Welcome to Orientation guys!!!!! Under new drivers/starting school tomorrow is our thread which we are still doing. How was your home time and how is orientation going? Any word on when your trainer will arrive?
My biggest complaint so far with IDC is they dont pay detention. NONE. If your at a dock, its sittin for free!!! Making money with IDC is nothing for solo's, but Teams do well.. Alot of the veterans that havent quit them yet are saying that Interstate is going down hill fast. One more complaint I have is the time I wait between loads!! They dont pre plan me! Im sittin on the clock for the planner to give me a load via my dispatcher! I heard some people from Schneider are running the company now, for the last 6-8 months, Im not sure if thats when things started going down hill, but if things dont change soon, Im leaving. There are some good things about IDC that I do like: Home when you ask (so far I'm home the day before). free laundry,showers,trucks. DRIVE SAFE
I did not do much sitting at IDC when I worked their, but I did not tell them I would not run Canada loads either. Lots of good frt out of B.C. down to L.A. and Phoenix if you are willing to cross the border. Especially in the winter time. When did they stop paying detention? I made $12.50 a hour after 2 hours when I worked their. Your right about not preplning loads. They used to send me what they called a prepln AFTER I delivered my load, never before. So it is not really a prepln Many late PU at IDC also due to lost loads after drop by a local.
You may be better off asking for a new Fleet Manager. Even while in training, we usually had a preplan before we arrived at our destination. Several other of our friends are saying they get a preplan either before they arrive or very fast after arriving. A lot of that is the Fleet Manager communicating with the Planner and this time of year there are plenty of loads available. Maybe a new Fleet Manager would help to fix that. As far as detention pay goes, from what I have been told, freight has become so competitive that detention pay has pretty much gone by the wayside, however if it is severe they can get authorization to get special pay (same as breakdown pay) but that has to be authorized by an Operations Manager.
I just found out that IDC collects detention pay from there customers but they stopped passing it on to there drivers.
Interswift is a better way to explain this company! sorry people i put 2 1/2 years in with this company.yes they were fine up front. TILL My family and I had a house fire in jan 2007 lost every thing including a 2005 malibu. i started with the company as a regional (north east) driver they needed help on a dedicated account out of OHIO. ok I'll help out.they told me i needed to bring my own car from 326 miles from home to get my home time i said ok for get it leave me on the road than. they said ok we will get you a load home.they needed help that bad YA,till the house fire 2 1/2 years i worked and covered them alot.with there loads. shortly after the house fire they hit me with they were not going to get me any more loads home i had to by a car to get my home time. THANKS INTERSTATE FOR KICKING ME WHEN A WAS ALL READY DOWN ON MY LUCK
I've looked at all the responses here and will share My experience with Interstate .. My gentleman, who drives for them, claims he Loves them (personally). Fifteen years experience, he is paid .36 (the top wage); there is an electric blanket provided for each solo driver that he uses faithfully; on occasion he will idle the truck, but is not disturbed by others wanting to know why he's been idling. The more he asks for home time, the farther away they send him. In 18 months, we've crossed paths on FOUR occasions. The last one we missed was last week, while I was in Missoula, and he was on his way to Portland, OR. Some other fella who had a load to Calgary decided he 'didn't want to go' (no PARSER stickers in his truck!!) so this guy, instead of getting stickers from my fella, persuades the dispatch to allow him to drop his trailer at Great Falls..guess what? MY guy gets the boot from Portland and has to swap with the original lazy Canada guy. Friends of mine told me that when they heard he was going to Interstate, I would never see him again (they had the same 'no home time at all' experience with Interstate themselves) .. they were so right. Personally, I cannot Stand Interstate, and I wish my guy would leave there..he Has been thinking about it. I hope that it's sooner than later. I suppose the key is finding a company with whom you can set boundaries and hold them.
Wow I am surprised that your friend is having such a hard time getting home. My husband and I work for Interstate and we have never had a hard time getting home. We live in FL and they will actually send us from GA either Bobtailing or they will dead head us. They will also pay us to go back to GA to pick up a load when our home time is over if there isn't any loads coming out of FL. A few weeks back we needed to be routed home in the middle of a run and we were in MA. They moved heaven and earth to get the load off of us and they did get us routed home. Maybe your friend needs to find another fleet manager. That can make all the difference in the world. All I know is we love working for Interstate we get all the miles we want and our home time is always given to us right on schedule. Now Interstate is no longer hiring new students they have recently done away the training program, you need 6 months of otr to be hired.
We all live in Washington State .. and it sure would be nice if a change in dispatch would be a possible fix but..he's already tried that twice. No cigar. About the only time he gets here is when he has a family emergency (and the family is also employed with Interstate, and THEY make sure he gets home). You're right; the right dispatcher makes all the difference in the world. He receives extra stop pay, Canada 'bonus' pay, and gets real cranky when he has to be stuck because a broker messes something up on his backhaul and he has to sit for two days before he can leave again. The "home team" really isn't all that impressive. The fellow I just spoke to a few days ago said that four jobs in three years was okay; then he said that one of them had to be a "Major" company and I had to be with them for at least one year..five days short of a year didn't count. None of them were major. Frankly I don't think they understand the meaning of their own definitions..when you break it down for them there are more no's than yes's. He also told me I needed a year OTR to qualify. Don't get me wrong here; I'm glad for your happiness, and I hope it remains with you and your husband. It should, as long as you stay in Florida and don't come up here to Washington..
