truck driver

route driver

maintenance technician

driver

transport manager

Caruso USA

I started with this company nearly 3 years ago which in itself is amazing because they can't keep people longer than a few weeks maybe a couple months if their lucky. I went through so many different hardships at this company and sadly it was for no reason other than management not knowing what they were doing. I personally went through 5 supervisors in my 3 years. The company didn't honor my contract either. When I was hired I was promised a minimum of $1/h raise every year and 4 weeks of vacation by the time of my 3rd year. So in short I was supposed to be at $25/h with 4 weeks of vacation, but I only had $20/h with 2 weeks of vacation (which I had to fight tooth and nail to get). I was told as a lead I was no longer aloud to take vacation, saying because they couldn't let me disappear for a week or 2 at a time (I would plan my vacations months in advance and would let them know). They claim the pay-rate is based off of experience but its based off a few other things like the pigment of your skin and and if they like you. I was a team lead for this company and I had guys under me with far less experience who were making several dollars a hour more than me. For example I had a guy fresh off the road less than 1 year of trucking experience and no other experience that was required for the job and he was making a dollar more a hour than me his lead! And that's not even the worst pay issues I had with this company. My 1st check was so late my 2nd one got to me 1st. My 1st check was also 10/h short of normal time and 70+/h short of overtime (when I 1st started the training was 2 weeks long and the company had just started and the people that started a week before me were clock milkers 15 hour days every single day for less that 8 hour routes. I never got those hours paid even after trying for months, kept telling me they lost the paperwork so there was no way to prove I worked those hours and I was like you paid my coworkers they're hours I road with one of them everyday for those 2 weeks all you;d have to do is see what days I road with them and add up the hours for the 2 weeks and boom there's my missing money, but no they couldn't do that. Which leads me to HR... It was almost impossible to get a hold of HR when I 1st started not that they did any good. Because they're the ones who messed up pay, they're the ones in charge of insurance which got screwed up because the HR lead "forgot" to turn in the paperwork for the ENTIRE company to our insurance provider which raised everyone's rates by 42%, they screwed up so bad with my insurance that I was got stuck with my daughters $30000 birth bill because the HR lead didn't register my wife or my unborn daughter on my insurance but I sure was paying the higher premium rates for them both. With the latest supervisor I had whenever I wanted to report something to HR I was told I was overreacting. I had to tell my supervisor because the company's call in line had changed to where you needed to know the parties ext or you were forced to leave a voicemail which would get you nowhere. My supervisor flat out refused to give me HR's ext. I'm a very patient person I dealt with harassment for over 2 years from one of my guys because at 1st I was hoping the person would realize I wasn't their enemy and that I only wanted what was best for them (because I genuinely cared about my team's well being), but eventually it became to much for me. He had tried to get me fired more times than I could count, he would bully me knowing I wasn't aloud to react back to it, he even got so bold the month or so before he quit that he even tried to physically hurt me (by nearly slamming the rear door of the truck on my head, flooring it in the truck with me in the bad securing the loads, to flat out he "bumped into me" causing me to fall off the back of the truck. But I was just "overreacting" as my supervisor put it. I even have witnesses to most of these events but yeah. There is just a million things I could go on about this company. Like here's something stupid that was going on the last month I was there. My division was being audited because we were to good at our jobs. We were being audited because it wasn't believable that my team had no spills or any real customer complaints in 6 months. All because the other 2 divisions had spills either on the weekly or even the daily and dear god the complaints I heard they were getting. Like I'm sorry I trained my crew well?.. I feel sorry for my team because I did have a few good ones working under me. Also you get paid for several holidays but you only get Thanksgiving off and Christmas eve off. I'll end it on this note if you have a life or a family or just self respect DO NOT WORK FOR CARUSO please just don't.

Job could be great if upper management just let people do their job.  Your opinion does not matter here.  They constantly micro manage and always have something negative to say.  The “suits” will literally walk right past you like you don’t exist because that’s how much they are above you in their mind.  

Drivers are not valued here.  Good workers are ran thru the mud and are not appreciated.  The morale is terrible due to upper management.  They will preach safety one minute but then expect drivers to run overweight and be out well over the DOT limit 14 hours.  17-20 hour days are common and that’s ok with them because it’s “for the betterment of the company” 
But don’t expect a thank you for doing anything extra or going above and beyond to help out. 

It’s a revolving door of drivers and they stay understaffed.  But you will not see them come out of the office to help run any loads
“For the betterment of the company”  

If they allowed mid level management and drivers to just do their job, it could be great.  But the pedestal they sit on is way too high and their egos will not allow them to do that. They will soon realize that in this job market,  it’s easier for the employee to replace the employer than it will be for them to replace the employee.  They need to be humbled quick but it’s not going to happen.  

I have been with Caruso Columbus division since it was created just over 2 years ago. In that time, I have watched and helped this company grow and sprout into a solid work environment. The pay is above industry standard for the type of work. Daily routes. There are typical transportation industry related hiccups that are out of the company's hands. Our daily start time is 9:30pm but if there is traffic between Cincinnati and Columbus that delays us from getting our loads, there is nothing that can be done about that. The good news? We're getting paid to wait for our loads. I have met some awesome people that will no doubt, remain a part of my life for years to come. Management listens to driver's feedback and goes out of there way to make people feel comfortable and get answers to any and all questions, comments and concerns. I have been pleased to be a part of the Caruso team and am looking forward to growth in the future and career advancement opportunities. Highly recommend this company.

A day began with having truck preloaded upon arrival with all paperwork prepared. I learned, in short order, that other drivers were more able to offer help on routes than management. Manager was more interested in his credibility than helping drivers work through issues. The most difficult part of the job was the lack of management which often slowed the process. The manager was also known to send trucks on the road that were considered unsafe by state standards. The best part of the job was getting away from the warehouse.
Based on my experience, the manager enjoyed insulting people with an audience and dislikes anyone who will challenge him. He enjoyed making my life difficult enough to drive me out.
Since the company is based in Ohio, and has management in 2 other states and they all use technology to communicate, it is easy to paint a glossy picture of performance since no one listens to the issues brought back from the drivers.

Bad management, heavy loads on a truck, up to 300 and 400 per night. start times are never consistent. You will start at 9 and 10 pm at night, and wont get done until 9 and 10am the next morning, and you won't have a life, and your sleeping patterns will always be off... There's no orginization, and management doesn't care about u, only the product. You will unload all your rpc's onto a cart and make 15 trips into the store because they will get mad if you use a pallet or pallet jack. All the stuff is stacked crazy, and the stickers fall off so you never know what's going where, its a wild guessing game. This place will put alot of wear and tear on your body really fast. Always remember, the company doesnt care about u, only what you are delivering. Everything is always at their convienence, never yours.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I made good money here and I use to work 4 days on 4 days off and I went out of town to help others and they paid for everything and I had a nice hotel and a nice rental car 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
When ppl quit sometimes you work 6-7 or up to 73-74 a week…and the warehouse workers didn’t stack the orders correctly most of the time which makes pulling orders a HUGE PROBLEM 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
There was no work environment bc you didn’t have to see or talk to anyone unless something was wrong 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Wait for the truck with the load then wait for your truck to get loaded or you’ll have to load it yourself depending on where you are located

easy job. the schedule is not the greatest because you are at the will of another company. if they are running late so are you. dispatched any time between 8pm to 12am. you just never know. management was good my first couple years but then things changed. no back bone. very late with an effective response to the current epidemic. poorly maintained trucks. dirty dock area because its shared with another company who does not clean after themselves. they use a drive cam system which does not work in every truck of theirs so unfair advantage to drivers depending on what truck they assign you. If you can get over the derogative and racist  remarks from the current supervision about other employees  and all the other stuff i mentioned then go ahead and apply easy job with lots of hours available to bring in the money during these tough times.  Company also stole pto from us.

No structure for any department in the entire plant. To many wannabe chiefs nobody wants to listen. Maintenance be prepared to constantly moving equipment/who knows what from this spot to that spot and mind of it will make since. Maintenance team structure is unknown can’t keep know body because of the egotistical, self-centered maintenance manager that’s famous word are “set up for failure”. Really motivating I tell ya. It’s about the only thing he will say to you that ain’t a lie though. Raises are nonexistent. Christmas bonus is described as “we are cheap and don’t do Christmas bonuses”. To say is the worst place I’ve ever worked would be an understatement. Good luck to anyone that gives it a shot but in the end I get to say I told you so.!

The job is not hard.  It's never hard.  It can be physically demanding but not the hardest work around.  I feel Caruso's compensate you well for the type of work you do.  However, when staffing is low they will work you to death.  Very little regard to your personal life if the staffing drops.  Lots of promises made from upper management that I have learned to not hold my breath over.  The co workers are great and the people you meet at the Kroger stores are usually pleasant.  Never had to go a day without work during the peak of the pandemic.  I am quite thankful for this company so I don't want to paint too negative of a picture.  If we can build the staff back up and add 1 more route to thin out the loads; much happier days will be back.

They don't care about their workers safety. They don't enforce their rules equally. They pick and choose what rules they want to enforce. They pick and choose when they want to enforce their rules, and they pick and choose who they want to enforce their rules on. They will write you up for a rule violation, and in the very next breath will try to get you to do the very same thing they wrote you up for in the interest of "helping the company" in situations that came about from their negligence and bad management. 
   You have to beg them to get you functional/safe equipment. They will terminate an employee for a no exception violation and will not terminate other employees for the very same offense.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 215 salaries reported	$24.39 per hour
Route driver 1 salary reported	$23.50 per hour
Maintenance technician 6 salaries reported	$28.00 per hour
Driver 3 salaries reported	$23.00 per hour
Transport manager 1 salary reported	$75,000 per year

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