Question about Sodrel Truck Lines

Yep, we do quite a bit of Lily's stuff. That's like the prestige account to be on.
Well before I answer your questions, I'll say this. The answers are for what it's like right now. We just got word that Mike Sodrel is coming back to run the company again so a lot of things are changing. From what I've heard, it's going back to the way it was when he ran it before, and every body loved working there when Mike ran it.

Trucks are all 12'6" and most of the trailers are as well. We do have some trailers that are 13'6" The trailers are skinnier as well. 96" wide instead of 102". Most of the 53ft trailers, you can slide the tandems on. Anything shorter (48,40,35,&30) you can't.

There's a switch in the cab of the truck to drop the tag axle. There's a pressure gauge, once the needle hits 60PSI, you're supposed to drop it. I usually drop the axle once it hits 40PSI. It makes for a lot smoother ride.

Equipment repair is hit and miss, but it's not because of the mechanics, it's because people never want to write the trucks up. They always check the DVIR that they're good to go. Once something is written up though, they usually get it fixed within a couple days.

Most of the drivers are pretty good people. It's a pretty small company so you see a lot of the same people every day which is nice. Big difference is day/night dispatch. The guys that run dispatch at night are all fun and cool guys. The guys there in the day have the attitude of "here's your truck key, now get the hell out"

We have a 2 meet&turns that I know of. One meets in Chicago (The guy that runs that route in the morning has been at Sodrel for 44 years) and one that meets in Effingham, IL.

I have no opinion on the health insurance yet as I haven't had to use. But it seems like a pretty good plan. I'm a single guy and my deductable is $2,000.

The pay just went up to $19.64/hr in July. With Mike coming back to run the company, he's raising it to $20/hr starting next month. Raises usually only come every 2 years when the company resigns contracts with the post office.

Mail runs 24/7/365 so there are loads leaving the post offices every couple of minutes of every day so depending on your run, you might hit rush hour traffic, in which case you will get paid for that extra time of having to sit in it. A majority of it runs as night though so you don't really have to worry about it.

 

This is old, but I work for Sodrel and we have a Anywhere contract with the post office which means if the PO calls us with a load to California we have to take it. If you go out on a truck overnight you get meal money, regular hourly pay, and you get paid for 5 out of 10hrs off. We have terminals in Indianapolis IN, Jeffersonville IN, Lexington KY, Cincinnati OH, St. Louis IL, and a few trucks in Evansville IN- Owensboro KY- Pittsburgh PA- and a few other places.

 

Did you get the go anywhere contract out of the Indy STC? Just curious.

 

I've never even heard of that. Where do you work out of, because we never had any one out of Indianapolis do that. We only had 1 sleeper truck. All the rest were day cabs

 

I'm out of Jeffersonville IN. We had 5 sleepers but one flipped in Evansville last year. I usually get a rental when I go out. We also run a lot of teams during the holidays

 

I'm not totally sure. That contract is great though. We had teams running down to Jacksonville FL, New Jersey, Salt Lake UT, Phoenix AZ, Dallas TX etc. those guys were bringing home 3k a check after taxes on top of meal money which is 20-25 a day

 

Sounds pretty interesting. We had SL11 and SL19, but SL11 was sent down to louisville and SL19 is pretty much just used for Sodrel's school.

 

I remember seeing SL11 a few months ago. I think they sent it to Cincinnati if I'm not mistaken

 

I make 24.43hr. The no OT sucks, but any other home daily jobs around Louisville don't pay OT unless you drive around the city or pull for UPS

 

I still bring home $1900 just working 110hrs