Best Trucking Companies To Drive For??

Where is your proof on Walmart having one of the best fleets?

Compare their pay, benefits, home time, equipment, and job duties to other fleets. That has always been one of the most coveted jobs in trucking. If anything has changed recently I haven't heard anything of it.

Not to mention, one look at their SMS score says more than any anonymous reviews on the internet ever could. These are hard facts based on DOT inspections, and Wal-mart has unimaginably high scores, between 1 and 5% depending on category (0% is a perfect score). Link:

Walmart SMS Score

It doesn't matter what company you work for as long as you put 110% to your main goal and you will be successful.... I worked for swift/central refrigerated and at their home terminal in west valley city Utah there was always the drivers that wasn't getting miles or always boo whooing lol and then you had drivers out there getting all the miles they could handle like my trainer and others so you can't go by what you heard or read on the interner .... Just saying

Ahhh makes total sense Brett. It would have looked ridiculous.

I also have to say that I've heard nothing but great things about driving for Wal-Mart. Even my instructor at my school says that if he had his choice he would work for them in a heartbeat because they offer the total package to drivers.

Now if they could only treat the rest of their employees the same way. But that's a topic for a different discussion.

Walmart has at least one job available. You know Tracy Morgan thing.

truckersgirl53, please let that be the last time you bash a company here at TruckingTruth. That's what TheTruckersReport is for.

I think the truckers report gets a bad rap here. Yes, they do allow contributors to bash companies, but the "bashers" are usually challenged to back up their claims... and very often, other contributors will chime in and defend the company. The reader has to use some judgment, just like anywhere else.

As an example, I would never purchase a car or some other high ticket item without reading lots of reviews, anonymous or otherwise, including comments at websites devoted to the subject. You will always find some positive reviews and some negative, but if the negative comments overwhelmingly outnumber the positive, and they're all saying pretty much the same thing, then I am inclined to believe the negative reviews. Not to say that some didn't have a positive experience...

I am taking the same approach with finding a job. I like being able to read and consider everyone's opinions and make up my own mind.

If people are unable to exercise some judgment in considering comments made by strangers about how great or lousy a company is, then they probably can't handle being a trucker anyway ... It's a job that requires one to make good judgment calls on a daily basis.

I am really thankful for this site... It is going a long way toward helping me get started out as a driver on the right foot. That other site is pretty good too, IMHO, ... you just have to take some comments with a grain of salt.

When looking for a job, where does one get "objective and quantifiable" information about how a trucking company treats its drivers? It's been said here many times that recruiters have ulterior motives and are notorious for stretching the truth about the benefits of working for their company ... so I guess that rules them out.

Again, drivers are often times not compensated for waiting time. That's how the industry has always worked. Some companies pay detention, some don't, and most get away with the least amount possible. Personally I never felt like I needed to be paid while I'm sleeping in my bunk waiting to be loaded. Maybe I have an old-school mentality and the world has passed me by but I don't expect to be paid when I'm not working. But others will sue you for it.....

Guess I'm feeling argumentative today...

This is one of those things that will probably get to me when I get out there... If the shipper takes 4 hours to load when it was agreed that it would only take 2, then why shouldn't the driver expect to be compensated? The shipper has taken 2 more of the drivers 14 hours than they agreed to, cutting into his driving hours available and reducing his earnings for the day. It wasn't the drivers fault. He should be compensated. I don't think there's anything old school about it... my grandpa would've felt the same way.

please let that be the last time you bash a company here at TruckingTruth. That's what TheTruckersReport is for.

Brett: Aint that the truth! I am so glad that I found this site. If I based everything that I know (or thought I knew) about trucking on The Truckers Report, I would have not taken the big step of getting the funding to go to CDL School. This site is honest, even when the answers are not what you want to read, but never negative. Theres a big difference between honesty and negativity.

We'll that escalated quickly. I don't post much but this thread really grabbed me from the start. I have been with Swift for 10 months now, my first trucking job. I have grossed over 38,000 with bonuses pro pay etc. I have ran all 48 then went to the western 11. Now I am on a walmart dedicated grocery fleet. I could not ask for a better gig. Averaging 2600-3200 per week plus stop pay. I delivered a load of turkey's the other day with 9 stops. I think I made more going backwards that day! My home is part of our territory so when I want to reset I just ask for a load to my local wallyworld and reset at home. Swift has been nothing short of fantastic for this driver. I have a great truck (2014 Volvo) that I have not had a nickles worth of trouble with. Not particularly crazy about my dm but when I was otr I mostly dealt with the planners for my loads The walmart drivers here are VERY happy with thier jobs. These guys are pampered as Walmart drivers. I would love to drive for them. I just don't have the requisite number of years yet. I take a lot of grief working for Swift from other drivers and I just let it roll off my back . But my paycheck is in the bank every Tuesday and not one of them has bounced. Swift is a great co. To drive for IMHO.

OK maybe not so humble.

Thanks for posting Bart - that was a great post. It illustrates perfectly what we try to get across to new folks that jump into this forum about why we don't allow people to just go bashing on companies. I don't care what trucking company you want to discuss, you are always going to have a long list of people who think they are scumbags, and a long list of people who think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's been that way for decades, and it only goes to show you that this is a truly challenging career, and when we try to blame all the problems on the trucking companies then we really don't understand the dynamics of the career at all.

That is the main reason for people getting into this and then getting all bent out of shape about how the industry has treated them. Most people don't have a clue of what they are about to embark on, and if all we have is a bunch of whining from former drivers who frankly didn't know how to conduct themselves in an over the road career to give us guidance on where we should or shouldn't be working then we are all the losers. There are so many variables to consider, and there is such an enormous positive impact the driver himself can bring to the table, but because of all the false notions that spread like wildfire online, prospective new drivers are bombarded with false and misleading propaganda like statements. And then we have recruiters feeling like they have to lie just to counter act all the misinformation out there, so that breaking into this business and feeling like you have mad a decent choice of school or employer becomes a stomach knotting exercise in futility.

That is why I am glad to see you jump into this discussion - it illustrates the truth that we constantly struggle with getting across to people. I don't see the battle ever being won, but we just keep on fighting it. Every day we get people in here who have never seen a site like this one, and they usually show us right where they are accustomed to hanging out by the way they start posting. If we can help them to be conducive members to the truth in here we are thrilled, but some just don't take to the medicine so well.

That other site is pretty good too, IMHO, ... you just have to take some comments with a grain of salt.

If people are unable to exercise some judgment in considering comments made by strangers about how great or lousy a company is, then they probably can't handle being a trucker anyway

Here's the thing....if you're brand new to trucking and you're getting advice from someone, how would you know if it's good advice or not? If you knew that you wouldn't need the advice. So if you have to take comments with a grain of salt or you have to understand that some people are just going to spout lies out of frustration then you're not getting the help you need. It's complete garbage.

It all comes down to trust. If you read it on TruckingTruth you can trust it. You know for a fact it's not just some clown spouting lies about a company. It's not a recruiter from one of the companies disguising themselves as a former trucker to badmouth the competition. It's not someone with their own agenda. The information you'll find here is provided with one clear goal in mind - to provide honest, helpful, and accurate information so that people can make good decisions for themselves. That's what we do.

But that's not to say the other site is no good. Sometimes people like to vent. Sometimes people like to argue. Sometimes people think they're clever enough to learn about something by sifting through a mix of lies, half-truths, and truths. And of course it's always good to have a place to go where you can say anything you want without any restrictions of any sort. The other site does all of that for ya.

And I'll say this....the moderators here at TruckingTruth have that title because I would literally trust them with my own family and friends. If I had a brother or a child that wanted to become a truck driver I would sleep very well at night knowing that any of our moderators were in charge of their training. I wouldn't have to watch over their shoulder to make sure everything was going well. I wouldn't have to check up on things. They're good-hearted people that really "get it" when it comes to trucking. They understand the industry, they understand what it takes to be successful out there, and they're here because they love helping others.

When looking for a job, where does one get "objective and quantifiable" information about how a trucking company treats its drivers? It's been said here many times that recruiters have ulterior motives and are notorious for stretching the truth about the benefits of working for their company ... so I guess that rules them out.

You can get accurate information from recruiters if you insist on it being in writing. And by "in writing" that can mean anywhere - in an email, on their website, in a letter to you - anything like that. If it's in writing you can count on it. Just be clear about what it's saying. Look out for the obvious catch phrases like "up to" and "could include" and things of that nature. My Internet connection gets "up to" an amount I've never seen 10% of. And I've seen companies advertise pay "up to" amounts that only 1% of their drivers are making.

As far as the way companies treat their drivers...it's mostly performance-based. Every major company (the big ones that hire inexperienced drivers) has plenty of freight and nice equipment for their best drivers. Once they know you work hard and that you're safe and reliable they'll pile the miles on you like crazy. You'll get opportunities at hauling freight for their best customers and get a chance at the sweetest gigs in various divisions. They'll keep you in good equipment, they'll listen when you have a concern, and they'll do special favors for you once in a while. Overall you'll run hard, you'll be treated fairly, and you'll make a nice living.

Now where all the problems start for most people is their misunderstanding of the nature of the beast. People often come into trucking with so many misconceptions that often times from day one they're frustrated and confused. They expect to be trained a certain way and treated a certain way. They expect to get great miles right away, get home more often than they should, and have more authority than they do. And if they've been reading the wrong opinions they'll come into thinking they need to watch their backs because these major companies are all out to get you.

The reality is that many new drivers don't last long in the industry and many of the ones who do will never be "top tier drivers" as we refer to them. They don't have what it takes to consistently get the job done out there day in and day out, year after year. Maybe they have a poor work ethic, maybe they have a hot temper, or maybe they crumble under pressure. There is a mile long list of reasons why people don't last long in trucking. So these companies will expect you to prove yourself to be a top tier driver before you'll be given all of the extra perks the top tier drivers get.

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