I ran the Sterling Wal-Mart DC for two weeks right out of orientation. It's not a good place to be. Most of the runs are about 200-240 miles round trip with 2-4 stops that pay $15 per. The vast majority of runs are into the Chicago area. The drivers that run out of the DC on a full time basis seem to get most of the longer runs. You return MT most of the time, but occasionally you are asked to do a back haul.
I must admit though, it was nice to be treated good at a WalMart DC or given priority treatment when delivering to a WalMart store. They would actually make other trucks pull out of the docks at the stores when we got there to unload us first and they unload your truck. All I had to do was stand by and pull bar code stickers off of pallets as they were pulled of the truck.
If you can get 2 runs a day with a 34 reset each week you will do OK. Problem is, the only way you can get 2 runs a day is to take the night runs. Traffic during the day in Chi town just slows you down too much and you can't fit 2 runs into your 14Hr clock.
Getting 2 runs a day is also very difficult. They tend to keep more drivers around than they need to cover their butts and make sure they can get all of their loads out, but that leaves drivers sitting around with nothing to do. It seemed that most of the drivers were getting around 1500-1700 miles. I actually stayed close to 3000 miles a week, but had to hound the dispatch and generally be a pain in the butt to get them.
Also, the full time drivers don't treat the short timers very well. Can't say that I blame them all that much, but it wouldn't kill them to be a little friendlier.
I've talked to drivers the run the North Plate DC and they seem to do much better.
All in All, I really enjoyed running out of the WalMart DC, unfortunately the miles out of the Sterling DC doesn't make it a practical option.
Crete is a GREAT company, but I can't recommend the Sterling DC unless you live in the area and want allot of home time and will be happy making 700-800 week.
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