trailer technician

trailer mechanic

truck driver

diesel technician

tire technician

USA Truck

For the last few months, a typical day at work has been an early morning "15 minutes of shame" (or weekly a "45 minutes of shame") meeting consisting of my direct manager and two middle managers above going over every possible thing that went wrong the day before for the whole department, or since the last meeting of shame. Public humiliation for anyone who makes a mistake or anyone unlucky enough to be an responsible for a system that has an issue. These meetings were also used to publicly call out issues that have not been brought to your attention (from a simple phone call or email). Middle managers asking why you have not addressed an issue that you were not aware of prior to the meeting. Weekly we would have a complete company meeting where the Executive Team would share wisdom, cheer the organization, and generally talk about how much better and great the environment is now than it was in prior years (which those at least in our department knew was the exact opposite). Rest of the day was working incident after incident and wishing you had time during the avalanche of work to make improvements and add value to the organization.

From my time at USA Truck, I learned that within this corporate culture, you should not volunteer to take on extra work or cross-train for another job role. If you ever learned to do another job or function, when the person performing that role would leave or was fired, you would assume all their roles that you had the ability to do plus all things you were already doing. Anything you touch becomes permanently yours until you leave the company. I also learned to keep my head down and mouth shut in meetings. I learned a lot of things that managers should or shouldn't do if they want respect and teamwork from their direct reports, second level reports, and third level reports. These things include communication, talking directly to someone who you have a problem or issue with, communicating issues politely and calmly, and following your own procedures that you implement for your employees. Early on there was a lot of available training to advance your skills and knowledge related to your job, but that evaporated with the "new guard".

Management within our department was great a few years back. Our department had the type of managers who would lead you into a firefight. They also were supportive and provided training to help you advance your knowledge and learning in your field. The new guard provided extensive training on how to be a better (or more complacent/compliant) corporate employee or move up the corporate ladder. They would completely panic in a critical situation and if there was a fire the only assistance they could give was in the form of gasoline. As far as the difference between leadership, another employee summed it up by saying "It's the difference between being a leader and being a boss." The new guard would make promises (with time commitments) to other "bosses" in the organization without consulting with the people who had to do the work. It also was unfortunate that the new guard appeared to come from a very small company and didn't understand the level of support staff needed to run a company the size of USA Truck.

Workplace culture was great prior to 2020. Team was close knit and you felt like your co-workers and management always had your back and best interests at heart. With the new guard came a major shift in that culture. I still had the feeling that the management and co-workers had my back, but now it was to feel out a soft place to sink the knife. Trust and team collaboration took a huge nose-dive into 2021. Staff dwindled and productivity was dismal.

Hardest part of the job early on was growing skills and knowledge to fit into the role. Toward the end it was the endless stress. Also having the willpower to participate and give my all when I knew the new guard was actively trying to replace everyone who existed before them and that my time would come regardless of performance. It was also hard watching the best and brightest team members leaving on their own or being fired and replaced by employees who may not be less skilled but were less experienced and knowledgeable of the operations and systems.

Most enjoyable part in the former years was the teamwork, collaboration, challenges, good pay, and overall company culture. The most enjoyable parts of 2021 were seeing the USA Truck building in my rear-view mirror pulling out onto Industrial Park Road and the pressure and stress relief after my last day.


Working for USA Truck has been a terrible experience from the start. My wife and stepson rode with me in our personal vehicle to orientation in West Memphis, AR. The hotel allowed them to stay with me for two nights at no charge. On the day of checkout, my wife, who has a broken ankle, and stepson came into the terminal for the first time and sat in the back of the orientation classroom and nobody seemed to mind. That is, until management saw them. He told the orientation instructor to tell me that my wife and stepson had to stay in the drivers' lounge...upstairs. There is no elevator. He didn't care about my wife's condition. The "free lunch" he bought on the first day consisted of three small, yet spicy, chicken strips. Why does he think everyone likes spicy food? I don't. My stomach can't tolerate it. And, is he, or the company, so cheap that they can't buy normal lunches rather than tiny happy meals in a styrofoam container?
Also, communication is terrible. Using the email or texting on the worthless PeopleNet system results in nothingness. No response at all. Therefore, you have to call on the phone, and wait anywhere from a few minutes (rare) to 45 minutes (common) or longer. And speaking of PeopleNet, it has the worst GPS Navigation system I've ever dealt with. Instead of taking a straight, truck friendly road to a highway, it will route you on a big, out of the way loop to get to that same point. It will route you on restricted roads. It will change the route moments before you have to either exit or continue straight. And, finally, it has no idea where the correct address is. It will lead you straight into a residential area and tell you you have reached your destination.
Many of the trailers need serious maintenance/repair, especially on the landing gear. Trying to raise or lower the landing gear on many trailers requires two hands and muscle...and patience. The patience is required because the handles are all bent out of shape and will pop loose as you are straining to turn them, making them dangerous as well. It can cause muscle and back injuries as well as hit you in the face when it suddenly pops loose.
Load planners and some driver managers can be very rude, cold, and unsympathetic toward drivers. Load planners will screw up your home time date, no matter how urgent you tell them it is for you to be home by a certain day. They may find you a load going to the house, but they'll have you do a shag run or two first or a short run somewhere that is out of the way and very time consuming that causes you to have to wait another day or two before you can get your load going home. Driver managers will treat any situation your in like it's your problem alone, not theirs. One DM told me to use the messaging system on PeopleNet instead of calling. But when I told her that nobody ever responds, she said, "well, that's not my problem". Seriously?
USA Truck does not know how to take care of their drivers, on any level.

You guys are going to love this one
I show up and go to orientation as my first job in the CDL business. I do my 30 days of training, during this time USA just forgets to pay me as though I disappeared from the pay list. I call them and I get attitude back about how my bank screwed up and I was paid just as everyone else. After calling my bank to confirm my free labor and getting constantly put on hold by USA I speak to payroll and then ask the lady to look at the most recent pay receipt and the date on the check. She then rhetorically sees that there is no check for me. I then have to wait 3 more days until getting paid. I then show up to the West Memphis yard surrounded by brand new trucks to get upgraded and assigned one of them. I speak with the instructor for orientation and he tells me I should get a truck within the hour. So I wait and wait, the end of the day comes up and he tells me to come back in the morning and again promises me I will get a new truck as soon as I arrive. The next day I'm there until evening and no truck assigned. He tells me the person who assigned trucks is on vacation and the person left in charge is a "dumba**", his words not mine. So officially by USA truck co own standards, they have a dumb a** who does not know how to issue out trucks. I then get the luxury of driving a rental vehicle all night to Chicago and assigned a crooked looking clunker. So, then I drive the rental to the airport get a cab and pick up the clunker. Five days later it Derated, so I see it through to an International dealership. I get stuck in a Hotel getting paid chump change in Dallas for the weekend and then I get another rental car and taxi ride to Houston for another truck pickup. So, guess what happens 2 weeks later? Yes another Derate. At this point and 3 months later I only had 2 paychecks that went over 500 because of all the delays and bouncing around to pick up clunkers for them. So yeah, I finally quit and when I did they decided to put a preventive accident on me that does not even show up on the DAC or Hire RIght. Keep in mind you only get paid 75.00 a day when this happens and if your just starting out with no experience then you can brag to all your buddies that USA trucking will only pay .35 cents a mile. Oh and all those rental vehicles need to be refueled so when you pay for the gas and turn in the receipts, do not expect USA truck to be so nimble on paying you back for the next 3 paychecks. You have to remind them consistently and 15 to 30 minutes  on hold for every phone call. 

If you are new to the CDL business then please look elsewhere. There are many good companies out there, this one just isn't it.

I had a excellent trainer who I still talk to today, my Fleet Manager was good, and he is the best manager out of all of the ones I met. Some FM's are a joke. They got me my miles for the first few weeks then they started to taper off and made little to no money my smallest check was $9.07 one week.

The face book support group is good for drivers, lots of trainers willing to help you out, all you have to do is be smart and ask. I had a brand new 2013 Frieghtliner but would be broke down once a month for a week at a time, pretty sure no fault of the company though.

My over all experience was good, I only got angry once or twice, mostly when dispatchers would play musical chairs with you over the phone. Driver appreciation week is nice, especially if you run in to a terminal for lunch, good bar-b-q.

Trailers - I probably had to spend about 10 hr's a week total getting trailer tires fix, ABS issues fixed, sometimes trailer lights fixed, the biggest was tire's those always seemed to need replacing.

Terminal's - Terminals were disgusting all the time, the showers were always dirty (except at van buren), the driver lounges were nice; nice comfy lazy boy recliners, which most were broken, nice big 52" or bigger TV's with cable to watch, not the healthy choices from vending machines but decent selections. Most terminal locations were easy to get to.

Good starting company if you are out of school like I was, I only left due to personal family issues, otherwise I would have stayed for the long haul or tried to if they didn't bankrupt me first.

The hardest thing about the job was getting motivated to stay in shape, I enjoyed meeting other drivers for USA and eating lunch and/or dinner with them and chilling over all.

Co-Workers - Most I met were good people who would bend over backwards to help you, some others were the whiny little kids that needed to go back to mommy and just have a normal 9-5.

Last but not least, if you cannot get a load on time, and do this consistently they will give you lots of short haul and or use you to ferry freight to near by terminal's or drop yard's, communicate with your dispatcher to let them know of any delays ASAP this will keep you from having that problem.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I’ve had a very positive experience working at USA Truck. I've been fortunate to work for the company for over 5 years.  The company continues to invest in its people, its network, and its customer partnerships, and leadership is accessible and open to feedback. Also, the leadership team is dedicated to supporting all employees, no matter what your title is. I've had several meetings where our c-suite has made themselves available to support me in. There’s a strong emphasis on doing things the right way, serving customers well while also supporting employees.

Pros

Our drivers who bring a positive attitude in serving our customers and sacrificing time away from their families. Collaborative, team‑oriented culture across departments.
Leadership communicates expectations clearly and is willing to listen.
Opportunities to take ownership and make a real impact.
Strong operational footprint, particularly in core regional markets
Focus on continuous improvement rather than shortcuts

Cons

Like any transportation company, the environment can move fast and priorities can shift quickly.
Some processes take time to evolve as the company continues to scale and modernize.

Advice to Management
Continue investing in systems and cross‑department communication. The foundation is strong, and ongoing focus on process improvement will only make the organization better as it grows.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
It's the logistics industry...It is going to be stressful at times, but the support from our leadership and open lines of communication truly helps alleviate the stress.

I’ve been a driver with USA TRUCK. I have prior 7 years experience (more in military/ current serving in the US ARMY). I found out while reviewing my paystubs that I wasn’t being payed correctly and nobody had explained to me. Long story short, I rendered my resignation and was asked if I could run a few loads thereafter until I get to the terminal which I agreed to. Got to the terminal then my dm called and told me the best they could get me was a bus ticket home so literally, I was just being tricked to get truck to the terminal ( which I was going to do anyway because I treat any truck that I’ve ever driven with respect, in any company I’ve ever worked for).

Anyway, just like the saying goes, “every dog has it’s day, I guess it was mine...” . Hope someday you learn to treat drivers with respect. Thanks.

 safety and maximizing miles was my priority and I did until I found that I wasn’t getting paid correctly. I did inquire with my driver manager, he later agreed to pay me but i had by then rendered in my resignation.

Long story short, company explained that it was kind of tricky getting a rental car where I was and asked if I could run u few loads until I got to the terminal where they would get me a rental car because I had accumulated a lot of stuff ie fridge and microwave, not to mention the rest. I got to the terminal, detail cleaned the truck in and out and when I was ready to leave, my driver manager called and told me the best they could get me was a bus ticket home so literally, I was just being tricked to get truck to the terminal ( which I was going to do anyway because I treat any truck that I’ve ever driven with respect, in any company I’ve ever worked for).

Anyway, just like the saying goes, “every dog has it’s day, I guess it was mine...” . Hope someday you learn to treat drivers with respect. Thanks.

Director level up to the CEO don't get it. They say they want to make it better but then they fire people and make veiled threats about the rest of us. What about them? They make all the plans and decisions, aren't they every responsible for the results? Yes, when the results are good. When the results are bad, the put the blame elsewhere. Accept credit for good, place blame for bad. Not like the Drivers or their managers want 250 mile loads but we're getting many more and they can't figure out why the result isn't more miles per truck. Which leads to the CEO and CFO wanting us all to find ways to cut any costs, even insignificant costs. Then they waste money moving us for two weeks for a river that was never predicted to rise above the levee or the levee fail all, not to mention the addition of a fitness center that's only used by a handful of employees and the multiple TV's and A/C are running 24/7. Can you say hypocrite? And even though our cubicles were only 4 feet by 4 feet, at least we had a little personal space. We come back after the river receded to find we now sit side by side with no personal space, sneezing and coughing on each other. I guess when we all get sick together and all call in sick together they may get a clue. Drivers aren't the only employees who can get jobs somewhere else. And as I write this I know when they read it the upper management will read it and get their feelings hurt and get mad and react poorly. Oh well, good thing their are plenty of other jobs in Fort Smith and NW Arkansas. Just listen to the RM's and team leads (except the new one) and maybe you'll start to succeed.

In my personal experience, USA Truck had extremely poor communication and almost no meaningful support from management or HR. It was a struggle to get answers to even basic questions, and many of my emails went unanswered for weeks or months at a time.

When I asked for help and reported what I believed was SH by management, I felt completely ignored. From my perspective, nothing was investigated for over six months, and it only moved forward after I escalated the situation directly to the head of HR. Having to push that hard just to be acknowledged was incredibly disappointing.

I also feel that after asking for help and speaking up, I was fired instead of supported. Then things became even more frustrating. In my experience, I was never paid for Labor Day — something that employees are typically entitled to — and no one would give me a clear answer about it. On top of that, it took over two months for the company to report my separation to my 401(k) provider, and the separation date was retroactively changed to two weeks after the day I was actually let go. This created unnecessary delays and confusion and felt deeply unprofessional.

Work-life balance during my employment was also very poor. Expectations were high, turnover was constant, and employees seemed to carry the burden of management’s lack of structure and communication.

Based on my personal experience, I would not recommend USA Truck to anyone looking for a workplace that values communication, integrity, or basic employee support.

USA Truck likes to lure new drivers with false claims pertaining to weekly mileage and other benefits. The people (for the most part) are nice enough, but that does little to compensate for the low pay, low miles, long wait times while on hold, no compensation for layover or breakdown, etc. When you call in to speak to road service for repairs or a fleet supervisor, you can easily expect to sit on hold for upwards of 3 hours or more. It's hard to make money when your truck is always breaking down and their own company mechanics make you sit for days simply because they don't want to fix a particular issue. I was also extremely lucky to get 1,000 miles a week. Makes it difficult to earn a living on $300 a week. Any time you request to go home, they suddenly have no freight going to the state you live in. You put in your request and it might take 2 weeks to get you home. It's been several years since I quit, and I've heard they've made some changes, so this review may no longer be accurate. Just passing on a few of my experiences, which is why I only stayed for 4 months.

First thing first... ALMOST everything that I was told by the recruiter was a lie. I was told that I would be on a DEDICATED team fleet. Well I just found out I’m OTR. I was told that I would be home WEEKLY for 1.5 days. 2 weeks ago, I found out that was a lie. It’s home every 12-14 days and only for 1 day a week. Not 1.5 day. I was promised 5,000-5,500 miles MINIMUM. Well, my team mate and I have seen no more than 4,500 miles. As a team, we’ve been running several 400-500 mile loads! Ridiculous. Then when we do get our 1,100 mile loads, the back hauls are very poor. We’ve even had to run a 100 mile load. LIVE UNLOAD. As a TEAM. They’re also scarce on empty trailers. You may have to travel a couple 100 miles to find one. Oh yeah, on my fleet, they don’t want you “resetting” They want you running off of recaps. Not everyone wants to run 14 days straight without a day off. I’ve tried to speak with several people about other options, but no one seems to care. I referred someone here before I knew what really was going on... Never again. The recruiters, fleet managers, and higher ups need to get on the same page.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Trailer technician 102 salaries reported	$26.05 per hour
Trailer mechanic 50 salaries reported	$22.55 per hour
Truck driver 3 salaries reported	$77,333 per year
Diesel technician 18 salaries reported	$25.89 per hour
Tire technician 7 salaries reported	$25.57 per hour

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