I would have gone to either Hyndman, Schneider or ERB.

 

Thank you for posting first hand experience. Talking to the applicants I road tested from bison( all failed, btw) the echoed the same experiences. You have to flesh out the numbers.

 

Np, it was a huge mistake on my part. But in the depths of the recession out here in Alberta, it was easy to get lured in. I also thought being that I do a good job, a safe job at trucking, maybe they would reconize that (not even a little bit). IE I had 10 points on my hiring road test with them, 0 on my 3 month, 0 on my 6 month and 0 on my 1 year road tests. I never had a preventable, an accident or a bad call in or a at fault late. Still treated me like absolute ####, and took away all my good US work, so I could run Hwy 3 Walmart multi-drop endlessly; since the majority of their "drivers" can't back into docks.

I should re-post this in the "bad trucking company" forum lol.