USA Truck, Inc. - Van Buren, Ar.

IUfanforever · Oct 9, 2007

jlanthripp said: ↑

You can't drive 10 hours every day - you'll run out of hours on the 70-hour rule in 7 days (you cannot drive after having been on duty 70 hours in a rolling 8-day period). Plus, there's loading/unloading time (you have to log *some* time for this - I log 15 minutes for bumping the dock or doing a drop/hook, then hit the sleeper while waiting to be loaded or unloaded, and waiting for the qualcomm to beep with pro number and directions, or next load assignment). Then there's fuel stops, scaling heavy loads, pre-trip inspections, etc. etc. Also, you can't drive past the 14th hour after you come on duty for the day. What happens when you wait 2 hours to be unloaded, then drive to your next load, arrive 2 hours before the pickup appointment, and don't get done loading until an hour after the appointment time, then have to stop for fuel and to scale the load? You also have to eat and use the restroom sometime.

They don't tell you where to fuel on the Qualcomm. We have a list of truck stops on our fuel network that we can fuel at, plus there's fuel at our Van Buren, West Memphis, Roanoke, and Shreveport terminals. Find one on your route and fuel there - there's a few hundred of them, so you'll almost never need to get "out of network" fuel - I've never had to in a year and a half of driving for USA Truck.

We run mostly in the area enclosed by a line drawn from Laredo, TX to Minneapolis, MN to Boston, MA to Jacksonville, FL and back to Laredo. We occasionally get a load going to the west coast, but it's pretty rare and those usually go to trainers whose students are ready to run as a team (see below).

You are not paid actual miles driven - you are paid "short-route" miles. If you get 2800 paid miles, you will have driven more like 3000-3200 odometer miles, maybe a bit more. A couple of weeks ago I had my best week yet - 4045 paid miles. Average is about 2800-3000 for a whole week on the road, obviously less for a week that includes home time.

We no longer have PrePass in our trucks. They tried it for a year, and gave it up.

We have EZ-Pass for tolls in Illinois, West Virginia, and the Northeast. We also have PikePass for Oklahoma tolls. USA Truck does not pay or reimburse for tolls in Ohio or Indiana without prior approval from dispatch via Qualcomm, which will not be granted except in extreme weather conditions or on loads that are very time-sensitive. They will not pay for Kansas or Florida tolls under any circumstances. I've never needed to run a toll road in Texas, so I don't know what the policy is on those.

Our trucks are governed at 63mph. Of course, you can attain higher speeds if you have a nice heavy load of paper or scrap aluminum and are going down a big hill

If USA Truck pays for your training (typically at a C-1 school), you are under contract to drive for USA Truck for 1 year, starting from the day you are dispatched on your first load as a solo driver, which happens after you complete school, a month on a trainer truck, orientation, and the logbook and road tests. $45/week is deducted from your pay for the first year. If you leave USA Truck for any reason during that year (including being fired without cause - Arkansas is a Right to Work state), you are responsible for $5300 for your schooling and orientation expenses. If you make it to the end of the year, you get a $4000 discount on school and a check for about a thousand bucks as a refund of "overpayment" ($45 times 52 weeks is $2340). You are then a free man, and owe nothing in the event you leave the company.

After school, you will spend a minimum of 4 weeks with a trainer. Last I heard, the pay during training is $350/week, though they may have upped it recently. Some trainers are good guys, some are horses' rectums - just like any other group of random people. You'll run your butt off and hopefully learn how to drive, back up, scale loads, slide tandems, and keep a log book in the real world (the school doesn't teach you how to drive a truck, it teaches you just enough to pass the state test and get a shiny new CDL). You'll also hopefully learn a bit about what it's like living on the road, how to plan trips, how to manage your money (hint: when you get your own truck, get an electric cooler - stay out of the Flying J buffet). Once your trainer determines you are ready to drive the interstate without constant supervision, you will run as a team for the rest of your time on the truck - you sleep while he drives, and vice versa. If you hit anything while with your trainer, the situation will be reviewed, and you can probably expect an extra 2 weeks on a trainer truck. If you have a DOT reportable, preventable accident while on the trainer truck, you can probably expect a bus ticket home and a bill in the mail for your schooling. So it behooves you to be careful (just like it will after you upgrade to solo driver - you don't want accidents on your DAC rergardless of what happens, so long as you plan to drive a truck). Note: if, on Day 28 on the trainer's truck, you are in Oregon and the only load they have in the area is going to Chicago, you will not go straight from Oregon to Van Buren for orientation. You will be required to complete the dispatched load you are on, and maybe another load or two, while they try to route the trainer truck through Van Buren.

Assuming you make it through the training, you go for 3 days of orientation in Van Buren, AR. You will be put up in a cheap motel and taken to the terminal every morning on a company bus driven by a nice lady named Mary who bakes banana bread and cookies and sells them to the drivers (try the banana bread - it's excellent!)

First day of orientation you will take a logging test. Then you'll take a road test, in which you'll pull a trailer around the tightest corners and down the narrowest streets in Van Buren that it's legal to drive a tractor trailer on. If you take down a sign or telephone pole, or drag the trailer over a curb, you fail the test. Finally, you'll be required to back that trailer into a spot that's 11 and a half feet wide - you have 10 minutes. If you do not get out and look before you put the truck in reverse, you fail the test. If you hit a barrel, you fail the test. I just had to take all those tests again, as part of my becoming a trainer. I was...well, not exactly scared, but definitely uneasy when taking those turns - I had to put the tractor all the way into the oncoming traffic lane, which meant I had to sit a ways back from the corner and wait for traffic to clear before making the turns. I missed the curb on that last right turn by a few inches - and I took the whole left turn lane for the setup, and turned into the oncoming lane of the street I was turning onto, staying within a few inches of the outside curb with the left steer tire until the trailer tires cleared the curb on the inside of the turn. I also took just under 6 minutes to complete the backing test, and got out to look 4 times. It actually looks tighter than it really is, but there are no lines on the ground to line up on.

After the tests, a man named Sam, who missed his calling as a motivational speaker, will spend the remainder of those 3 days telling you about how easy it is for a truck driver to kill someone by doing dumb things or not paying attention, how hard life is on the road, how it's worth it to stick it out, and how important it is to stay focused on safety and to not let the bumps in the road get you down. You'll be instructed on company policies and procedures, and watch a slide show featuring photos of accident scenes as a wake-up call to show you what happens when you do something dumb or don't pay attention to what you're doing (lots of mangled dead people - very sad really).

You'll be assigned a truck and a Fleet Manager. Your truck will probably not be in Van Buren, meaning you're in for a bus ride. You'll either go home for a few days then take another bus to your truck, or you'll go straight to your truck and spend a minimum of 2 weeks on the road before you go home - this depends on whether you got to go home between training and orientation.

You will not be assigned a brand new truck right off the bat. You may have to pick your truck up at a towing company where it's been sitting for 6 months after a driver abandoned it. Then again, you may be picking your truck up at the Shreveport terminal, freshly cleaned out by the shop guys there. They might even have run it through the "wash bay" there after cleaning it out. It's a roll of the dice.

Disclaimer: I drive for USA Truck, and just finished the class and tests to become a trainer, though I haven't yet gotten a student. After I deliver this load in Knoxville tomorrow, I'm deadheading home and will get my first student after I come back out.
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Great post, thanks for the info!

rockroad51 · Mar 30, 2010

worst stinkin trucks on road DOT take note NASTY ONES GO TO STUDENTS

JustSonny · Mar 30, 2010

rockroad51 said: ↑

worst stinkin trucks on road DOT take note NASTY ONES GO TO STUDENTS
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VehicleSEA: 99.85 Read you loud and clear Rockroad!

retribution · Apr 18, 2010

dank440 · Oct 10, 2010

jughead41 said: ↑

This post is for students ,who like myself not very long ago had a hard time chosing where to start. When i graduated from Transposrt Tech I didnt have alot of options for my first trucking company. My options where Swift,Werner,Us Express, Davis,and unfortunately USA Truck. I would like to share my experience with usa truck with any students out there that may be concidering this company to start so here goes. USA Truck recruiter ANDREA and the promises made to me............................................ (1.) Home every weakend ,(YOU WILL FIGHT TO GET HOME THE SECOND WEAKEND OUT ) (2.)no trucks over 19 months old,(I NEVER SEEN A USA TRUCK AS NEW AS 19 MONTHS) (3) 35 cents a mile (I WAS GIVEN 27 CENTS A MILE AND THATS BEFORE THEY DEDUCT 25 DOLLARS EACH PAY TO PAY BACK YOUR SO CALLED PAYED ORIENTATION AND OTHER LITTLE ODDS AND ENDS THEY THROW IN) (4) 95% drop and hook, (I NOT ONLY SAT FOR MANY MANY HOURS WAITING TO BE LOADED/UNLOADED I WAS DISPATCHED TO PICK UP LOADS AND SIT FOR HOURS AT TRUCK STOPS WAITING FOR THIER VET DRIVERS TO PICK UP MY LOAD. (5) re-embersement, (WONT HAPPEN SO DONT FRONT USA TRUCK A DIME) IMJUST GIVEN FAIR WARNING TO ANY THAT MIGHT CONCIDER THESE PEOPLE GO ANYWHERE BUT USA TRUCK,,,,, ANDREA, SHERRY, SHAWN THE WHOLE PACK LIELIE LIE, OH AND BY THE WAY USA TRUCK HOLDS THE HIGHEST FATALITY RATE OF ANY TRUCKING COMPANY IN THE BUSSINESS TYM BOB
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Excellent info Jughead! thanks

dank440 · Oct 10, 2010

IUfanforever said: ↑

Great post, thanks for the info!
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Sounds miserable. Hats off to those that maintain!

tlc4uqt · Oct 12, 2010

runion25 said: ↑

i started with usa truck. no problem with miles just money and never been able to get me home. when i first started with them in 2004 i started at .24 cents a mile. they took money outta my check to pay for my school and escrow. i remember one check was for $-125.00 it took a couple of weeks to get outta the hole. i dont usually bad mouth companys because some guys/gals have good luck and some dont. at least they gave me a start in the trucking world.
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Check out Hill Bros...call Erin or Andrea at 402-331-2503 x 227 and mention that you talked to Terry in Trk 2329...great company and looking for responsible, safe experienced drivers...good luck
ps...i quit USA after just 4 months....complete joke of a company

shellgirl86 · Oct 17, 2010

My husband has had so many things go wrong with this company...from no miles, to screwing drivers out of their home time, to bad equiptment...you name it, USA has done it!! He calls me with something wrong about USA everyday! So right now we are in the process of looking for a new company, and i was wondering if anyone had any ideas for an indiana driver w/1 yr experience, good driving record, and looking for western freight? any advice would be appericated thx.

tlc4uqt · Oct 18, 2010

Check out Hill Bros (they have been great)...call Erin or Andrea at 402-331-2503 x 227 and mention that you talked to Terry in Trk 2329...great company and looking for responsible, safe experienced drivers...good luck
ps...i quit USA after just 4 months....complete joke of a company

rocknroll81 · Oct 21, 2010

shellgirl86 said: ↑

My husband has had so many things go wrong with this company...from no miles, to screwing drivers out of their home time, to bad equiptment...you name it, USA has done it!! He calls me with something wrong about USA everyday! So right now we are in the process of looking for a new company, and i was wondering if anyone had any ideas for an indiana driver w/1 yr experience, good driving record, and looking for western freight? any advice would be appericated thx.
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You could look at IWX Motor Freight You can Google there website. They have a terminal in Edinburgh, IN. But i believe they haul produce and mostly if not all Reefer. And they run out west. Hope this helps

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