Pros
I liked it as I wanted to be local and there was quite a bit of local. Ok... Starting pay (so I thought). Reading the manual they tend to promote from within, so advancement opportunities. Ok...Vacation time (so I thought)
Cons
Long hours/days depending on location and contract. Expected to honor and abide by a 10hr off period even if local. (Example you have 10hrs off, but live 1hr away from where you park your truck, from where your "allowed" to park your truck. So back and forth that's 2hrs gone. So you really only have 8hrs off... Try to squeeze family time, food, sleep, etc into the remaining 8hrs and see how long you can maintain it). While you do get PTO it's used for everything. Your account doesn't have work (happens) you take a PTO, your sick PTO, need to go to the Dr. PTO, need to go to a funeral PTO (they say they have funeral/bereavement/jury duty pay... But it's all PTO. Medical is a joke. It's modest on price, but doesn't actually cover much of anything. Within my first year or so, needed some surgery. While about 10k, was still under the insurance threshold and insurance wouldn't cover. Also if you need either a at home or a in-lab sleep study, insurance won't cover. Dental is a joke, especially for a company of this size. Dental coverage is enough for a cleaning and that's about it. Vision is also a joke, still quite high out of pocket expenses. In my time here I've met Managers who like to Power Trip, and treat drivers quite harshly. Managers will also tell you to knowingly break the law. Can't ever catch them in a text message saying it. (Bypass weigh stations, signout of ELD and continue to run, it's OK to run over axle/max weight, it's ok to Park illegal so long as load gets delivered, go to location park nearby getup during 10hr break deliver then go park back where you were and continue 10hr break) Lack of information to find advancement opportunities. Been here for a few years only last year did someone finally tell me where to go to find office positions. Lack of diversity... In the way of drivers to managers. Managers think they know what is required to drive a truck, refuse to go on ride alongs to see what drivers deal with day to day. There's an ability for drivers to report conditions of shippers / receiver's (how you were treated, conditions, bathrooms, parking etc) doesn't matter what you put, I have yet to see anything get fixed/changed. Pay... Changes depending on account, how your paid, how often your paid, and rate of pay. (Example: you could be "local" but your pay is activity based and pays say x per load, but can only do 3 loads due to time and traffic a day, but you'd prefer 6loads due to pay. Your account pays you off of activity, or mileage depending on how far you go for the day. Very few pay hourly, and fewer still will pay you salary. Lots of safety discussion is expected of a big company. Lots of safety equipment in the truck to keep you safe on the road (not always a good thing). There's a radar unit/forward camera on most trucks, car cuts you off you have X amount of time to brake before trigger warning get sent off to company. But say you brake and another car hops in front, you brake again and another car and the system is triggered and now you look like a bad driver in the eyes of the company even though your braked. I've had it before with this radar system that while cruise is engaged the radar system can control your brakes, I was driving in a curve and system detected a imminent hit (it was a posted/mounted mile marker sign that I was no where close to hitting), truck slammed the brakes took me from 60mph to about 40mph, thank God no one else was behind me. Have also had the system trip while sitting stationary and parked (didn't brake as was already stopped, but triggered a alert to company).
