Journey with Carter Express

Greetings everyone,

I have followed the forums for a while and have always been able to find good information on many different types of companies. One company, Carter Express, I have not found nearly as much information and mostly outdated. After much consideration I have decided to accept a position with them. I will be posting my experience with them. They are going to bring me on as an experienced driver as long as I pass the road the test. I have just barely over a year experience. So, for me orientation is only going to be three days. After the three days I will come back to Ohio and work out of Vandalia.

Although prior to this, they were still investigating my experience and at first was going to bring me on as a trainee. So, for the benefit of those without one year experience this is what I learned about the trainee process (placed in spoiler below to help keep the post from being too long).

Spoiler: Trainee Information

Orientation Pay is $350, this will last one week for a trainee, on Friday of that week you are placed with a trainer. The first paycheck has a two week hold on it (trainee or experienced), but they do provide you money for all meals while in orientation and the training phase. They also pay round-trip miles for those that travel to Anderson (if I remember correctly it's .515CPM), which will be included on that first paycheck.

They were going to put me up in a hotel for entire time I was training in Anderson, IN. Most of the drivers are home daily or every other day. (They had told me four weeks in Anderson, then I would spend two weeks training in Vandalia, OH).

Once out with a trainer you are paid $400 per week.

Also, they have trainees sign a one year contract. If you leave prior to your year, then you owe them $2,500. That way they can cover the cost of putting you up in a hotel for your training period and the money they provide for your meals, plus the physical and drug test.

Other bits of information:

Trucks are 2013 or better, with newer trucks beginning to arrive in Vandalia. In Vandalia they are getting Freightliners and phasing out the Volvos. They have a Freightliner dealership just down the road and for them to fix the Volvo's they have to find time to get them out to Anderson. Which is not always practical for their drivers. Also, all the trucks are automatics. For me that will be a first, I am interested to drive one. Also, a side note, the trucks do not have APU’s. They do offer an idle bonus, you are compared to the idling of other trucks, same type and year (not entire company), for what the bonus would be.

I was told that benefits cost around $150 per week for a family for everything. I will update more on this when I find out in orientation.

They offer a weekly guarantee of $875. I’m personally excited about this. I will find out more about this in orientation for any possible stipulations, but the way it was explained, if you happen to not get enough miles or would have to deal with truck issues that could cause you to lose miles you are guaranteed that amount. Of course, hopefully I can make more than that. They did mention they have extra runs I can do.

Otherwise starting pay for me is .35CPM. Which means I would need to drive more than 2,500 miles to make more than the minimum.

I know the pay isn’t quite top notch compared to some companies, but for me I get to be home way more often with my family and still make decent pay.

Since I am coming on as an experienced driver I do qualify for the sign on bonus. It is $2,400, which you get paid $200 a month starting 30 days after hire.

For now, this is what I can remember. As I learn more I'll keep everyone updated.

 

I have heard that they do runs to Laredo often, I believe they recently opened a new cross dock down there too.

Thank you!

 

Today, I completed my first day of orientation. One day down, two more to go. Everything went well today. The people I encountered from the company seemed to be down to earth. There were even a couple of rehires coming back to Carter. That can be a good sign about a company when you have drivers wanting to come back. They said it wasn't to unusual for that to happen, of course sometimes the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

The morning started with drug tests, physicals and road tests. All of which went smoothly. Although the the lady taking care of us this morning apologized for it taking longer than usual, but we were a big orientation class, all 12 of us. Personally for me that's small, but then again I've experienced dealing with a mega carrier that can easily bring in 50 plus people every week for orientation. The smaller group size was nice to say the least. After that we had the typical safety videos and hazmat, we also met with HR for discussion about fueling and benefits. One neat piece of information I learned is that Carter will cover the cost for you to get IdleAir since they don't have APU's on the trucks. (Although I have heard that some of the newer trucks are coming equipped with APU's).

Also, if anyone is interested in learning more about the benefits feel free to message me. They are decent, but one thing you will have to consider is if you have a spouse that works and can get coverage from their work, then Carter won't cover them. That is if you wanted to cover them from the start.

For lunch they ordered us Papa Johns pizza, which was pretty good. I like Papa Johns. For those that had to travel here and currently staying in the hotel, you are given a prepaid MasterCard for your dinners. On hotel accommodations, I am in a room by myself and the breakfast they served was decent. They had bacon and eggs when I went out this morning. As well as the usual cereal, yogurts, pancakes that others places I have stayed in has.

Overall the experience has been very pleasant. The company does seem to care about its drivers.

I'm off to relax now. Any questions feel free to ask, I'll do my best to answer.

 

The last two days for orientation went by quickly. Everything went pretty well. Lot more classes and information thrown at us. They fed us Lee's Famous Chicken Recipe for lunch yesterday. Today was a shorter day, just finalizing a last few things. Also, we got assigned out trucks. Well, for me I won't get mine until I go to the Vandalia Terminal. I did talk to dispatch today they are going to have me do a relay tomorrow in a Day Cab, (since the trip will be under 300 miles it will be paid by the hour, this goes for any trip under 300, just how Carter rolls), they are having my truck cleaned over the weekend which is a condo. I will be on a dedicated run and will start that officially on Monday.

 

I don't know which schools they hire from exactly, but I know that they do still hire students, so good chance they will. As for taking the truck home, they do allow that in some circumstances, they prefer to keep the truck at the yard, because they typically do the repairs and general maintenance over the weekends.