Now I have covered why you should work for a mega carrier in a previous article which I showed all of the positive reasons on working for a mega truck company however with most things in life there are two sides of the coin. In this article on Truck Driver CDL101 we are going to look at all of the downsides of working for a mega carrier
Downsides Of A Mega Carrier: Lost In The Shuffle
One of the main complaints that I hear regarding working for a mega carrier is that the CDL driver feels that he/she is nothing but a number. When your terminal has hundreds of drivers it may seem that no matter what you do that you are lost in the shuffle.
It is very difficult to stand out against hundreds of others of drivers who are doing the same thing as you are day in and day out. Of course if you screw up then everyone knows who you are.
I was lucky in that the mega that I worked for had a smaller size in Canada so the majority of the staff knew who I was on a first name basis. When I would travel to one of the many United States company terminals it was easy to see how one would get lost in the shuffle.
Downsides Of A Mega Carrier: Low Pay
The one thing that all mega carriers are known for is low pay. Mega companies do not make their money with high paying runs but by the sheer number of routes that they cover. Of course in order to make the most money possible off of these runs they use every cost cutting method possible which means the CDL driver is not well compensated
The issue of compensation is one of the main reasons why mega carriers lose so many drivers after their first year of driving. Once they have hit that experience level that other companies are looking for they head for highest dollar sign.
Downsides Of A Mega Carrier: Overworked Dispatchers
The problem when you have so many CDL drivers within a company is that someone needs to be responsible for them in terms of getting them loads, settling problems with shippers and receivers and managing the drivers day to day. Most dispatchers at mega carriers are responsible for a high number of drivers which means when you have an issue as a driver you could be spending a long time waiting for a response
Dispatchers with a high workload are under a high level of stress which in turn affects their mood and disposition. So a driver who is already stressed because of a issue is now dealing with a dispatcher who is highly stressed leads to a conversation that is far from productive and will leave the two disappointed.
Dispatchers in today’s world are also facing uncertainty in their future employment for the addition of AI is going to make a lot of their jobs obsolete in the near future
Downsides Of A Mega Carrier: Hometime
When you ask a CDL driver what is important to him or her it tends to come down to two main items (A) Pay (B) Hometime. A CDL driver may work up to seventy hours per week (HOS) and at the end of the week all he or she wants is the ability to go home on time and try to recover before the next week begins.
A driver does not want his or her hometime to start late and even worse being stuck on the road doing a thirty four hour reset.
Whether it is a poorly dispatched run or the dispatcher completely forgetting that you have scheduled time at home to attend a doctor’s appointment, family event or whatever a mega carrier has a tendency of shrugging it off. This may have to do with the sheer number of drivers a dispatcher is responsible for or just a overall lack of care
Downsides Of A Mega Carrier: Micromanagement
As we have covered in a previous section discussing wages a mega truck company tends to be fixated on cost cutting to ensure that the truck company makes the most money possible which leads to micromanagement that will force CDL drivers to look for another company
Whether it is constant scrutiny of your Hours Of Service (HOS) to your fuel milage to the route you decided to take to so called safety issues the micromanagement of a driver can be a bit much.
I remember when I first met the dispatcher I was working with and he asked what he wanted from me and my reply then is still the one I give today which is “Just leave me alone and let me do my job”
Downside Of A Mega Carrier: Safety
Now safety of the driver is my top concern however there is a level between what should and should not be deemed a safety risk
With the addition of forward facing cameras the safety department can see what you see when ever they chose to or when the truck sends a message over a possible safety issue.
In the last four years the most common reason I have been pulled to the side by the safety department is that the video shows me following to close after a vehicle cut me off. Yes you read that right. A four wheeler or other semi truck decides to see how close they can get to my front bumper and it triggers the camera and sends a message to the safety department who then ask me why I was following too close. None of them have ever gone behind showing me the video and telling me to brake faster
Downside Of A Mega Carrier: Conclusion
When it comes to working for a mega carrier there are positives and then there are negatives. The huge truck companies tend to focus on drivers who have just entered the trucking industry or drivers returning to the truck industry after an extended period away from driving.
Each mega truck company is going to be a bit different from each other however they also share a number of the downsides CDL drivers will declare as a good enough reason to avoid them
If you are a new driver entering the trucking industry do your research on the truck companies that are hiring in your area. Maybe you will get lucky and find a small carrier who is willing to overlook your lack of experience or maybe a mega truck company is your only option to finding a CDL job
