Tri-Hi Transportation

I don't normally reply to the things I read on forums, because I think people are allowed their opinions. However in your case DBonion,you without question have a serious axe to grind. I am a man who drove for this company for over 2 years, so I can say without question that if nothing else , these are good people. FAR from being hillbillies or the evil monsters you are trying to make them out to be. Do they always do what you want and when you want it NO they don't which puts them on party with every other trucking companies in this country. In all the time I worked for them there was never a time when (within a reasonable time frame) asked for home time or off time I certain parts of the country and didn't get it. If a message wasn't answered in a reasonable time on Qualcomm, then I never had a problem getting them on the phone.
Pay was on time EVERYTIME Which says a lot these days with companies.
When you start they explain your pay and how you get paid prior to you ever arriving at their yard. They have beyond measure the best equipment in the industry and meticulously maintained. More miles than even you super truckers think you can handle, with the home time to boot if you live in their mainlanes. 99% Drop n Hook % off of your Verizon bill if that's your carrier, all done from a little small welcoming town In Wisconsin who see past race and religion for one purpose to make money so that they can pay YOU.
I replied to your post only to give a few of the facts that you OBVIOUSLY failed to mention. If they did YOU wrong, I guarantee its because they think that YOU did wrong, not because it's a regular course of business for them.
And no I ni longer work there. Because I was blessed enough after an illness to find a local company to work for. But if ever as a 25 year vet in this business, I needed to get back OTR Tri-Hi would be my choice. Simple concept with them "Do right by us and yourself, and you will get that in return" They owe you nothing that you haven't earned! And that includes the respect you think you have coming, that you refuse to give in return.
Are they perfect? Nope But they are a dam site better than most!
Daryl M
Ex-Driver and cognitive thinker

 

If "Office work is reduced greatly, thus saving money" as you claim, why not pass that saving along to the drivers?

LMFAO.

 

Daryl, if they are a reefer company, how do they manage 99% drop and hook?

Do they have a network of locals that do the deliveries to dcs?

 

They don't. I'm guessing Daryl meant "no touch freight." Tri Hi actually advertises 100% no touch freight, and they come pretty darn close to it. I've been driving for them for 1.5 years now, and only recently, for the first time, I had to load a whopping three pallets with a pallet jack. They don't want us handling the freight. Probably to avoid on-the-job injuries. There are a few places we drop and hook around Wisconsin, but most everything else is live load/unload (from my experience), but the company will pay for lumpers when necessary.

The pay system did feel a bit strange at first, but I budget my income a month ahead of time anyway, so I adjusted quickly. Pay is 36 cpm plus 5 cpm per diem currently. There's also a 3 cpm incentive bonus which is not difficult to get so long as you don't get into any accidents or have any moving violations and you deliver your loads on time. Finally there's a quarterly safety bonus of 3 cpm for all miles run in that quarter if you've qualified for the incentive bonus for all three months in that quarter.

Do keep track of your trips and any accessorial pay you're due. I've only had something missing from my check a couple times, but there was no problem getting it tacked on to my next settlement check (aka "the big check").

When I first started with Tri-Hi in November 2015, I was keeping track of my loads on paper. I started using a custom spreadsheet in July of 2016. The following data is ONLY from that spreadsheet since it's much easier to access than my previous paper records.

In the past nine months, I've run 95,361 paid miles in 78 trips. That makes my average miles per month 10,596 and my average length of haul 1,223 miles. During that time I've been taking 3-6 days home per month (usually). They only count FULL days as home time, and they generally got me home the morning before my first full day off. In other words, very generous home time policy if that interests you. Of course, that will reduce your miles. Freight does seems slower in January and February (8181 and 9814 miles for me respectively in 2017). The rest of the year seems pretty steady. If you're not taking a lot of home time, you could do very well financially despite the arguably low(ish) rate of pay per mile. I didn't take any home time in August 2017 and I ran 13,014 miles that month. Strangely, November 2017 was a great month for me, too, at 12,370 miles, even though I took about four days off over Thanksgiving. One last thing to note, we do run a few LTL loads. In the past nine months I've had 1-2 LTL loads per month except for two months when I've had 4 in each of those months. They still tend to be long loads though, and extra stops (besides the first and last) are paid $15/stop.

If you're interested in driving for Tri-Hi, I will warn you that not only do you need to be willing to run hard, you need to be a self-starter with a good head on your shoulders. There's not much hand-holding or micromanagement here. You're in charge of managing your time and hours of service efficiently if you want to maximize your miles. You get your load info, then you're responsible for planning your load and ensuring you can legally deliver it on time. Dispatch doesn't much care how you do (time-wise) it as long as you get it there safely and on time. They do automatically provide routing with each load and expect you to run that route (with a couple exceptions spelled out in the driver's manual). That being said, if you need/want to take a different route due weather, road closures, or simply a shorter route, you can send them a message and they'll generally approve the change if it's not adding a bunch of unnecessary miles. They don't generally gripe about on-the-fly reroutes either. I've rerouted around weather-related hazards and accidents several times in the past year and a half and they've either not noticed or not cared.

This independence is one of my favorite things about Tri-Hi. Although it CAN be a double-edged sword. Other posters are correct; dispatch communication is abysmal unless THEY need something or your message only requires a yes or no response. If you have a question that requires more than a short response, it will most likely be ignored or put aside unless it's some kind of emergency like a blown tire or other breakdown. I don't have a lot of questions for dispatch, but when I do, I often have to send three or more messages on the Qualcomm over the course of several hours and the final one usually has a line that says something like "will someone please respond so I know you're getting my messages?" That usually gets a response, although often I still don't get much info. I know that this is more than likely due to the fact that there are only 2-4 guys handling dispatch for 70-80 drivers, so I try to be patient, but it can be very frustrating on the rare occasions when I need information (or my next load!!) from them. Fortunately I don't need to get in touch with them like this very often. The gals in the office (administration/billing/payroll/HR) seem to generally be pretty quick with responses if I need something (except maybe around tax time. LOL).

Well, I've probably go on much longer than necessary, but there's some info for you guys. Is Tri-Hi perfect? Nah. But they're probably better than most. 95% of the time, I'm happy I drive for them. That's pretty darn good in my opinion.

 

They use DAC?

 

Yes, they will check your DAC report before hiring you, if that's what you're asking.

 

The so with the bonuses they seem to be paying 47 cents a mile if my math is correct
.36 base
.05 per diem
.03 monthly
.03 quarterly

 

Yep, so long as you stay safe on the road and deliver your loads on time... You know, just be good at the job.

 

You know this when you hire on. It's their company they run it as they see fit. Your not forced to work there. If you don't like it quit or don't go to work there.

 

If you're not asking about the pay schedule at ANY company when you talk to a recruiter, then you're just bad at job searching. Personally, I had Andy (Tri-Hi's recruiter) email me the entire company driver's manual before I even started asking him any questions over the phone. I understood the pay schedule and most of the company's policies before I agreed to come to orientation. As a result, my "orientation" lasted about half a day, then I headed out in a new Volvo to pick up my first load and make some actual money.

I get that you don't like the way Tri-Hi works. That's fine. They probably wouldn't like the way you work either. You go find a job you're happy with, and us Tri-Hi drivers will keep the jobs we're happy with.

 

In addition to trucking, I also do investing and I find it inconceivable to have my money - my capital - withheld a month out.

I wonder about any employer utilizing this or similar model to invest all or a good chunk of the payroll in something with a 30-day maturity. Even at an average rate of 0.1%, it will add up.

Once the 30 days have expired, collect the money, skim the interest for themselves, then pay the drivers. This is an over simplification but objective readers should get my point.

But hey - if Trihi drivers are happy overall, then it's all that matters for them.