Pitt-Ohio | Hermitage Pa Linehaul Job?

[trucker1979]

hello,

I’m just wondering if anyone on here is a driver for Pitt Ohio and works out of hermitage pa terminal. How is that terminal to work out of? Is it just 5 nights a week? Does a bottom guy work? Also how are the medical benefits? Be specific about benefits if possible? Deductible, cost, out of pocket max, doctor visits, specialist visit, prescription benefits etc. I wish I could see a booklet that breaks it all down. My wife is a diabetic, so insurance is really important to me. Thanks in advance for the help

 

[Washboard]

Sorry for the delay, I wasn’t getting notifications and assumed it was because this particular forum wasn’t seeing much action. Let me know if you took the job, I can answer company related questions but not specific to West Middlesex.

 

[trucker1979]

Sorry for the delay, I wasn’t getting notifications and assumed it was because this particular forum wasn’t seeing much action. Let me know if you took the job, I can answer company related questions but

Sorry for the delay, I wasn’t getting notifications and assumed it was because this particular forum wasn’t seeing much action. Let me know if you took the job, I can answer company related questions but not specific to

Thanks for the response. I did not apply to West Middlesex, but I see it’s posted again that they are hiring. Can u tell me about the health benefits? Deductible, out of pocket max, prescription plan etc? Dental? Vision? How long before they start? Do u work the dock on Linehaul? It’s 5 nights a week. Do u start the same time everyday? Overall how is the morale? How are miles paid? Thanks in advance for responding

 

[Michaelscott]

I am not from West Sex but I am linehaul and go to Wms almost every night. I know we don’t pay anything for our insurance but no idea on deductible or out of pocket. We don’t have vision and don’t think we have dental or it’s not very good, I use my wife’s dental/vision. Insurance may be 90 days to start? So I’m not really any help on that.
We aren’t forced to work dock. But if you sit at a terminal you don’t get paid. I’ve found that being visible and willing to help on the dock but NOT being pushy about your load getting done is helpful. We work Monday night thru Friday night. Occasionally weekend is forced due to bad weather on Friday night. But it’s like once a year if that. Star times fluctuate from 2030 to 2230. Being on bottom it’ll be 2230 most the time. Morale seems alright in Wms, it’s one of the better terminals to go to. Not sure how miles are paid, but it’s pretty accurate. Some runs over pay. Most of the bad attitudes I see are from the 20 year + guys that are close to retirement or the guys that forget what it’s really like to work hard. But most guys are alright (we’re all human!). Overall being on the bottom sucks. It’ll feel like you’re getting screwed sometimes. But a lot of time it’s nobody’s fault. Freight has been payed for and it needs to get to the destination. Things get significantly better as you move up in seniority. Do your job, don’t hit stuff, and don’t take things personally when your night doesn’t go the way you think it should and you’ll be alright.

 

[Washboard]

Michaelscott covered it pretty well as far as working there an I can add some insight as well details on benefits, but have wait until tomorrow because I’m a bit short on time right now.

 

[Washboard]

Michaelscott brought up some great points about attitude and what to expect, and he wasn't lying about some of the drivers with the most tenure being the biggest whiners. This is in spite of them having the better choices of runs and vacation time. There's a lot of self entitlement by those who feel the company owes them living and have completely lost track of the fact the runs are determined by customer needs, not by what they want or don't wan to do. As he also said though, it's mostly good people here.

Your miles will be dependent upon not only your seniority but the runs out of your particular terminal. WMS (West Middlesex, the original location of that terminal) has a lot of long runs, west to Battle Creek, MI and east to Baltimore, MD and Allentown, PA are all over 600 mile turns with a few others in the 500-600 mile range. This is in contrast to the easternmost terminals where a driver might have to pull 6 trailers to get 500 miles because so many terminals are in close proximity to one another. I believe WMS has at least a few drivers approaching retirement age as well who might want to run short and will also help you to move up in seniority when they do retire.

Health insurance is 80/20 coverage in-network with single/family max out of pocket at $2000/$4000 respectively. There are no premiums and no deductibles for any employee or dependents. the only exception is for working spouses who are only covered if: they are self-employed, not employed, or their employer provides health insurance but does not contribute towards the premium. All other spouses are not eligible. Pitt Ohio is self insured so they pay all claims, but the claims are processed through either Aetna or Highmark BC/BS. The reason there are two providers is because of an ongoing battle between Highmark and UPMC, who owns many facilities in western PA. Aetna was made available to employees at I believe 4 terminals, including WMS, to keep us from being impacted by that nonsense, coverage is the same regardless of carrier.

Dental is $6.36 a week and seems to be typical of the dental coverage I've had in the past. Basically two cleanings per year and 50% for dental work. I think you have to be employed for 1 year before you're eligible for dental, but I'm not 100% sure.

Vision insurance is just a flat rate reimbursement plan. It's pretty lame but it's free and certainly better than nothing.

 

[Washboard]

There were too many characters in the original post so I had to split it. Here's part 2.

For retirement there is a 401K plan and Pitt Ohio's contribution is in the form of a profit sharing plan based on your gross income for the pervious year. It was 6% for quite a while before being dropped to 3% during a particularly bad year. It's currently at 4% of your gross and hopes for it eventually returning to 6% fade a little with each passing year. It's still more than some other companies offer, I'm just not a fan of going backwards.

There are 3 levels of pay, based on terminal location. Areas with a high cost of living like Chicago or the east coast are at level 1, WMS and many others are at level 2, and more rural areas like Charleston, WV are level 3. The pay rate you see in the job offer, maybe around .59?, is the starting rate. The current top rate in level 2 is .6324. The company has given raises of anywhere from 1.5-3% in every year dating back long before I started in 2008. Drops and/or hooks are paid at $9.50 each. if you do an out and back run you'll be paid 3 drop and hooks: the initial hook, drop & hook enroute, and drop at your home terminal. The number of drops and hooks is always 1more than the number of trailers you pulled. You'll have an hourly rate which is equivalent to the p&d driver rate for whatever year you are in. We get 15 minutes for fueling and this rate is also used for safety meetings, dock work, delay time, and any other accessorial work not covered by the linehaul pay structure.

That's all I can think of right now, feel free to ask anything we haven't yet covered.

 

[edgefan57]

You'll have an hourly rate which is equivalent to the p&d driver rate for whatever year you are in. We get 15 minutes for fueling and this rate is also used for safety meetings, dock work, delay time, and any other accessorial work not covered by the linehaul pay structure.

That's all I can think of right now, feel free to ask anything we haven't yet covered.

Do they pay hourly if the load isn't ready? Or for breakdowns?

 

[Washboard]

Do they pay hourly if the load isn't ready? Or for breakdowns?

No compensation for delays or breakdowns at terminals unless you work the dock. It doesn’t happen often so most of us just wait it out in the break room or truck but the option is there. Breakdowns on the road are compensated for the entire time at your hourly rate and for delays at relays the clock starts after a 30 minute lunch break, provided you left at or close to the cut time. For example, if the run has a 10:00 cut time you can’t leave at 8:30 and expect to be paid delay time if the other driver didn’t leave their terminal until 10:00. That being said, most drivers will leave a bit early if the load is ready and take a chance that the other driver got out early as well. The worst that could happen is that you get there too early and have to kill some time by checking Truckingboards on your phone while you wait.