Halvor Lines, Superior, WI: No longer worth it

Almost every review about Halvor complains about low pay and how their miles are limited.

This company, along with other Wisconsin companies have it in their heads that people in the office are managers- and as managers should be paid more than drivers. It's ingrained in the minds of everyone in the company.

Two incidents stick out during my first day of orientation.

1) They did the DOT drug test right there in the orientation building in Superior. So I was chatting a bit with the guy doing the procedure. It was right after Covid started and he was talking about lockdowns and drivers still working.

I said, now the Country sees how important drivers are to the economy and getting freight transported. He said yes its all over the news how drivers are in demand. I said well since it's a high demand profession, driver wages need to go up. He gave me the dirtiest, how dare you ask for a raise look I have ever seen!

2) In orientation, about an hour in the guy running it started talking about Canada and how the company runs into Canada. Do we have passports etc...

So I asked, do we get any extra money for doing that? I figured there is more risk going there as far as inspections, border crossings, time consumed going across and coming back. Why not a few cents more per mile?

He gave me the SAME DIRTY LOOK as the first guy as in how DARE I ask for any money, extra money or anything.

That was a warning right there. I should have got up and walked

Then there was the equipment...(to be continued)

 

You never said, just how many Wisconsin companies have you worked for? Care to elaborate?

 

I mean to say it's a Wisconsin issue seems a stretch...

Maybe it's a problem more indicative of large carriers of which we certainly have our share!

I NEVER want to work for a large company ever again. It's painful and stupid in so many ways...

 

Found this review...an example how stupid the company is....and keep in mind while idling they are destroying their own equipment.

'I’m giving two stars only because of how lenient they are on letting their drivers idle the truck. I sat next to their driver at a Walmart from Friday to Monday. Wouldn’t you believe this guy idled his truck that whole time! That’s 72+ hours without shutting it off once!! The temperature was 68 for a high and 50 for a low, give or take a few degrees. There is absolutely no reason to idle a truck in those temperatures! As a truck driver, I happen to know that it costs 10.00$ an hour to idle a truck. So that is a total of 720.00$ in fuel that this guy costed the company!!! WOW! And the company is ok with that! It’s none of my business but, it is my business when these drivers just blatantly pollute the environment for no reason like it doesn’t matter in the long run! If the guy was cold at night in 50 degree weather, this can be remedied with just two blankets. But no, he’s rather blatantly idle the truck WOW! 720.00$ plus dollars out the window….ok!'

 

I know a senior driver there that's as smart as an eggplant.

 

I still gotta chuckle that I was ever stupid enough to work for this dog and pony outfit for chump change.

There are sadly too many drivers in the Duluth/Superior area that are either too poor or too stupid (or both) to find a real trucking job.

They still manage to sucker enough clueless new breed drivers in with the "our family cares about your family" bs they've been preaching for years from around the country.

Once they've ruined the lives of those who have been there for a few months, there's a waiting list of clueless knuckle draggers waiting to make less than $50000 per year, sit at truck stops because their dispatchers are mongoloids, and their management is beyond greedy.


Their trucks are slow underpowered junk.

You will be talked down to by dispatch and management.

You will be told where and when to buy fuel, and it will always be at an overcrowded truck stop that takes 1 hour to get into and 1 hour to get out of.

Your home time will suck, no matter how long you stay out on the road for.

You will ALMOST ALWAYS be going to NJ, NY, PA, MD, CT, etc no matter what any recruiter or driver tells you. Only the teams, owner ops, and brownnnosers get to run outside of these areas.

Do not work here!!!

 

And on average you'll be lucky to bring home a whole whopping $800 a week.

 

I worked for Halvor from '15-'17...a few thoughts

Low pay and slow trucks has been covered. Only upside if that their equipment is always really new and I rarely had any issues.

Dispatch...heh this is a fun one. Generally speaking, I got along good with my dispatcher. And yes, generally was in the midwest and southeast. Not too many complaints on that one. However the way they had setup was wierd. At the time, my dispatcher would get there at 7 one week, 8 the other. It rotated. Not a big deal right? Except for 1 guy...Thomas I think. He was the only one who was always there early. He then was able to cherry pick all the good loads (or destinations if you like) for HIS guys. In the 2 years, I went to the PNW once, Cali once, Carolinas once. My parents live in Payson, AZ. I had asked if we run loads to Phoenix and was told no...but yet my parents would frequently see a Halvor truck parked at the nearby casino.

The pay....remember this is 6 years ago, lol

Halvor was my 1st company out of driving school...and thus started out at .32cpm. Not good, but I'm a noob. At my 1 year review, I got a .02cpm bump in my base rate making it .34cpm before any incentives. When my 2 year came around, I noticed on my pay stub that I was at .35cpm...a penny increase. I talked to one of the gals in the office, thinking that maybe they hit the 5 instead of the 6. HA! When asked about it, she said "After the first year, it's a penny every year. Always has been, always will be!". So for my now 2 years experience with no accidents, no freight claims, and an on-time rate over 90%, I was making .35cpm. Other companies were starting drivers at .40cpm with little or no experience. In order for me to make it to .40cpm at Halvor, I would have had to stick it out for a total of 7 years to match what others were starting out at. Pathetic to say the least.

I believe that straight out of school, they may not be a horrid choice. Get a year under your belt and the options from other places open up ten fold. But no way would I suggest them as a long term option.

 

The thing is, even Crete, Swift, US Express etc most other companies pay more, even fresh outta school.

Halvor really has nothing to offer.

New equipment seldom means trouble free in this day and age. Their 2006 trucks were probably the last generation that actually ran well overall, although they were still Castrated and Detuned.

One of my friends told me in 2008 they turned the trucks down to 65 and harassed everyone to run more miles when they had no freight to begin with.

 

I guess they have stopped forcing or asking their new drivers (the pushovers) to go into Canada. If they do its sparingly.

They have 0 inspections in Canada. For a while their OOS rate in Canada was 60% then it dropped to 50%.

Don't the drivers realise they (the Canadians) target these trucks?

I noticed before most of they guys going there were LPs. Talk about a bad combination... new driver+ lease purchase+ driving in Canada.