dock worker

customer service representative

software engineer

biller

operations supervisor

Dayton Freight

First and foremost, the people you work with on the dock are great! The only reason this job was even remotely bearable is the other workers on the dock. 

There is a huge disparity in how people are treated. If you are part of the "In Crowd" then you can do just about anything. If you are management, you CAN do anything. What can management do? Well, the Operations Manager can hop on a forklift, slam into the head of safety and his forklift with nothing being done. No incident report and no drug testing which is company policy. Management can degrade and insult part time employees at their whim. Management has targeted employees for termination and distort facts to fit their narrative. This kind of behavior happens all too often. Don't call HR, if you do, you are on the fast track out the door! As for the in crowd, haha, well, we have a saying on the floor, "Estes Besties". Part timers are rolled over to full time based solely on managers discretion. Several PT have come in and been promoted to FT after others yet get FT first even though several others have been there longer with the same, if not better numbers. The "In Crowd" also doesn't adhere to the same standards as others. There are certain numbers to reach for some while others in the "In Crowd" are not held to the same standards. 

SAFETY: Safety is something that has slowly been becoming a topic to be taken more serious. There have been a couple incidents this last year where multiple people were sent to the hospital at a time. The company did take measures to try to prevent those same accidents from happening again. There are still some questioning current "procedures" and their implementation but Dayton Freight is working on fixing the holes in the process. 

Overall, if you do decide to work at Dayton Freight as a PT dock worker, expect to be treated like a second class citizen. You get ZERO vacation, personal, sick days or holiday pay. There are a couple managers that are amazing but understand they will protect themselves first. 


☆Disclaimer☆ It is an open air dock with NO heat and NO a/c. Whatever the weather is outside, it is the same on the dock. Snow, rain, ice, heat, they are all yours to experience.

Pay is great at Dayton freight. $27.30/hour for city drivers and .674cpm for Linehaul at top pay. Dock workers were somewhere around 20ish/hour. Linehaul drivers aren’t required to work the dock most of the time and they don’t try and screw you out of pay. My cons for Dayton freight are that they only hire dumb kids straight out of college for office work and they are just that. No room for advancement for a driver to ever get out of the truck. Can’t even interview for another job. Job/personal life sucks because of working nights. Corporate mentality means that you are just a number. Not to mention the third party monitor service that secretly monitors and records your driving at random times. God forbid you get a bad review from these guys, it will end in disciplinary action for you. They keep chainring the rules for vacation time as they see fit without informing the employees. Went from 8 to 9 and now to 10 years of full time service to earn three weeks vacation. 18 years (!) for four weeks vacation. No more after that. 3 personal days and no sick time and no vacation buyout or rollover. 

I guess it’s tome for a few pros. Pay is great. They are closed on the weekends and all major holidays with holiday pay. 401k match is at 50% up to 6% currently. They have an employee appreciation week in August where they do some nice things for the employees during that week such as free lunches, steak dinners and you can win some shirts and stuff like that. They have a yearly driver rep meeting with the big wigs, but it’s mostly a feel good meeting where the big wigs pat each other on the back and talk about how great their company is. 

All in all, it’s a good company, trending toward corporate mentality. I wouldn’t expect to retire from there. Most guys that do retire go out on their backs, not walk out on their feet.

Worked at Dayton Freight for 3 months as a dockworker. Before I was hired I had zero experience as forklift driver. This is what my first few weeks looked like.
Week 1 They taught me how to drive the forklift, use other equipment, and had me take some online classes.
Week 2 I performed the job under supervision
Week3 + I was left on my own. 
While I was initially pretty slow the experienced workers were patient and showed me a few tips and tricks to help me adapt.

Management is fantastic. They are very hands-off and if I needed to take a day off I was able to take it. Other then the hiring process the only time I saw management was as the BBQ or pizza parties they threw. Which they do way more than you would expect. In the three months I was there
we got jimmy johns, 2 Pizza Parties, a workers appreciation week (a week of food), a retirement bbq, donuts and more! 

There isn't any pressure to work fast just safe and proper. 
The hardest part of the job is that its outdoors so it get very cold in winter/hot in summer. You can wear whatever you want though.

If you want to advance in the company you can become a driver, supervisor, and WR inspector. or you can just remain a dockworker. (Some of the guys there have been doing it for over 15 years)
 
I really enjoyed my time there. They paid me well, cared about my safety, don't micromanage, and promote a fun work environment.

Dayton  is a great place to work. The mgt in the Indianapolis Terminal is some of the worst I have ever seen. Nothing matters to them except their performance numbers.
The terminal manager treats everyone including the office people with disrespect. Constantly yelling and screaming at everyone. Numerous times i have seen the office help walk out in tears. They are always accusing everyone of stealing time etc. Stress levels so high its unhealthy.    

A Driver was sick with pneumonia was told to get back to work no one gets that in the summer time.  

 He was Threatened with his job. Passed away two days later.   This was the second who had passed due to stress.

 They write you up for every little issue, and it seems as they enjoy doing so. 

They have a multi million dollar computer / tracking system which was never correctly used .  

It was; used more to track the drivers and there stop times than anything. 
Rarely got to take a lunch at a decent tim:e. Had to eat on the run or take your lunch at 3 or 4'on the afternoon. 
If taken earlier in the day sometimes they would call you and ask what you are doing going to lunch so soon. 
Anything you did to help save time or money was NEVER appreciated. 

They wouldn't listen to anyone's ideas to help make things better. They treated the drivers like second class people that were all below them.

This place favors risky employees. Employees that don't ask questions. Employees willing to risk their lives or credentials. Corporate leaders are corrupt individuals. Terminal Managers and Supervisors are hypocrite individuals. 
***Keep in mind, they are willing to hurt you if you disagree with them***. Their negative actions can come in many forms and shapes. It's based on your title or function within the organization. 
***If you are seen as a threat, be sure that this corrupt place will find legal and illegal ways to affect you; until you quit***. Corporate leaders and local leaders are willing to fabricate or manipulate evidence or information. They are not afraid of lawsuits. It's you against them. 
Also, be aware that this place uses words like safety first, zero tolerance and other frases to get away with wrong doing against employees. They get away with wrong doings before the eyes of the law. Be very careful. They might work you until you have an stroke or cut your hours down until you get hungry. This comment/opinion is based on evidence of corruption and based on journalism.


My work day begins at 4 am we start out breaking trap trailers which consist of freight that didnt go out the morning before. After we get all the frieght there sorted our road drivers bring in new freight that falls in 2 catagories either 1 day freight or 2 day freight. We break that all off the trucks then we have to look at our manifest in our electronic scan guns to see how to load the route and make it most effecient for the driver.

I have learned how to properly unload and load a truck , I have learned about hazmat safety and I am certified in hazmat control. I have also learned how to operate a forklift.

Management has treated me fairly, but has been unable to offer me a fulltime position.

I work on the Dock with a total of 6 other dock hands and 1 supervisior. In the 2 years i been there guys come an go regularly.

The hardest part of the job I would say is loading the trucks to every drivers standard since we run 26 drivers everyday. You almost always are loading a new drivers truck daily they all have different ways they like it loaded.

I enjoy operating the forklift!

Three horrendous incidents happen that should get any employer in trouble with the EEOC. First was the manager at the office finding no problem with a coworker making gas noises at me to mimic gas seeping out of a gas chamber, their solution was making me switch my desk without any change to the other coworker. Second was management being reluctant to let me wear footwear with proper support to prevent my plantar fasciitis from acting up. The final incident was management taking side of a spiteful coworker coming up with fictitious stories about me "making mean hand gestures and cursing in Dutch" when I never attempted to interact with this coworker (because they report me for false allegations) and I don't even speak a language to any considerable extent that isn't English.

TLDR: If you have no ambition to move up in your work career then this is a perfect place to work. If you are educated and/or want to improve your financial standing in life then apply anywhere else but Dayton Freight.

Company had great equipment, on site repair facility that hustled when you had any issues and nice management. 

I drove as a line haul driver at the Crest Hill, Illinois facility. I would come in and wait for my load to process and then take off. My run was to Grand Rapids, MI and then back. Most of the time I would get an additional stop on the way back to Rockford, Milwaukee or South Bend. Overall it wasn't bad at all, EXCEPT when you were tired from driving all night and upon return to the home terminal you were told you have to do one more run to the Des Plaines terminal at the peak of the morning rush hour. 

The pay was great, the equipment was all new and well maintained, management was really fair and nice as were your co-workers. My problem was that I couldn't handle the overnight shift and was having a lot of trouble staying awake between 2-4 AM. When i had my second brush with dozing at the wheel, I knew i was done. The fast paced day shift is something I couldn't handle so I resigned.

I would work here again in a heart beat if they had a day time /afternoon line haul type position

I have heard Dayton Freight is an amazing company to work for if you are a driver. However, the corporate office needs some serious help. The PTO/vacation policy is laughable and wages are not livable in the current state of the economy.  You receive 2 weeks after your first 90 days, and then you get the 3rd week at 7 years, and 4 weeks at 15 years. Any time this is brought up in LCS surverys it is completely dismissed because we cant "afford it in the budget" yet they will waste thousands of dollars on a week of "Employee Appreciation" that nobody cares about. Stop wasting money on EAW and give us more vacation. We dont want pizza parties or bingo or "goodies" from the dollar store. 

Aside from the vaction days, the accounting department needs a complete overhaul. Ever since upper management (the controller position specificlly) was restructured the department has not been the same. The ethical standards that have become apparrent to me since the restructure is astonishing. 
Toxic masculinity and micromanagement should not be entertained as much as it is at this company.

I have been with Dayton freight for a little while now and I can proudly say I love my job. The culture is great here, most people work great as a team here and we all can mostly have fun conversations when talking. We have a lot of cookouts and also have a week of appreciation. The job is simple, you move trailers to different terminals or meet points in a region and maybe occasionally take freight off a trailer by forklift. I do have some complaints. There are some managers or supervisors that lie or don’t care about the drivers. Not many but just know there are some. Wages could be more competitive then others. I do wish Dayton would consider some better equipped tractors and trailers but they are at least maintained good. Time off could be better, we only get 3 personal days and 2 weeks vacation. 3rd week comes at your 7th year. I would like to see 5 personal days. Overall Dayton freight is a wonderful company and I plan to retire here. If your looking for a laid back environment then Dayton is a good place to look into. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Dock worker 3 salaries reported	$23.67 per hour
Customer service representative 1 salary reported	$19.98 per hour
Software engineer 5 salaries reported	$74,200 per year
Biller 4 salaries reported	$17.00 per hour
Operations supervisor 1 salary reported	$69,608 per year

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