Would You Recommend Dollar Tree Dedicated Account?

So as I have read on here it's best to apply to more that one school to have more than one option. So I applied at Prime Inc & I applied at Swift Transportation today. The recruiter at swift tells me that because I live in Louisiana they have a dedication account with dollar Tree. You travel to like 5 states & are home for your 34 hour reset. She tells me it pays .33 cent per mile with $135 for the trailer being emptied. & $10 for each stop you make. She claims drivers on this account usually average around $1000 a week. She says you have to unload the truck by hand so there is physical labor. So I was wondering what do you guys think? Any of you guys ever here anything or experienced an account like this? Just trying to get a heads up on what I might be getting in to. I'm only 21 & I personally don't mind a little manual labor. I'm not in shape (285 lbs) so I figure this would be a good work out for me.

Hello Theron.

I am not a trucker driver yet, I'm just enjoy being in the trucker community here. In regarding your situation, I would encourage you to take that chance since from what I know it's kinda competitive to get a dedicated account. Look, being able to go home every week is such a bless versus going out forever on the road. Furthermore, regular physical works will even help you to lose weight effectively. All in all, it's a win-win situation in my opinion. Whatever you choose, best of luck to you.

Khoi.

Hello Theron.

I am not a trucker driver yet, I'm just enjoy being in the trucker community here. In regarding your situation, I would encourage you to take that chance since from what I know it's kinda competitive to get a dedicated account. Look, being able to go home every week is such a bless versus going out forever on the road. Furthermore, regular physical works will even help you to lose weight effectively. All in all, it's a win-win situation in my opinion. Whatever you choose, best of luck to you.

Khoi.

Thanks Man!!

Unless they will put it in black and white, that you will get that regional acct when you complete training, its just another carrot hanging on the end of a very long stick, that recruiters hang out there for you to jump at and never get. Gravy runs like that are sought after, and taken by experienced drivers. The physical labor is ON TOP of driving your required amount of hours/miles. You could end up with less sleep, so sore you can't sleep, or get hurt....Even experienced drivers think long and hard about these kinda deals. And honestly, for a rookie ?? I'd want to get my OTR experience in, so that after I'm out from under paying my schooling, I would be free to go to any other company, and be able to show them I have my OTR experience, not just regional...I will make a difference down the road, trust me.

Unless they will put it in black and white, that you will get that regional acct when you complete training, its just another carrot hanging on the end of a very long stick, that recruiters hang out there for you to jump at and never get. Gravy runs like that are sought after, and taken by experienced drivers. The physical labor is ONTOP of driving your required amount of hours/miles. You could end up with less sleep, so sore you can't sleep, or get hurt....Even experienced drivers think long and hard about these kinda deals. And honestly, for a rookie ?? I'd want to get my OTR experience in, so that after I'm out from under paying my schooling, I would be free to go to any other company, and be able to show them I have my OTR experience, not just regional...I will make a difference down the road, trust me.

You make a good point here too Sir. Appreciate the info. So another company would rather see some OTR exp before Regional?

Theron, StarCar gave you some good things to think about, but I'm gonna disagree with her just a little. These companies that are handling the Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree accounts have been regularly putting rookie drivers into trucks for these accounts. I'm not sure if it is because the demand is so high, or if it is because experienced drivers don't want all the physical labor. You need to realize that you will be unloading two truck loads of freight each week by hand - in case you are not aware of just how much work that is, it will be approximately 90,000 pounds of boxes and crates of stuff each week - that's a lot! Brett's done this sort of work before, and he can confirm what I'm saying.

If getting in shape is part of your goal and motivation this is a job that will give you a leg up in that area. You will get home more often than an OTR driver, but you will also work a lot harder than they do. Some people like this kind of job - you will actually get to know your customers because you will basically be running the same route of stores on a regular basis just to keep their shelves stocked up. The predictability of this route is appealing to some types of people - I'm not sure what you want but you can decide those things. It takes some organizational skills also, because you'll have to keep each different stores freight separated and organized so that you don't drop the wrong stuff at the wrong place. I knew a rookie that tried this and decided it was too much for him so the company (Werner) just moved him to an OTR position. If you decide to give it a try they will send you out with a trainer who will specifically train you on this account.

Another point to consider , doing the big discount store dedicated routes is that you may have every intention to be efficient to maximize your time and validate that unload pay but never forget you are ONLY able to unload as fast as the people on the other end of the rollers are moving .

Now think about the urgency that dollar general cashiers are going to work .

Those accounts are not for everybody . Its going to destroy your Miles for the week , every week . And you might find the physical labor on top of limited miles is not feasible for your required income . A final note would be their property . I have not seen a ton of Dollar/Family parking lots but ones I have seen are not exactly screaming park and 80' vehicle in here !

~S~

Theron,

Although I am not yet a truck driver, I have experienced this exact dedicated run. My dad has been a driver for 20 years and used to drive for M.S. Carriers (before Swift bought them) hauling to Dollar Tree stores and I would go with him every summer for about 4 or 5 years. This is a very tough dedicated run but does come with great home time as you are home every weekend. You would most likely pull from the Dollar Tree yard in Olive Branch, MS. Usually loads would take us to Miami, FL or San Antonio, TX so the miles are certainly there but unloading in Florida or Texas heat in the summer was horrible. Doing it in the winter months will be better. You of course deliver mostly to malls so you MUST work on backing skills as that is sometimes the hardest part as for some reason, mall builders did not think about trucks delivering to the mall when building it! The trailers are unloaded by hand using rollers you make into a ramp using boxes as you go and usually have to make about 4 to 5 stops to various Dollar Tree stores in the area on the same day. The most a box weighs is about 50 pounds. After that, you are headed back to get another load. I personally have considered Swift for this very same dedicated run as I always enjoyed it. You get to meet a lot of great people at those stores and they do a pretty good job of keeping up with your unloading pace. My advice would be that if you like the idea of delivering to a certain company (not necessarily the same stores) and don't mind a really good workout twice a week then this would be a good place to go, however, as others have mentioned, unless they can guarantee you would get this dedicated account, I would not base my decision to go with Swift solely on it as they usually will make you run OTR for at least a year before you get something like this and then more experienced drivers would have dibs before a rookie.

Theron, all of the advice and information you've gotten so far was right on. I used to run that Dollar Tree account when I drove for U.S. Xpress. I did it for a year and let me tell ya....it's brutal. Like Old School and Joshua said you'll be unloading like 90,000 pounds of boxes per week onto sets of rollers and rolling them out of the truck. On top of that you'll also cover about 1,500-2,200 miles every 5 1/2 days or so and you'll be home for 36-48 hours every weekend on average. I used to get home Friday night or early Saturday morning and leave out Sunday afternoon or dinner time.

Personally I don't recommend that type of account to start out with, but a lot of guys do it. The reason I don't recommend it is because you're brand new to trucking and just learning how to handle that rig and manage your life on the road is difficult and stressful enough. But you add a ton of physical labor, a lot of very difficult backing situations, and really tight time schedules on top of being a rookie driver and it can run you into the ground in a hurry.

If you do go for that division and you don't like it the company will gladly move you to a different division. So you won't be stuck there for an extended period of time or anything. But I might consider waiting 6-12 months before trying that division unless you really have your heart set on it. It can be done....but it's a really tough job.

And you will indeed average about $900-$1100 per week if you work hard. I was an experienced driver when I had that job so I was making a higher mileage rate but I made $62k the year I worked that division. But I also had a paper logbook so I cheated every day of my life and averaged about 3 hours of sleep a night if I was lucky. So you won't make anywhere near that. But you could make $45k-$50k per year in that division even straight out of school.

Theron, all of the advice and information you've gotten so far was right on. I used to run that Dollar Tree account when I drove for U.S. Xpress. I did it for a year and let me tell ya....it's brutal. Like Old School and Joshua said you'll be unloading like 90,000 pounds of boxes per week onto sets of rollers and rolling them out of the truck. On top of that you'll also cover about 1,500-2,200 miles every 5 1/2 days or so and you'll be home for 36-48 hours every weekend on average. I used to get home Friday night or early Saturday morning and leave out Sunday afternoon or dinner time.

Personally I don't recommend that type of account to start out with, but a lot of guys do it. The reason I don't recommend it is because you're brand new to trucking and just learning how to handle that rig and manage your life on the road is difficult and stressful enough. But you add a ton of physical labor, a lot of very difficult backing situations, and really tight time schedules on top of being a rookie driver and it can run you into the ground in a hurry.

If you do go for that division and you don't like it the company will gladly move you to a different division. So you won't be stuck there for an extended period of time or anything. But I might consider waiting 6-12 months before trying that division unless you really have your heart set on it. It can be done....but it's a really tough job.

And you will indeed average about $900-$1100 per week if you work hard. I was an experienced driver when I had that job so I was making a higher mileage rate but I made $62k the year I worked that division. But I also had a paper logbook so I cheated every day of my life and averaged about 3 hours of sleep a night if I was lucky. So you won't make anywhere near that. But you could make $45k-$50k per year in that division even straight out of school.

Wow now that's something to think about. Thanks for the input Brett. Maybe you are right I do believe I can handle it but I'm not sure so I may consider working for about 6 months before I decide to take on this challenge.