Howard Transportation | Ellisville, Mississippi

I recently started with Howard Transportation, it took me over a month to bite the bullet and apply. Part of what took me so long was the lack of information on this company, so I wanted to start a thread and put the info out there on these guys. I’m making this post with the time I have during training, and doing it on mobile. So apologies in advance if it’s scattered and disorganized. I will do my best to update this and provide as much detail as I can.

Howard Transportation (HT) is a private fleet based out of Ellisville, MS. It is a subsidiary of Howard Industries. A lot of what they haul is transformers from their plant in Laurel, MS. They run almost exclusively eastern states but will occasionally run Midwest, and very rarely running beyond that.

I had orientation the 25th of January, and started running with a trainer the 1st of February. If you are coming in with no experience, fresh out of school, your training will be 8 weeks long. If you have some OTR experience they will evaluate and reduce the training as needed. It is not necessary to have flatbed experience. I came in with 3 months local, 3 months OTR reefer, and I went to a school to get my CDL. They told me I have to do 4 weeks of training, but depending on the loads we encounter, and how quickly I learn it could be as little as 2 weeks.

Orientation is 4 days long, and they will hold it every Monday, you just tell them when you want to do it. You are paid $500 for orientation and $500/wk for training.
The first day we went over basics, introduction to Howard, meet any other students that are attending with you, go over some of the ways HT does business and setup direct deposit and all that jazz.
Day 2 we went over HOS, and a basic crash course on load securement.
Day 3 we discussed CSA scores, how they generally work and how they effect you. We also went over Drug & Alcohol policies and DOT rules.
Day 4, the final day. This was mostly a review day, your chance to ask any questions to safety or any office personnel. You will do your road test this day. You’ll meet with a few different people in the company, let them get to know you, and they will go over the PeopleNet system they use again. You will also sit down and fill out your insurance forms and life insurance.
Each day of orientation they will take you out for lunch and pay for it. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday they took us to a local BBQ place and Wednesday we went to a local Mexican restaurant, they took care of all of it.

They paired me up with a trainer by the end of day Thursday and left us to figure out our schedule. I had just moved down to Mississippi and asked if I could have Friday off to finish moving and transfer my license, they ended up giving me the entire weekend off and we left Monday.

All their trucks are International LTs, and are single bunk mid roofs. All trucks are equipped with an inverter (I haven’t had a chance to see the wattage yet), and their seats have back massagers built in. Trucks are limited to 67mph, and there is no radar/adaptive cruise.

I will update this post with more info soon. I’ll also answer any questions as best as I can.

 

I actually asked about this during orientation as I was excited to try a Western Star out. The reason they gave me on the switch to exclusively International was that they got Western Stars because there’s a dealership very close to the terminal. The dealer changed their service hours to M-F 8-3 and this didn’t work for Howard so they switched to International.

They have the main terminal in Ellisville, MS and a drop yard in Kenly, NC. The NC location is basically just a dirt lot and an office from what I was told. It just provides a location for our NC drivers to get certain things they might need (IFTA and the likes)

Trainer trucks are double bunks!

I don’t have the whole list on me, but 0-1y experience is 43cpm, 1-2y is 45cpm.

 

Last week was surprising.
We picked up the load Monday going to SC and NC. We then picked up a load needing tarped in NC going to PA. From there we picked up in PA and went straight home. We got home Friday around noon and was off for the weekend.

This Monday we left out a little later than expected, didn’t get on the road until about 2p. But they got us a load of transformers going straight to NH. From NH we are going to CT to run a load to PA. It’s expected that we will go from PA back home again and be home in time for valentines.

 

You do.
Tarping is currently $20
Detention is $15/hr after 2 hours.
Layover is $60, $90 if OOS and a motel is provided.
Stop pay is $20/stop
NY city loads are optional but pay $150 extra
OD loads are paid an extra 5cpm

Also worth mentioning that health insurance is provided for free to the employee. It goes into effect after 75 days of employment.