Heritage Trucking Inc. Mesa AZ

Let me lead off by saying this thread is not meant to be a bash on this company. I've done a lot of reading on these forums over the years, and rarely post, but I feel I'm doing some good for perspective drivers looking into this company by posting my honest experience here.
Heritage is a trucking company based out of Mesa Arizona, they serve the construction industry, hauling aggregate and asphalt with belly dumps, double bellys, and then possibly the largest fleet of super 18 and 16 dump trucks in this part of the country. They mostly operate in the greater phoenix metro area, however work in places like Utah and New Mexico isn't an uncommon occurrence.
I came to work for Heritage August of this year, I got my start in trucking a few years back with May Trucking, then got a local job driving dump truck for a landfill near home. Didn't pay a lot, but home everyday. I got interested in Heritage after having a few conversations with their hiring/safety manager (who is no longer with the company) and being told that business was booming, and the prospect for making money here was very good. Planning on moving to the Phoenix area in the near future I accepted the job offer. Starting with the company is pretty straightforward, paperwork, orientation, smith system videos, more paperwork. They pay 15 dollars an hour, and do direct deposit. Time and a half after 40 hours, they have health ins. 401k and vacation after a year...etc. after one day in orientation, I was paired up with a trainer to show me the ropes on operating a super 18, (strong arm and pusher axles) as well as how to load, haul, and unload hot asphalt. After a week in training, I was released into my own truck, and working on my own. The first couple months were great, I was working 50-60 hour weeks, bringing in between 800 to 900 dollars a week. Things slowed a bit in October, down to around 40-45 hours, but that's ok with me, I was assured by a couple truck bosses, as well as my trainer that things would probably just stay the way they were until after New Years and then pick up again. I know that dump trucking in general slows in the winter, but figured being in Phoenix where the weather stays reasonably warm all year things would stay consistent.
But from November to now, things have gotten bad...30 hours is a good week. I barely got 15 last week, and am off today. Ill work an 8 hour day and then be off the next. I cannot any longer afford to work here. I expected a slow-down, but not to this extent.

The hours aside, my other major issues here are the following--maintenance; the maintenance on the trucks here is dismal at best. They don't own a truck with under 300,000 miles, mine has over 600,000... they all have a issues, and getting them fixed is a frustrating experience, you are told to write it up on your DVIR, and day after day it goes without being fixed. Most of the time you have to contact HR or rat the mechanics out to the yard supervisor to get issues fixed, and usually its at the point where the truck has so many problems (tires, brakes etc. these trucks have a hard life) that they down the truck and you are out of work for the day. This has happened to me three different times. One time they did give me a few hours work in the yard in the water truck so they did try there...
The other issue is the way that dispatch schedules drivers. You have no idea if or when you work until 6:30 PM the night before, you have to call a voicemail tape, and it tells you your name truck number and the time you are due in at the yard, or it will tell you you are off. This is not too bad to deal with but sometimes can be frustrating.

Heritage in my opinion is a good place to get a start, or to work seasonally. I don't know how the drivers who have been here for years (there aren't many but theyre here) have managed to tough it out thru the winters here. I would guess most of them either get a second job or quit, work somewhere else and come back in summer when the iron is hot again. Myself I'm looking for other jobs currently, been have applications in with Knight and Rohel, both have yards in phoenix. Theres schnieder and swift here as well, but haven't applied yet...open for suggestions, but my main objective with this thread was just to inform anyone in the phx area who is looking into working here. They are always hiring, whether theres work or not because of the high turnover. anyway, I hope this has helped someone out.