Heartland Express

[jw6831]

Anyone have information on this co., and what is the (green mile)

[Sheepdancer]

The Green mile is a program Heartland has where if you cross into the "Green Zone" (The "green zone" is the area north and east of I-81 from Maryland north.) You are paid 4 cpm more. So somewhere between 51cpm and 54cpm for OTR, and 46cpm and 49cpm for regional....Depending on experience.

[mdgardner963]

Anyone have information on this co., and what is the (green mile)

And not all they say is real.. get the fine print. 8)

[Twilight Flyer]

get the fine print

Yeah, and when you get your hands on the top secret fine print, make sure you save me a copy so I can see it, too. I've always wanted to see it.



For what it's worth, there are thousands of companies out there and millions of drivers. Heartland ain't for everybody, just like JB Hunt ain't for everybody, either. Same goes with every other company out there. Maybe Heartland Express will be the cat's meow for you and maybe it won't. Catch some drivers out there on the road and ask around. That's the best way to find out if any company has what you are looking for.

A rule of thumb, really for anyone to follow. If you can find a company out there that meets about 75% or so of what you are looking for, that's probably going to be a good fit for you. There is no perfect company out there and no perfect match out there for a driver, just as there is no perfect driver out there. Everyone is human, doing what they can to make a business successful.

Good luck to you.

[Sheepdancer]

Twilight...when you get the "top secret" fine print, send it to me.....
Im amazed that you can come up with a program where you will be making 54cpm for some of the miles you are driving and people will still try to find something wrong with it.

Wait here is the fine print.

if you dont like the green mile program Heartland offers and 54cpm, you are welcome to drive for someone else and make 36cpm for the same miles driven

[Fredog]

Twilight...when you get the "top secret" fine print, send it to me.....
Im amazed that you can come up with a program where you will be making 54cpm for some of the miles you are driving and people will still try to find something wrong with it.

Wait here is the fine print.

if you dont like the green mile program Heartland offers and 54cpm, you are welcome to drive for someone else and make 36cpm for the same miles driven

Doesnt matter what you make per mile if you dont get any miles. besides, as we have been told, only drivers who are paid by the hour are any good..

[Twilight Flyer]

Doesnt matter what you make per mile if you dont get any miles

I've got to get on that one. Here's my question and this really goes to anyone. I'm not asking this to be combative...I'm bringing it up to illustrate the point. I hear people say with a lot of companies, not just Heartland... "I don't get any miles."

So what do you consider NOT ANY miles? If you're under 3000 miles a week, is that considered not getting any miles? 2500? 2000? What's the cutoff?

I hear that with so many drivers that I've started calling them out on it. If a driver calls in and tells me he's wanting to change because he doesn't get any miles, I'll ask him straight up what he's getting. You know what I'm finding out? MOST drivers consider getting around 2000 miles a week is not getting any miles.

Let's see.

With Heartland, 1 year of experience puts a driver at a minimum of $.40 in a regional or $.45 OTR (another penny if he has HAZMAT). Our regionals average around 2000 to 2200. OTR is averaging around 2300 to 2500. Using the "NOT getting any miles" complaint, 2000 miles would gross a 1 year driver $800 to $900. That's pretty lowball, but for the sake of argument, I'll go with that.

That's $41,600 or more for the year, for a 1 year driver, using the numbers above, which are low on the average side. Truth is, our averages are in the mid $50'000's for regional runs and in the low $60,000's for OTR guys.

Again, averages. Top OTR guy clipped $85K total last year and the top regional guy his $76K.

Are there guys that don't get any miles? Again, depends on the guys definition of NO miles. I'm sure there are guys that get FEW miles or don't get AS MANY miles as the averages. After all, average means that half the guys are doing better than that number and the other half are not. But you'll find that in this industry, a lot of that is going to fall back on the driver. Not all, but a lot of it. A driver that gets out there and runs, does his job, and doesn't mess around in truck stops, isn't going to do that bad. And if you're getting $.45 a mile, give or take a couple of pennies, those average miles equate to a pretty decent living.

Again, I will say that there are some good drivers out there that would do well doing just the averages, but somewhere along the way dispatch or planning has dropped the ball. Yeah, that sucks and it's something that we or any company worth their salt is going to want to eliminate. But by and large, you will find that those guys that take their job seriously and drive the truck and wait until they are done for the day to play, are going to at least run the fleet average, which is going to equate to a decent paycheck.

My thoughts. Take'em or leave'em, but I'm not posting to argue about them.

[Uturn2001]

I am not going to argue for or against Heartland or any other company in this thread. What I am going to say is that drivers need to get their sole focus away from miles and start focusing more on your pay at the end of the week.

Yes the adage of if the wheels are not turning....yadda, yadda, yadda....holds a certain amount of truth but it is not all there is to it. You must look at the entire picture when it comes to pay.

Many of you know I used to work for Knight, which many consider a low paying company, but the vast majority of my checks would have made, and did make, many a driver a bit green with envy. Did I run 3000+ every week. Nope. Did my pay come close to averaging that 3000 miles per week or more? Yes it sure did. Why, because of accessory pay. There was little I did for "free". (This is not an endorsement for Knight, just used to illustrate the point.)

It is time for all drivers to wake up a bit and take a look at the forest instead of focusing on a single tree. Work smarter, not harder.

[Fredog]

I am not going to argue for or against Heartland or any other company in this thread. What I am going to say is that drivers need to get their sole focus away from miles and start focusing more on your pay at the end of the week.

Yes the adage of if the wheels are not turning....yadda, yadda, yadda....holds a certain amount of truth but it is not all there is to it. You must look at the entire picture when it comes to pay.

Many of you know I used to work for Knight, which many consider a low paying company, but the vast majority of my checks would have made, and did make, many a driver a bit green with envy. Did I run 3000+ every week. Nope. Did my pay come close to averaging that 3000 miles per week or more? Yes it sure did. Why, because of accessory pay. There was little I did for "free". (This is not an endorsement for Knight, just used to illustrate the point.)

It is time for all drivers to wake up a bit and take a look at the forest instead of focusing on a single tree. Work smarter, not harder.

thats a big 10-4 what you have in your pocket at the end of the week is all that counts!!

[Twilight Flyer]

What I am going to say is that drivers need to get their sole focus away from miles and start focusing more on your pay at the end of the week.

That's it right there.

And I'll also add that my examples were based strictly on mileage pay. But when talking about yearly numbers, the guy that made $85K certainly didn't do it all on mileage. :shock:

[mdgardner963]

Here is that fine print seems kinda skilly lol

if you dont like the green mile program Heartland offers and 54cpm, you are welcome to drive for someone else and make 36cpm for the same miles driven

[Sheepdancer]

Back when I worked for JB, I had the ability to check drivers mileage. More than once a driver quit and when I called them up and asked them why, they said they werent getting good miles. I would just agree with them, say sorry it didnt work out and hang up. Then I would check their miles. Almost always when I figured out their average miles per week, it was a little above average....usually around 2500-2600 per week. Which was pretty much what I told them it would be. This amazed us. They were obviously getting average or above average miles. We wondered why they would say that and quit. We figured it must be that they were listening to drivers on the CB telling tales of getting 3500-3800 a week and making fun of them. Either that or they had a bunch of great weeks then a few bad ones, then just said to themselves...THIS SUCKS, I QUIT.

[Mackman]

only drivers who are paid by the hour are any good..

Thats right :wink:

[Uturn2001]

CB telling tales of getting 3500-3800 a week

I was sitting down to eat supper one evening and got talking to a driver sitting near by. He asked me how many miles I ran in a typical week. I told him anywhere from 2400 to 2800. He laughed and said he ran 3800 to 4200 every week.

I got the last laugh though when he told me he grossed about $1000 per week because that was what I made on a 2500 mile week.

[Dejanh]

CB telling tales of getting 3500-3800 a week

I was sitting down to eat supper one evening and got talking to a driver sitting near by. He asked me how many miles I ran in a typical week. I told him anywhere from 2400 to 2800. He laughed and said he ran 3800 to 4200 every week.

I got the last laugh though when he told me he grossed about $1000 per week because that was what I made on a 2500 mile week.

I averaged 4000 miles every week while driving a company truck, from Chicago to L.A. , 2 times per..
Grossed alot more than a grand..

[johnny99]

My experience with Heartland went like this. I was living in Columbus Oh at the time, mid 90's. Heartland had opened a terminal in Columbus. I called one of their recruiters, told them I'm looking for something so I don't have to go to the east coast, just stay in the midwest. He told me about their midwest regional, nothing east of Dubois Pa or Carlisle Pa. Average 2200 miles per week. The mileage pay was good and the benefits were okay so I went to Dubois Pa on a greyhound for orientation.
First load went straight to south Philadelphia, further east than Carlisle, but still not in the region I agrred to run in. Every week I was in New Jersey or Philadelphia{east coast}, get the picture. The most miles I got in a week while I was there was 1900. A lot of short haul 200 mile Sears fingerprint loads and 180 mile fingerprint mattress loads and then to New Jersey and back eventually. When I questione my dispatcher about this I was told that the recruiter don't dispatch the truck, that I should be thankfull I worked for such a great company. So when I got the truck back to Columbus one weekend, I just cleaned my stuff out and told them to call me when they had a load going to Dubois Pa so I could take the truck back to the terminal where I got it, so they don't bag me $1. a mile to return it for me.

[Twilight Flyer]

Mid 90's?

I've been here nearly 7 years and you're still 5 or 6 years before my time. Not disputing that you had a bad deal here, but how is 12+ years ago relevant to how things are with a company, ANY company, today? Just askin'.

[Bumper]

I share a regional lot with Heartland and Walmart. Other than the POS I.H. trucks we all drive, they are a pretty happy crowd.

Nobody has terrorized the terminal offices yet at least...... :shock:

[johnny99]

Twilight Flyer wants to know why it's relevant because it happened so long ago. Its relevant because it happened, and its been my experience that these companies never change for the better from a driver's perspective. I had issues with going to the east coast then, just coming from a company where I was in Brooklyn NY on a weekly basis. All they had to say was , no you'll have to go the east coast, and I would have politely declined their employment offer and saved us both time and expense. I'm just putting my personal experience with these companies up where people can see them and the time I worked there. They can choose to use it or ignore it. If you think it's irrelevant then ban me from your forum.

[Smooth]

There have been numerous Heartland express posts , the cents per mile they pay is just like every other company once you add up all the negatives . HHG miles , short hauls , detention after 8 hours , heavy loads , lots of back roads . You will work a lot harder for your .47 cpm at Heartland then say .41 cpm at a place like Crete .