local driver

mail carrier

technician

Red Classic Transit

From their planning department that can’t seem to put together a completable run which results in loss of miles until it gets to the driver there is a complete and near total lack of communication, which in turn quickly becomes disorganization, in my nearly 21 years in the industry 16 as a driver I have never seen such a cavalier take on the day to day running of a company.. the one pro I thought at first was the relaxed atmosphere however it quickly became one of the biggest cons. What you don’t get paid for- You don’t get paid for actual miles, it’s to the nearest zip. You don’t get a loadout fee to cover the time it takes to do your pre trip and fuel, if you can even fuel at some of their locations the pumps are constantly not working. You don’t get a stop fee to cover your stops how ever you will be paid for down time waiting at said stops just not what they tell you you’ll get paid. They say their hourly wage is 21.00 for down time at stops but they do not pay you for the first half hour of every stop so if your at a stop for 2hrs they only pay you for an hour and a half, the math equals out to just shy of 16 per hour for the first 2 hrs and just about maxes out at 19 and change after 5 hours and trust me there are a lot of 5 hr waits on average I was not being paid for roughly 2.5 hrs a day at their stated 21.00 per hr that’s nearly a 1000 dollars a month. You don’t get paid for sitting in traffic or if your stuck in backed up traffic do to an accident and they won’t pay the tolls to avoid traffic. The benefits at face value seem good until you realize that when you need to go to the doctors it pays next to nothing. Time off with family isn’t going to happen either as they work every holiday even though 98 percent of the places they go are closed. Red rule number 1 is safety however most of the rules they apply create more of a hazard on the road than they prevent. But that should come as no surprise since their safety manager has never possessed a cdl which he openly admits to. They say they appreciate you and that they are family oriented but it’s not true. My car broke down and unfortunately the part it needed had to be ordered which was going to take a week I called and explained the situation and asked if I could use my vacation to cover the loss I was told it was fine. 3 days later the same manager called and fired me saying I violated attendance policy... in the end I will say I was already looking for other employment do to the list of other issues this company has. Do yourself a favor and avoid working for red classic.

Pretty much everything is bad with this company. Extremely poor communication. They don't tell their employees anything until the last minute. Figure why every yearly survey they do says communication is the thing they need to work on most. Recently the cut out making commission for sales so almost everyone in sales quit. Who wants to work for less money and no incentive? Pretty much every other company in Charlotte pays a commission to their sales team as it provides incentive for them to work harder and make money. Not here, they believe in you making less money each year. So dont apply for any sales position at this place unless you dont want to make any money. This also has an effect on their brokerage department as they dont have any new customers or cant get any now for them to make money. So brokerage will probably have their commissions cut too. This company is all about seeing how little money they can pay their employees and get away with it. You would think a mass exodus of a department would be a wake up call but nope. The people in charge now no pretty much nothing about transportation so the company felt as it is going backwards rather than growing. They say that most people like it here but their yearly surveys tell a different story. Again terrible communication, dont listen to their employees suggestions, no room for advancement/promotions unless you are in with the little inner circle, pay cuts, same jobs done but vastly different pay, add more to your work load but dont add any pay. I dont know what else i can add to keep you from working here. Pay here is also a joke, not up with industry standards and definitely not up to date with many other companies in Charlotte. No wonder they have high turnover especially in the past year. Everyone has seen the writing on the wall.

This company preaches safety and the motto is even “Safety Comes First” which is so far off. They except you to know things without any training and then punish you when you do something wrong that you weren’t trained on. They blame everything on the drivers. Pay a joke of a “safety componanent” pay every quarter. The problem here is if you hiccup or get a warning ticket for something with equipment you lose upwards of $1500 when it wasn’t your fault. People damage equipment but won’t say anything because they don’t want to lose this pay. If you paid your drivers more and dropped this joke you might see better results from your drivers. Pays zip code to zip code regardless so miles aren’t accurate 8 out of 10 times. Has a “safety meeting” monthly which is really a whine and complain meeting where the drivers all voice their opinions mostly about pay and nothing happens with any of it. The safety issues that are brought to managements attention are not addressed. If you look around there is a reason why there are always so many ads for this company hiring drivers. Slowing becoming a joke in the industry and becoming known to be like the big “S” five letter word company. And forget planning anything while employed here because next thing you know your 4th or 5th day into the work week you find out yet again you will be working a 6th.

I made a mistake by coming to this company, thinking that the grass was greener, when it clearly is not. Before I applied they had on their website that you'll average 1,200/wkly. Thats gross of course. Now it says 1,000/wkly. And truthfully its not even that much weekly with the shortage of miles going on. Soon as I'm hired on, they all of a sudden lose customers that loads were delivered to, the routes I was constantly promised I would do for my schedule hasn't happened like they claim. The money is horrible. I went from making 65K to being on pace to making 35K with this company. Horrible mistake on my part. Management changes happened right before I was hired on and that hasn't been the best thing to deal with.  I would not recommend this job to my worst enemy. If you want to make some real money in trucking, do not come here. Only positive thing was my flexible scheduling. And their equipment was serviced daily and kept up to par for the most part. Some of the older drivers were looking to leave because it has gotten so bad with the miles. EVERY WEEK THERE IS GOING TO BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR CHECK. EITHER THEY SHORT CHANGE YOU OR THEY CLAIM YOU DIDN'T CLOSE OUT A LOAD THROUGH THEIR WORKFLOW SYSTEM AND YOU HAVE TO WAIT A WEEK IN ORDER TO BE PAID OUT FOR THAT LOAD. Since coming over I have been living check to check even with working an extra day. Bonuses are not what they claim. They "had" potential to be a great company. But I can't see it improving anytime soon.

Dispatcher in this company are the rudest I ever seen in my 20+ driving career , they never drove a truck , they don’t know what is hour of service ( red classic ) train them on hour of service, and tell them to show little respect to driver . 
They advertise 1200-1400$ a week LIE .
You will average 600/800$ a week , the night driver all drop and hook and the best they average 1100$ a week .
Day driver too many live load ( paid 21$) after an hour , lots of these places will take 45 min , you don’t get paid for drop and hook trailer , you not gonna get paid if you stuck in traffic .
I worked 12 hours for 120$ (Really ) . 
12 hours shift half of it stuck in traffic and looking for empty and drop and hook and you not gonna get pay .

First week class ???? You waste my week on safety and I have 20 years safe driving record For what ???? You won’t hire me if am not safe in the first place .
Second week with a trainer ( your first 2 week will be 1000$) 
They don’t wanna you to scale heavy load and they will pay the fine but they won’t tell you , that’s gonna effect your CSA score and your pDS( Don’t ever work for a  company refuse to scale heavy loads ) it’s your CDL and red classic won’t care when you leave but will effect you for some high safety good pay company .
Good equipment , Mack auto shift 
Good trainer in the truck

Red Classic is loosing money and cutting the drivers benefits. People are leaving out of anger and frustration. At one location they are at 40% operating capacity. The money is funny and you need to closely watch your own income. Some vendors, refuse to do road service unless they are paid in advance. The scale house has detained drivers and trucks because fines were not paid. They tell you your paid for all trailer sweeps, however you only get paid for 3 per week. It’s not uncommon to do 9 drop and hooks which they do not pay for. The company has great benefits, but lately they have cut some of them. They give you PTO days and sick days if they allow you to use them. The Roanoke manager is very, very punitive and devious. The trucks; it is extremely frustrating trying to drive them in heavy traffic with all the sensors monitoring your driving. God forbid if you have an event. You will get wrote up and you will spend an entire day with a trainer in the truck while you drive, no exceptions. If your slip seat driver gets back late, you start late. If your load is late you start or work late. That’s understandable, however no one will tell you your slip seat driver or load is running late. As a driver you will have no support, none, zero. If you have a problem your on your own because no one cares. You are home everyday if nothing happens.

They promise you top notch equipment.  You get old worn out trucks.  They use 10 year old Rand McNally electronic log.  It is so outdated.  It never works properly and most nights only half my work comes through on electronic log.     It does not even recognize 485 in Charlotte.  It thinks you are driving through fields.  Finding your trailers you have to walk multiple lots in each location looking for your loads.  They have no tracking system for location of trailers. Pay - they promise $1200 to 1500 gross per week.  They dont give you the miles.  Average net pay has been $600  FOR 5 DAYS 12 HOURS  PER DAY.  We have 1 good dispatch manager.  She does a good job with drivers.  The other dispatch manger.  He is horrible.  First week,  I finished work on Saturday night dispatch employee reaked of alcohol and was very clearly intoxicated.  On another occasion finished shift dispatcher was high and very glassed eyed.  These dispatchers were no help to drivers.  It takes forever to get them on the telephone.  You might interup them watching their ball games or tv shows.  Instead of printouts for my work for the night, I get handwritten,  chicken scratch road map like correction sheets.  Bottom line - This is a bottling company trying to be freight company.

Ups: * Trip sheets are easy to read and straight forward. * Time off requests are straight forward and often approved (for me anyway, I have heard stories from other drivers with issues in this area) * Equipment is newer and maintenance shop is friendly and will get you rolling quickly.

Downs: * They will not tell you where you are going until you are in the truck (even though they know), so trip planning or checking the weather for where you are going is out. * They "assign" trucks using a two shift system. So if something happens to the day driver, or someone takes your truck, the Manager who just got his GED will be the one who turns the process of getting a different truck into a two hour event. (at the other locations it is first come, first serve - just take a truck). Think of a dictatorship and you get the picture. * This could be an up if you are wanting the hours, but for me, 12 hours is enough, they will use and abuse your entire 14 frequently...factor in drive time to and from work and you could be looking at a 16 hour day... * Loads that are assigned to you can be taken off you by a dispatcher leaving you stranded in Charlotte looking for something to take you home until your 11 or 14 forces them to let you take an empty

Red Classic is a subsidiary of Coca Cola bottling consolidated. That said the personnel at the Coca Cola facilities treat you like you are not an employee of the Coca Cola company. They treat you like an outside carrier. For instance when you arrive at the branches to deliver they won't let you inside to use the restroom. Management in Charlotte for RCT are very nice. It is a very easy job. You hook up your loaded trailer at the production facilities, or once in a blue moon double trailer sets, and deliver to the branches. It is all drop and hook with only live loading on a backhaul. It is pay by the mile system, and you are paid very little for actually waiting to get loaded. It is a slip seat operation so you may find yourself waiting for a truck and not getting to start on time. You will usually gross around $900 to $1,000 a week. Benefits when I worked there were pretty good and mostly affordable for family coverage. They were undergoing a lot of changes when I was there and some days we were called to sit at home. They want to be a common carrier and run like other companies (e.g. G&P trucking) They were bringing sleeper cabs on board and I wanted no part of it so I left.

So I had the phone interview which went well. For the inside sales position.  Then I was invited for the on site interview.  All of the interviewers are Caucasian males and there is something that is disingenuous about the Vice President which interviews you second. Your supposed to be interviewed by 4 people two at a time during the onsite interview.  The last interview is with the VP and some other guy.  The VP doesn’t really try to get to know you and doesn’t seem down to earth. Anyway after 3 emails from HR prolonging the process about them still interviewing I was finally sent an email saying I was not selected which was fine. The pay is poor for the job description and the environment seemed liked they had a “type” they like to hire. I ended up getting a position paying $10k more per year than what they offer. I also read a review on Glassdoor that they have delayed commission checks and that review was as recent as a few months ago.  So apply at your own risk!

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Local driver 5 salaries reported	$1,240 per week
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Technician 1 salary reported	$27.75 per hour

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