What's new

FedEx Freight | Wal-Mart starting drivers at $110k,AND paying for them to get their CDL.

Frootloop said:
I had a chance to go a while back. I was interested in their 5 on 5 off program so I could still have a life. At this particular location I was informed out of 190 drivers there were only 8 driver positions to fill 4 of those programs and being driver 191+ I didn’t think my chances were too good of bidding and winning one. Between that and the working every weekend indefinitely and having to slip seat sleeper trucks like most of the guys at the bottom do, I passed as I have a young family I enjoy seeing more than 2 days a week, during the middle of the week at that.

Good pay is a great thing to aim for and very noble but I think WalMart missed the mark here, I don’t think they realize or possibly don’t care that it’s not so much the money that drivers are chasing now, it’s the scheduling flexibility and home time that enables them to have a life they’re looking for and with the current scheduling programs they have it doesn’t give a man any shot for much of a normal life. Too many of us have lived the life of being gone all the time or had a dad that was gone all the time to know better than to go down that road.


As many DC’s as they have so close together like they do now I don’t see the point in keeping guys on the road 5 days away from home to run around within a couple hundred miles of their home domicile.
Click to expand...
Most Walmart drivers operate 1-2 states out surrounding their home DC state on their 5 days out. Some weeks they don’t get more than a few hundred miles out. It is pretty much central dispatch looks at the next load that needs to move, and drivers available drive hours for that day that he has left. I talk to many of their guys, and friends of mine that go into the Sam’s Club DC off Rt 30 in Oswego.
 
BIG R GUY said:
Most Walmart drivers operate 1-2 states out surrounding their home DC state on their 5 days out. Some weeks they don’t get more than a few hundred miles out. It is pretty much central dispatch looks at the next load that needs to move, and drivers available drive hours for that day that he has left. I talk to many of their guys, and friends of mine that go into the Sam’s Club DC off Rt 30 in Oswego.
Click to expand...
My old man worked there throughout my adolescent and teenage years, I got to ride with him in the summers, in some cabovers and they were just starting to get the hood trucks. Back then as one member has posted somewhere “one had to jump through flaming hoops like a circus poodle” to get a job there. We never got further out than a days drive, there weren’t so many DC’s and Merrit handled the grocery side of things in this area. Fond memories, he eventually got the week on week off position and it was a nice balance of work and life. Then in 2018 everything changed and the mass exodus took place. They also had another program where 3 drivers rotated 2 trucks, you essentially worked a week then a day or 2 off then worked another week then had a full week off, that was pretty popular then as well. Pretty much everyone had a “big radio” and everyone would “holla if you hear me” in passing on the company channel. Things always change though sadly.
 
Last edited:
Frootloop said:
My old man worked there throughout my adolescent and teenage years, I got to ride with him in the summers, in some cabovers and they were just starting to get the hood trucks. Back then as one member has posted somewhere “one had to jump through flaming hoops like a circus poodle” to get a job there. We never got further out than a days drive, there weren’t so many DC’s and Merrit handled the grocery side of things in this area. Fond memories, he eventually got the week on week off position and it was a nice balance of work and life. Then in 2018 everything changed and the mass exodus took place. They also had another program where 3 drivers rotated 2 trucks, you essentially worked a week then a day or 2 off then worked another week then had a full week off, that was pretty popular then as well. Pretty much everyone had a “big radio” and everyone would “holla if you hear me” in passing on the company channel. Things always change though sadly.
Click to expand...
In 2018, one of their high ups came up with the brain Storm to have some of the bottom guys, slip seat 3 times in 5 days, with the theory of not having to let everyone have their own tractor. My buddy told me they lost like 1,500 drivers, nationwide over that. He also heard the guy who came up with the plan, isn’t there anymore.
 
BIG R GUY said:
In 2018, one of their high ups came up with the brain Storm to have some of the bottom guys, slip seat 3 times in 5 days, with the theory of not having to let everyone have their own tractor. My buddy told me they lost like 1,500 drivers, nationwide over that. He also heard the guy who came up with the plan, isn’t there anymore.
Click to expand...
Yeah that fellow did a lot of damage, not Bill Zollars damage but a pretty big dent in the operations at a pretty bad time.
 
I’ve been tossing around the idea of going to Wally World, I ran OTR for years before coming to LTL. Which Walmart isn’t really OTR, really it’s a regional run. Weighing the pros and cons for my family and myself and it’s coming out about equally.

Decisions….decisions….decisions
 
reknilp said:
I’ve been tossing around the idea of going to Wally World, I ran OTR for years before coming to LTL. Which Walmart isn’t really OTR, really it’s a regional run. Weighing the pros and cons for my family and myself and it’s coming out about equally.

Decisions….decisions….decisions
Click to expand...

What are the pros and cons you've come up with?
 
HighDollarLane said:
My friend drives for Walmart. The high pay is true. However the catch is almost half of the 110k is made up of quarterly safety bonuses. Meaning any type of incident and you lose your bonus for the entire quarter which is a lot of money. And it's paid in a lump sum so it's taxed heavy. That's according to him. If you're young no kids no wife no mortgage it's probably a great opportunity if you don't mind being gone.
Click to expand...
Nope. Only a max of 5k is safety bonus. Far cry from 1/2
 
nasvegas said:
You mean like anywhere FedEx/AF use to put us up....
Click to expand...
The red roof inn is the lap of luxury sir. Ignore the stray needles and blood stained ceilings.

To be fair I think we ditched our 3rd party billing for hotels about 3 years ago ish? after that central gives the card info and we just started going for whomever seemed decent. I personally used Holiday Inn for laydowns when I had to schedule them in the office.
 
Panhandler92 said:
The red roof inn is the lap of luxury sir. Ignore the stray needles and blood stained ceilings.

To be fair I think we ditched our 3rd party billing for hotels about 3 years ago ish? after that central gives the card info and we just started going for whomever seemed decent. I personally used Holiday Inn for laydowns when I had to schedule them in the office.
Click to expand...
So how's your bedbug collection going ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top