truck driver

diesel technician

diesel mechanic

trailer technician

trailer mechanic

Koch Trucking

This company has a good hiring process as they will fly you to one of their locations that does orientations and then fly you to the truck you’ll be put in. I was impressed with this overall. 

However, the experience that comes next for many drivers will differ depending on the account that their put on. I had my choice between Cummins flatbed and one of the accounts in the Marine division and I ended up getting assigned to the Manatou account out of Lansing, MI since I also live there. I really regret not going with Cummins because the miles provided are extremely inconsistent each week. Thankfully the account has a weekly 800 dollar minimum pay guarantee or else I would not even be making that sometimes. 

From what I have seen, there are four issues that contribute to the pay issues. 1. Pay cut offs each week are on Fridays at 5pm rather than Sundays. 2. Boat dealerships do not accept deliveries on Weekends, and some of them are worse and only take deliveries between Tuesdays and Thursdays. 3. There are constant hiccups, such as workers not showing up or poor communications between the different departments within the company, causing loads not to be ready in a timely manner at Manatou itself. And finally, 4. they over hire drivers so that their loads don’t have to wait for a driver to get back from a run, since they apparently send out that invoice for payment as soon as a load is picked up by a driver.

I did not get into trucking for a 800 dollar gross paycheck. It’s just not worth it for me. I will be trying to switch to another account before I walk away, so I’ll see how it goes. So far I am having a very hard time getting a hold of someone within the company who can help make that happen. This is my experience with Koch as a company so far. 

My review is based on my experience for the dedicated best buy account in Bloomington and doesnt reflect on the company as a whole. I'll start by saying equipment was top notch. I started with a 2021 Volvo and within six months I waa driving a 2023 International. They even gave me the option to choose whether I wanted a volvo or international. The trailers were well maintained and if there were any issues you could tag them for repair and leave them in a dedicated repair location. As for the terminals, the one in Bloomington is very large and spacious. Although the one in Minneapolis was absolutely garbage. Trucks are packed in like sardines and good luck finding a spot if you get there in the evening. Staff were respectful and laid back from my experience and always answered my questions but I will say it was difficult to reach specific individuals if you didnt have their extensions. However the biggest down side was not getting the promised miles on my dedicated account (M-F).  I took this job to be home a little more, not all the time. I often found myself home throughout the week. At times I wouldn't even break 1k miles in a week. Just an fyi loads were distributed to drivers on a daily basis on my account so fleet managers would handpick which drivers got the better loads in the AM.  I understand they tried to make it fair but it just didn't work out that way. Mostly because seasoned drivers who had been there for longer got the better loads more frequently (not all the time) Pay looked good on paper but miles vary based on the time of year. Freight moves fluidly around the end of the year because of the holidays but once January comes around its super slow because Best Buy isn't moving as much product. Overall I wouldn't recommend the Best Buy account to anyone. The pay was atrocious 

What is the best part of working at the company?
My two direct coworkers . Department management was toxic.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?

The department management was not supportive and always carried a threatening tone. I’ve worked for other companies throughout my life, and this claims department at this business is one I would never recommend a person to apply to or work for. I was never able to apply the skill that I was hired for and always was second-guess all the time. My time at this company was a professional mistake. I hope they never make again. After the time I work there and all the turnover that happened to my department made sense because the people prior to me could not exceed professionally in this environment and had to move on. As did I I went to human resources and explain things, and I was betrayed by them as well, no integrity. I’m not a person that complains and give things a chance and this chance I allowed myself to provide a mistake and I’m better for it moving on. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The company itself I really can’t speak for for the short time. I was there, but the toxic environment within the claims department that I worked under was degrading and every day things never got better just got worse. I saw a coworker brought to tears more than one time and berated for things That this person was never trained for but berated for when they were not as the company wanted .

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Stress from management and I could wait for the day to end

My time here was a mix of learning opportunities and constant challenges, most of which came from the lack of clear leadership and support.

I came in motivated to do my job well and to grow, but often found myself without proper guidance, resources, or fair treatment. When I asked for clarification or tried to improve, communication was inconsistent and sometimes dismissive. Instead of working with employees to build them up, leadership leaned toward pointing out faults and making assumptions, which created unnecessary stress and uncertainty.

Getting let go was disappointing, but not surprising given the pattern I experienced. What I take away from this job is not just the skills I built, but also the clear understanding of what kind of leadership and workplace culture I do not want to be part of in the future. 
Employees deserve fairness, communication, and support—things that were too often missing here.
There is no diversity or unity as a company only within SOME departments. When seeking for help managers tend to have a tone while “helping you” making it difficult to even feel
Comfortable to ask for help and guidance. 

The people who work for Koch Business Solutions are great. The culture is great. Very respectful atmosphere. Very good benefits! 

The management is another issue. They will definitely never forget an error made by the employee. A year later without any other incidents, they'll throw the error you made on your review. The leadership doesn't seem to have the "humility" guiding principle... if you try to stand up and challenge what is right, they'll definitely retaliate (which is against company policy) by either removing responsibilities or changing scheduling, etc.

They seem to horde talent in the same position - the best way to leave the entry level is to stay under the radar and be average.

There is a lot of turnover in the KBS position. I think this should set off a red-flag for someone high up in leadership that there is something wrong going on...

I can say that I haven't been fired, but I was able to leave on my own with having a good annual review. But, the lack of leadership and lack of advancement has caused me to look elsewhere.

All trucks do not come with Refrigerators keep that in mind good lucky getting one to fit inside. The job isn’t hard, you will be helping out unloading the boats, ( not touch freight) lol you will help and you will break down the bar rails that hold the boats in place. The pay is good during the holidays, right after Christmas you will experience no freight for a week or 2, home time is easy to get and holiday off as well, it’s a overall good OTR company. I left because I’m over OTR I wanted to be home. The work on the boat side is consistent until after Christmas than about February i picks back up, if you have to strap the boats it’s 15.00 it will take 3hrs once your good at it to strap 4-5 boats , not 15 an hours just 15 dollars. Not all drivers have to strap the boats just depends on the account you’re on. You do get paid per stop that helps. Low miles 2000-2700 miles tops you will not reach 3000 miles on the boat hauling side. Dispatch is nice management is nice, the day to day work is ok, all loads are preloaded most are pre strapped. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
My truck ran decently.         

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Couldn’t get ahold of dispatch on the weekends. Orientation for dedicated was completely different from actual working conditions. Payroll personal was rude …she’ll get back to you “when it’s convenient “ for her (direct quote from her voicemail). They assume every driver is out to steal from the company. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Not driver friendly or even driver courteous. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Get load assignment. Spend an hour trying to figure out where the customer is and how to get there. Decide if you want the frustrations of trying to get ahold of dispatch or trying to get a straight answer from them. Decide if the truck issues are something you can deal with until you return to the yard or if you want to fight with them to get it fixed on the road.

What is the best part of working at the company?
They fired me because they could not get the miles and lied when I started they would keep me out for six to eight weeks and they told me when I started that they would only have me out for two to four weeks

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The dispatchers are morons, they could not even dispatch the jobs on time let alone talk to you on the phone they only talk to you on there useless app that took 20 min. To send and then another to recieve

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very clickish, if one dispatcher starts to not like you they all gang up on you and treat you like trash

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Stressful I wanted to give you jobs or make you wait a week or you know barely ever saw your family it's just really annoying the job suck ed

Terrible management. Both driver manager and dispatchers operate on a intimidating threatening relationship with driver. Dispatchers and road services always say they never got your qualcom messages and your BOL's so they can delay part or all of your pay for another week or two. Driver manager, payrol and dispatchers all give driver previously used Detention approval authorization codes on purpose causing further Pay check delays or no detention pay at all. I was given a loaded trailer that was tagged out of service for airline break leak as well as two flat trailer tires. How the hostler could couple to trailer and park it in dock with a Red Tag Out on the glad-hand! Not one hostlers ever got reprimanded for doing this as it happened quite a bit.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working on club car account , I can definitely say one of the best job I had so far. Driver manager are great and understanding of you needs. Best thing is you can run as much you want and home time is alway available as long you give 10 days out to set schedule.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Is not much stress is sometimes the load are schedule with sometimes no time to prepare for delivery. In part everything is great meet great customer and people from different states.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very friendly and driver get along. Alway find a driver willing to help.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
First plan route the call and set up appointments with customer for parking and delivery, then set out for your run.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 1085 salaries reported	$88,074 per year
Diesel technician 23 salaries reported	$1,340 per week
Diesel mechanic 2 salaries reported	$35.51 per hour
Trailer technician 10 salaries reported	$1,412 per week
Trailer mechanic 4 salaries reported	$25.00 per hour

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