PACCAR reviews

3.7

63% would recommend to a friend

(1,041 total reviews)
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Preston Feight

72% approve of CEO

52% positive business outlook

PACCAR has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 1,041 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The PACCAR employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Manufacturing industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
2.0
Jun 18, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great city to work/live albeit expensive. Quite a few opportunities to try new positions within the Controller's organization at different divisions in the greater Bellevue area. I'm in my 4th position in 5 years. It helps keep you distracted a bit from all of the cons below...

Cons

-Sr Management are detached fear mongrels surrounded by a bunch of yes-men. -Very political management hierarchy. It is all about perception and who you know, not reality or qualifications regarding who moves up and who doesn't. You better be part of the good ol' boys club or forget about it. -Very poor systems. Our Accounting system is DOS-based, implemented in the 70's, and has been in end-of-life stage for 10 years (meaning there is no support if it should break). Even though we're supposed to be a "technology company", it only applies to our trucks and dealers, not to our administrative infrastructure. -Undercompensated and underappreciated. No profit sharing or incentives until you're at a director level making $120k+. -Definitely short-term focused which often sacrifices long term benefits. The Chairman has a "72 years of profitablity" monkey on his back. He doesn't want to be the one who breaks the streak, so he will do everything in his power to get in the black by year-end, which means cut now and pay for it later. He's very adept at the "borrow from Peter to pay Paul" concept. A lot of our projects and products have suffered because of it.

3.0
Jan 31, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pretty good benefits / Opportunities to move between departments or divisions

Cons

I've had to work for way too many incompetent supervisors/managers who don't know anything about managing people. They are good at telling their employees they are "the boss" and "do as told not as I do". They also make sure to hire someone who is less smarter than them and they always emphasize "go through the chain of command" even if it wastes valuable time. PACCAR really need to start having the employees evaluate the managers to weed out the bad ones (insecure / incompetent / control-freak).

2.0
Dec 29, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

PACCAR is well known and very stable. I worked for their parts division and had no fear of layoffs. Their trucks are the best in the industry and senior management is very focused on the company vision. On the research and development side I was very impressed with the factory and testing facilities. If you are into technology their technology division seems pretty cutting edge. I was also impressed with the way their distribution centers used data to streamline operations. If you can drive a forklift I would say look for employment there. They are a large company so it is easy to find a niche that you are good at. I found their HR department extremely friendly and competent. I found their benefits so-so but they do provide some tuition reimbursement. There was support for training classes, especially if you wanted to learn more about the business. They were also supportive of a Toastmaster's group.

Cons

I found the company to be very hierarchical, especially the corporate office and to an extent the Parts division. Senior management seemed aloof and disdainful of the rank and file. The chairman seems to like to rule by fear; and this attitude seems to have trickled down to other senior management. At the Parts Division, middle management seems more interested in protecting their fiefdoms rather than collaborating with other departments. I have heard another department referred to as "the enemy". I also found middle management likely to play favorites. Time off was a mixed card. They seemed pretty flexible but we were also told that they "owned our weekends" but most of the time let you have them. There were a few good managers though. The corporate and parts division seemed to shy away from capital improvements. They would rather throw people at the problem. The technology they used was pretty old; a lot of their core data was stored on old mainframes. Leads would have to develop spreadsheets or Access databases to work with the system. The Corporate office was VERY strict on dress code. Suits had to be worn at all times, including trips to the Bathroom, and only blue or white shirts were allowed. A friend was disciplined for wearing a red shirt under his suit. Vacation accrued more slowly than in other companies I have worked for.

Viewing 256 - 258 of 1,041 Reviews

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