tanker driver

truck driver

diesel mechanic

owner operator driver

mechanic helper

TIDEWATER TRANSIT

Hires recent CDL grads. Local, regional and OTR 1-3 nights away. Get your experience and leave for something more substantial if you can afford to live on the pay in the meanwhile. Pay IS NOT 70k as advertised, made less than half.  No real days off, just days with no work. Day to day existence. Only worked 2-3 days a week mostly got leftover loads in Charlotte as a company driver unless there were enough good loads to share with the 1099 drivers and owner operators the Charlotte dispatcher puts first. Don't expect any support with load information if you don't kinow how to ask the right questions you are on your own. Cowpen's dispatcher is wrong more than half the time and doesn't know what is going on in Charlotte, always double check the information. Cramped mid-roof tractors with no room, storage or inverters, but well maintained. Have to provide your own inverter for your fridge or microwave and maybe even CPAP and the shop is supposed to install it if you get the larger sleeper. Chemical trailers can be pretty beat requiring a good pre-trip. Health insurance is catastrophic care only with high deductibles. Pretends to be a family atmosphere, but can be very impersonal with some rudeness when you have an honest question or are looking for some assistance out of Cowpen's. Bring a thick skin. Glitchy safety training videos are outdated and awful and won't credit you with completion. Videos are painfully time consuming and your not paid anything for the requirement to watch them. Safety head does not return calls. A good starter job if you can live on the low pay. 


I was hired and promised $1K/weekly income.  After being hired and even after training, I have YET to see anything remotely close to that.  I'm lucky to make $500-$650/wk.  I can't survive on this type of income and I don't know of anyone who can.  They said that the work is seasonal and it comes and goes.  I explained that I can't work seasonal and I need a consistent income for which pays the bills.  The job is going to be nowhere remotely close to the $53-56k/yr that HR promised me when I was recruited.  Furthermore, the loads don't pay enough for the work and the driving that you are doing.  You usually get an avg of about $.32-.36 per mile on average but you are paid as 25% of the line haul revenue, which isn't much.  I got paid more doing a local in-town load then I did doing a load over an hour away.  The pay doesn't make sense.  I would only recommend this coming if you are looking to be home often and pay isn't an issue and you are ok with seasonal work.  Otherwise, I would recommend to look somewhere else for work if you need a consistent income and great health insurance like myself and my family.

Small terminal, and you're called by your name. It feels like a family.  People in the office are friendly and professional. 
Better hometime. Basically, depending on the freight, most of the time, you can go home daily or every other day. 
 They improved the pay, and they're doing improvements to the terminal and a promise for new facilities for drivers. The downside  is on one of the freight, plastic, that they're using a hose that is very heavy and stiff, difficult. Management is okay. He should have a stronger hand to enforce policies to all drivers. Dispatchers are pretty okay. Is basically a new team, and they're doing what they're supposed to do. However, I see that they are not too fair with drivers on their dispatch or are not paying attention to giving all the same opportunities for higher pay loads to qualified drivers. Overall, TWT is a good company. They have been supportive in hardship times like the Covid offering a minimum guarantee pay. No company is perfect, but with all odds, it still works for me. 

I love coming in and looking at the way dispatchers are coordinating the dispatch and show them how to more effectively dispatch the loads to better utilize our equipment. I love being able to make adjustments in the terminals to show them how to do more.

I get frustrated when there are better people or ideas that can improve a particular area and it gets stopped due to personal relationships.

I do not like working in the " Good 'Ol Boy" mentality. I try to make suggestions for the betterment of the company and operations.

Overall I love this company, people are good to work with and friendly but I am not happy living in Hickory, NC and my wife and I prefer to be closer to the coast and our kids in the Philadelphia area. I have two daughter getting married and driving 8.5 hrs on the weekend for planning is wearing on us.

Do you like making bottom dollar? Do you like having to work at a place for 10 years before you get a 1.5% raise (the only raise you’ll ever get)? Do you like long hours hauling and handling dangerous chemicals just to be paid like a garbage truck driver at the end of the week? If so, Tidewater is the perfect place for you! Do not expect to make anywhere near 70 a year, or even enough to put a roof over your head. If they were honest about pay nobody in their right mind would apply here. Good place to get experience at, but I highly advise looking elsewhere if you want to be paid appropriately for your time. This place doesn’t care as long as you’re making them money. You’ve been warned! Don’t waste the valuable time it took to get your cdl and x endorsement to make the same amount of money waiting tables. 

Okay company to work for when the loads are consistent. When the loads are not, you usually get left over loads from other terminals that their drivers doesn’t want to do and are usualy not worth it. Pay and loads are very inconsistent. Get paid by the load. No guaranteed pay when there’s no work. No PTO other than your 1 week of vacation (Which you have to take it all at once) but can usually request off whenever. Last minute dispatch. Never know what you are doing until the afternoon before. Hard to plan things outside of work because of that.  Volvo trucks are good, but are small and uncomfortable. Bed is right against the back of your driver’s seat, no standing room, no room for fridge or microwave.

You’ll get home more often than OTR but you will constantly have exact 10 hour breaks and exact 34 hour resets.  Many 14 hour days, many weekends, many 1am wake up times.  You’ll drop and hook, live load and unload every single day.  You don’t know what you’re doing until 4pm the day before so you can’t ever plan anything. The products they carry are extremely dangerous and you’ll be wearing a plastic suit from head to toe.  The yard is full of mud puddles.    You’ll need every credential possible in trucking.   Be wary of companies that’ll take recent grads. Those fresh minds are generally the only ones that’ll tolerate this level of shenanigans.

I really enjoyed working there. They take care of their employees. Tidewater Transit also values the needs of drivers families too. They would try to work with your schedule to get you good home time. The secretary is awesome. She keeps up with all the paperwork and make sure drivers get paid correctly.    Tidewater Transit have very good and clean equipment. I really enjoyed working there. I went into business for myself is only reason I left, otherwise I probably would have retired there. Great place to work. 

Great place to work family-oriented and everybody knew you by your name. Always giving opportunity to advance and further your career. I would recommend this job to anyone who was looking for productive place to work with good pay.

Worked for tidewater in channelview and must say this has been the worst company I've ever been to.  They advertise $1750 but that's before taxes so you are making local money and dispatching is horrible. I had a empty tanker and they had me take it from AL to SC unpaid so that should tell you a lot. They also will say you make $25.00 a night for sleeping in the truck but that's only if you are loaded. Always have to correct them about your pay. If you don't want a headache I say don't apply.  I was there a month and quit.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Tanker driver 42 salaries reported	$1,739 per week
Truck driver 1 salary reported	$1,348 per week
Diesel mechanic 42 salaries reported	$28.07 per hour
Owner operator driver 81 salaries reported	$3,136 per week
Mechanic helper 88 salaries reported	$20.51 per hour

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