Interstate Distributor Co. - Tacoma, Wa.

Thank you smurf.. I don't intend on insulting anyone, but I will defend my honor. If I can't back something up, I will never say it.

 

I'm not exactly replying to this thread. But I wanted to add a few tidbits of information about Interstate. My husband and I have worked for IDC since July of 2007 in that time I had some good and bad things happen.. I do like having an inverter and having nice terminals that allow me and my husband to shower together.. however.... all that good stuff aside.. there are some things that bother me that I have noticed since I started working.

#1 Teams will not get Volvos.. I got over this.. but it bothered me at first.. I understand they are leasing so no big deal

#2 Teams will not get anual service bonus.. in the book under section B page B-14 you will see "Drivers in Team Status will not be eligible for the service bonus. If they change from SOLO to XTeam status to Team Status, they will forfeit the service bonus. The Service bonus will not be prorated if they switch" (we were told in recruiting that we would get said bonus)

#3 as of the first week of Nov we were told over the quallcom by our dispatcher that the refer division will no longer have a full 24 hr dispatch.. at night we will have minimum coverage. Now I know that back in the day there was NO night dispatch but come on those days are over and they should cover 24/7.

These are just some of the things I have noticed in the last 3 months. I'm not trying to say this is a bad company to work for.. my stepfather works for this company and he is very happy.. he's also a solo driver who gets his annual bonus and drives a volvo.. go figure

 

Night dispatch has been pretty useless at the companies I have worked at.

They are usually to green to be of any help and usually tell you to wait till the next day because they don't want to make any decisions or do they don't have the authority to do so, most of the time.

I take care of business during the day and try to be self sufficient at night and on weekends.

I worked at IDC and I really did not have much need for night dp unless it was to get lumper approval.

I gave my Volvo back after 2 weeks when I worked their as a solo. I like reliable transport and leaving the 5th wheel alone.

 

I was talking to my trainer about the service bonus thing. He's not sure which bonus you are talking about. The vacation pay bonus everyone gets regardless of team/solo status. What bonus are you speaking of?

 

#2 Teams will not get anual service bonus.. in the book under section B page B-14 you will see "Drivers in Team Status will not be eligible for the service bonus. If they change from SOLO to XTeam status to Team Status, they will forfeit the service bonus. The Service bonus will not be prorated if they switch" (we were told in recruiting that we would get said bonus)

this is the anual bonus everyone is supposed to get.. the bonus I was told my husband and I would get after we had worked for the company after a year ($500 a piece the first year $1000 a piece after years 2 and 3.. ect and so on..) if you look in the Employee handbook on the above statement section and page.. it will show that it was incorrect.

That was the bonus I was referring to.

 

I'm in Tacoma atm and went upstairs to find out what this was all about. The only time a team loses any benefits including the annual service bonus is if they are what my trainer calls a Winnebago Team ( kind of a part time team). A team which averages less than 17,000 miles per month averaged quarterly falls into a special caagory where they lose some of the benefits including the annual service bonus you are talking about. Currently only 3 teams company wide fall into this catagory according to the lady in HR I was just talking to.

They are in a meeting right now, but if I have time before I leave, I'll get the actual book section defining this. But rest assured that the teams get the bonus just like the solo's do as long as they are running decent miles. Personally I would be really upset if I was running mileage that low, but I'm not retired. I can see where a couple with an existing retirement, etc might not want to drive full-time and this would be a good program. Its Team vrs. Extreme Team which is defined as running a minumum of 17000 miles per month averaged quarterly.

 

I would hope so. 17k miles in a month is not that much for a team operation.


I ran around 6k a week when I ran teams and didn't even feel pushed.But I have worked for IDC before so I can see why they would consider 17k to be a good standard to start a bonus at. All them lazy teams they had sitting around made me alot of money, so I thanks to all the slacker they had.

 

I'm curious about an update for this company. We have several members here posting rave reviews but none of them are veteran drivers for the company.

 

As many of you know my wife and I are new to Interstate. We have only been on our own for a month.

After running our 3 weeks, we informed our Fleet Manager that we wanted to be home for the holiday. We planned the timing so our 21 days were up at the right time and we never got any complaints from the company. We said we wanted to be home by 12-22 and would be ready to go the day after Christmas.

On 12-21 we dropped a load in Chicago that we had brought from Washington. We informed our FM that my wife wasn't feeling well and that we would be shutting down for the rest of the night and would be available for our next run at 8:00 am. We woke up to the qualcomm and got a run from Chicago to Tifton, GA. Now we live in FL so this was definetly in the right direction . After some mechanical problems that required us to detour to our shop in Lebanon, TN we finally arrived at Tifton around 10:45 pm on 12-21 and dropped our trailer. Interstate had already informed us that there were no loads available atm from that area to FL. To our surprise, this was followed by an apology that we would have to head home empty. Even when the client didn't have any empty trailers available yet and wouldn't for several hours, Interstate just said bobtail home and have a good holiday.

Now after some of the stuff I've read in here about other companies, I think this speaks volumes about IDC. They could have kept us waiting around for a load or at least until an empty trailer came open, but they were very stand up and sent us home on their $$ to make sure we were home when slated to be. IDC has treated us well since starting and I think this is another example of how they do care about their employees.

 

If you run team, go for INTERSTATE. If you run SOLO, think twice, unless money means nothing to you. Interstate (my experience) has been good as far as equipment and pay ontime, hometime also has been great when I request it. My major complaints are, 6 hours at shipper 1 with NO DETENTION PAY, 13 HOURS at shipper 2 with NO DETENTION PAY..... My time is very important to me, and if I'm sitting all day waiting to get loaded for free, I wish I was sitting at home! IDC is one of the few that get paid detention pay, but DO NOT pass it on to there drivers! I call this PENNY PINCHERS. I know I can be replaced at a blink with this company, Im a solo driver which is a fill in or bottom of the barrel with this company. TEAMS make this company money. When January comes around I know solos will be sitting, just waiting for a load. I will add that IDC has nice terminals and free laundry and showers. But if your a solo driver, search around, unless money isnt a issue. DRIVE SAFE