truck driver

owner operator driver

solo driver

local driver

lease operator

The Dart Network

This was supposed to be a weekend slip seat job and turned into over the road. I was harassed by a member of training staff with treats of towing my vehicle if it was not moved, which caused all kinds of drama because I had to come off the road losing money just to move my vehicle. They lie about everything that's written in their policy books for drivers all the way down to pay.

I was on a weekend fleet and was given loads to run only for them to be taken away by the fill in dispatchers, which left me without any loads to run over the weekend. When you try to talk to people there especially some of the managers they belittle you like your a child. Some of them have no clue of how the trucking world works,  they give you IMPOSSIBLE loads and know your not going to make it and when you not on time or you dont make it it's your fault. The communications at this company is very poor and when your fleet manager leaves on the weekends all you get when you call in is ( your going to have to call back on Monday no help at all from fill ins). 

Be careful if you are assigned to the Ellenwood terminal its brand new and this place is ran by a bunch of unprofessional managers and others, No professionalism at this place at all they are quick to tell you what your gonna do and have to do. They come to work dressed like they are going to club environment and not work, to stuck on wanting to be the Chief it's a toxic environment at this place and needs order.

My truck broke down and the Maintenance Lead, I told him when it was told the oil pan was busted and oil was all over the lot and he outright told me that " that's not his guys job! All they do is PM's and dont work on trucks. So why does this place have a big shop and no diesel machanics thats crazy. This place has an I dont care type of environment and lots of toxicity.

Was told that vehicles would be clean and I was given a vehicle with dog hair all in it, I told the managers this and they were upset because the trucks are supposed to be cleaned but their not. The inside shop staff dont have a clue of where the keys are when needed at times.

payments, Incorrect Payments not matching your miles, Incorrect miles reading. Driver can’t make miles. Some dispatchers are rough. Constantly repairing trailers and truck since the start. Short Trips Plans or assignments, Difficult to find and Empty Trailer in good condition. Terminals are and looks worst than the 3rd world countries. Chip companies in every aspect. They will send you to cheapest, the worst hotels and Bus Transportation Companies. 
Their have now their own school, so they  have more drivers  than trucks available  for them. The tactic is explórate driver as much as possible and then will fire them unreasonable. Saying that you are not active enough, You don’t make enough miles. Most of the drivers a hauling trailers with broken brakes and they do not pre-trip trailers and driving them as is expecting other drivers to repair them. Breakdowns are not paid unless are more than 24 hours and only counting the time when truck or trailer get into a shop - the actual repair.. That’s explain why drivers are skipping to repair trailers to safe time and miles , risking their CDL. 
The pay will start more or lees OK, and than will drop drastically.
The guaranteed minimum pay is pure lie just to catch you.
There are  some good people working there.
The ELD Constantly crashing, GPS System will put you driving in neighborhood areas. You will need your own GPS , I couldn’t afford one because of being underpaid.
They don’t care if you have enough hours to start an assessment or trip plan , 
Offering you impossible dispatches with live loads  without having on mind that you practically can’t get there even if go with a helicopter.


Trusting these people is a bad idea. The company is set up as a scam. Questions are answered with lies and half-truths.  They sold me a wrecked truck as a new one. My "new" truck works just good enough so they don't have to fix it.  They always say that they "can replicate the problem" while in the shop. Even the dealers are in on the scam Dart buys a lot of trucks from them and if mine is any indication, they buy the ones that no one else will. So you can't take your truck to a factory dealership.  Notice that every Dart yard has 20 to 50 trucks that have been returned by the drivers.

Operations is a disaster. O/O's lose several days a month because of screw-ups. I'm averaging $900 per week after working for 6 months. Always 2 weeks on 3 days off. They intentionally lie about how much you can make. 

My driver manager made a huge mistake and let me have a monster week months ago. I wrote down the routes and said "lets do this over and over."  They said sure.  After that, they just gave me the worst routes for me possible. Ones with long wait times where the "drop and hooks aren't ready.  Pathetic.

There is no way to report a trailer that needs maintenance.  They just wait for it to break down and if you are the one that's pulling it then you are the one that has to waste your time getting it fixed.  They don't pay you for this.  

The risk an owner is taking on is not even close to being worth the reward.

Typical day at Dart was checking your computer in truck for loads and messages from dispatch. Punch in your destination on your GPS. Drive to destination, pick up freight. Then punch in new address for delivery to next stop. While at the dart terminal it was friendly with the drivers but to get to your dispatcher or see anybody for a problem they would have locked doors  So you would have to report to a window and stand in line or sit in break room waiting for a response. The break area was very small so you mainly had to sit outside till you could see someone. The parking for trailers really sucked cause it was always packed full of trailers at all yards I have been through. Especially in the Lancaster yard. But the process of hiring and getting a truck only took three days. Getting good loads was awefull. So I transferred to the Target Distribution Center. Well if your leasing a new truck, that is not the place to go. If you have a used truck you can make good money at Target. They are consistent with there loads and it is all drop and hook. All in all it was a good place to work but I should have leased a used truck to start with cause the new truck was very expensive to lease.
If I had to do it all over again I would have leased a used truck and stayed with Target.

You get your load list on the website, along with your appt time if you have one. You can adjust your time off of that. You log into peoplenet, do your pre-trip accept your preplans and then go. If you have the same route Awesome, if you don't expect delays. You are assigned a truck, but someone from another yard will always come by and take it to another state and not tell you. Co-workers will text you and give you the courtesy. The best one is when you have your route set in your mind then BAM ! you have to do what is called a "Recovery" that's because someone "no showed" or called off or their truck broke down, too many reasons to list. A recovery is when you have to drive from your yard to where it was supposed to come out of, then get it to the drop zone. 500 + miles guaranteed. Dispatchers have no common sense, and no empathy for you. Your only job is to drive, be on duty 12 to 14 hours a day, sometimes up to 16. If you decline a load then they call you, then if you still decline the fleet mgr calls you.

Truck breaks down, you are looking at 4 hours burnt up, if you notice something wrong with your truck, up to 1 month before you get it in the shop. As much as they tell you that you are in charge of your day, your not. Don't bite into their line and get snagged.

With the cuts the new President is making they seem to be in serious financial trouble. He canned over 50 people a month after he was hired, some there over 20 years. Do not care if you sleep or not. Mgr will call at break of dawn knowing you are asleep and get very angry if you don’t wake up and answer. Taking away even small perks like the XM radio and the 401k match in their cost cutting measures. Now changed way pay is done. Old FM was there over 20 years and said it took him almost a year to completely figure the pay structure out cause they make it so confusing. The company is all about the dispatcher, drivers are just a number. The trucks are nice but baseline cheap. They do have inverters though. The insurance is CRAZY expensive. It is over $200 a week. Put in for home time but then when it's time to go, get forced to do another run. Was out almost 3 months before allowed to go home the first time. When you do go home it isn't for two days as advertised either. You may get a 34. They will be calling you after 24 trying to get you to leave. Had told one planner was going to take a 34. He said no cause I gained 6 hours after midnight so I needed to drive.

I like the technology and tools given to me as a driver.  Especially detailed fuel stations where I can fuel and pricing along my route.  I maximized my money fueling where fuel was dirt cheap.  I was paid per mile and did fairly well given the weather and distance.  I tried to have them keep me south east but the problem with that is, they don't have many customers there.  So I ran from Texas up to Kansas a lot and made good money but was constantly away from my home.  In the end, it cost me my family.  Know what you're getting into in this business, especially if your wife misses you and your kids are young.  This isn't the job you want.  Take it from me.  She can try to be supportive of you and say things to make you stay out but you need to be home with your family or you will lose them.  It's just a matter of time.  Otherwise, if you can hack this job, it will reward you and pay well.

Was hired as a team driver out of Florida.  My teammate ended up quitting before we could begin.  Was told to go ahead and drive solo and they would find me another driver to team with.  Weeks go by.  I don’t hear anything.  I randomly get drug tested on a Friday (which I passed).  Then, on the following Monday, during my 34 reset, my dispatch tells me they are letting me go.  No warning.  No calls from management.  Was given no time to move out of the truck.  They did nothing to help me get home.  No communication.  I tried to plea my case that I was waiting for another team driver.  I got no response.  I was just told my truck was needed for a team…which is what I was hired for.  Again, this situation was handled very unprofessionally.  No communication from management.  The only person who would talk to me was dispatch.  I do NOT recommend Dart to any truck driver.  They do NOT treat their drivers as people.  Stay away!  Find any other company!  

The company it's self is not a bad co, but if you are looking to be able to support yourself & family you're not gonna be able to do it here. I was a company driver for a year & struggled every week. Dispatch & management are the biggest problem. You'll be sitting ALOT waiting on loads. Then once you can get a load it might not del for 20-24 hours. And they deliver a lot to grocery warehouses were anyone who has delivered to groceries knows you're gonna be waiting for quite awhile to get unloaded. Well you have to give them the 1st 2 hrs before you are eligible for detention. Then even after doing everything they require you to do to get detention pay, you're gonna have to fight with them to get you're money. Usually gonna take at least 2 weeks to get your detention pay if you can even get them to pay you for it. You're gonna be dispatched late 90% of the time also. Long story short the absolute worst company I've ever worked for when it comes to getting paid what you're owed!

At Dart you are on your own.
 If you get stack at the shipper/receiver don't count on any help. Long hours Monday thru Friday 14 hours a day where  you drive for 6-7 hours a day.
The pay 70% of the load according to contract but really it is 70% of that what DART decides you should make. You will NOT see the original invoice going to customer. So it looks like that : Dart puts up a quote and they get a load, than they deduct all the expences, they send a $ number to O/O and than you get the 70%.

There is a lot of DART adds in which they say that they pay for plates, tolls etc. None of them are true. If you want plates DART will deduct that of your pay check. My 1st contract was saying that they pay some of the tolls. NONE was paid.

In February 2012 DART came up with new contract in which they said they will pay tolls. But they cut rates down by 7.5% and that supposed to be out toll money.

At DART you have to do ANUAL FCMSA inspection NOT once every 12 months but every 3 months ans guess who pay for that ???

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 239 salaries reported	$574 per week
Owner operator driver 1428 salaries reported	$199,989 per year
Solo driver 49 salaries reported	$90,000 per year
Local driver 248 salaries reported	$75,000 per year
Lease operator 240 salaries reported	$575 per week

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