Heartland Express posts record annual revenue

Not much different from most mega OTR, joseph. Not trying to creep you out, either. Might surprise you that at the 'other end of the barrel' a lot of folks are interested in the financials of 5% of GDP, and 84% of transportation, how trucking affects the economy and vice versa, with today's falling oil prices.

My usual rant is how unfortunate that the public does not know about the labor conditions...

But I digress again if I go there again.

The dividends article http://seekingalpha.com/article/2878986-rolling-down-the-dividend-highway, says mammoth JBHT (JB Hunt) has a 1.06% dividend yield and a 25.1 P/E (price/earnings ratio).

That's probably better--or at least competitive--with interest your bank pays on a pass book savings account.

 

Ryder System (symbol R) has an even better yield of 1.79% and a P/E of 16.

Who knew?? But Ryder's different from mega OTR carriers, anyway.

Con-way (CNW) with 9,300 seats has a 1.46 dividend yield and a 19.2 P/E ratio, a real workhorse of a carrier.

Smaller Knight (KNX) has a paltry .84 dividend yield and 22.7 P/E ratio. Well, what can you do with a mere 4,000 seats, right?

Whoa!! Heartland (HTLD) spends out a mere .31 dividend!! And has a P/E of 28.5!! Now, I know that HTLD is almost debt-free, but that Gerdin is a cheapo, joseph!! Really, he is. The stock price would have to drop back some to improve the dividend % and the P/E...

Even Werner (WRN) beats out HTLD's dividend yield with .70 on 7,000 seats and an affordable P/E ratio of 17.1.

 

As a former Driver/Fleet Manager with Heartland Express I will offer my balanced opinion based on what I saw from the inside. First of all for every horror story about drivers being treated like garbage it is 10 fold for office personnel. The terminal manager who is or was at Carlisle was considered by some a golden boy because he was a great planner in his day but he will have no problem cussing or screaming at you at the drop of a hat and supposedly thats how he was taught by corporate in Iowa. So there is not a huge level of respect all the way around the board, they do tend if you can believe this stress treating drivers with respect though so the owner can continue to turn record profits. In regards to this new pay scale in the opening, that is a good thing do not get me wrong but yes loop holes will exist in everything to reduce or avoid paymetn. I know those Re-Gen systems on those trucks they had were absolutely horrible. Some of them were so faulty and horrible that I had one driver who got a BRAND NEW straight from the detailer spend out of 3 weeks about 4 days actually driving so breakdown pay being reinforced and or increased is a must if they are still having those sort of issues.

As far as mileage, like with any organization those who play the politics and B.S. will get more miles but even they basically will never be home if they desire to make any kind of money with regional and they can never stop, etc, etc. I think my top driver was getting 3000-3400 legally with electronic logging but he was an extreme case and he did the same 4 lanes all the time so he learned the short cuts etc. etc. As far as everyone else we were told they were doing well if we averaged them 1800-2200 miles a week, try to maximize the truck and get the most miles but 1800-2200 at the time was the goal. So depending on your pay scale and where you fall into it you can figure the math on take home. The benefits for drivers I never knew much about in regards to cost so I cannot give you any information on that. So like with any company there will be good with bad anywhere, the only thing about Heartland is regardless of how long it may or may not stay running and no matter how many miles you get you will at least get a nice truck to do it in but idling is a big big no no regardless of temperature. I think it has to be below something like 40 and above like 85 or 90 (at least back then) before you can idle your truck when parked.

Is Heartland evil, well thats a matter of opinion based on the individual. Do they have issues of course they do in some ways better than other companies and in other ways worse. If you choose to go to work for them do not jump on it just because it is a job, do your research, speak to more than one or two drivers who are just interested in that referral bonus they get for you coming on board and make in informed and right decision because you and your livelihood will depend on it.

 

Hey, AK/81, hopefully you're not going to be a mere couple posts and then disappear. Would very much like to get more from you, maybe start a thread on your total experience at HTLD. HTLD/GTI is a sensitive topic around here and an inside opinion would have many of us drooling to read your posts. By the way, I think you need 10 posts to PM and I know I'd like to hear from you!!

 

No problem, I will stick around this industry has pretty much been my entire post military career so its nice to talk to people who can understand what goes on. As far as Heartland it is a sensitive subject even for people who are not drivers with them. I know for example Carlisle, PA was giving the company some trouble for a while because it was a revolving door of terminal mangers with the boss of the terminal manager being based out of the Virginia terminal. I can try to answer anything you would like if I am able because I do not like giving out guesses or false info so if I do not know I will just simply say so but if there is something you would like to know then ask I help someone anyway I can.

 

Cool!! Without putting out information that might ID you to HTLD (this IS a retaliatory industry), can you talk a little bit about your background and how you ended up at HTLD?

If you're not comfortable with that, okay, just say so. I'd be interested in what kind of training you received for the job, especially how to 'deal' with drivers.

 

I started out with an outfit about the size of Heartland and basically my training in 2002 consisted of sitting with one of the senior dispatchers for about 2 nights and then basically being told "here ya go kid". Luckily I was always good with computers and eager to learn plus I really like the trucking industry it kind of gets in your blood even for those of us in the office but unlike some others I was not some college kid with the attitude that I wanted to make a name for myself. In fact I never got my degree until about a year ago, I stayed with my first company for a little over a year maybe 2 at most give or take then went to a smaller operation which I loved dearly because it really taught me how to multi-task and appreciate not only the business side of things but how to treat drivers like people not tools but yet get a job done. I used to get ticked off at lying dispatchers and heck I am a dispatcher just not one who will promise you the land of milk and honey with the streets paved with gold and virgins.

Sadly that company was bought out and then liquidated with only the customer base and equipment being retained, all the employees were let go. So I went to Heartland afterwards in an attempt to go with a more stable and larger company thinking it would be a better move for my career. Boy was I wrong, that place was a nightmare. The coworkers were always so wound up one minute then laughing and joking the next, not because of the drivers but because of the terminal manager. Also we employed a larger number of individuals whose primary language was not English and so therefore they never used People Net and would just call then scream when they had bad service in a heavily accented voice. Talk about making it hard to do your job LOL.

For your question about how to deal with drivers and the training I received my first two companies were really pro driver and appreciated the people who worked for them, my current company is ok with it but Heartland was an enigma. We would be told to push push push push these drivers to get it done, dispatch them etc, etc regardless of what they say. Basically if the drivers did not get the 1800-2200 miles they were expected to get to get the truck profitable then there jobs would be evaluated. Obviously if freight was slow then that was taken into account when figuring out if a driver needed to counseled. As far as how the drivers were treated and how we were taught, we were taught if they come into the office do not let them stay and talk forever, get to business and get them out. If they called and refused to use people net remind them about it but take the call anyway which set the precedent of never using it. Be nice to the driver but most of them were talked about like they were garbage behind their backs and it was the opinion of some members of management if I have to fire this driver I can just replenish him with the next training class which usually ran every week and consisted of maybe 4-9 people depending on if an account picked up or not because it was always expected that 80% of the class would wash out or quit within the first 6 months. Drivers were required to do a split log if it was the only way to get the load there and if a driver took longer than his 10 hour break then he was to be severely spoken too as it wastes time and company dollars. Also 36 hours at home then back out not 37 or 38. Thats just the tip of the iceberg at Heartland, I mean there is a lot more but thats a start in regards to them and also in how I have come up in business. I grew up with mechanics and truckers so I kind of understood what I was getting into when I got into this business I just choose the dispatch/ops route instead of driving route.

 

Oh and to elaborate or one other thing as I re-read what I typed, breakdown was not an excuse for not making miles. So even if you were broke down you were still expected to make your miles or else you could be spoken too regardless of what was said, it usually boiled down to those who played politics and were liked never got talked too unless they blatantly were being foolish. Those ReGen systems were insane on there quirkiness and unreliability and many good guys got long hours on breakdown pay because of it.

 

Heartland is and has been a scumbag outfit. I always believed that.

 

AK/81, do you come from a trucking family? Lots of drivers here do, have that family background (I don't myself). So, I'm wondering what attracted you... Also, Gordon DMs, as far as I know, worked 12-hour days kinda like the drivers. What was your typical week like, hours-wise?