Saia from a city driver perspective?

i know its not from a city driver point of view but got a good friend that has been a line haul driver for saia out of the omaha term for about 12 years and know hes treated well and very well paid .

 

Hi , I used to be a fedex ground driver then in 2013 got on with saia as a city driver here in texas. I only worked for 9 months before I decided to go to the oilfields. Now I am back at fedex ground.

As a city driver it's a lot of freight handling, I lost 20 pounds!! In the first three months I was there. You back up to docks around 15 times à day and sometimes into hard spots but after a while you get used to everything. At first it's tough because you don't know where addresses are and what streets trucks are allowed thru but you will get the hang of it. I used to hate having Starbucks Coffee deliveries because it was done by hand, had to break pallets down and use a two wheel dolly if it was available.
Another thing you will have to deal with is manager calling you looking to see what time your going to deliver specific freight because it's hot even though the dock loaded it at the nose of the trailer -_- I worked from 11am to around 10 to midnight. They pay OT after 45 hours and if they see you getting too close to 55 or even at 50 hours they will call you to stay home. The insurance is great and you get weekends off. Sometimes maybe a Saturday but it's rare. It's tough when your new cause you don't have seniority on anything. It's also hard to get Mondays or Fridays off even with vacation days because it's the busiest days. Any more info just let me know.

It wasn't a bad place and didn't mind going to work. They don't fire you for being slow or discipline you at all. The only way to get fired is by dropping a trailer or having an accident without reporting it.

 

Forgot to mention. It was very tough to get in. It took about 9 months to hear anything. I think it deletes after 6 months so I reapplied. Only three of us were hired and in the 9 months I was there they never hired anybody else because they have a dock to driver program and drivers come from within saia. I do regret leaving sometimes. Mainly because of the insurance. Pay in texas is almost 20hr. To start. Everyone gets pay the same. You top out at 2years around 23 something.