The new Walmart fleet vs. the old.

Greetings folks,

When I came on board the private fleet almost 27 years ago, it was an exciting change of pace for me. I was an owner operator for 17 years and didn't really know what to expect as a company man. The interview process was like being vetted for a job with the C.I.A. and after I was hired, many friends of mine could not believe Walmart took me in. Not because I wasn't qualified, but because I was known as a "not liking to be told what to do" kind of guy. I was at that stage when it was time to start building towards future retirement and that profit sharing plan really was fitting the bill for me.

On day one of orientation it was made clear to all of us that we were now part of the Walmart family. A family with a boatload of rules, but a family none the less. Management made every effort to make us all feel good about being here with one goal in mind, supporting our # 1 customer, the stores! Back then we were all told that the fleet operates in the red and Mr. Sam didn't care because if we took care of our stores, the stores would take care of the fleet. Mr. Sam's philosophy apparently was working because it made him insanely rich. This philosophy was hard to comprehend because we were hauling many store loads over 500 miles one way and told to deadhead on home as we had very few or no back-hauls available. As we all know, the philosophy today is very different.

When Mr. Sam passed away in 1992, Bentonville announced to us not to worry, things aren't going to change but that's exactly when the changes began. One old policy was if you returned to the D.C. with two hours or less on your ten, you could go home for the night. That was kind of nice but not mandatory. Now all of a sudden, if you had 15 minutes left to drive, you were put on a pull ahead and had to gate out and layover outside the D.C. No more nights at the house during the week.

Then the importance of back-hauls began. It didn't matter if the vender had the load ready or not, you usually were made to wait until it was. That's about the time J.B. Hunt started hauling store loads for us because we were tied up in Los Angeles waiting for a back-haul. Then the rumors started that Walmart was getting rid of the fleet and Hunt, Swift, Knight and Schneider were taking over. It wasn't true but the rumors were out there none the less.

In August of 1994 the fleet announced newly hired drivers would start out 5 cents less per mile and achieve full pay in 5 years. When I started all Walmart drivers with 14 years or less were paid the same. Drivers 15 years or more received an extra penny per mile. That's because Mr. Sam said "If you're doing the same amount of work, you get the same amount of pay. The 15 or more years drivers got the extra penny for loyalty. I have no clue how this 38 cents per mile, reduced activity and slip seating announced last October is going to work by drawing qualified applicants.

All these other policy changes in the last few years regarding on board collision prevention, cameras and cell phones are directly because of the lawyers. Everyone hates it, but unfortunately Walmart owns the trucks so we have to take it.

My set run will be gone March 9 and that really ticks me off. I worked hard, paid my dues and earned that run. Now after all these years there isn't even an FLW. Every decent fleet has bid runs and what's sad is Walmart drivers don't even have that to look forward to. The set runs we had at our office were not "gravy" by any means. They were a minimum of 13 hour days, zero empty miles and only one run brought the driver in daily. The real upside was not having to deal with the ROC.

I am very fortunate that I will be able to keep my truck and a 5-2 schedule. We have some folks with 20+ years who will not be as fortunate and believe me, they are really unhappy.

I'm really trying not to go off on a rant about Walmart. Over the years this has been a really good place to work. Thankfully my local management team has been just wonderful. I'm friends with all of AP, the coordinators and everyone out in the shop as well. I have thought about quitting, but common sense tells me to just sit tight. I could get another job tomorrow that pays relatively equally but that would mean starting completely over and I am too old to be at the bottom somewhere else.

I don't think the Home Office wants to dump the private fleet but feel they do want to weed out senior drivers. We cost too much money for them in pay scale and PTO. Bentonville is notorious for cooking up big ideas and having them implode so I will just ride out this recent storm and maybe in 6 months to a year senior management will reverse some of this.

Thank you.

 

A few years ago our old safety man said Bentonville would not install cameras because it gave opposing lawyers discover-able evidence in case if it was our fault. Shortly after that statement, cameras were installed on the Hermiston team trucks running to Alaska. The reasoning was they were too far away for fleet safety to do a complete investigation. Now we all have cameras. Another fine example of senior management logic.

 

Well, after finally seeing the new schedule and bids available this week it's apparent that Bentonville wants us old hands gone. Every single 5/2, at least at our office, means no more weekends off. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and a couple Sunday out's is it. This blows chunks for a lot of drivers at our office because church on Sunday is huge for them. I'm not a church goer but I will miss my football.

I've talked with about 20 drivers since Tuesday to see how they felt about the new schedule and every single person was really unhappy. Including some newer drivers! One guy said his GTM mentioned after returning from that meeting in Bentonville that senior management stated if this new system fails, the fleet will be gone. That's very disheartening.