Star Transportation

They re out of Nashville and owned by Covenant Transport.

 

Dont do it.

 

I just started with Star. They do have a lot of close proximity regional runs. Most of their NorthEast company drivers stay in the NorthEast running regional up there. I'm still on standby waiting for my trainer to start his next run. What attracted me to them was the SE regional which consists of TN, AL, GA, and MS. That is running parts for Nissan. I was told up front that I may start out as a "fill in" until a spot opened up for the Nissan account. Fill in meaning where they may need you for the first few weeks. They just won a huge contract for GM out of Spring Hill, TN. You get paid $600 a week while in training even when you're on standby. If you are an experienced driver that won't require training then you will get your truck after orientation and head home and get ready to roll. Starting pay all depends on what you can arrange with recruiting, but the bottom starting for experienced is $.38/mi averaging about 2400 mi a week. But that all depends on your region and recruiting. They do say home on weekends but that depends on your route and your manager. The manager I will probably be working for said they can try to have you home on weekends but they do want people who are willing to work the weekends because most accounts they have are automotive accounts that also work weekends. But home weekly was not an issue.

 

I live in Knoxville and will hopefully be finishing driving school soon. I've heard a lot of bad things and some good things with this company like everyone else. I have 6 children so not only is weekly hometime important, but I still need to keep a steady decent paycheck. I keep hearing that they won't run you enough miles per week. Does anyone else have any advice or experience they can share?

 

I spoke to a guy a couple of weeks ago who drives for them. It was a Wednesday and he was still home because they had no load for him. He said the miles suck right now. Take that for what it's worth.

 

The biggest problem with them is their accounts, which isn't much of a problem if you budget yourself well. One of their main accounts is Nissan. Nissan goes on a two week shut down in December every year. If you are on the Nissan account, you go on the two week shut down with them. They tell you that if you want a load while they are on shut down then they will help you get one. I use to work at Nissan and I rather enjoyed the time off. If you budget your money well you can pretty much plan a two week vacation around the shut down. For now that's what my plan is if I get that account. I wish I had more info to share, but I'm still fresh. On the bright side, my trainer is on the Nissan account and I've been waiting on him to start back up. But while I've been on stand by, I've been getting training pay for the past three weeks. That's for anyone who hires on. Training pay is $600/week. Not too bad for getting to spend time at home with my family. So I have no complaints so far.

 

To add to my previous post, all the drivers I spoke with at the terminal seemed to really enjoy it and didn't have any complaints. If that helps any.