Windy Hill Foliage Inc. Eustis FL Good? Bad?

howdy
I was picked up by windyhill right out of cdl school. They seemed very interested iin me and have been treating me good so far. Im curently in road training with my driver of 4 years exp. hes tough on me and for good reason...SAFETY and I told him to kick my butt if i do things wrong..and so far we are doing well on the road. yes we have to wait for a load or 2 but when we drive...we drive to get there and make sure the delivery is on time. I drive the night hours and my trainer stays right by my side giving up his sleep to see to it that Im ok.
I think Ill like this company as other outfits dont even give you the time of day unless you have at least a year experience.
This company is like the military...what you put in it is what you get from it..
so give it a fair chance before is negatively criticized.

best answer I can give you for right now
but I am looking forward to those florida runs..

 

As far as Windy Hill foliage goes, RUN!!!! RUN AS FAR AND AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!! YOU CAN DO MUCH MUCH BETTER THAN THEM!! You haul plants out of Florida and have to unload, yes, YOU have to unload a certain amount of plants at each stop until you are finally empty at the last stop and then you have to sit around for hours or even days waiting for a load, usually a paper load from somewhere like a paper plant in the absolute middle of nowhere alabama or haul mail (bulk mail inserts) that you have to wait forever to get unloaded. If you live in Florida, you can ask for loads coming back into Florida which is usually a paper load, or bottled water or dog food. Usually you get 1 day home for every week out, but no more than 6. They have Freightliner Cascadias and Volvo's, and the Freightliner Cascadias can't climb any of the mountain passes worth a crap, usually you have to be in 4th or 5th at the highests crawling up the mountain at maybe 15 to 20 mph. And if you have a problem with your recruiter, you better work it out because they wont get you another one. Oh, and if you are one of those people that refuses to run illegal like faking your log, rewriting your log 8 times a day, and DRIVING 14 hours a day instead of your allowable 11, then this is definitely not the company for you. And on THAT note, if they tell you that your trainer is going to be Fred Corley, RUN! Tell them no thank you, I'd rather work as a migrants fruit picker, he's extremely racist, big huge fat POS and will force you to run illegal, and if you dont he will tell you that he will not pass you on training. Thats what happened to me, and I quit after my 3 weeks with the trainer. I'm having a hard time finding work because I blew the whistle on them.

 

welcome to reality....

 

Sounds like most of the company jobs I have had over the years....

 

In response to new truck drivers looking for companies to work for....Windy Hill Foilage out of Eustis, FL is one to stay away from.
My husband has worked for them for over a year and it is awful.
They do not pay per plant drop anymore like the one gentleman said.
They pay zip code to zip code so you lose up to 10% of your hub miles.
On a 4,000 mile week, they only paid for 3,600 miles. 29 cents per mile.
Equipment is bad and you can expect to sit alot for loads. When you
do get good runs, they are impossible to log legally. Like the one truck
driver said, he runs a loose leaf log. It's necessary because you may
be re-writing your log several times. You are required to stay with them
a year or you have to pay for the time the trainer trained you. You pay
to have your paperwork mailed in and pay to have your check stubs
mailed to you. You pay out of your check for ANY damage done to the
truck whether you are at fault or not. I have never seen a trucking company operate the way this one does. In fact, besides this post, I am going to talk to a lawyer friend about the legality of some of the things they do.

 

Seashellsandy, is your husband driving solo are team? I am looking at the to get back into trucking. Been out of the bus for awhile.

 

Everything bad that was said about this company is true. I'm a former Windy Hill driver. I worked for this company for 6 months, and I just recently left this company because they weren't paying me enough to cover my expenses. This company really is no different than working for a big trucking company. To them, your just another number to fill more money in Eric's pocket (he's the manager). He makes a lot of money off of you, and he spends a lot of it to buy himself a nice BMW or nice toys. Any damages you do to their truck (which is a really an old truck that they give you), even if it is an old truck, they will have you pay for it, taken out from your paycheck. And they will even write about any incident/accident on your report, to make it more difficult for you to look for a new employer. This is the only employer I know of that will charge you, if you leave them before a year, for training you. My last check I received from them was $200 and I ran over 4,000 miles for them for two weeks. Expect to sit at a shipper/receiver for over 3-10 hrs, while they load/unload you, and you get paid nothing. My first trainer was worthless. I spent 4 weeks out with him, and he didn't let me drive more than 50 percent of the time. He also didn't teach me a lot things, like doing the proper Pre-trip/post-trip inspection, how to fuel at a truck stop, and many more. My recommendations for anyone getting into the trucking industry, don't waste you time with this company. Go somewhere else to start your career. It will save you a lot of frustration later. When i think about my last check, it made me pissed off because I drive 2 hrs every time I have to get back to the terminal to get in my truck. I put in a lot of wear and tear on my own car. I spent 5 grand on school tuition to work for them and they paid me $0.29 a mile. On average, I made $350 a week. That wasn't even enough to cover my mortgage, utilities, tuition, and credit cards.

 

Some of the stuff i read on this forum makes me almost piss my pants from laughing...

Do you newbies seriously think that you should get a spanking new truck fresh outta driving school??
Do you honestly think you should be paid big bucks right out of the gate when you know absolutly jack ####??
Oh My God... They asked you to haul a load of DOG FOOD when you think you should only haul flowers?? News Flash.. Its a TRUCK. Your paid to HAUL stuff. You do dumb ### stuff and damage your truck? you should pay for it.

I see nothing on here that makes me think Windy Hill is a bad company. Every trucking job is like that.
They expect you to WORK...

Another news flash... Want to make money?? Loose leafs and being available will make you and the company money, and keep you out of the truckstops for days.

I cannot believe the crap some of you complain about on here... If you had nothing before you started trucking, Trucking isnt going to hand you anything either.. but your nose down and EARN it.

 

Precisionpower has it right. Take someone right out of school, provide them with the tools to make a decent living, give them 6 months on the road and they are a know it all super trucker that probably stands around the truck stop bragging about how he has been doing this for years on end and the only one that will listen is another 6 month wonder. IT'S A JOB-DEAL WITH IT. Problem nowadays is the younger generation, for the most part, come in with an attitude of "you owe me a living", "you owe me a paycheck", and you better not ask me to work for it or I will quit, run home and tell everyone how bad the company sucks and file for unemployment. And when they are denied for u/e because they quit on their own accord, blame the company some more.

 

I wrote a review based on the truth and my experience at Windy Hill. Now if you guys want to listen to these racist white trash hypocrits, go right ahead.