Don Hummer Trucking

In a few days, I will have completed my first full month with Don Hummer Trucking. I was waiting until I had a little better grasp,how things operate here, before I posted my thread about this company. First, I will say that it was a definite culture shock, going from Swift, to Hummer. This company has about 350 units, compared to Swifts 18K +. When I first set foot on the Driver facility my first thought was, you can fit the entire lot and buildings just a 1/4 of the Syracuse terminal. The corporate offices, are a mile down the road. We have 2 Terminals, and I think 3 dedicated drop lots, with several shared lots scattered around the mid west. I was fortunate to be at orientation during their quarterly safety meetings. They route every driver through, during a 3 day period, to participate. It was super informative, and really gave me a good idea, of the atmosphere here. I was sure I had chosen the right company, before I was even assigned my truck.

I have a great fleet Manager , who keeps me running, and has been patient with my learning curve, going from regional , to otr. Swift spoiled me, the way I was routed, from start to finish made it really easy to get lazy with trip planning. Managing my clock was a lot different, too. I went from maximizing my 14 hour clock, to maximizing my 70 hour clock. (Which I will be working on for some time to come, lol.) We are also only given our Origin address, and our final address, and any additional stops, or VIA Points. Then it us up to us, to plan it, and get there, adding in our fuel stops. We primarily use Most Pilots and Flying J's, with the random TA/Petro, and a few Mom and Pops. Any stores not on our list we can fuel up to a maximum of 60 gallons. So far, My shortest week was 2700 miles, and my longest was just under 3200. The dedicated work I did with Swift was good work, but I can definitely say, that I prefer the otr driving better. Each has their own unique benefits, and challenges. For myself, I am glad that I started out Regional first, and then went otr. The multiple backing opportunities, the Long Island, and Jersey City driving, and the crazy NE winter we had, better prepared me for the situations that I encountered my very first week driving. If it weren't for places like Uniondale, or Elmsford, NY, my first week would have been a disaster.

The pay structure here is different. I was quoted 40cpm, and it is. HOWEVER, it is broken down into base pay, safety bonus, and per diem. My base pay is 24cpm, my safety bonus pay is 4cpm, and my per diem pay is 12cpm, for a total of 40cpm The safety bonus pay is paid out weekly, unless we have an incident, and then if warranted a certain amount will be deducted from that, for a specified time. Any raises are to our base pay. The per diem is constant. We are paid $20/hr detention after 2 hrs, $150/day layover, and $200/day breakdown, both after 24hrs. The compensation is incremental, so that it is prorated to however long we were detained, laid over, or broken down. I have to say, that the detention pay, so far for me, has been a great addition, because the time spent has fit into my planned hours and routes. I know that this won't always work out, but so far it has.

We do hire new drivers, but we hire specifically from a few local schools. Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, IA; Des Moines Area Community College in Des Moines, IA; and Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, IA. The training time is a 6 to 8 month program, where the Trainer is always in the passenger seat, no team driving. It is broken up into 4 phases, covering our 4 major areas of operation. Each phase starts with a trainer in the truck for 2 to 4 weeks, followed by 2 to 4 weeks of solo driving. So the new driver will have the benefit of a trainer in his/her truck at the beginning of each phase. The driver's pay increases with each phase, and will start at $500 per week in phase 1, and max out at $800 per week for phase 4. After that they start at 36cpm with the base rate at 20cpm.

Our equipment currently is all 2017 or newer. We run Kenworth T680s, Peterbilt 579's, International Lts, and Volvo 780's and 860's (the volvo's are our team trucks) My truck is a 2018 LT, and had 150k miles on it, barely broken in. All trucks have 1500 watt inverters, a small fridge, and Sirius/xm radio. We are governed at 68mph, and installed with Bendix systems. We have a generous idle policy, and we are also allotted 2 free washes a month, to keep our trucks, nice and shiny.

This is all I can think of, at the moment, but will definitely answer any questions I can. Thanks to everyone who has helped me get this far, specifically, G-Town, Errol, Old School, Rainy, Susan D. Rob-Fire breath, Brett, and Big Scott. Many other's as well, but these were to the main people who had to sometimes set me right, whenever I needed it.

Hummer is an excellent company to work for. West Side does a weird thing with pay too, but our base rate is higher.. west sides weirdness is they calculate your average cpm factoring in all accessorial pay for that week and also ytd. It's simply a statistics thing on your stub that really means nothing, but is interesting to see,

Hummer is an excellent company to work for. West Side does a weird thing with pay too, but our base rate is higher.. west sides weirdness is they calculate your average cpm factoring in all accessorial pay for that week and also ytd. It's simply a statistics thing on your stub that really means nothing, but is interesting to see,

They do that here, too. It is a weekly "flow" chart with the current week, and ytd.

Also, I forgot to add that for the 11 NE states, we get an extra 10cpm, that is paid on a quarterly basis. They call it the DIME Bonus. So far, I have already driven about 4000 miles in the NE. It is one of the reasons I chose this company.