I have an opportunity to drive for Walmart, but I am unsure if trucking would be for me?

Sleep

 

These are first world problems. $110k annually may not be enough to overcome first world problems.

 

You’d rather talk on the phone or play video games than make money ?

if you’re on the road and living in the truck you might as well be working .

 

Or working reasonable hours and relaxing the rest of the time, just like people do in 'normal' jobs.

 

The issue with a traveling job is that the job needs to be done , and there’s going to be days where you will have to work until the job is done ,

same thing applies to a lot of regular jobs,
Maybe not at the one you currently have been working but it does with a lot of other jobs , even office jobs

my wife is an accountant .
The monthly reports have to be completed by a certain date for the investors and for the IRS and for the SEC

same with the quarterly reports and the yearly reports .

I do Enviromental sampling , soil and water samples etc .

next week we are going to a location to take many many water samples ,
A crew of four of us , for five days .

but , ALL the wells have to be sampled before we can come home .
If we have to work long hours to get it done , then that’s what happens .



you’re in a good opportunity, I’d give it a try and if you don’t like it after the 12 months , you can go back to doing something else at WM , or quit WM and do something else at a different company .

from the outside , WM has a reputation for treating the store workers like dirt , but they also have a reputation of treating and paying their truck drivers very well .

 

So my friend used to drive for Walmart. He ended up getting sick and took too much time off and eventually they had to move on. For the few months he was there, he loved it. Now it's too hard for him to get back. Here's the thing: sometimes there long days in trucking, and other times not so much. Walmart had a home weekly schedule for him. He may do 5 days on and 3 at home, or 6 on and 3 off if I remember right. He always got at least a full 48 hours. Each run he had was mostly drop and hook. There were occasional live loads, like a load of water or something but of course that got dropped at the DC. Then if he had to do refrigerated, those were multi stop loads as each store was a love unload. The dry loads usually were drop and hook. On average, I'd be surprised if he ran more than 400 miles daily. It isn't like your typical long haul trucking company. I remember him saying they don't their drivers more than 600 miles from their home DC. That's not saying you'll do a run that's 600 miles, but you may end up reloading at other DCs and going to other stores. For example, he worked out of Brundidge, AL DC. He may also get loads out Cullman, Opelika in Alabama. Then he take a run into Mississippi and they may send him to Brookhaven. Reload out of there go into Louisiana, drop off and reload out of Robert towork his way back. Sometimes he may have to go to warehouse, load up and come right back to his home DC, which at those shippers, Walmart drivers usually got top priority. Even if you worked a long day, I can't imagine that it would be as taxing as a typical long haul trucker. You'll get time off every week because of their style.of operation.

 

OP is benefitted by going through the in-house program. They'll teach him/her to do things their way. My friend said about 70 people were at orientation. Quit their jobs and everything. They had sent all but about 15 or 20 home within a day or 2. They are serious about safety and pretrips. Seemingly, if you're not detail oriented, they'll get you out of there.

 

If the DC you're running out of has daycabs and you can get one of those spots you'll be working about 50 hours a week most weeks. Running in a sleeper truck will be about 60 hours a week. Sometimes in either situation it'll be more hours than that. Nobody is going to push you to run hard at Walmart, you do you, but most drivers are here to make money and like to use up their hours. You've got a great opportunity and are lucky. They're just as picky and selective on taking store associates for the A2D program as they are in hiring experienced OTR drivers. Most of the ones I have seen have been with the company many years and lots of associates want in but there's only so many spots available.

 

Time fly's when you're driving, a 14-hour day is more like an 8-hour day at a normal job. Every job I had before driving I was constantly looking at my watch as time dragged by and hating every minute of it. Sure, traffic sucks when you're stuck in it, but even then, time seems to disappear and the next thing you know your day is done. At least that's been my experience.