Heartland Express in Dallas

If you have to swap a load will they at least pay you for the miles you drove to get it there? Is it true that Heartland will not pay drivers for intercity deliveries? If so, does this happen much? I see you live in Jamestown. Does that mean that SE regional drivers often deliver in that area? Thanks.

 

If you swap a load you get paid for the miles you ran on it.
If you deliver a load in the same city as you picked it up you will not get miles for it, but that rarely occurs.
I have done it one time since I got here.
I have done several loads that are very very short though. Like less than 20 miles. You get the miles on those, and on most of them I got short haul pay from my dispatcher. But they no longer have to do that. It is one of the things in the heartland cares program that was gutted.
They do not like doing any unnecessary dead head. So if they have a trailer in the yard going to where you are picking up your load, they will have you grab that load and bring it in. I understand that, and do not complain.

They use to have allot of local drivers out of most of the terminals. These drivers were paid salary, and it was their job to deliver these loads. But since the economy has been slow all the drivers were swapped to regional and mile pay.
Should go back to having locals again later this year.

Jamestown NY is south of Buffalo.
I do not know if I have run into Atlanta drivers around here or not. Most I run into are out of Columbus or Carlisle.
I know they will run here some, but they end up in Chicago more. Most of our freight is in the Central and eastern US. So to get the miles they will run you where the freight is.

Each region runs it's own load boards. When you move from your region into another, your dispatcher has to get you loaded from the boards in that region. They cannot just grab loads. They will be given to them and you by planners in that region.
Columbus (from what I have seen) is pretty good about getting drivers out of there area and back to the south. Iowa is not as good. When I get into Chicago, Minnesota, Wisconsin areas I tend to get stuck up there with crap loads. Usually takes me a few days to get back out. I was actually stuck up there one time for a week.

If a really high mile load comes into the Ohio region, and we have the trucks to haul it, they will normally make the driver swap it for one going back to there area. Especially if it is from the Eastern Region. Allot of our drivers end up hauling Eastern Regional freight, because they do not have as many drivers in that region.
It is all rather hard to explain, and I tend to ramble some lol.

Out of Atlanta you will end up going as far north as Boston and Chicago. You most likely will never be sent to NY City. Going north you will pass to many of our terminals. So there will be allot of drop chances. Carlisle, Chester (Richmond), Columbus, are all on your way no matter where you are going. So you will drop allot when coming north.
As I said before. I have not had to go to Atlanta since I came here. We have too many drivers from that way to get back home.

 

So how did Orientation go?
You running now?

 

Orientation was typically boring and surprisingly uninformative. I'm learning as I go from other drivers I meet on the road. I've been driving 7 days and got home last night. Problem is they want me to go out again today. A driver told me they weren't very good about giving you your much needed hometime, which is specifically why I left my former carrier. Oh well, Heartland is a part of the trucking industry, so I have no right to be surprised at this point.

I get drivers' frustration at having to wait in inspection lines. This can be very time consuming and has made me late for two pickups. At least they're keeping their equipment in good running condition though. I hope this will work out for a while anyway. Just depends on my capacity to take the bs of this way of life and let it pass on through. They say it is what we make of it, so I guess I have to work on making it something more palatable. Be well, ChromeDome, and be safe.

 

Iowa is really getting on them about the time used in inspections, and the time waiting for service to get done.
I know Columbus has gotten much faster in the last few weeks.
Once all the trucks have Cab cards there will be less thru the terminals also.

I have been getting home every other weekend, though some weeks I will get 2 in a row. I really stress to my FM the need of at least a restart when I am there.
Got home today at noon, and I have to head out Monday at 0800.
I was out 12 days this time, and got around 5800 miles. Not too bad for them.

 

Sounds like you're doing pretty good CD.

If you've read the threads on Heartland (and I know Chromedome has as I've talked to him before on this board) you know I drove for them for about 9 months last year. Honestly I wish I hadn't quit them to take a job with a small company in Knoxville. BUT my hate for my last job prompted me to move back to Illinois and now I'm working in a factory, home every night, making dang near $13 an hour.

I had gripes about Heartland, but I really liked it there. I knew all the good places to get food around the terminals, and they had me in and out of the same shippers/receivers a lot it seems. They ran me a lot out of my region (ran out of Kingsport). In 9 months I was in all the terminals except Phoenix and Ft. Smith I believe. Got as far north as Michigan (went to Buffalo couple of times), far west as Dallas, as far south as Tampa area, and everywhere in between.

My dispatcher was great and we got along really well. I think the best terminal to be dispatched out of for me (other than Kingsport) was Columbus. I always had good runs coming out of there it seems. One week I was there 3 times. I had good weeks, too.

I had gripes, but I liked them, too. They aren't perfect, but not too bad either. Keep me posted as to how things are going.

 

I would like to have REAL weekends at home.
That is really my only gripe.
I normally get a load to Buffalo on Friday night, and I am out of hours when I get out of reciever. So I cannot go home till I take a break.
Then I have to pick up a load in the morning to bring home, so I get there in the early afternoon Saturday.
Then in order to deliver on time I have to leave early Monday morning.
So I really cannot make plans for my weekends, since I have no idea when I will get home.
I have been getting there 2-3 weekends a month and the last few weeks my miles are way up.

Inspection lanes are still slow, but getting better. Allot of pressure from the top to not run drivers out of hours and loose there loads.
Also they are making all terminals do at least 25 services a day (if that many trucks come in). And I know in Columbus they are not leaving till they are done each day.

I think Columbus has the most steady decent freight. Though much of it is multi-stop store stuff.
They are really big on getting drivers out of the region if they are not from the area also. Save allot of south bound freight towards the end of the week to get people home from the south.

 

Hey fellow drivers, I've been reading your intelligent threads about Heartland and was hoping someone could answer a few questions for me?

1. Inverters; are they allowed in trucks?
2. Truck model and year; do they still have many 9400i's left? What is the percentage of Pro Stars vs. 9400i?
3. Speed restriction; is it 64 mph?

Also, if I do go with them, I will be driving in their Western division. If anyone has any experience in this area, please feel free to add your comments.

Thanks, Daytriper

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They are down to only a couple hundred of the 9400's. Most of them are with new guys and in the AZ terminal. They had an emission issue with Cali or something I heard. So they put low milage 9400s in that fleet. Most of them are 2007s with less than 100k miles.
We have around 2000 prostars. All trucks are extreemly well maintained and in great shape, no matter what year. Trailers are all pretty good too.

NO INVERTERS they will fire you if they find one in the truck.

The 9400s all go 64. No idle controls at all.
The Prostars will go 64 if not idled over 25%.
They go down 1 mph for each 5% over 20.
So 25%= 63, 30%=62, 35%=31, 40%=60. That is the limit, will not drop lower than 60.
I have never been into the Western Region. I am out of Ohio and only run as far west as North Liberty IA.

 

I'm currently a driver for them and I like it so far. They just purchased new trucks that have 1500 watt inverters already installed,so that's a plus. I get home every other weekend and avg 1800-2500 miles a week. I'm out of the phx terminal.