Pros
The GYCDL Program was awesome; a little fast paced, yet so is the job... The instructors that I trained under during Phase One are amazing! Very reliable teachers. Answered most all of the questions I along with the other trainees had. The questions they didn’t know the answers to, they found and answered the next day. Phase Two was a lot more stressful for me personally, the Cargo Securement class should have been longer than one day. The OTR trainer I had was ok; I feel like he should have been trained better as an instructor. 1. Great Instructors for those new to the environment. 2. Team members (other drivers) offer their help. 3. Trucks are newer but basic... 4. ELD Compliant
Cons
As stated above, awesome company leading up to going solo and being assigned a truck... 1. Fleet Manager is okay; we have our differences. Learning to just do as he says. (When I started phase Two i was required to contact him once a day... I distinctly remember him saying for me to be successful him and I need to work together as a team... now that I am solo it is more like he “yells jump” and my response is required to be “how high.” Not a team effort. More like I do as he says or risk retaliation.) 2. Dispatch does not plan times correctly based on routing. Fuel and Routing is ridiculous; (plan @55MPH) then proceeds to route you through every small town not built for trucks with speeds as low as 15MPH. And then has the nerve to blame you for being late. 3. The fleet management personnel are taught to place blame on the driver if anything goes wrong. Regardless of the nature of the problem. (I.e Poor F&R Plan/Unsafe Roads/Unsafe Traffic {being routed through areas during “rush hour”}/.etc) 4. Miles Assigned are not as promised. 5. Loads are forced on drivers (even if logical reason to refuse the load is presented.) 6. Forced to sign contract (miles based) [refer to number 4.] 7. Equipment is rusted beyond repair (securement equip.) 8. Weekend dispatch/Over Night Fleet Managers are 85% useless. (That is if you can actually get through to someone via their automated voip system.) 9. Repeatedly sent to shippers that have a well known history of being a cemetery for HOS. 10. GPS System is often incorrect (wrong exit numbers, road names incorrect, speed alert is wrong 60% of the time) 11. Event Recorders (inward facing is invasion of privacy) 12. Lane Control Alert goes off randomly... (could be on a road with not a single line anywhere for miles but it will repeatedly go off setting off the event recorder.) 13. Bendix System/Collision Mitigating System is overwhelmingly inaccurate. (I’ve had it slam(literally) on the brakes and I was the only vehicle on the road for miles) (no obstructions in road either) Apparently these trucks are scared of shadows... 14. Governed at 65... More of a traffic hazard than safe. especially on the roads with speeds above that. (These trucks struggle to climb a damn hill empty due to being governed.) 15. Everything that goes wrong is the Drivers Fault. 16. Pay is lower than most other companies. (Based on per mile rates)
