route driver

production associate

delivery driver

local driver

truck driver

Home City Ice

Things you must give up to have the job of assistant plant manager: work-life-balance and personal life (expect phone calls on your days off and after you leave for the day, better answer them or you’ll come into a mess next day), inner peace, and sanity.

Expect: coming into work in the middle of the night or on your day off, difficulty finding quality employees due to low hourly rates (the pay is not in your control), being left out of important emails because you’re only an assistant manager, 14 to 16 hour days with no overtime, broken promises, and pleas for help going unheard.

My short career with HCI started as a small town college student looking for a summer job. I made fantastic money for a student and even received a tuition reimbursement check after meeting their requirements. My initial assumptions about the company were very positive. The management team I worked for was great and very transparent, you didn’t perform a task without knowing why it needed to be done or how it was helpful/ essential to reach company and personal goals. They never made you feel like just a number, you felt appreciated and useful, which is what any good employee wants. Later though, the honeymoon phase quickly fizzled out as I quickly discovered  that culture was secluded to that particular plant and not the entire company.

Fast forward three summers; I have graduated college and was suckered into becoming an assistant plant manager. At the time I was ecstatic, I had a salary/ benefits, a “big boy” title, and had a lot of smoke blown up my rear end on “how great I’m going to be”. I was young, naive and didn’t realize I would’ve been better off staying a driver or seeking a career elsewhere. I moved 8 hours from my family, friends, and more affordable living for my new role in a majority city. My salary barely compensated me for my new cost of “safe” living; I could’ve lived in an area where getting mugged is almost a guarantee I suppose… But hey they gave me money to cover SOME of my moving costs how nice…

As an assistant plant manager my responsibilities were as follows: manage all realms of ice production; this included scheduling employees, hiring/ firing employees, keeping production machines operating correctly (did all of the maintenance myself), ensure we were PCQIS compliant (sanitation for food products), monthly forecasting of supply and demand for scheduling and inventory management (they had software for that but was rarely accurate, and was like pulling teeth to get IT to fix any inconsistencies), safety coordinator for distribution and production (yes you heard that right I was the safety rep for distribution even though I was only in charge of production), finally a staple of HCI managers is to work in production or delivery if needed (I liked this one but HCI used it to save money and reduce the cost of frontline workers). 

My experience as an assistant plant manager opened my eyes to the facade the owners and board of directors were portraying. “We have been a family owned business for 100 years, you aren’t employees you’re family”, they’d preach, while they line their pockets and give huge donations to the private college the Sedler family (owners of the company) went to. Meanwhile, I was pressured into keeping my production employees’ wages lower or take work from them to keep labor costs low. Oh, not to mention this was how I earned one of my major bonuses! Did I mention you only get 1/4 of the bonus pool and your plant manager gets 1/2 while you did all the work, so fantastic! So to clarify, I’m given a salary 10 to 20k below industry averages, and to receive a much needed bonus to live I have to give my production employees a low hourly rate, reduce their hours and do their work myself when business gets slow. Great family dynamic am I right? I guess screw the frontline employee’s income.

The one perk of the management job was the yearly managers meeting. This is where all of the overworked and underpaid managers come together for a series of meetings consisting of dodgy Q&As, ignored complaints, tons of drinking away their sorrows after hours, and chest thumping by the owners and board of directors for the achievements “they did” for the company and how great profits were. Truthfully, most managers were only there for the free drink tickets because anything they had to say was ignored (given the answer “oh that’s a good recommendation I’ll see what we can do”) and everything that we learned in our “breakout” groups worked on paper but didn’t in real world application; prime example of how the higher ups lead from their nice office chairs.

To conclude, HCI is a good temporary job for those in a pinch or for those in college and that’s about it. I do not recommend moving up the ranks in the company, stay as a driver and definitely don’t apply for a production job. If you are currently an employee of HCI I want to assure you that better companies are out there. Companies that truly appreciate you and keep promises and don’t make you wait for better pay. Good luck out there and I hope this helps prevent someone from getting into the same situation I was in not long ago.

Worked here as a delivery driver for 4 years now, with one of those years just being seasonal while in school and another as an assistant office manager. Hated it at first but as time went on the job got better and I got better at the job. 

First of all, the pay is commission with a $12/hr BACKUP. Meaning if you have a bad day or you’re just slow enough you’re at least making $12/hour. I think it’s hardly even possible for a new driver to make just the hourly minimum on a normal day.

You start out with a Chauffeur’s license, a small box truck which you can (legally) load with 6 pallets, and a cart to move your ice with. They’ll hook you up with your CDL as quickly as possible, and once you have it you’ll be able to take 9 pallets on those smaller trucks, or drive the bigger trucks which can fit up to 13 pallets, a pallet jack and your cart. 

Getting your CDL means you get an immediate raise, you can carry more ice (don’t always have to reload to finish your route,) and with the pallet jack on the bigger trucks you can fly through most of your stops. 

The commission pay is a percentage of your sales based on how far of a drive your customers are from your starting point, added bonuses on top, and the occasional retro pay for having to drive somewhere or do something really inconvenient on short notice. Typically an average driver can make anywhere between $250 to $300 for emptying out one of the big trucks, which is incredibly easy to do in the summer. Sometimes I’ll be empty by noon but most days it takes about 6-8 hours. 

So what seems like a college kid type job that you wouldn’t take very seriously can actually yield you $20-$35/hour if you work hard. Me and a couple of my more senior coworkers came close to $10,000 in commission for just the month of July this year. And there are a handful of veteran drivers in the company making 6 figures just delivering ice. 

Now bear in mind the work can kind of destroy your body, specifically your hands, arms and back. Lots of climbing, jumping, running, pushing/pulling, grabbing, lifting, grabbing, lifting, grabbing and lifting. All in whatever weather Michigan puts you through. Making commission with a finite amount of work to complete means you move fast and don’t take breaks. I lost probably 30 pounds my first summer. And no, the ice does not keep you cold but the geezers hanging around at Meijer think it does. 

Management is awesome. Matt and Logan are the most laid back and understanding bosses I’ve had. Everybody in management positions outside of the corporate office started as a driver or production worker, so they understand exactly what they’re putting you through. The corporate office, on the other hand, is completely out of touch with the drivers and production staff and they will screw the bottom over to get closer to the top. Classic corporate greed, that’s all.

Advancement to lower level management is pretty easy. In my short time here I’ve been offered two different management positions. Trained one driver who became a terminal manager and a guy who was hired at the same time as me became one too. 

Would definitely recommend you apply if you’re a college student looking for a well paying summer job and you don’t mind putting in 10-13 hours a day.

You work alone most of the time as a driver, but you'll be interacting with all kinds of people throughout the day. I had an average of 12 deliveries a day, unloading thousands of pounds of ice into boxes and freezers. I was payed $14.00 per hour and worked about 9 hours per shift, but the speed you work at determines the length of your day. The days get long in the summer, and on holidays it gets even more intense. HCI delivers to all kinds of businesses like restaurants, bars, gas stations, grocery stores, etc. The people that I worked with were very diverse in their origins and interests, and were all very friendly. Most things about the job were great and fit me well but of course the job comes with its downsides. 
        
        You'll be working in all kinds of weather, which can get pretty gnarly. When its raining, going into the freezer truck damp can leave you chilled to the bone all day. Also on hot days the contrast between the truck and the outside might be overwhelming for some. To do this job well you should be fairly strong, the work can be done if you're not but pushing around 600lbs of ice on a cart the size of a refrigerator can get pretty scary. Which brings me to the most daunting part of the job... The Truck. Driving the truck is relatively easy and because it does not require a CDL, there is no special certification needed to do this job other than a physical. however it is still a  big truck and maneuvering on narrow roads or in slippery conditions is nerve racking. Now the scariest part of the truck is the LIFT GATE. Like i mentioned before moving 600lbs of ice on a flat surface requires some strength, but getting the cart onto and off of the lift gate can be very dangerous. Every driver will end up dropping a few hundred pounds of ice off of the back of the truck and if you were to be caught under it, it would crush you. on flat surfaces it can be pretty predictable but you'll be making stops in all kinds of lots, some of which sit at angles that make getting up and down seem impossible. That about covers the dangers.
        
Most of the managers you'll have to interact with throughout the day are great, but some will be difficult and downright rude. Some ask ridiculous things of you and some will get you to do things that their employees should be responsible for.
       
 HCI could do without the assistant manager position and those who hold it. That might be the worst part of the job, being beholden to someone who hates their life. 

      
 This is a great job that pays well so i'd recommend it to anyone who can handle physical work. Most of the things i mentioned here are just the things that stood out, don't let the big paragraph scare you away.

A typical day at work from clock in - clock out includes: grabbing a tablet and printer, pretrip inspection of your truck, then load your route up. Ask your boss to see if there’s special instruction about your route (start far and work your way back, or start close and work your way out) Then, load your truck up if it hasn’t been loaded, and clean your truck out if it wasn’t cleaned out by the last driver. Leave to get gas and go to your first stop. During your day, you take ice from your truck (pallet Jack is NOT guaranteed) and put ice into freezers. Upon arrival at your stop, you are to check in with the customer and maintain friendly relations with them, you, and your company. If their freezer box has ice frozen to the walls of the box, you are to knock off and clean that ice out with a rubber mallet, then deliver ice. The delivery of ice should be stacked in a pattern to maintain stability when customers take ice out. After delivery, collect a signature or a check from the customer and leave. You are expected to move a minimum amount of bags of ice, typically around 2000-2400 bags. You are paid commission, however it is impossible to understand what exactly it is - therefore impossible to know if what they’re paying you is what you should be getting payed or not. When you get back to the shop, clean your truck out, post trip inspection, park your truck and plug the truck’s freezer into the electric outlet on the ground, collect checks and your end day report and put them in an envelope and check out. 
The route has the possibility of being local, in rockford, or about 100 miles away. 
All 3 managers at the rockford plant are young - that is the environment - the plant manager is the most responsible but none of them like work. Only time things run “smoothly” is when the regional supervisor is there. 

Don’t work here for anything other than a way to get your class B license, after that there’s nothing more you can gain from working for this company. Nepotism is big here, as well as “friends hiring friends.” There is a lot of talk behind people’s back about their work - yet no understanding of what the employee actually does for the company. definitely not a company to give your 100% to. 

Where to start? Management bullies drivers into working very long days, sometimes in excess of DOT standards. Truck maintenance is hardly done, Thermo kings sometimes never work and are never taken in for maintenance. Customers are rarely happy to see you because they are so irate with the company and management. The only ones that were happy to see me were ones that I could work with on a daily-weekly basis because they knew I would do my best to take care of them. Trucks loaded wrong by loaders constantly and when reported to management I was told that the loaders would only be here for a few months and to just deal with it. Was told by one loader that I should watch myself or I would end up like a broken pallet on the warehouse floor. He continued to work the rest of the summer and was even rehired the next summer until driver complaints were made. Management hardly ever follows company standards, including showing up on time and tobacco use. One Manager smokes in office and another spits his tobacco on the warehouse floor and keeps a spit cup in the office to rot. When confronted of the disgusting habit, told who cares? Management tells drivers that the company is run like the mob, and another cusses you out and is seen being extremely rude and hostile to customers on the phone. Drivers are worked so long and hard, with NO breaks. Many drivers just call off because of such long shifts and then excess work is made up the next day. Culture and team atmosphere is a joke, the culture is hostile, promoted through passive-aggressive attitudes of management, and if you don't understand every hint of sub-text at all times then they will bully you to leave. New-hires are put into a truck before they have even passed drug-tests, and some are delivering in tanktops looking like they just picked some random guy off the street, because they basically did. Customers as big as Wal-mart and Meijer were tired of the mis-management. Any kind of good relations was handled directly by the main driver and was probably the only reason customers had not been lost. Drove for this company 10 years and never once met the CEO nor did I ever hear of him making an effort to meet me or even visit the plant.

Working for Home City Ice for the past two summers has been a great experience. I have learned to be a better and more cautious driver from my time delivering as a Home City driver. With this job some days are smooth sailing while others are stressful and exhausting, it’s a toss up. I really liked this job because I never had to worry about not getting enough hours and if I needed time off I could get some. My boss is very good about day to day communication and checks in with me frequently. There are some days I come and go to work without seeing a co-worker or manager but on days I do see them they won’t hesitate to say hi. Also I appreciate that Home City rewards us with food and other occasional perks for our work. Another great aspect about Home City Ice is that they want to see their employees progress in their roles. For example they just recently helped me obtain a CDL.
If you are a hard worker with a good attitude, you should fit right in at Home City Ice.


I worked for home city ice for 3 months in the accounts payable department at the corporate office. From day one I was "bullied" by the women in the office, they would throw my lunch items away and ignore me. These women were older around 50 and up. The man that originally hired me ended up being fired two weeks after I began working there. They brought in a new manager from the audit team. He briefly met with the four of us from the AP dept "to get to know us". I am a beauty school student and my hair was light green so naturally he requested I change it. I requested if it would be ok if I wore a wig because it would take some time to elminate the color, he told me no. So I asked one of the owners if it was ok to wear a wig until I got the color out and he told me yes. So a week went by and I ultimately changed my hair to a charchoal color, the day I went into work with my "normal" hair this man called me into the office and fired me with the lie that "we are starting a new computer program and will not need 4 ap people". I later found out that there was never a computer program but infact another woman in the office convinced this new manager to fire me because she did not like me.The owners turn their heads the other direction and pay no attention about what goes on in the office they work in. I was very excited to be apart of the Home City Ice family but I have gotten a glimpse of the way this company is ran and I have lost all respect for these people.

Worked here for 2 years off and on ... was a decent temp job with fair compensation. Got me in the best shape off my life but can be rough on the back. I recommend working in summer since the blazing heat and cold freezer in your truck balance itself. I wouldn't call it career friendly but it was a great temp job when I needed the cash.

Your $ and workload all depend on your route. PUSH TO GET A GOOD ROUTE! Does depend on other employee's work status though.

In the summer I usually worked 10 sometides 12 hours in a day. Yeah you'll have bad days in blazing heat on the worst routes, other days you'll have beautiful drives, meet friendly stores owners and deliver to fun places like the Insane Clown Possie concert in Cave In Rock ... I even delivered to a prison.

Management (especially Adam and Ava in Marion IL) are solid trainers. Ava is a sweetheart and Adam won't help you load ice but does show you how to do everything. They worked around my schedule which was nice and getting more hours in was never a problem.

I had some epic scenic drives and met awesome people during this job. Early mornings but there is no 'set' time you need to come in (early means less traffic and shorter days though). Would recommend if you'really willing to put in long days but need the cash. It was a great temp job for me until I graduated college.

I worked for the Traverse City branch, which had no manager on site. Our only solution for questions or problems was to call the managers in Grand Rapids over the phone, who were very disorganized. They would schedule too many people for the amount of trucks they had, or would add deliveries to your list that were a multiple hour round trip, effectively ruining any sort of efficiency to your route (Which means say goodbye to commission that day). While there I realized how many things were literally broken, i.e. faulty equipment (trucks breaking, broken ice dollies, tablets and printers that didn't work, unusable software, etc.). On top of this, during my training they had a new employee on his FOURTH day of work "training" a guy on his very first day of work. The disappointing part is that when this job "worked" and things ran how they should, it was enjoyable. But things hardly ever ran smoothly, and employees had to constantly deal with problems that could have been avoided had a manager been there to oversee and help out their employees. The management there does not care about you. I once had 4 extra stops added to my route while I was already 10 and a half hours into my shift, that were 45 minutes away, with a broken ice truck while all my ice was melting. Those are the kind of days you can routinely expect working at the Traverse City branch. I hope they fix their issues and get managers on site to have this mess of a company run smoothly. 

I've worked nothing but 10 to 12 hour days since I started. The equipment barely functions and will waste the majority of the day. Most of the thermal units barely function so halfway through your day you will be delivering bags of ice water. Pallet jacks stop working since they never get a full charge. Tablets and printers are first come first serve so unless you are there at 4am you will probably get a dead one. Pay is commission based and most stops will only be worth $200 dollars so your pay is about $16 of that. You will have 10 or more stops and could be over an hour out from the home location. If something goes wrong with your vehicle, you are on your own as they don't like to spare someone to drive out and help. Management expects the truck to be empty by the time you get back and if it is not then you will be given extra stops. There are no benefits whatsoever and the majority of drivers are let go not long after labor day. They will make it sound like you will make $300 a day working 8 hours just filling ice boxes but you will not. You will make bare minimum, work long hours far from home, and have rude customers either make you do extra work like fill an ice chest that their employees should fill, empty an ice chest after its filled because they just so happened to forget to tell you not to fill it, or give you some story and not pay for the ice which means you do not get paid.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Route driver 252 salaries reported	$22.27 per hour
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Delivery driver 107 salaries reported	$21.41 per hour
Local driver 144 salaries reported	$22.94 per hour
Truck driver 100 salaries reported	$23.67 per hour

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