Stevens Transport - Dallas, Tx.

They want to pair you up with another Driver Trainee, once you get off the truck with your trainer... # Students with only 5 weeks exper. working as a team and only making $450 a week for 6 weeks.....

Not only is this a crazy idea, but why the hell am I going to drive as a team for them and only make $450 a week while the truck is making them $1000's a week....

 

Here's Stevens entire training schedule.

you arrive on Sunday for your first day of orientation. This first orientation is the basics and paperwork and being ready for your trainer including a road test and yard test. By the way, at the yard, you don't train with cones. There are trailers and trucks there so that you're doing the real thing with real situations set up.

The following Thursday you should be on the road with your trainer. You will be with that trainer for 35 days. During that time you will go to every region of the continental United States and possibly Canada and even possibly Mexico. (Most Mexico loads are delivered or picked up by Stevens in Laredo TX.

Once you've finished your 35 days ( 7 weeks), you'll have about another week of orientation which covers trip planning, and other items. At the end of that week, you will have chosen a trainee partner. At this time you must both qualify with stevens to be able to handle the truck as a solo driver. In fact, other companies would have long since put you on the road. However, at Stevens we want only the best trained drivers in the industry. So you go with the trainee partner. You'll be with this trainee partner for 21 days (3 weeks.) During this time the truck is not to move more than 700 miles in a 24 hour period.

Once you've completed 21 days and 7000 miles with your trainee partner you'll get your own truck and move on to gradfleet for another 90 days. My first truck was a 2007 T2000 with about 140k miles on it. During gradfleet, you'll be paid by the mile. You're a solo (or team driver if you choose.) I felt so good having privacy again that I'm still solo. Although when I come off this week's five days off, I'll have a rider (and friend) with me for the next few weeks touring the country.

After your hire date at orientation up to the time you go to gradfleet you'll make $350/wk (may have been increased but I'll give you the lowest number I know) Your actual days on the road might vary a bit depending on freight, weather and you're readiness to move to the next level. The vast majority of people in stevens training move on right on schedule. If for some reason there is a shortage of trucks or other circumstance that moves you on the trainee team past 21 days, you get a raise to 450/week.

Stevens actually loses money on you while training by the way. It takes a lot of phone calls, staff, and time to make sure you're on the right path.

That''s just about it. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.

BTW... I am now leased on to stevens through their alliance program after six months of working for Stevens. I make a profit of .49/mile. I'm not a .26/mile driver.

 

Besause your just a trainee with a CDL, What experience do you have that you should be making top dollar out on the road. Another newbie that thinks he know's everything.

 

I am new to them and just finished training and received my truck. It's an 06 T2000 with 300k miles on it and very clean. First week out and I got a 3drop in NY. I didnt mind as NY doesnt bother me.

How can you idle thru 200 gallons when it is about 1gal/hr? If you sat that long then you must have been a problem driver to begin with. I have NEVER sat more then 36hrs for any load and the times I have were for those meat loads in KS. Also, the only time you get charged for refuels is if you are a contractor. As a company driver if you send in a QC stating you are low they will auth a refill. I call BS to this post.

Agree I was suckered in but I have to get the experience somewhere. Stevens is close to Houston and no way I was going to go to Swift from San Antonio. Guess my case is different than all those so far.

Yeah, so far they have delivered on all promised. Trk 5723 here. Whats odd, I get home when I ask, never ran a load I couldnt deliver and if so it was repowered with no problems. They just want the freight off the shippers docks so they think its moving, even if it is 5 miles down the road waiting on a repower due to hours. Its all about communication, with everything logged in QC I have yet to get any bad repore out of Stevens. I think some posters here forgot to read there manuals which could have saved them allot of lost effort.

I couldnt have said it better. Everything stated above went exactly same for me. Communication is the key. If I wasnt safe with something I called into safety and shut myself down, then when it was safe to my standards then I called in and got safety removed and cleared to roll again.

They have paid for my car rental for the times I have went home. Even hotel stay when truck went down in Cali and I had nowhere to go other than the truckers lounge. No quips from me.

Trk 5723

 

I never said I should be making top dollar, and I know I don't know everything about trucking, nor does that other trainee, so why put 2 noobs in the same truck. That just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen....

That is the point I was making.... and also, after I do as many as 7 weeks of training, I want to go on mileage pay, instead of working for peanuts...

26 cpm x 3,000 miles = $780 gross, instead of $450 gross....
26 cpm x 2,500 miles = $650 gross, and so on and on...........

but what the hell do I know?....lol

 

Well I've never worked for Stevens nor do I know the exact reason they do this. My speculation is after 7 weeks of training putting 2 n00bs in a truck is a good test to see how they handle themselves out on the road. If one of them has a problem hopefully the other can help him/her out.

 

To you , perhaps the training is not worth it. You see, during the trainee team, you're still training. In fact, during your first 90 days solo, you're training on "gradfleet" but getting paid for miles while solo.

This particular forum is meant to report a bad trucking company you've had experience with. Some have done that here. I'm still with the company and have not had an experience bad enough to complain about it to the world. When I've had a problem, Stevens responded better than expected when I communicate with them what my grievance is.

You may have chosen not to have an experience with stevens. That's fine, but the facts as you see them are not facts. They are perceptions based on not yet having seen the experience. Wherever you go, I wish you well, but consider that although you won't get the top pay for stevens training, you'll get the best training which is stevens. That is worth something, especially to the next company that hires you. Consider it a down payment on the rest of your career.

 

I know this is an older post but it's still worth reiterating. Nice one, Tip.

 

SOME people may be happy with Stevens.
but for most of the drivers this is not the case. I have seen first hand the kinda #### they pull on their drivers. I tell the recruiters to go blow smoke up somebody else's ### cause i ain't buying it!
I know for a fact that Stevens has been thrown out of 3 truck driving schools here in N.C. due to mass complaints from students who went to Stevens.
and what it this crap with students wanting to make to much money? do you call 26 cent to much? this is very low even for a student. look around and you can get at least 30.

 

Thats how I got my training done. Went to the local Worksource and took the school at HCC on the East side of Houston. All I had to pay for was the gas to get to school and back, as I brought my own food. I still went with Stevens though cause they are local to me and have alot of traffic thru Houston which would get me home alot more easily. JMHO

Trk 5723 so far. Until it breaks down on me.