Comments By Leeva804

Dean I wrote a blog article a couple of years back that specifically addressed many of the challenges I faced during the first year of running Walmart Dedicated.

Forgive me for hijacking your thread, however I believe the timing is right as you begin your solo journey on the Walmart account...

Here is the link: Freedom of Trucking

Good luck, be safe and remember to “watch your wagon”. It’s tight getting in an out of these stores. Drive the trailer...do it slowly and you will never fall prey to the dreaded “yellow pole dear” or clip a wall.

Looking forward to reading your next entries!

Everything is spot on. Honestly I won’t say anything else about Walmart dedicated as I’ve now been here a year and I’ve already expressed my thoughts on the account.

For first year driving you can exceed first year income on these Walmart accounts by hustling and being fast. I agree walking through doors and writing down which stores are slow to getting you in the door works wonders. If you want above average income prepare to be at 60-65 hours a week.

Personally coming up on my one year of experience I’ve done the math these last couple of months regarding CPM.

I have to say any driver that’s got experience should not be working cents per mile unless it pays like GP transco and Walmart. There are more good paying cents per mile jobs but not a lot like the two above.

I can honestly say that hourly is the way to go.

I however want to dedicate a full year to U.S express but once a year hits I’m out. And I won’t take any trucking job that doesn’t pay hourly unless it’s Walmart.

Those are interesting conclusions. I really like being paid by the mile. Here's why...

I make a lot more money than the guys I am competing against. Mileage pay gives me an incentive to bust my ass and be productive. It allows me to determine my own income. I master things like the HOS rules and trip planning. I create a level of trust with my teammates in the office so that they can trust me to get more done than anybody else on the team. That relationship gives me priority over anybody else in my fleet. They literally do everything they can to keep me rolling.

I recently had to come off the road. I wish you could have heard the phone call I got from my driver manager. He was screaming, "NO! NO! - this can't be happening!" He actually broke down into tears during the call. He literally said this to me, "Dale, in over twenty years of doing this, I have never worked with a driver like you."

Hourly pay takes all the incentive out of driving for me. I want to know that I can produce the level of pay I want by being productive. It is a goad that pushes me to develop myself into something worthwhile. I love the feeling of accomplishment that performance based pay provides. I was all about the challenges when I got into trucking. I had plenty of them too. They helped to form my career and my success at it. Truckers like to focus on numbers. One of those numbers is CPM. I never focused on that number. I always put my focus on producing good numbers. I wanted to be hyper productive. Mileage pay allowed me the privilege of proving myself. I literally had drivers working right along beside me who were making the same CPM as I was, but when you compared our total take for the year, mine was double theirs. They were earning fifty grand a year and quite content with that. Not me. Mileage pay allowed me to double their income and gave me the control over my total income.

Bring it on! I love getting paid by the mile - it is a great motivating factor in my trucking success.

I respect your drive and I am also a driver who grinds. In my first year I’m gonna make $70,000 plus. CPM has definitely motivated me but I really had no other choice other than to grind my HOS.

Most good CPM jobs pay better than hourly but I would still prefer hourly for myself. Especially from what I see in my area offering. Today is one of those days I came to work only to have my truck break down before I got out the yard. I normally get out the yard in 30 minutes. Well, because of the truck holding me up which can happen in our field I didn’t get out the yard for over an hour and a half. That’s a hour+ of unpaid time. Once it adds up weekly you can see how I’m doing the math.

Of course, I’m sure most would say who cares if you’re making $70,000 a year. I say I could have had more. There is a big gap between the time I’m not paid for things I can’t control.

I could fix this if I ran illegally like so many drivers do on our yard but I don’t. So I’m limited to $1200-1400 most weeks

Hello all. It has been a long time since I last checked in or posted here. As the title says driver pay is very stagnant. It really hasn't gone up since about the mid 1970's. I have been looking for a new company to drive for. I am sick or companies saying that they offer industry leading pay. Then only want to pay you .40 cents a mile. That's an insult to the driver. My first driving job started at .48 cpm. We the driver's are the ones that sacrifice everything for this job. Now I know we all have to start somewhere. But once you get some experience. Please do not settle for a mere pentance when you can make more money and have a life also.

Personally coming up on my one year of experience I’ve done the math these last couple of months regarding CPM. I’m paid per load completed which is not that bad really. The problem seems to be when receivers hold me up. So let’s say a trailer or my tractor have an issue when I come in. I normally can get out the gate in about 40-45 minutes after pre-trip and every thing is done.

But things tend to hold me up and I’m not compensated at all. A few below.

Trucks not fueled by other drivers. Can sometimes be at fuel bay for 15+ minutes.

Stores taking longer than 45 minutes. Anything over 45 minutes I’m working for free at the store.

Loads not being ready when arriving to DC. This is rare but there have been multiple times I’ve waited at least two or more hours unpaid. When brought up to management I get crickets about needing to wait three hours before I can get paid $12.

Traffic hold ups. Rare also locally for me but when it happens losing money.

Pallets falling over no matter how slow or safe you drive. Can easily add an hour plus to your unload.

Stores not being at loading dock and having to spend at least 20 minutes running through a store to find them and get them in the back to unload.

This is mostly expected from trucking but I have to say any driver that’s got experience should not be working cents per mile unless it pays like GP transco and Walmart. There are more good paying cents per mile jobs but not a lot like the two above.

I can honestly say that hourly is the way to go.

In my area hourly is just a beast and the best part is getting paid not matter what you’re doing and that makes you what to max your 70 hour clock every week. If you like to run hard like I do.

Pitt ohio and old dominion recently contacted me wanting to hire me and I turned them down. There pay rates start at $25+ in my area and paid for all sorts of things you do.

I however want to dedicate a full year to U.S express but once a year hits I’m out. And I won’t take any trucking job that doesn’t pay hourly unless it’s Walmart.

After months of regional/local driving for an ag company whilst getting my mind straight and pulling the ole head out of me arse I'm back on track. I'm leaving for Gary, Indiana on Monday to start Schneider Walmart Dedicated orientation.

I'll be delivering out of the Sterling Illinois DC. When the man child graduates high school and heads to Vanderbilt for college this summer I'll try a transfer to regional or regular OTR. I'll have bills to pay that will stretch my university early retirement pension very thin. The man child is worth every penny. Wish me good fortune!

Good luck. Nice to see a fellow Walmart dedicated driver coming on. I was just as thrilled as you when I first came on

These companies got this gang communication going on bro. You not getting hired anywhere good.

Leeva804, could you explain just what is "companies gang communication"?

Just that they all share information about bad drivers

That's a GOOD idea. It gets the dangerous drivers off the roads.

Not gonna argue with that. If I had multiple preventable I would quit trucking. A call from god this not for me

These companies got this gang communication going on bro. You not getting hired anywhere good.

Leeva804, could you explain just what is "companies gang communication"?

Just that they all share information about bad drivers

I would just drive Lift or Uber and go get another trade. These companies got this gang communication going on bro. You not getting hired anywhere good.

But keep trying you never know. Maybe class B driving is an option. I got hired at a dump truck job no experience making $24 an hour. They didn’t even do a dac or background check. All they cared about was my MVR. I’ll say this now I think about it they were hard to work for but a good company.

Dang, they fired you for running a red light. If it’s on camera and they saw it likely it’s justified. It’s hard to believe they didn’t give you a warning though. Since they’re investing money into you.

I’ll be frank I have done things in my training phase you’re describing and was never fired. I was however given a warning and stopped doing it.

Have termination on DAC report, now resigned from 2nd chance company after putting truck in a ditch. Black ice incident, single truck accident.

3rd chance company or time to move on?

Wait they would fire you for only putting truck in a ditch? Was the truck damaged? Maybe I don’t know but couldn’t they simply send someone out to pull you out?

Jaybird, trucking is not an easy career to break into. You can tell by Leeva804's remarks that some folks still have bitter feelings from their early days of getting started.

There's a lot of misunderstandings about this career. Some people hear something like, "You can earn up to 60,000 dollars your rookie year," and they take that as a promise. It's clearly not.

Trucking is a performance based business. Everything about this commodity business requires efficiency and high levels of productivity. Rookies just aren't capable of consistently producing at the highest levels. Expect your first year to be challenging. Just don't blame the challenges on "broken promises." That's not the issue at all.

I was actually surprised to see Leeva804 claiming so many broken promises. I honestly think he misunderstood some things, much like my example I gave. I have only worked for large trucking companies. They've never made any promises to me.

Here's what they did. They gave me an opportunity. They made it clear that I could have a future and a great income, but there were no promises made. Everything they offered was contingent on my performance.

I have had a great career and earned some big money. I always understood it was up to me to work at a level that produced those kind of results. I never counted on the company. The company counted on me. That's how trucking works. You are the driving force. You control your own results. It's a whole lot like being self employed. You make your own decisions and you live with the consequences.

I've written a lot about this subject. I know it well. Here's an article you should read carefully. I hope it will help you understand how to make a big splash into this rewarding career. It explains the basic details of how you become a Top Tier Driver.

Each of the companies you mentioned are great places to work. We never recommend that Dollar Tree account to rookies. Some have survived it, but it's a tough nut to crack. I'd steer clear of that one. Otherwise any of those options are worth going after.

This is very true.