transport driver

truck driver

driver

crew member

Professional Transportation, Inc.

This company pretends to actually care about the employees when all it cares about is the money we make for them and if you're on time so they don't have to pay fines to the railroad. First off, they so much as lie about the pay and what you COULD make for 40 hours of which you will never see unless you work 24/7. First off I will say my manager was great and according to other drivers, the best they had had in the past 8 years. They got rid of her but she won't talk about it,  She did say she had been with the company many years. It's been over 2 months and they still don't have anyone to replace her and good luck with that since nobody wants that job and when they do find someone, they won't stay long or they will get rid of them as well. One of the long time drivers said she was the best manager they had ever had. She was on call 24/7 with no assistant and if she wanted a vacation, she had to take her work with her. She was fair and always had our backs and helped any way she could...it was their loss...
The benefits...  You pay for insurance then turn around and go to the Dr and have to pay the bill in full then turn around and submit it to the insurance company and pray they will give you some of it back, if any and it takes forever for that.  they were supposed to give raises and was taken to Federal Court to get that by the union. .Upper management gets the good insurance.  And raises are a laughable matter.  They can't even pay a livable wage much less give you a raise and if you stay long enough to get one, it's only a few cents...not really worth having at all.
Pay raises are laughable as they basically don't exist except every year on your anniversary date--if you last that long.  The turn over is unbelievable. Once a new driver gets the 1st or 2nd check, they just don't show up anymore cause it's not worth their time.  You work a 12 hour shift and you're on call not getting paid.  If you get 1 run during that time and come 30 mins before you're scheduled to get off and something comes in, dispatch will call you and pressure you to take the run saying you have the hours of service even though it will through you getting back 6 hours later or more but they expect you to be back on schedule the next day. If you say no, they will put you on hold and get your manager on the phone with you. She knew how they were and she tried not to push us to take it.  There were quite a few of us that would do it if she asked because we had her back and she had ours anytime we needed something. She understood as she had been a driver a long time before she became manager. 
The safety department is a joke or I should say the "field officer". No matter what you do or say, she is always going to be right and you're wrong, no matter what. She is just trying to keep her job as she is expandable like everyone else here. She will have an answer for everything and you're always wrong!!. Some people are written up for the very same things other people get by with. One of our driver friends, his daughter died unexpectedly and she emailed corporate and asked to have a flower sent from PTI and the drivers and they told her that only upper management got flowers for deaths!!!  She took up money from all of us that wanted to give and went on her own time and bought a flower and a card for us to sign.  Then a dedicated driver that always went above and beyond, came home from a run to find her husband dead and they wouldn't send a flower then so she took up money and bought a card from just all of us and went to the wake and gave it to her. This is what they company thinks about all of us.  There were a few of us that left when they got rid of her as we couldn't see working for a company like this and the only reason we stayed is because of her.  The Train-masters, Yardmasters, Road Foreman's and the crews know how PTI is and the company is basically a joke. They say the vans are a disaster and accidents waiting to happen and they would rather take an Uber if they could. They never want to fix anything like it should be half the time but just enough to get by and then it takes forever for them to give the ok to get it done.  I'm glad I left and 2 of us got a job with FedEx delivery, 2 went to Amazon delivery and 1 went to driving after getting his CDL..  Amazon and FedEx pay between 110 and 150 a day and have benefits worth paying for and they actually appreciate you.  The competitors of PTI, pay better and the benefits are better too. Before you put an application in here at this company, read all the reviews--we can't all be wrong.  The only decent ones are those in upper management or those who still work there since they can't afford to say anything bad or risk losing their jobs too. If you can pay your bills on minimum wage, work (or stay on the board 24/7) and don't care how you're treated, then this is the job for you!!!  This company is going downhill fast and it wouldn't surprise me if in the next 3 to 5 years it goes under due to bad management and low pay. The employee turnover is unreal!!  That's why they are always on these job sites trying to hire drivers cause they don't want to pay.  They want us to act like "professionals"--then pay us what we're worth. Fast food places pay more than this company does and they know it but don't care.  They want to get warm bodies in the seats and basically want retired people, veterans, or people with no families. Every employee is expendable to them and if you don't fall in line, then they will get rid of you. I bet when the railroad goes to 1 man crews or computerized trains, then PTI is done for.  They're already closing branches and consolidating branches.  The only time you will see anyone at the corporate level coming out of the office is when the RR is mad about the service and they go and try and smooth things over.  If everyone in the corporate office had to come work as drivers, get driver's pay and have to pay the for the "benefits" we have, and drive the vehicles we do for 6 months, including the owner, then things would change I bet. Until then, there's too many chiefs and not enough Indians in this company. Trust me, the rules change from day to day with all the useless memo's they send down the line for the manager's to send out for us to see.  Nobody reads these things cause they're here to try and make a few dollars.  You want us to care, then pay the drivers like you care...  Run the other way if you ever considered putting in an application..


I had the experience of working for PTI as a driver roughly six months.To begin with let me explain the job.
As a PTI driver your basic job is toi transport railroad crews (Conductor and Engineer) to and from their trains. Their pick up locations can be a rail yard, or a local hotel. If your picking up an inbound crew it can be at the railyard, rock quarry, several Industrail type campuses where the Industry requires a rail line or a sideing. What is a sideing you ask?? Its a part of the rail line that comes off the main line and can be located five miles in the woods, next to narrow ravines,and other fun to drive locations!! See if there is no room in a railyard, OR the crew is running out of working hours and the railroad DOES NOT like to pay over time, they will stop a train on a sideing and leave it there.
As a driver you are on call for a 12hour shift. This requires that you can be at the van within 30 mins(they say) of getting the call. Since most ppl cannot stay at home and then reach a van in 30 mins they go to the PTI loctioin (Sandston VA in my case) and you sit...in the van for hours waiting for a call. You are NOT paid for your waiting time. You are not paid until you get a run. If it is a local run (local means anything withn "72" miles from starting location) you will recive 14.95 for that entire run. If you have to wait for the crew you will not be paid wait time until you waited 120mins!! Most wait times last between 20-80 mins. THese runs will burn up around 2 - 3 hours of your shift time in which you will have made 14.94 (before taxes).
If you get an over the road run, they pay .15 a mile, far below any other over the road driveing job. Over the road can take you as far as 350 miles. I drove frove Richmond Va to Spartanburg SC, Baltimore MD, and out to Clifton Forge Va. Once you drop the crew you are expected to turn around and come back. You can stop to rest and I was never diciplined for stopping for 20mins or so on a return trip.
These runs are not guaranteeded. you may have 2 weeks of NOTHING but local runs. the highest check I ever recieved from PTI was for roughly 400.00 and that was only once. THe average check for 2 weeks is around 375.00. If you are fortunate to get called to do a yrad assist, this means you will be driving around a rail yard for an 8-12 hr shift. You will be paid by the hour....7,25. These dont happen often as PTI in RIchmond already has drivers assigned to the yard, plus most yards have what are called clerks that work for the railraod..they are working for 20.00 an hour and are Union members. Dont even think about applying for those jobs. They are absolute cake, and theres a waiting list. They usually gp to railroad employee family members.
Some fun factoids,...the mini-vans you drive are not made to drive in many of the locations you have to drive them. It is common to sit for an entire nine hours with no run than be asked to take a six hour run,,,thats Loooong after its safe if you hadnt realized.( I NEVER took one of these NEVER DRIVE UNSAFE!!.).
.The vans usually have over 100,000 miles on the them and can handle very poorly on the open highway.
You will be amazed as you watch 60-70 year olds climb behind the wheel and set out to haul crews hundreds of miles, and then be expected to keep a straight face while the compnay FSO talk about their dedication to safty. I went to the compnay with a Class A CDL, and experience and time driving the lower 48 of the US. AND A CLEAN RECORD!!..I also have about 14 years experience in the military, 10 of which come the Marines. But PTI doesnt care. they have no problem with the fact that cant keep good drivers. Anyone with license can get hired.
Its a great job, and impotant job, and the worst company I ever worked for. I left the first chance I got and now work for an excellent compnay...unfortunately not driving.

I joined this company because I love to drive.  I thought this would be a great way to be able to drive around without having to pay for gas and still be able to pay the bills.  I hired on the end of March and started my safety training the beginning of April.  Safety training is watching a 5 hour video that is horribly made repeating the same information over and over and over for the entire 5 hours.  Once through that I waited for a couple days to get a call about driving training.  Turned out that the driving training was 8 1/2 hour day just driving with another driver taking notes on where all the stops were on a roughly 200 mile trip with no breaks.  Then 2 days later I was called in to do training on their computer for only 4 hours.  In that time I had to learn how to work their computer and learn how to do all the paperwork plus the vehicle inspection.  Got through all that and was on the "board" the next night for my first run.  

After that in the month of April I received 10 phone calls that resulted in only 3 completed runs and 1 partial "busted" run.  I was lead to believe that I would get much more work than that.  

The van I had needed new windshield wipers + fluid and it took having to find another van for me to use "that wasn't in any better condition" for a run to get them to fix that problem.  They never did put any windshield washer fluid in it.  Otherwise, the van I drove was in pretty good shape and did pretty good on fuel.  

One trip they sent me to Seattle Wa.  Their computer took me there, they said to go there, then when I got there nobody was there.  I called in and they said "didn't you look at your special instructions".  I looked and it said I was in the wrong area.  They specifically told me to follow my gps and it would take me where I need to go before I took the trip.  Unfortunately, I was supposed to be in Hinkle Or.  At that time I didn't even know where "Hinkle" was (special instructions only stated "needed in Hinkle not Seattle then some random train info nothing else).   They busted my trip and sent me home.

I finally couldn't take it anymore and put in my 2 weeks notice.  After that I only got about 3 more calls.  One I missed then the other 2 because they had my van.  I got a call, took it, rushed in *half hour drive* to get my van and rush off only to find I had no van.  When I called in to find out what was going on they found my van almost an hour away.  They initially wanted me to waste my gas and time to go get it but since it was to far to be able to make the original trip they sent me home.  I wasted 2 hours of my time for nothing.  Then when I got home and walked in my door they called me about the same trip again.  I had to call in and remove myself from the board to keep them from calling anymore.  I called in the next night and got another call but again the van was gone.  Next 2 nights I checked and each day the van wasn't there so I was unable to even go on the "board".  

Worst part of all this is having to call Indiana long distance each time I had to go on/off the board, talk to dispatch, check my status, etc with no compensation what so ever.  Thankfully I kept the calls as short as I could *about 1 minute each time unless it was to dispatch* and only have an extra $35 in long distance this month *already have 1/2 hour free*.  

The last trip I did with them was from Centralia to Portland and for that I only got $36.  Total pay for the month (net) $230 for the entire month.  Just paid for my fuel to drive in and the phone bill.

I would NOT recommend this company to anyone.  Just not worth the hassle.

First off, I have no complaints with my direct manager. Secondly, I don't mind driving long hours. 

My complaints are mostly pay related: most of our pay is figured by the mile-- whether the speed limit is 55 or 75 and no allowance is made for driving slow due to adverse road conditions. We are supposed to be paid wait time, but that is calculated on "need" time. For example we are supposed to be at the "origin" at a specified time. If the origin is at the local yard it's not hard to judge how long it will take to arrive, But if the origin is out of town you must make sure you leave home early enough to be there by "need" time, so if you arrive early, which we are encouraged to do, our wait time does not start until specified time. 

When I have been asked to work temporarily out of town I have been promised a per diem plus a guaranteed minimum per day and driving time to and from assigned town But then I always have to fight to get paid these amounts and the way the pay stubs are formatted it is difficult to decipher what you have been paid for or not.

The company does not have an employee site (at least not for the drivers) so that we can get answers to questions, updates on policy or company news or anything else. They like to keep us in the dark. 

We must use an onboard GPS tracking unit, but if you enter anything wrong there is no way to back up and correct it. At the end of each trip you are given the amount of wait time in minutes, but on the paystub it is given in hours so it is hard to doublecheck. If for some reason you need to call in your trip you are at the mercy of being on hold, which in my case is often 15 to 30 minutes before you can report the trip and that wait time is not added to your time.

You are expected to do a complete and comprehensive pre-trip check, but you do not get paid for it and at the end of each trip you are expected to fill the gas tank, but you are not paid for that time either.

I am very conscientious about not speeding, but I have been suspended because of speeding when I was driving according to the GPS. Yet when I mentioned to my temporary supervisor (while working in Minnesota) that I was being paid the same amount per mile as I was in Montana (55 mph vs. 70 mph) I was told it was okay to go 60 mph. I told him that I obeyed the posted speed limit. I also have been rebuked for not having my seatbelt on when I was just moving the vehicle in the parking lot because the camera came on and "caught" me.
 
When you are on the board to take trips you do not have any idea when you will get a trip-- 24 hours a day or how long you will be working. You are assigned by robo call which only gives you the origin, destination and need time. You don't have a clue as to how long your trip will last because many times you will end up needing to assist the train crew and possibly driving to several locations. These trips can be as short as an hour or more than 12 hours. 

We are not supposed to drive more than 10 hours in any 14 hour period, but it is hard to judge how much time any trip will take. I have taken crews 275 miles one-way and my longest day was 800 miles.

To sum it all up, PTI is a great place to work if you don't mind not getting paid for all your time, being kept in the dark, and not being able to plan ahead-- unless you take yourself off the board.


This is the most backward company I have EVER worked for! You are treated as a bottom feeder by everyone but co-workers. Supervisor is great but they have her spread way too thin. I don't know how she is expected to have a life either! They have us text her at all hours of the day or night to tell her when we go on the board. You run 12 hour shifts that you are supposed to be "available" for and you will wait all day for a trip (you only get paid if you are on a trip) and they call you to take a 3-4 hr run just before your 12 hour shift is up. Many drivers take it because they have waited all day and have no pay for it, but This means you have technically worked for 15 or 16 hours. It always makes me laugh when I hear them say they want you to be safe and well rested because you have peoples' lives in your hands. Yeah, PTI tell me another story! When you ask the manager about that they say something along the lines of "Well, how long have you driven today? You know you CAN drive up to 10 straight hours legally." The philosophy behind it is you can "Do whatever you want when not driving. Sleep, shop, your time is your time" My standpoint is yes, but what can I really do if I am supposed to be "available" to answer the phone at anytime. Sorry to say some people can't just sleep whenever they have a spare moment. 
Not to mention that I have never seen a company that is so disorganized in all my life!!! You get called for a trip that is to start in 15 minutes and you tell the dispatch when you can be there so you scoot as fast as you can because you know that the crew is waiting for you and when you arrive, some other driver has already grabbed your crew. Now, the fun begins because now you have to wait on your cell phone (using your minutes that they do not reimburse you for) to ask them to bust your trip. (busted trips pay you two (2) hours) You wait and you wait on hold with dispatch for 20 minutes or more and there is no limit to how long you will wait. They have to talk with the railroad to make sure before busting you out. Ok I get that, but if it takes you longer than two (2) hours PTI expects you to wait for FREE!! Sorry! I don't work for free and the last time I checked that is not only slavery but it is illegal! I will be contacting the labor board about this too. But I digress, they know all the issues yet they do nothing to make it better. I can't see why BNSF doesn't shop around. There are way better contract driving companies out there!!! Ones that treat their employees well!
I don't trust this company! Keep documentation of EVERYTHING you do! This is not only frustrating but it is sad because they have no regard for loosing a good employee. That is why there is such high turn over. That and the pay. There is no way a person can make a living at this job. You end up working (or what they call being available) 12 hours, work 15 or 16 and may only get $40.

This job is an as needed on call position.  Employees are scheduled a 12 hour shift, in which they must be ready and available to take any trips that they are called to do, with very little notice.

During these 12 hours, you are only paid if you are actually on a trip, not while you are waiting for a call.  They will pay you a slightly above minimum wage rate for what they call "wait time", which is the time you wait for the crew members to actually get into the vehicle, and out of the vehicle once at your destination.  Secondly, once you begin your journey, your wait time stops, you no longer make any hourly rate, and you will start earning mileage, which is a very low cent per mile rate.

When hired, they will tell you they "average" about $10 per hour.  This is false.  This is only if you work your tail off.

There is no leniency when it comes to personal time, or sick time when you are a new employee.  That is why the company is ALWAYS hiring.

During your trips, you are monitored by an onboard camera system that is attached to the braking system, and will record your actions if you brake too hard.  Meaning, if you break to avoid an accident, you will be recorded and frowned upon.  This system also monitors several other actions the drivers make, and if that isn't enough, the crew members that you are responsible for will take it upon themselves to record you on their phones whenever they feel like it.

Other employees will often try and find out where you are going or what happened on your trips, only to inform management of any wrongdoings they think you might have committed.  Do not count on management to be available to you if you have questions or concerns, because they are rarely at the location.  They often times take several hours to respond back to phone calls or text messages and that is if they respond to you at all.

Upper management is of no help either.  The moment a complaint is sent, they will send your manager an email, and you will then be bombarded with harassing and negative responses.  

There is an option for employees to join a union, which is helpful in many situations, and if you do decide to work for this company I recommend that you join the union as soon as possible.

The company also offers a minimum coverage health package.  When you review the information, it skims over what is covered and what is not, but gives very little detail.  For the rate of pay you are receiving, the premium is quite high in my opinion, of over $30 a month for a single person, that's not including any deductibles, office visits, or prescriptions.

All in all, I would really weigh my options, and decide how desperate I am for a paycheck before working for this company at this location before accepting a position as anything less than management.

PTI does not care about the people they hire. They go through more people then I do underwear. The pay is horrible! (IF YOU EVEN GET PAID!) You will run yourself ragged, go without sleep and are expected to be on call for 12 hrs. They will even call you on your days off, at times your not scheduled to work, and just because you work 12 hours (on call for 12 because you aren't always working) they expect you to take long runs which will not put you home until late at night and you are still expected to get back on board at your normal time regardless of how much sleep you get. Management is not good either. They hire people as managers who never come around, never have the resources to help the employees, and these  managers should not even be in a manager position!! You will be disrespected, cussed at and degraded. If you have children or a family- don't do it. 

You will not get paid, will be required to do job duties that you will not get paid for, will have to fight tooth and nail to get what you worked for. The vans are not up to standards and are unsafe-bad brakes, rotors, transmissions and many others. PTI does not care about their employees- all they want is puppets on strings to obey their orders and don't care about your safety or well-being. Sometimes you will go days without work and no pay. You are not given hardly any training, not told about job duties or rules of the job until after you make the mistake! You will need a cell phone at all times with unlimited minutes because they will make you use your personal phone and will not be reimbursed for the minutes you use for company business. You are also suppose to have a passenger permit in order to haul the people you pick up and by law are required to have this. If you get pulled over without this permit, you will be fined a hefty price!! 

You only get paid through a GPS System (no time cards or paper logs) so if the GPS locks up, losses signal or does not work correctly; any time you did work will be lost and you will not get paid.

You will be lied to and lied about! You will need a personal car and most times will be in and out of the locations using your own car unless you want to wait around all day for nothing. You only get paid when the PTI van wheels are turning and nothing else. Even then you have to still have to fight for that. Dispatch will try to get you into trouble, your blamed right away if anything goes wrong, if you hit a deer you will be in trouble because PTI says all deer accidents CAN be avoided. If you are brave enough (or crazy enough) to take a job with these slave drivers...KEEP RECORD OF EVERYTHING YOU DO!!!


Seriously reconsider about applying with these people!!

Working with the railroaders was awesome; I made several good friends with whom I still keep in touch, and learning about the rail industry was so interesting. I loved the job and would've kept it if I had been able to support myself on their wages. PTI (and the other two rail transport companies, from what I hear) pays incredibly low wages, we're talking barely above minimum wage for the first year. I'm not married, have no kids, no drug/gambling habits, etc. and I literally had to work at least 80 hours a week to cover *most* of my monthly expenses. I had to get a roommate to make ends meet and I lived in Pocatello, Idaho; it's not like I was in some swanky place with a high cost of living.

PTI treats drivers like they're expendable, which is understandable to an extent with the high turnover. People don't keep the job long because they can't stand being on call for 8 or more hours before being assigned a run, and when PTI is short-staffed (and they're *always* short-staffed), you are expected to be back on-call after only 8 hours of rest. When they're busy, that means you only have 8 hours to drive home, shower, eat, grocery shop, etc. *and* sleep before getting called for your next run. 

I think people would be more inclined to stay if the wages were even just a little higher and the benefits were better. The benefits are practically non-existent (health care only, and very expensive for the first year) and you don't even get paid time off until you've been there a year. Paid time off should be tied to the number of hours you work, especially in the first year. Drivers need breaks but can't afford to even take their two days off a week (for the brief couple weeks when there are enough drivers to give people days off). 

PTI doesn't seem to realize that investing in their workforce would save the company money in the long run. But rather than trying to change the culture to a more employee-focused environment, PTI upper management just accepts high turnover as part of the business and are comfortable with it, which is a shame because they lose so many great drivers and end up with drunks and stupid people who wreck the vehicles and cost the company more in the long run.

Everything read in all of the reviews is true. You have to be available during your 12 hour shift and may or may not get a call from dispatch and that time is not compensated. Only the runs you get and that's only mileage and wait time is only during time you were needed. Worked overnights 6pm-6am and had to be available and only got a call or 2 a night. Then got a call for a run that put me over in to the next day to get done at 1pm but still had to be back on by 6pm and not paid for time spent. If you don't take a call you get reported even if you turn down a 5 hour trip 30 minutes before your 12 hour shift is over that would be impossible to make. Then management calls you and lays in to you. Last minute schedule changes. Scheduled Tuesday to Sunday and then tuesday comes and get notice that now schedule will be Wednesday to Sunday effective immediately so my day off was lost last minute. Worked 60 hours scheduled in 5 days and was only paid for 1/3 of that because of runs regardless of on call time. State law says paid for on call time but there is a loophole that since you have the ability to turn down a call then you don't get paid. But turn call down and you can get fored. Had to pull over on way home from long run for hail storm and did not get paid for the hour because it was distance not time. Have to drive 10-15 miles below speed limit but again you get paid for distance not time but get fired if you break this rule. Imagine going 15 miles below speed limit while tired after working 15 hours.... Horrible. Met some great people and fun for most part but you will be shocked by pay and no way to correct it. If you call diaptch and t let them know you arrived, and you are 15 minutes early you will not get paid for that because you weren't needed at destination until certain time.  And you will wait over 2 hours most times. Thought it would be a good way to make some money between jobs but pay is so low you can't catch up and can't schedule interviews around calls and you have to sleep. DO NOT DO THIS unless you can get descent hours round normal sleep schedules and don't need the money.

First off, I am only a part time employee, doing this for a little extra money. I don't depend entirely on PTI for income.

The reviews here are all from over the road (OTR) drivers. Yes, it sucks. The stuff about not getting paid when you're not on a run is true, and I would never do it. I have a yard shift, which means that I mainly transport rail workers within the rail yard or to locations not too far from the yard. As a yard driver, you do get a guaranteed hourly wage. It's not much more than minimum wage so the pay is not great. But it's not like we're digging ditches for our money, and when it's not busy, you're getting paid to just sit in the van, read, listen to the radio, etc...

I have had a few problems with paychecks (personal hours) in the past but corporate did resolve the issue to my satisfaction each time.

If you stick it out there, you are eligible for health insurance, even for part timers, after 90 days. Admittedly, it's not much of a plan to speak of -- it's really a supplemental plan. But how many jobs these days give benefits for a part time job? After a year, you do get paid vacation, which increases the longer you stay there.

I know this isn't the case everywhere, but at my location, you are required to join the union after 90 days. It rubs me the wrong way that the union is in New York state and we have never met a rep from them. But they have been helpful on a couple occasions when we had problems with pay and we did get our money, thanks to them. Also, we do get a small cost of living raise every year in our contract.

As far as management, the branch managers (direct local supervisor) seem to come and go, although, as I understand, their compensation and work requirements have improved recently.

I wouldn't recommend this job for someone to support a family on but it's a not bad if you can get a yard shift and are looking at it to earn extra income.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
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