Truck Driving Jobs

devildice · #1 09-23-2006, 07:34 PM

OK folks, does anyone work for or know anything about National Distributors Inc. or Waggoners Trucking?

I have done a search but did not find anything on these 2 companies. So ANY feedback, positive or negative would be greatly appreciated.

thanks.

Sealord · #2 09-24-2006, 12:02 AM

Don't know if they take newbs, but they are specialized. Might wanna do a year or two of flatbeding first then talk to 'em. BOL

Sevlow · #3 09-24-2006, 12:31 AM

My husband was going to work National Dis, they were going to pay him .28 a mile lol and give him the crappiest truck in the fleet, I would check either Schneider or maybe JB Hunt if you have 3 months exp. Or maybe US Express

devildice · #4 09-24-2006, 01:15 PM

Sealord and Sevlow,
thank you for the replies.

There has to be more people out there somewhere that something about these companies. I am particularly interested in hearing about NDI.

Sevlow · #5 09-24-2006, 05:42 PM

How much experience you have?

Useless · #6 09-25-2006, 02:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by devildice

There has to be more people out there somewhere that something about these companies. I am particularly interested in hearing about NDI.

NDI is a company that is a good fit for some drivers, but not right for others.

What you were told about the noobs getting the old trucks is true. No, they don't pay the best either, and their fuel network is very limited.

The Upside:

You will be treated as a name, and not just a number.

Trucks were governed at not less than 73mph, but I've been away for a few years.

I had an awesome dispatcher, and the upper management, including the president, was very accessible.

If you could haul the frieght and P/U and deliver on time, toiu would have no trouble getting miles. While they do run JIT frieght, they do allow adequate time for the run.

If you can not run safely or legally, they do not want you to run at all. They will always back a drivers decision to shut down due to weather, illness, or fatigue.

They were very good about hometime. I had a very young daughter, and my dispatcher always worked with me.

I left them back in '04, so some things may have changed since then.

Hope this helps!!

yoopr · #7 09-25-2006, 02:40 AM

Waggoners got their Start Back in the Day hauling Lumber out of Montana.
Now they've branched into Car Hauling.
Sorry but that's all I know about them.

Jackrabbit379 · #8 09-25-2006, 06:36 AM

Yeah,same here,Yoopr. I see their trucks roll through here quite a bit,pulling inclosed car trailers.

devildice · #9 09-25-2006, 12:34 PM

Useless,

Thanks. That has been some of the best info I have heard as of yet on NDI. Seems that there are not a whole lot of people familar with them or perhaps just not willing to share any info on them?????

Anyways, thanks again.

Useless · #10 09-26-2006, 03:17 AM

Hi, Devildice!!

Most likely, the reason that you have not heard much about them is because they are a mid sized carrier, with a fleet of about 350 trucks, so you are not as likely to receive feedback on them as you would the larger companies. They simply haven't employed as many drivers as the larger carriers, so many drivers will not be familiar with them. Another point to remember is that they do not run all 48 states, so many drivers have never heard of them. The benefit here is that they are big enough to keep you running, but small enough to know you. You really are a name, rather than being a faceless number.

About six months before I started there, they brought a in a new President, (Judd Reese) and he did some restructuring.

One of the first things he did was to meet with the dispatchers and the freight managers. Essentially, his message was:" We need good dispatchers, but we need drivers even more, so let's work together. As far as I am concerned, he more than made good on his word." Drivers had the opportunity to take their cases to upper management if there were problems, and the upper management was willing to listen, and support the drivers when they felt that the dispatcher was wrong.

Frequently, he would come out to the driver's lounge, and just sit and talk with the drivers. There was an opportunity for discussion, and an open exchange of ideas.

They are, in fact, a very family oriented company. Being married with a young daughter, home time was extremely important to me. They respected that.They do not want their drivers out over the Christmas Holidays, and prefer to keep them off the highways until after the New Year's Holiday. While safety is clearly a consideration, the nature of much of their freight gets light that time of year as well. The vast majority of freight that I hauled was automotive and engine components. They would haul a Wal Mart load if it enabled them to get a truck from where it was to where it was needed.

Another thing that Judd did was to look at the freight lanes, and keep us running in areas where the speed limits were higher. We did not run New York or New Jersey. The taxes are too high, the toll roads and bridges were too expensive, the traffic jams were too long, and the speed limits were too low. Since the trucks are governed at 73MPH, you could make better time, so he worked to keep as many trucks as possible in the faster freightlanes. Another benefit was that the solo trips averaged about 950 miles. Many of my solo trips were in the range of 1100+ miles, and team loads were anywhere from 1300 to 1800+ miles.

Their Director of operations is a woman who has many years of experience, and was at one time a driver herself. She is extremely capable, and as long as you do a good job for then, she'll look out for you.

There is no perfect job or company. There were some drawbacks; one being that the size of their fleet expanded, but the size of their maintenance and repair facilities did not. So getting repairs done could take longer. As someone else pointed out, the noob solo drivers got the older, higher mileage trucks.

As I said earlier, this is a company that is was a very good fit for me, but it was not a good fit for everyone. They don't use Trip Pak, so I had to FED EX or UPS my paperwork to them. (at my own expense) :sad: The good news is that my invoices and trip packages were never mysteriously "lost", and with one isolated exception which involved some rather unusual circumstances, I was always paid for my runs on time. They never lied to me or tried to jerk me around.

As I said before, and I can not emphasize this strongly enough, I had an awesome dispatcher; to the point that I was talking about him on the CB one night, and another driver said "That sounds like a "drivers story" to me, driver!!"

One more point that I would like to make was the quality of their driver training. Trainers are expected to TRAIN, and not use their trainees as a means to pad their paycheck. I had an excellent trainer,a and he was also recognized as being their best driver. (Grumpy was his handle, but the "grumpy" part was more of an act. He was sure there to help me when I needed him!!) During the first week of training, he either drove or was in the jump seat, and spent very few hours in the sleeper birth. He also did more than his fair share of driving, too. IIRC, we ran about 7000 miles during my first week of training, running from Imperial, Ca. to Springfield, Il. (Drop/Hook, Back and forth), so with the exception of a few hunded miles of an 1850 mile trip, we had 70 and 75 MPH speed limits all the way. The downside?? There were fewer oppportunities to learn backing.

All in all, it worked very well for me and my family. There are a lot of companies to choose from when you are starting out, but there are not many good ones. For me, as a rookie driver, It was a great company to drive for!!

BOL2U!!