Hirschbach motor lines

They are located in the bad company thread.Do a search here in the search box and they'll pop up.

 

In my experience, no news is good news. Not a lot of disgruntled drivers making posts. If you read the other thread it seems apparent there was obviously two sides to the story, and we usually only get one.

 

They hire new grads? I didn't see it on the website. Nice looking trucks they have. How did you hear about them? I never saw their trucks on the road.

 

Stay away from Hirshbach Motor Lines in Dubuque, IL. I have personal experience with this company and none of it is good. First of all they only hire people to sign a lease, they are not hiring company drivers at all. Here is my experience.
I spoke with Maria Hernandez and she told me no truck payments for the first two weeks, 99 cent fuel, people net, apu, paid weekly through COMDATA or direct deposit, etc.
Found out their primary account is Farmland, which is right across the road on US 20, still not really a big deal, was happy to see that they didn't train though. Was also happy that before they call you they tell you whether or not your qualified or not cause this company will actually run your PSP, DAC, MVR etc before speaking about getting you to Dubuqe.
When you get there they put you in the Days Inn, run down but not bad. They will give you $10.00 meal vouchers for lunch and dinner at the hotel bar or the HYVEE down the road. Orientation consists of (Day 1) drug test and physical, go to the yard and have you read all their policies, and a lot of sitting around. (Day 2) the results come back, you take a quick road test (the only thing they will send you home on and you only get one shot) and more paperwork. They teach you nothing, you have to read all of it cause Dottie is too busy playing on the computer to actually do her job. Mike in Safety (a flunky from Knight Transportation) will come in and speak with you, Tawanda (Safety) will come in a speak with you, Claims will speak to you all, same with payroll, and everyone favorite little weasel (Tom Gafney) from the shop. John Hastings will also come in a speak and hes a liar as well. Brad (President) will come in a tell you this is the last company you will ever be with...........lol......they make you feel welcome.........smoke and mirrors. (Day 3) you will be assigned a truck to inspect (your lease truck) and they usually come out one at a time to the orientation building so NO you don't get to choose. ***Hint****the second digit represents the year of the truck (ie 231014 is a 2013 model, 22004 is a 2012) and they had a lot of 2014 in when I turned my equipment in.
Once orientation is complete you get a 200$ Walmart gift card.
The lock which you buy in orientation is yours even though Dottie will say "if you leave bring it back and we will reimburse you" FALSE. Cause when I left I was told to turn it back in and safety told me to keep it cause I would not get any money back, they just resell it to another driver.
My Day 1 Friday night (already spent 8 hours in last day of orientation)- I told dispatch that the truck was out of service, broken windshield, city horn inoperable, and apu didn't work.....the first two are fineable if inspected by DOT. Didn't matter to dispatcher (Todd McPherson) and was put under load for Atlanta, GA. Had to go over to Farmland and pickup and went to first fuel stop (you have to follow all routing and fuel stops for the 99 cent fuel or Tom Gafney will run your trip out of route.) I noticed cash advances were not automatically loaded onto fuel card, figured I would get a cash advance for a hotel since APU didn't work when my hours ran out. Get to second fuel stop around 5am and call in to have it loaded onto card, only the load planners can do that and they get in around 7am. I called back in at 7am so I could get fuel, cash advance, and still have a couple hours to run before being out of hours......yeah right, I was on hold until after 2pm before speaking to anyone and they called me after I sent a message "I quit" in which Albert called me and asked what was wrong. I told him that I was on hold for over 7 hours and he responded that quite a few drivers were calling in to get home for the 4th of July, told him how I was dispatched with an OOS tractor and we got the load relayed so I could get back to the yard ......(yes only 2 dispatchers at night and on weeked who have no clue at all about anything.) I got back to the yard Sunday and sat until Monday. The truck was fixed except for the APU and was dispatched on another load down to Amarillo. A couple weeks went by and I told them I had to get the truck back to E.Dubuque cause no APU was making things unbearable. and payroll was charging me over idle cause I was idling, something they told me they would not do cause APU was inoperable. I go back to the yard and again APU is looked at.......thermostatic switch inside the APU was bad. I leave out the same day and grab a loaded trailer at Farmland to go to New Jersey. After grabbing the NJ load I get a call from dispatch that I had to relay a load for another driver going to Wintersville, OH Walmart DC. I asked that the load have a relay in route cause it was 109 miles down to Woodhull, IL and another 634 miles over to Wintersville, OH, impossible to do 754 miles in one 11 hour period with a 64 mile per hour truck. Needless to say, I never got a relay, instead Im told by Charles, the night dispatcher I ran into fog in eastern IL and to deliver the load. I never ran into fog and looking at my elogs in the safety dept I never once slowed down, you could even see the speed increase in eastern IL to 73 mph while I had to passing speed active. I ended up driving for over an hour over my time to deliver the load since I was told to deliver it. After delivering they let me sit all weekend at the Valero truckstop just down the road. Another week went by and I was put on a load to Houson, TX and while in Houston I requested my settlement for the week and something did not add up at all. I went to the Loves and setup my account on the Hirschbach website and noticed they took truck payments the first two weeks, which is the complete opposite of what Maria had told me and was charging me over idle, and out of route miles cause of the WIntersville, OH load, that had a routing of I80 and Todd told me to finish running I74 to I70 and he would change the routing, HE NEVER DID. and Over idle was when my apu was out.......I called in and found out they continue to charge that for six months. They were also double charging me for all the insurance.
I went back demanded my money and turned the equipment in. Still waiting on my money. OOH and when I was in Houston (Channelview) the APU under the bunk caught on fire.
If you go to HML watch your settlements, record your recruiters conversation or have it all answered in email, and don't accept a truck that is out of service. The problems at this company were partially mine as well for going along with a few things, but DONT RISK your license over a companies demands.
The first week, even though they took the truck payment was just shy of 2000.00, second week was 500.00 and after I told them about the truck payments on weeks 1 and 2 they stuck a first weeks payment in of 10.00 which was not there when payroll was trying to force my first check into the COMDATA Card. This company will lie to keep money, they treat you like a number, and even though they all tell you otherwise, no one gives a rats behind about the driver at this company.

 

Snowman i can't see how the statement you've just told can be anything but untrue. My husband works for Hirschbach and he loves the company. He's a lease operator with the same exspenses and yet manages to still make a paycheck. you have said nasty and derogatory things about some of the best employees at Hirschbach. Mike, Tom, Larry, Tawana and Dottie have been nothing but helpful to him whenever he had a question or needs help with something. It sounds to me as if your just a disgruntled employee who is teying to take pot shots at this company. In fact i know for certain they'd NEVER send you on the road with a broken windshield....my husband called breakdown when a truck slung a rock and cracked his and they got him into a dealership right away in Temple texas to have it replaced. Also his apu and ac went out in the truck in houston and we sat for a day in 105° heat but only because hhe was out of hrs and count drive it had nothing to do with hirschbach.....they had us back at the dealership the next day and had the entire air unit replaced. I don't even drive for them i only ride with my husband but i see first hand on a daily basis the ins and outs of how they treat their drivers and its NOTHING like you have said sir. They are very nice, friendly and family oriented people and there to help when you may need them. We love this company and have recommended it to several others when asked. ohhh and also u posted this in 2012 and they didn't stop going company until here recently and also didn't get the 2014 trucks until july of 2013 so how cpuld hour statement be true? Just saying there's two sides to every story.

 

My friend works for Supermaz. It's a same thing as Hirschbach but it is located at Springfield, MA and used to named as Van-Pak. I wouldn't work there as solo. I would rather work there as o/o or team.

 

He drives 2014 Prostar with MF 13 450 HP 1700 ft lb. Runs stronger than 2012 Cascadia's that have 2.53 gear ratio. Sucks.

 

I worked in breakdowns at hirschbach when snowman was having his issues. Yes some of it was on him but I have heard from inside that most of the lease operators actually do not sit down and read their contract. They take it and sign it and of course miss all the important details. Certain individuals in the office have stated that if the new lease drivers would actually sit down and read their contract they would never sign it. Other than that issue I have rarely heard any of the drivers complain about the company itself. Yes the trucks break down but we get them in and serviced as soon as we can so that the wheels keep rolling and try to keep the driver from losing money. Of course we have had issues where trucks are sitting longer than expected but we seriously do all we can to keep them rolling. We are now expanding our terminals with one in Texas and not sure where the other one is opening.