truck driver

safety supervisor

fleet manager

local driver

retail sales associate

Solar Transport

I work in a 200,000 population city, days, in moderate to heavy traffic. I haul 5 loads per 12 hour day and make $200.  90% loads are single stop loads with multiple products to gas stations with heavy store traffic.  Solar does pay extra for over 1/2 hr loading or 1 hour unloading.  Solar gives discounts for coffee, food, etc at the store but most store clerks don't know how to ring it up correctly.  Solar provides "warm weather" uniforms if it's below 30 you better wear your own stuff but don't get caught.  Solar does pay actual deadhead unlike some other gas haulers.  If you overnight you get $20 diem.  Dispatch tries their best to try to get you to work up to the 14 and get stuck away from home so you can get more $40 loads done the next day.   Insurance is reasonable, tractor and trailer is fine, truck wash doesn't get done much because they pay up to 1 hour (good luck finding no line)  Solar does try to help with pay on weekends and holidays but the base pay is poor.  Weekends might be able to make $240 for 12-14 hour day,during the week never.  Customers drops are rarely marked properly, drivers fault if mistake made.  Rediculous procedure rules and No more 4" drop hoses (who does that?)  Super singles to slow us down in the Winter or rain.
      Plenty of work, the work is hard, the pay is low.  $70,000 is impossible $50,000 if you try hard.  If you are coming from otr or moving up get your 2 years experience with Solar.

As stated in a previous review. "Employee and management culture is cliquish and tribal at best. No real interest in developing a unified team culture at all". Poor communication. Very poor moral. Solar is only focused on the bottom line. Anything more is only a distraction. Employees are not given the proper tools to succeed. How dare you suggest a better more productive way to do something - We know and are smarter than you mentality. Rather than moving the company forward they continue to blame prior management for mistakes and failed processes. No vision whatsoever. Management has created their own little world - Not reality.  Its a toxic working environment.

Work is steady and consistent, but very long hours 12+ hours, 5 days a week.
Compensation is adequate but falling behind the curve for the industry.
Retention is extremely poor, even for this industry.
Employee and management culture is cliquish and tribal at best. No real interest in developing a unified team culture at all. 
Local and upper management lack people skills; they have no idea how to communicate or disseminate information; and they lack even basic change management skills. They tend to hoard information as though it had a security clearance, not to be shared without proper authorization.
This combination creates a fairly toxic working environment.

Solar is a really good company to work for.  They truly care about you and will support you.  I hear people complain all the time and the truth is - it's not for everyone, but you get what you give.  Their flexible when you need a day off for emergencies, plus you have fun..  They promote work place friendliness... Management wants to you speak with your co-workers, make friend, and feel like you're family. Most people that dislike Solar is because they weren't able to beat the system and get a free pay check or they were apart of "that" crowd... Every employer has one... that crowd that just sits and gossips, creating drama, and not doing their jobs... UGH. Go back to high-school. However, Solar is an amazing company and I would recommend them to anyone.

Great company, Solar has great core values but sometimes will bypass them to make a buck “understandable” I guess. Technology and almost all of the people are awesome. I do not have a whole lot of negative things to say but 1 thing they can do better is pay the office staff a little better. It really is hard to see drivers making 60-70 thousand more dollars a year then you. I am very pleased with my time at Solar and if I did not need/want to relocate I would still be there. 

You will not be sorry for working here. Also, this is the best paying company for Hazmat drivers I have ever worked for. And the drivers are treated like gold “like they should be” 



I have worked for Solar over 5 years. When i started i was told by management, coworkers and friends that the company was thriving with plenty of advancement opportunities. After giving it my all day in and day out rarely missing work. I quickly found out that it is not the case and there was no advancement opportunities, you were stuck in the day to day slug where you are not appreciated. Solar Transport has some of the worse equipment in the trucking industry. They are very unreliable and fleet management is not given the equipment to perform the job duties. I would never recommend this job to anyone. Stay away!

Sure there are good and bad things about this job.  You have good days and you have bad days, and so does the dispatcher.  The plain fact of the matter is that I consistently have more good then bad days.  Management listens and tries to accommodate you as a driver.   Mostly steady work.  I can pay all my bills and plan for the future.  What more could I ask?  Management is very understanding and is very fair especially when you make a mistake.  Better then average benefits: health, dental, vision, life, std, ltd, 401k, CC, HSA, FSA etc etc etc

They want you to slow down and take your time. Yet the pay by the load. Probably because then they don't have to pay overtime. They recently told us they would get new trailers every 15 years and tractors every 5. Trailers dump slow and no extra pay for having to move the trucks or connect extra hose. If you get a job in des Moines then the truck are top notch. Probably won't be here much longer. Also they they're no expense on their hundred and sixty Million Dollar corporate building but they expect us to deal with trailers that are 15 years old that are Rundown.

Solar Transport has been very welcoming upon hiring me. The communication has been great among all departments, with the local management and with HR department, whether via email or phone. It's great to know local and corporate departments are available when needed. My daily work load has been very satisfactory and I am very happy with the amount of loads I run. The one thing that I would mention as improvement would be to consolidate the multiple apps needed to run the job. I've expressed that concern to Solar and they said they're aware and working on reducing them.

This is what you can expect ... 12 to 14 hour work days, high pressure to finish constant loads (and always perfectly).  Mistakes and faulty equipment are your fault.  Management and staff will enjoy setting you up for failure.  Your wages will be cheated, accuracy on their part, is not expected like it is for you.  You have no time for lunch or will you be compensated for it, and funny thing, you have to buy lunch from the company store.  This is a billion dollar business, and they will chew you up and spit YOU out!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 35 salaries reported	$109,714 per year
Safety supervisor 12 salaries reported	$75,000 per year
Fleet manager 5 salaries reported	$51,800 per year
Local driver 2 salaries reported	$61,000 per year
Retail sales associate 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour

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