Is it better to work for a large or small company?

if what you're asking is whether or not an employee is more likely to be treated well based on the size of the company, I'm not sure it works that way. whether or not a company conducts its business in an ethical, truthful, legal manner has nothing to do with its "size."

I worked for a company with 600 trucks for over 2 years. they kept me moving, paid me what I was supposed to be paid, and always treated me with respect. got me home every weekend, and had clean, well maintained equipment.

I drove for a company with 130 trucks for 3 months. they treated me well, for the most part. they wouldn't pay detention or layover pay. had me sit for 2 days waiting on a load (first company it was 3 hours max.) the dispatcher (who had never seen the inside of a truck) asked me to do something absolutely ridiculous and I refused. (the first company, all 3 driver managers and the terminal manager had decades behind the wheel before they got behind the desk.)

worked for a company with 10 trucks for 3 days. they wanted me to run illegal, do a lot of work for no pay, only had 2 fuel stops for the entire country, and wanted to pull the old 1099 scam. they are no longer in business.

so in my experience, if I were to use just these 3 examples, the smaller a company is, the worse it is. you could assume that there is a reason that some companies grow, and others don't.

 

My last company I loved. But I have been laid off since June, so I have to find another company to roll with, at least until freight picks up.
-The owner of the company knows everyone by name, he hired you.
-We have 25 trucks, and normally 23 drivers. They keep a few so that the mechanics ran run a loaded or unloaded trailer to our main customer as needed, and if one breaks down badly you have a truck to run till yours is back up.
-Maintance at the small company is great. If you let them know it is broken it will be fixed.
-Also they inspect all the trucks once a month and go over everything.
-Trucks can run whatever speed you feel like running.
-I prefer to run fairly legal. Actually most of the time I am very legal. But we did run with loose leaf logs. If you messed up on a log they would just have you write a new one.
Fuel and toll recepts had to match. We had no ezpass or qualcom.
-They would get you the loads and some info. You the driver had to call the shipper/ reciever for directions (if not at office), and you the driver had to set up apts if needed. Normally they were open to unloading you whenever you got there and were happy to see you.
-Company paid medical insurance in full.
-My oldest truck there was an International 9400i Eagle. My last truck was a 9900i eagle. The older one had a rather large kitty and would run 90 lol, the last had been a company truck and would only run 75 or so. I did not mind eather since it was rare I went over 70.
-You needed time off you just let them know the week before, no questions asked. We did not run holidays and were home every weekend. Busted your rear the days you were out though. 10-18 hour days. No I did not drive after my 14..... just had to get loaded at the forge after it some nights.
Hauling steel is not for everyone. It is hard. It is dirty, and it can be hazardous. But it did pay well.

Working for a big company.
Well the only large company I worked for was Central Refregerated.
They treated me ok. Some of the planners were idiots, but when full OTR with them I had a great dispatcher and never had too many issues. Then I got on a dedicated run and was very happy, my wife just wanted me home more than 1 night a week and 1 weekend a month.
-Yes, at the large company you are considered a number to the company. I had a good relationship with my dispatchers there though. They knew I communicated well and that if I accepted a load that I would have it delivered on time. If I could not they would know before I accepted it, and the time would be adjusted.
-The equipment there was about the same age as with my last company, though maintance was not as good. Things many times were not fixed as they should have been, and many trailers did not see a terminal for months and months at a time. So if the drivers were not checking them well you could get a lemon.

 

The smaller, regional type carriers tend to offer the best of all things. They usually have a solid customer base in their operating area that is diversified enough to weather economic fluctuations. That is what I have experienced operating primarily in the upper Midwest for over a decade only being with 2 smaller carriers. With that solid base, there is quite a bit of drop and hook involved, but that is not always the "ideal" situation. It is great until you get that trailer that another driver dropped that has a flat tire, missing or inoperable lights, has a hole in the roof or floor, and dog tracks almost over to the other lane of traffic. And usually, they have a regular, solid customer base that doesn't make you wait 5-6 hours getting loaded or unloaded if you do not drop and hook.

Regarding insurance... who cares if a small carrier has "sucky" or no insurance. Go get your own. I am in my 50's, smoker, wife has preexisting thyroid problems and medication.... got a BC/BS H.S.A. health plan (thru an independent insurance agent) with $5 million payout, no copays, $5K deductable for $350 a month (just checked recently and a 30 year old in good health with a family wouldn't pay over $125 a month for the same plan). No matter how much, even a $100,000 medical bill, I will never pay out more than $5K for the entire year. I put $450 a month into a Health Savings Account the accrues interest and rolls over if I don't spend it that year (similar to a 401K plan). Every little medical expense comes out of that account until I reach the $5K deductable on the plan then the insurance pays EVERYTHING with no more deductable or copay. And the entire plan and savings account is tax deductable. And when I reach 65, I can spend the account money that has built up over the years on anything I like, just like a IRA or 401K. That is better than even the "big" carriers 80/20 health plans.... and it is MY health plan. It doesn't matter if I get unemployed, I am still covered. I don't have to rely on the company or Obama to take care of our health needs. I am home every weekend and holidays, and even with this economy, I turned 145,000 miles from Sept '08 to Sept '09 (even taking Christmas thru New Years off and 1 full week off coinciding with Labor day).

Don't look at a carrier for all those things that "seem" to be a good thing. If you think outside the box, you can "create" a real good situation. Sometimes it is not the best choice to let the carrier make all the decisions about your life. Even as a company driver, if you think like a business person, you can (maybe not always) create a better job situation. As long as drivers think like they are employees of walmart or general motors, they will always be subject to the whims of the company. That is why I like the smaller carriers. Negotiation is still an option and you have access to the owner(s) so that you can make deals. True, you are taking a few more chances that the carrier, being smaller, may fail, but you also have far more freedom and usually a "family" type atmosphere that keeps the stress level down more than being a "commodity" with a large carrier. Also, you may not have that latest model truck to drive, but they are usually maintained well (and it may not break down or have problems as often as those new, bogged down with emissions crap, assembled in Mexico trucks). I have been with larger carriers at points in my almost 3 decades of commercial driving, and there is no contest. I will never work for one of those large carriers again. I may pull a load for them that they can't seem to get covered by one of their 5000+ trucks and have to get a smaller, more effecient outfit to haul (happens more often than they like to admit), but they will not control my life.

 

Re and Cheryl I work for the largest LTL trkg. co. in North America (almost 100000 employees) and it is the greatest job of my life. I'm a little different than most drivers because I am not concerned with things such as, atta boys, a pat on the back, don't care if the dispatcher or the owner of the co. knows my name or the names of my children, remember you are working there to make enough money to take care of your family period. What ever co. offers you the best pay, best benefits, and gets you home as often as you need is the co. you should go to work for.

 

Something to think about with a large carrier is dedicated routes. Sorry I didn't mention this in my first post.

When I started with Schneider I worked dedicated out of a Wal Mart distribution center. You're not going to find something like this with a small carrier. I was home quite a bit and made some decent money for a starter.

On the other hand, my dad worked for a company with 50 trucks that all their trucks were dedicated out of a headlight plant in southeastern Illinois. Their manager finally got too greedy and lost the contract. If you find a small company who's entire operation was built around a factory and you might do some good. But, it is extremely hard to get on a deal like this. Might try getting on for filling in when a driver is sick, etc and eventually get a spot whenever someone quits or is fired.

 

You described the Company I'm with perfectly. I had a few slow weeks but we haven't been much affected by the downturn.

I'm home pretty much every weekend. Everyone knows me by name. If I need to be home for an appointment or something there are no problems. The equipment is well maintained and any issues dealt with asap. This is my first driving job and I have no intention of looking for greener grass in the foreseeable future.

Now if I were single that would be different. Being home every weekend is important to me but if that wasn't an issue I wouldn't want regional. It would be nice to see more of the country(s).

 

Sheesh Re, how do you get STARTED with a smaller company? I left a major almost 2 months ago and I can't get a local to look at me right now (of course it helps that you were hired in-house)

You know, I've got 5 years in Taxi's & Limos, a year with an Auto Transporter (admittedly on the loading/unloading side), 2 regional SCCA racing trophies, 2 years in a straight box, and one year OTR. Almost all of which was in NYC.

What do the recruiters care about? the OTR. *sigh*

 

Sorry to jack the thread but who does a person talk to to set up an HSA? Do you talk to people who sell health insurance and purchase some sort of plan through them? Is the HSA in the same bank you use for personal checking and savings? I've been paying $360 a month for cobra since I started driving my own truck a few months ago and I'm needing to find something less costly.

 

It all depends on the company and what they are hauling. My last company was a major oil company ( 7th largest in the world) and it was the best. They learned along time ago to take care of the driver because it's cheaper for them due to lawsuits and such. But you take companies like Swift and they could care less because they just pay off the accident, fire the driver and move on. There's no real liability for them so they just place a driver behind the wheel and go on.

So really it's a shot in the dark and to find out you have to do research on the company. I believe that a mid-size company will take care of the driver but then again it all depends on what they are doing. If they are making money from the truck then they tend to treat the drivers as numbers. If they are hauling their own product then they tend to treat the driver a little better. It's their name on the truck and it's advertisement so they do not what bad publicity. One way to find out is to see if they have drivers that have time with that company. A good company will keep drivers and will look at them as a investment.