I'm thinking about applying for JB Hunt as an OTR driver.

Truck stays at the yard, we used our car to go home (less than a hour from ours)
We were paid HHG in my time. However the mileage pay was so good that it was less of a problem.
I picked up high 40's in 2001, probably .47 which was one or two cents less than absolute top pay outside of accrued tenure for a few who are into the 50's)
Orientation three days. Includes a road test in smith system with mini van. (God help you...)
There isnt a issue with layover etc. My dispatcher kept me rolling.
There may have been a bonus, but frankly holidays do not exist in trucking anyway.
They have a night dispatch but once loaded, that's your baby.
There is no PC. That's what the yard is for. You use your own car.
Your tractor. Unless you are on dedicated or some other situation.
There is 200 rail yards in the USA I don't know enough of JBH own yards up there.
I would not be surprised if they did. We did not have any of that stupid stuff in our day.

Sorry you did not get answers to some of these. I ran for them only a couple weeks as a experiment after 9-11 Medical issues were a problem that year which has resulted in disability and a half dozen surgeries since that year. Essentially repairing the damage wear and tear to the body from OTR and working elsewhere as a crew boss part time. I will continue to take the body to the shop for the remainder of my natural life.

Would I run for them again? no. I am absolutely settled into hauling high dollar medicine loads in trucking. Nothing else. Again it will take quite a bit of work to repair all the damage before I am DOT legal again. I probably will just let it go and not worry about it myself.

 

I was stuck into a international '83 cabover, no jakes etc. Coffin Sleeper etc.

There was a big push by recruiter that week saying if I took .48 that day I would have been given a conventional etc. I hemmed and hawed because those kinds of traditional pressure tatics over the phone don't work with me. In any case I already knew first hand they had 50 conventionals parked in one corner of the Little Rock yard by I-40 under the billboard. (They are still there) so whatever it going on I did not immediately agree to that. Kentucky DOT found the tractor in need of repairs under the suspension hangers and power steering, a touch further deep into detail than my usual pretrip. Which meant they were looking hard for defects that day.

Im pretty sure you can do PC. I recall just pulling into the wally store for a few minutes, trailer and all back then. It was not even a issue during those paper log days. I just did whatever the hell I felt like it back then.

 

JB hunt otr loads are short-- usually right around 500 miles-- and erratic. You never know what's coming. They often don't have a plan to get you out of a place once you've delivered. Income is up and down more than I cared for. If your dispatcher doesn't like you you will get what the planners' computer gives you and you can just deal with it. Their support team is darn good in general though. The communication is excellent. They keep their hometime promises. They never messed with my money.

They are really stingy about pc.
You may not pc if you are attached to a trailer..period. I found otr with JB to be difficult to get supplies.

Over all I liked Jb a lot but I hated otr. I did not do well. I would, however, recommend them for intermodal or dedicated.

 

JB Hunt is a dream compared to Werner - land of the misfit toys. I liked the intermodal better than there OTR. Intermodal at Hunt is almost like dedicated. Your normally always doing the same stuff. UturnGirl was spot on I agree with everything she said.

 

Remember JB will approve you over the phone and will send you home at Orientation make sure to the take time to disclose everything before you get to Chicago and bring all your records.

Good Luck!

 

I worked for JBH OTR out of Little Rock for three weeks as a experiment. They poached me right out of a local cream tanker hauling company also in Little Rock with a 200 mile cell converstation that covered everything to Orientation date. The Cream hauling company failed to put me in tanker work hauling cream when I hired on witnessing a driver that quit that month and year leaving his 70,000 dollar load in Galloway Petro. I told that bossman, owner. Lets go get it moving. He says no.

Fast forward to JBH it was close to top pay of the time in 2001 almost 50 a mile. after orientation. When I hooked on the paper load in South Arkansas going to Dow Jones (Des Moines) in Iowa the payroll with withholding and net pay hit my satellite qualcomm instantly. So I knew how to set aside money for wife at home, keep enough for me and rest was working savings for the load. Business.

The reason I stopped after three weeks were simple. One, My medical situation was very dire approaching desperate after years of inattention to the body on the big road. A team of doctors between 2002 and 2008 did a number of surgeries where possible and detected problems including cataract and so on and additional work it was nothing but constant medical fixing since 2002 with the major surgery last year for me.

The second problem was the 83 international eagle cabover. Like I warned the staff in orientation cars are what I take out in cabovers. Ive taken two out with them in the past. And guess what. I get to take out number three while on a beer load on a friday night outbound from St Louis in a incredibly fatal construction zone. How JBH handled that particular smash showed me they were a top notch company. They sent a suit into my tractor to assess EVERYTHING on me level 4 type inspection with one goal. Does he fire me there and then? or do I get to continue on. Perfect situation other than that stupid vehicle stupid me and stupid Missouri construction on a friday night of all things. With a load of busch beer for Iowa.

Third. I had the pleasure of driving a minivan with about 7 truckers in the back and two insturctors from staff trying to examine and graduate me on the smith system. It was a fiasco I told them all to be quiet I am super busy in downtown little rock with this #### thing and you all. You can fire me or keep me after. But if you dont shut up for a minute something is going bad.

They shut up for a minute. Then ripped and criticized my driving after. I took it like a man. But they still hired me ha...

They called me at my house after I left them for years. In year 4 I explained to them that its medical not DOT able to do the work. And they said if I want back in just call. And as far as I know all I have to do is show up in little rock and see if they will take it. This time in a conventional and OTR. Not dedicated, not containers and certainly not tied to one shipper.

The worst part about JBH is the make work hamster wheels in their driver room. 20 computers with a bunch of imaginary make work training tasks. I have never ever seen such a byzantine time clock process to sign in and sign out. So many layers of BS. And I said as much to them.

wot?

Yes BS, you buy a simple time clock, keep a wall of cards with our names on it and KLINK! Time stamped with date in and out. Anything else is flat BS.

They did not like to hear that from me. But they took it. The more they pushed that BS training, the less I put in that BS time. I preferred to be out on the road with enough forms, courier papers and so forth in 6 months Bye! see you next year.

My dispatcher is one of the top three dispatchers I will go to battle with any time anywhere in my entire trucking experience over my life time. He knew what I was fixing to do some days and was all over it. If all my dispatchers were that elite then half of the trucking BS goes away. If he did not hear from me? Great alls well. If I busted bolts on the trailer door? Easy fix. Just let him get it arranged.

When the counter teases me about being a JBH idiot, I would spin a few outlaw stories and take care of all that enough to finish dinner and get out. Wearing JBH stuff is not welcome. I preferred to be plain. Around here that's best.

 

Wow, that’s a long post for someone who worked there for three weeks 18 years ago.

 

this is why they GOTTA remove the legal exception that allows companies to pay piecerate.

Just to keep pace with inflation, that cpm should be going up AT LEAST a penny a year! Yet it doesn't seem to. At the very least, if companies were forced to pay percentage or hourly, then you'd get paid for your time hourly and if percentage, then you'd get a bigger cut when times were good.

Honestly I hate this about the OTR trucking industry, these century-old exemptions so baked in that hold down wages... what's .38cpm, about 4200 a month for 60-70 hour work weeks? It's barely above minimum wage in several Northeast states up here... and unlike being a shift mgr at mickey d's for 16 an hour or a forklift guy in the boston metro area for 18, you're on the hook for gigantic fines and tickets and police hassling you.

Go local my friend. Go hourly.