Halvor Lines =/

It pains me to post this, because up until the end I was mostly treated well.

If you are considering working for Halvor, I would suggest you be absolutely sure you know every detail in regards to their policies.

I'll explain.

I got my start at Halvor 2 years ago. August of 15. Since, I was an excellent employee. Did whatever was asked of me. Did what it takes to get loads delivered on time, even if it meant running overnight. Not that overnight driving takes heroics. I just prefer not to. In that time, I ran 275,000+ accident free miles. 0 DOT violations. No tickets. No log violations. No complaints from customers. Nobody ever called the number on the back of the trailer to tell safety what an a-hole I am. I did my job and I did it well.

Halvor touts their bonus program. It's decent, and always a welcome check. They pay it quarterly. They have 4 Tiers to their program:

1. 28,500 gets $570
2. 31,500 gets $945
3. 33,000 gets $1,320
4. 34,500 gets $1,725

My last day at Halvor coincidentally was also the last day of the Quarter. I delivered to a Sam's on September 30th. I ran 31,850 miles for the quarter earning me the $945 bonus.

Or so I thought.

When I gave notice, I was informed that I would not be receiving my Performance bonus. According to Halvor, even though I worked the entire quarter and fulfilled all of my responsibilities, I had to still be employed in order to get paid the bonus. They pay it out 2 weeks after quarter's end. At this point, I had already committed to an October 2nd start date with my new employer which could not be changed.

Maybe I'm a simple guy. But I just don't understand how the head of safety can shake a guy's hand and tell him if I ever want to come back they would welcome me immediately. Or how the terminal manager of the Inver Grove yard calls and asks if there is anything he can do to make me reconsider. Then in the next breath tell me that I'm not going to get a bonus that I had earned.

I would totally understand if I moved on part way thru the quarter. Expecting any kind of bonus if I only worked 2 or 3 weeks in a quarter would be silly. But I didn't. I worked to the end, only to get the shaft.

To be fair, it was in the employee handbook they gave me at orientation 2 YEARS ago. So my not remembering is on me. But as far as I'm concerned, if a guy does what I laid out in the above paragraphs, he should be given what is earned.

On top of that, Halvor has a rewards program. You use an app, answer safety related questions, and earn points. I had a bunch of points saved up, and ordered my daughter a soccer net before I gave notice. The expected ship date was Oct 2ND. Once I gave notice, they canceled out my order and deleted me from the system. Again, taking away something I earned for my kid.

The DM's play favorites, as most businesses seem to. Some of them show up at 7. The rest at 8. The DM's that start at 7 cherry pick all the sweet runs for the day. The 8am crew gets the scraps. Of those scraps, they delegate out the work as they see fit. That's their job, and I get it.

I don't expect my DM to be a travel agent. But in the 2 years I was with them, I made it to Cali once. Florida 3 or 4 times. Oregon once. Meanwhile on their social media page, there are other dry van drivers in Tucson, Bangor, Portland, Miami, ect.... While the miles were usually there, getting a change of scenery once in a while would have been nice.

On a number of occasions, I would tell my DM that I had a fresh 70, so there's no need to get me back home anytime soon. Inevitably I would wind up making runs between Minnesota and the rest of the upper Midwest. I eventually gave up on wanting to get out further. Fair or not, I attribute this at least in part to the cliquiness of the DM's.

I really don't want this to come off as sour grapes, or that I have an axe to grind. Halvor really is a good starter company if you're fresh out of school and have lowered expectations. There are other things that are a turn off (64mph trucks, no APU's, low starting pay and insulting pay increases), but I've already drone on far too long. For the most part, it's a good place to go to gain experience before moving on.

I just hope that my experience with Halvor will give others pause before talking to their recruiters. I do not regret my time there. However, I am glad I moved on from a company that's so petty it would cancel an order for a $20 soccer net or refuse to give a guy a bonus he earned.

Be safe out there.