truck driver

maintenance technician

local driver

account director

fleet technician

Ascend

Expect to spend a lot of time at their shop in Jackson, TN. I was there for less than six months and was in five different trucks due to mechanical problems. My trucks were either under recall or had to be sent back to the dealer for warranty service. They run almost all International Pro Star + tractors, a very unreliable model. Moving all of your belongings from one truck to another in 90+ degree heat is no fun and not all of the trucks have been cleaned prior to being issued to a driver. I had to refuse a truck that had bags of garbage and cigarette butts in it and stunk of garbage and cigarette smoke. Also, do a thorough inspection of your truck because the shop will not have done so and you will find major problems that you want to have fixed before you hit the road. Stay away from those auto-shifters if at all possible.
The mechanics shop is simply overwhelmed. In addition, too many drivers do not report problems, especially when it comes to trailers. I estimate half of them have the ABS wiring disconnected. You will pick up a lot of them with lights out, bad hinges and latches, and leaks. I picked up one trailer with a hole in the floor that I was able to put my hand through. Note that when you write up a problem with a truck you will not get any sort of receipt or written confirmation of what was repaired.
The terminal in Jackson has a lounge with a TV and decent wifi. It has an old bathroom where you can get cleaned up but no showers and no place to sleep if you are stuck there for an extended period of time.
As with most trucking companies, they have some good dispatchers and some bad ones. I had one good one, one that was OK, and another who was lazy, unprofessional, disrespectful, and otherwise incompetent. Unfortunately the person in charge of managing the dispatchers and load planners is an ignorant, arrogant bully, so do not expect any improvement in this area. They do not run you hard but they do not provide you with the information that you need in order to do your job, for example appointment times, whether a stop is a live load/unload or drop and hook, directions and correct addresses for shippers and receivers, or a contact phone number at which you can speak with a real person. You are expected to somehow know these things in advance.
Communication in general is considered a dirty word here. You will not be told even the most basic things like where to drop your empty trailers, where to park your truck, etc. Expect to waste a lot of time finding people to tell you how they want things done only to find out that you were told something wrong. When I first started driving for them I ran into another driver at a shipper. We had to make a delivery early Monday morning so I mentioned how I would leave Sunday afternoon in order to make my appointment on time. He responded that he was going to wait until Monday morning so that he could sleep at home and get a reset in and then deliver the load late. I remember thinking, “What a lousy attitude.” But that way of thinking pervades the company. There is no sense of accountability among management, who will throw religious BS at you if you complain about anything, and it trickles down to the drivers because they are usually the ones who suffer when things go wrong.
I would not recommend driving for this company.

When I first started at Milan, I was so happy.    I was finally getting home every weekend.   I was running 2500+ every week.   I was issued a 2015 KW t680 that was in good condition and seemed well maintained.   I was so impressed, I even recruited a close friend of mine.  

The great experience lasted for about 6 months.   After that things went down hill very fast.    My hometime started getting messed up.    I was getting in later and later on the weekends.   Until I was getting in so late, I did not have time to get a 34 hour reset before I had to roll out again.  

The miles dropped to 1500 or so a week and stayed there.   

Dispatch changed from being friendly and supportive to very accusatory.   if you were late or missed delivery for any reason, even if it is due to a breakdown, they blame you and my dispatcher literally yelled at me.

and worse of all:

The truck started having issues every week.    I had my truck in the shop 6 times due to bad batteries.   They refused to replace them with new batteries, instead using old ones.    The issue got so bad, that if I let my truck set for more than 8 hours, It would not start the next time.   

After that, I started having at least one issue a month that started causing me to miss work.   The maintenance department, just bandaids the issue, they do not fix it.   After, I was broke down so much, I asked for a new truck.   I was told that they did not have any.   They still owe me over 600.00 in break down pay.   

And finally,

You can forget Detention, Layover, Stop, and breakdown pay.   They say they have it, but you will rarely get it.  The management will find a reason to deny it.

Not a bad trucking company to work for. They hire new drivers right out of school. If you go to their driving school they offer tuitions reimbursement. Management is pretty laid back as long as you do your job. They run paper logs mostly, some truck have E-logs. They have newer truck to drive and the shop maintains them pretty well. You'll get home on the weekends, typically saturday morning and not have to leave out again until monday morning, although you may have to leave on sunday. IF you are new to truck driving you will have good weeks and bad weeks as far as miles go. This is the same with any company you work for though. I would still work there, but I found a local job that got me home everyday. The only complaint I have is that 75% of the places you go to, Milan does not have directions to. They don't update their customers phone numbers or directions in their Qualcomm system. So while you are with a trainer, invest in a GPS before you get your own truck.

As this site, you are a yard jockey for a cardboard production factory that requires one jockey to manage 2 sites per shift "in a timely manner." You must drive on a public road and occasionally to the truck stop to get fuel, and occasionally deliver loads to nearby companies, all while staying on top of dock doors at 2 locations when you're the only jockey.

Management at this site and the customer's management both are very hostile in nature toward the drivers. They operate with a we own you attitude and you are treated like you're a machine or something unhuman. 

My personal experience was they are a very sexist, misogynistic, bigoted, good ole boy workplace. There is a lot of negativity toward women, blacks folk, and LGBT individuals here. Standing up against it gets you retaliated against. If you report that, then you get fired.

The company was bought and has thus started to experience growing pains that weren't properly prepared for. Lots of changes going on that are causing failures in many areas and they can't keep up fast enough. Don't let them fool you - question everything and don't get your hopes up of any job security or advancement opportunities. Many of their employees have been there for a long time and some have been there their entire working career which means that is all they know and that don't have an understanding of anything outside of Milan and their loyalty is to the ones that have been there a long time - not to the new employees. I know that no company is perfect but everyone deserves to have a job where they feel respected and listened to and where they can work under stable management - this isn't it. 

Management/corporate feels completely disconnected from what actually happens in store. MASSIVE pay gaps and they have yet to give ANYONE an annual raise. Dont expect the highest mangers in store to fight for you as an employee. Definitely dont expect that from regional/district corporate people. Will sometimes pat you on the back for accomplishments, but incentive doesnt go any farther than that. ESPECIALLY with the ridiculous amount of money the business makes vs what it pays. Higher ups will expect you to do things they themselves cannot/will not. They also refuse to ban customers who have harassed employees in store, via the chat, and via email. Its a shame Ascend was supposed to be the best, it makes me sad for the future of the industry. 

Milan claims to be there for you!. But they are not!. They want you to choose between your family and them!. They push you out farther than what you pose to go!. All they care for is the customers. Once somebody at the shipper office cursed me out while I was on the phone with dispatch. And she called the police on me because she said she didn’t want me there to pick up anymore!. Because I was blocking the docks!. But I was told by another lady to park there until my dock was free!. And guess what dispatch did?. They gave me two writes up because she called them!. Even doe they heard the whole conversation!. They said they had to have it to me because she called in!. And on top of that we get 15$ when other drivers are getting 20 plus. They have unsafe equipment. I was told to deliver a load that was 3 hours away!. Even doe my airlines was on the ground trying to spark a fire!.

I've never worked for anywhere quite like ASCEND.  You truly feel like a member of a family and community working there. The owners are down to earth. All of management and human resources is just as approachable and easy to talk to. The company uses an app for communication which makes keeping in touch with everyone in the company easy. Another app is used for clocking in and out of shifts. Monthly happiness surveys are released for everyone to fill out. Benefits are great - free climbing, yoga, and fitness for employees and certain perks extend to friends and family; pay is truly competitive.  Efforts are made to create safe spaces for those of marginalized groups (BIPOC, LGBTQ+), to cultivate a culture of inclusion,  and to be sustainable and ecoconscious. 

The Flexibility of changing lanes within the job is great but the pay is just way to low you will make under $35,000 here after taxes. You're going to be lucky to get a $1000 check. Drivers save your breath and go elsewhere. I didn't listen to the reviews at first. I started to regret that as soon as i walked into the building and seen their board seeing their turnover rate. It was due to low pay. The equipment is great but everything else is not. My truck was so brown all around even the curtains, like there was a hard smoker in the truck before. But when i got the truck they bleached it and everything. But i was depressed the whole way through the AD said i was going to be making over 1,300-1,700.

What is the best part of working at the company?
There is nothing good at this company 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Showing up for work not getting any more miles new normal is 1500 miles per week 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
When they used to have enough dispatchers things were good now they only have three dispatchers for the entire work force, when you call your dispatchers your on hold for at least 30 to 45 minutes and after hours you can't reach night dispatchers at all

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Very stressful it used to be a great company to work for but in the past year it seems like Joe Biden is running the company right into the ground

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 205 salaries reported	$1,294 per week
Maintenance technician 2 salaries reported	$22.50 per hour
Local driver 12 salaries reported	$1,100 per week
Account director 8 salaries reported	$134,813 per year
Fleet technician 7 salaries reported	$22.50 per hour

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