Heartland Express is doing good

Many companies inspect trucks at the fuel island to catch problems before they hit the road. Swift was doing this 20yrs ago. Heck, I drive for a small company and I fix about half the trailers before I leave. The problem is not the company but the drivers that drop defective equipment without getting it fixed and leaving it for the next guy to deal with. A company taking this step to make sure the equipment is safe to go down the road and not get a fix-it ticket or redlined is understandable.

 

The time I spend in the inspection line is made up when I'm at a shipper, rcvr, or scaling a load and have to slide the tandems. I have so far never had a problem with pulling the pins here at heartland. The other company you were spending so much time beating the pins through the holes just to slide. I got to say that the only problems that I have had with trailers at heartland is 1 tire flat, missing crank handle, and a lic plate light burnt out. All those we're quickly fixed. I don't think I had a week with only 1000 miles and if I did it was prob a week I went home. There are pros and cons to every company out here and that is not just limited to trucking either. If things did not work out for you then move on you have told your store.

 

well put Ive posted here 1 other time they all cant be as bad or good for that matter one has to make the best of what they have

 

When I was with them over 6 years ago, they had very limited list of truck stops we could get fuel at, and at all cost we had to get it at the terminal which yes meant we had to go through the safety lane. Any time they found something wrong with my truck, it was generally fixed within 3-8 hours same day, but also depends which terminal you went to. Still, better than Werner having you wait 3-7 days at a terminal for repairs. If they added more fuel stops and allow more fueling outside the terminal, then that'd be something new since I last heard.

Yeah, we couldn't use tolls either, so you take the back roads, maybe US20 instead of I80/90 Toll road. And you don't get paid for every mile. A lot of companies are like that but at the time I was making 48 cents per mile so I didn't complain about mileage or tolls. I've been known to pay out of my own pocket though for tolls if home time was important like dentist, and the company didn't seem to have any clue how to get you home on time.

Didn't really have a problem with mileage, didn't keep track much of it either too, since take home was usually $1k after taxes so I was happy.

There were times how ever that if you were close to one of their special accounts like FedEx or Sears, that when you wake up at 8am after sleeping for 10 hours, they would say to go to bed for another 10 hours and be ready to run all night with a preload from FedEx or Sears. That usually pissed me off since if I got a good night sleep, there was no way I was going to get any quality sleep for next 10 hours. I'm just not tired. Then work all night, yeah I'm awake 24 hours strait, not so safe but no choice, have to to do it. Some times it happened every other day flipping our sleep like that which can be stressful. I'm guessing its the same with most companies though. Only time I ever had consistant sleep without flipping days, nights, days, nights for running was when I had dedicated account for 5 years, and I choose to run strictly nights (usually 10pm till 12noon) and they were happy to give that schedule to me cause the other drivers were fighting for day runs. To me consistant sleep hours means a lot if I'm going to drive safe.

 

Do you guys get paid for all the miles you drive? Do you get paid to sit in those inspection lanes? Do you get paid to interrupt your ten hour breaks at Pet Smart and Sears to back into the dock in the middle of the night? Or when your sleep is interrupted by another HE driver banging on your door at 0200 with all his might needing to swap loads? I didn't think so.

Good luck with all your arthritis treatments with your stiff body sitting in the truck for 23 hours a day. At least your dear leader, Kim Jong Gerdin I, practiced what he preached by working himself into an early grave just like he does with his drivers. He's the richest man in the graveyard now.

 

Gotta understand, Truthin.....when you've got nothing better to do with your life then try to run down others to make yourself feel better, well...that's a whole lotta time on your hands....sounds like Michael has plenty of it!

...and I'll second the equipment issue. While Crete doesn't have an inspection bay, they do vigorously inspect the trailers on their primary yards each morning. Eight months here, and I've had exactly two trailers that I had trouble sliding the tandems on, and three trailers with tire problems. That's pretty much it. And when I had my cuppa coffee with Heartland back in 2001, I had almost zero issues with trailers. The time you spend in the inspection bays will more than make up for itself by keeping out of shops.

 

The point that a lot of people are missing is that the inspection lanes are open for a limited number of hours each weekday, half day Saturday and closed on Sunday. The company routinely makes 65-70 million dollars a year in profit a year and can easily afford to keep the inspection lanes open 18 hours a day so the drivers can get in and out much faster. The reason the company does not keep the lanes open is because they don't care about the drivers' time. That is the whole point. They don't care if someone has to sit for up to 6 hours in line as I and many others routinely have. They think it is funny. They can afford to fix the problem but they don't because they have hatred and disdain for working people. They like to dominate the little guy and let him know who the bossman is. If bossman hossman says you gotta waste your day waiting in his line before he lets you off the yard, then that's what you gonna do it boy!

 

And a free motel room during orientation that you will be sharing with someone you never met before, that guy that John Walsh has been talking about every Saturday night for the past few years...

 

^^^^Now that was funny!!