My experience at holland enterprises

No micromanaging(one of the big reasons I came here). They generally leave the drivers alone unless they are getting a lot of safety or performance complaints about a driver, such as a driver holding a phone, weaving all over the road or chronically late. Sometimes communication might fall off but never hurts to rattle the cage if a situation comes up and you need to get assistance. There is no hand-holding. They do require 2 years experience and a good record, and they expect the driver to be able to perform the job(visual inspections, paperwork, safe driving etc.) their current safety record with DOT is way better than any company I’ve previously been with and they usually route trucks through the yard as regularly as possible and they go through it to catch defects. Do a good pre-trip and get defects taken care before DOT catches them.



Mostly company freight, sometimes there might be a broker run to get you where the good runs are, considering the entire freight market has gotten tough. If I’m on a broker load rarely have to contact the broker unless it’s required for load info or something blows up on the load.


Pay is cpm depending on your record when you sign on. There’s a 1500 a week flat rate for 12 weeks available upon hiring or dive right into cpm with some orientation pay thrown in. 53-59 cpm may seem low but I think most of the other companies that advertise .75+ probably don’t have the long runs. For the flat pay there is a deduction for days taken off. They do explain it in detail up front. There’s also a bunch of bonuses on top of the regular pay. THEY WILL GIVE YOU THE MILES. Basically they expect an average of 3000 miles a week and home time is the industry standard 1 day a week off, minimum 3 weeks out. One you are done with the 12 week/90 day period they will reveiw perforce and if the amount you would’ve made on mileage greater than that 1500$/week then they compensate you for that additional money. Again the flat rate is optional.

for routing they just give a basic 1 sentence listing of the route mostly the main route(for example a commerce, ga to north side of Dallas i85, i285, i20, i635). No fuel solution garbage like the mega companies, just fuel at Loves as needed. Pretty simple. Cat scale and blue beacon washouts are through the company accounts.

I’ve been doing good so far, the only bad situation I had was with a recent multi drop load where one of the stops decided to delay me because sheer ineptitude on part of the lumper service(capstone of course). money wise it’s been good, and since I left the house a exactly 2 weeks ago I did over 6000 miles. Not every week will be the same depending on time taken off or freight market areas but they will keep you running. Shortest run I did was 750 miles or so and I’ve done 3000 mile runs. Sometimes they may split a long run so you can get the miles in before the weekly cutoff or get home, some weeks might be a big extra long run. Either way expect an average of 3000 miles a week and average length of 1200 - 1600 miles a week. And yes that includes California. No Canada, no hazmat.

 

Thanks for the information.

I have a couple more questions if you have time.

-Do they send drivers to New York, New York?

-Do they have driver facing cameras?

-I read on their website that they use Opti-Idle for driver comfort: Does that mean no APU’s?

-If there are no APU’s, do their opti-idle setups work good?

-What size Inverters do they put in the trucks?

-Are their office staff/shop associates nice to drivers?

-Is it true that they supply flat screen TV’s?

-Do they equip the trucks with microwaves?

-What is their detention pay/system?

-What is their layover pay system?

-What is their chaining policy?

-Do they give you enough time to get a washout after unloading, or are you constantly giving rescheduling ETA’s due to improper planning.

-Is it a constant headache to transition to the next load or do they give drivers a smooth experience logistically speaking?

 

have a couple more questions if you have time.

-Do they send drivers to New York, New York?

They’ll ask but not force, closest is Jersey.


-Do they have driver facing cameras?

No
-I read on their website that they use Opti-Idle for driver comfort: Does that mean no APU’s?

Opti-Idle works good. They’ll teach you the proper way to use it.

-If there are no APU’s, do their opti-idle setups work good?

See above ^^^^*
-What size Inverters do they put in the trucks?

They had me with a 2500 watt

-Are their office staff/shop associates nice to drivers?

Yep. I didn’t have any issues with them, and if I did it was usually resolved really quick.

-Is it true that they supply flat screen TV’s?

They did when I was there. Left there in 2020 though.
-Do they equip the trucks with microwaves?

I had to buy one

-What is their detention pay/system?

You get it after 2hrs.
-What is their layover pay system?

24hrs
-What is their chaining policy?

Only if you want too. They won’t force you into a situation that could cause a wreck.
-Do they give you enough time to get a washout after unloading, or are youconstantly giving rescheduling ETA’s due to improper planning.
Most of the time they do, it got tight a few times for me.
-Is it a constant headache to transition to the next load or do they give drivers a smooth experience logistically speaking?

It’s usually pretty easy, most of the time you’ll have your pre-plan in hand before you deliver.

Like I said this information was when I was there a few years back, ymmv.

 

In a world seemingly almost full of losers & also-rans....it's nice to see/read about a fleet that truly has its act together.

-- L

 

I always said and will say, if you want the true long haul trucking experience, Holland is the best place to get it.

you can pretty much take time off wherever and whenever you want, if you want the miles there up for the taking.

Equipment is mostly top notch and taken care of.

 

The drivers are not intentionally blinding anyone. The cheap casscadia's headlights are extremely bright on low beam. If you use the highbeams, it doesn't do anything. Doesn't make the headlights brighter but it does shine up in the trees for bird hunting. Complaints have been made to the shop but apparently there's either no fix or no skills.

 

This would be more healthy for the whole industry and driver health than eld will ever be.

 

The truck basically have a smart tv, if you have a personal Wi-fi spotspot(Verizon has them available and iPhones have them built in depending on what kind of phone account you have). I know they used to have the satellite tv system (some still do) but I think that might’ve had to be changed because of the current freight rate system. They do ask if the incoming driver wants a tv in the truck and what kind. I told them yes and I already have subscriptions from my own tv accounts. I don’t use it much though unless I find myself with a lot of time to burn. I hardly watch tv much except for movies and watching occasional Motorsports (no not nascar… get that outta ya head). I keep my running fairly tight. Whatever extra or lead time I have on a load I try to save until I get to my staging point(basically where I park the night before delivery), that way if I have to get something fixed, or weather screws things up or if I have to swap then I’m not caught with having to rush. They are not shy about swapping a load off a driver if let’s say they get into the yard and a driver needs to get home or the truck needs repair. It may sound like a pain at times but you may be the one next who needs to get home and the perfect run to do that may be on it’s way through mapleton. But they will try to get you the miles.

 

Good luck on that unless you can find a local outfit. When filling out applications they do make it clear that they expect drivers to be able to run at night.

nights aren’t too much of a problem for me except winter time., main reason being a lot of states usually wait until morning to start clearing & treating roads, especially after a storm. Nights get dangerous at that time if year because it’s more difficult to see those patches of ice coming.

 

I understand night driving. My point was drivers should be able to choose driving on their circadian rhythm, nights or days. That would seem much safer than many industry standards currently.