truck driver

local driver

trailer mechanic

fleet manager

service technician

Venture Express, Inc.

A typical day involves showing up an hour early and standing in line at one of two dispatch windows. Eventually, you'll get a load assignment and a key (shuttle positions are slip seat). Find your truck, log in to QC, do a pre-trip and trip sheet, find your trailer and hook up. Deliver load and get return assignment. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

Management is non-existent. I honestly don't know who my terminal manager is and I've been with the company for 18 months. Drivers are pretty much ignored by dispatch and any other office personnel. Dispatchers manage nothing. They just assign loads and then think they're managers. They won't answer their company cell phones on off hours. You'll most likely start on a night shift and weekend shift so hope you can sleep during the day. You will work 12 to 14 hours a day for roughly 32 cents per mile and turn about 500 miles per day, and working one of your off days is mandatory. If you manage this for 12 or 18 months, you may get on day shift depending on turn over. Everything this company does is based on seniority, not qualifications or performance. Seniority is everything. The dispatchers are ineffective because they were placed there simply because of their seniority, not their performance and certainly not their qualifications. 

Drivers are expected to work every possible hour but office staff is not. If you run an overnight Saturday to Sunday morning, you'll be running with NO driver support. Fuel card turned off by mistake? No one answers the phone to help (this has happened to me). Breakdown? No one answers the phone. Saturday night to Sunday morning, you're on your own. I complained about this and was pretty much laughed at. This was after sitting at a Love's for 5 hours, calling every number in the VE book, including cell phones, until a phone was answered, got my fuel card turned back on (no fault of mine) and then I had to run illegal to get back home and go back and edit my e-log hours to look legit. 

This company sounds good for an OTR driver that wants to get off the road but once you calculate your time, you're making about $12/hr and that's if you didn't figure OT as time and a half. If you figure hours over 40 at time and a half, you're making about $8.75 per hour. Also, if you're already in a job where you're home each weekend, don't come to this company because you'll see your family even less. They'll put your days off during the week and work you all weekend plus one of your days off. 

My personal tidbit of advice: be leery of any company whose CEO insists on being addressed as "Mr." on all company literature and when someone addresses him. The only reason I still work at this company is because I don't have time to look for another job. It eats up that much of your time. It's like being in a trap.

Venture bought out my previous employer. Since then we had a great manager who grew a strong team up, but quickly ran her out. The problem is the former companies managers were still in play and used high school antics to get drivers fired. Venture cannot decide one day or another how they will mess with drivers. We lost great drivers over constant changes, violating logs as much as possible, lying to drivers on daily basis. Dont expect much as vacations, time off for family emergencies, you will lose alot for doing it. The equipment tractors/trailers are falling apart faster than maintenance can keep up, with their department head hiding out in his office using untrained staff to quick repair everything. Operations management lies to your face about everything, dont trust them. Drivers frequently have to wait for hours for even a tractor to use because they dont have enough to operate, but will not pay those driver wait time and dont allow them to log in. Make sure you take photos of your logs because the lead ops manager has changed them to make drivers ready for the next day, resulting in drivers getting little sleep. 
NO VACATIONS, NO THANK YOUS OF ANY KIND, LIMITED EQUIPMENT, UNSAFE EQUIPMENT, NO BACKING FROM MANAGEMENT, CONFLICTING MANAGEMENT STYLE FROM ONE DIVISON TO ANOTHER.

If your looking please do SOLID RESEARCH about this company, truth is 90 percent of the negative reviews are TRUE TO FACT! I am very educated and have seen almost of these review play out at true issues.

No driver here cleans their trucks after shift and telling the management or lack of management doesn't help at all. The mechanic shop does a great job .the real issue is the lack of management and how they don't care for the drivers at all....the lack of morale around here is the lowest I have ever seen at a company and the hours you work vary, one day you will work 4 hours the next 14 hours and can't plan on a paycheck at all to be regular and the favoritism is strong so good luck on any advancement at all.. our terminal manager quit 2 months into me getting there and after 7 months still couldn't hire one so someone from corporate took it on after a bit and you could never get a hold of him nor did he ever show up or care... Human resources is about the same beat around the bush to take care of any issues ...Unless you are under the desk your not getting nowhere here at all....the only good thing they have going for them is they use loves truck stop to fuel so you'll get alot of points since alot of people dont fill their trucks back up at all at end of shift....don't plan on your truck being ready and safe as most drivers never check them or the trailers and was always getting things fixed as drivers just don't care at all about safety....well there is a few that do but most could care a less.....

 Venture Express, Atleast the opelika office management are complete liars. To the point where asking them a question is worthless and a waste of your time.
 The trucks are "maintained" by Ryder.. And that is just in name not action. Half the trucks have no air conditioning and the Supervisors have to run loads so there is noone to take the Truck to Ryder for repair... its always maybe one day they will have time.
Its truly seems like the more you mess up at Venture the more they want to keep you. drop a trailer? no big deal.. Break every strap on a load? just get some more.
 There driver turn over is epic. There 401k program is just a savings account you cant get from a local bank. They match 0 invested.
 The drivers are more steering wheel holders than actual truck drivers. Noone cleans after themselves.. noone checks oil... noone does a real pre trip and nothing is said because the supervisor doesnt want to have to cover the spot and management wont leave Opelika cause there afraid someone might ask a question.
 Its home daily. thats it. you get out of the truck 40x a day in some locations. driver beware.

The equipment is extremely unsafe. The tractors will uncouple themselves from the trailer while driving/turning, no matter, if you do a tug test or not. Instead of them admitting that their equipment is bad or taking responsibility for it, they'll blame you for it and that leads to suspension which leads to termination. They pay good but it's just not worth all the hassle. Also, they tell you in orientation that if you need off or etc, to call in advance before your shift start but you'll never get that day off. Even if you don't come, they'll try to suspend you or terminate you. They will try to make you work other peoples shifts, especially if it's their buddies. For example, if you're off on a weekend and you have a set schedule and one of their buddies has to work who don't want to, they'll try to get you to come in to do it. They don't ask, they tell you. On the other hand, the job wouldn't be so bad if they didn't lie and equipment was reliable or about something.

Stay away if you can. They lie to you in beginning to get you there and quickly your run goes from dedicated daily to different place in a different state each day. Blow out on trailer tires all time. Leaves you sitting on road side for hours. You will run out of drive time cause trucks are slow and they send you out as far as they can. And you will sit for hours waiting on relief driver. It's cheap family run along with friends from college. They reap your reward. And the most IMPORTANT thing is pay!! They will screw up your pay 2-3 times a month. You jump through hoops on your end with endless paperwork and computer work just to have payroll screw up. Don't believe any of this ask multiple drivers. To correct your payroll it all has to be verified and signed off by the VP, who is involved in way more things than he should be involved in. So good luck!

They expect ridiculous runs from you, it’s not local work, unless you call 500 miles a day local?! They do not pay overtime, but expect you to work 60-70 hours a week!!! It’s a paycheck that is it!  Top pay is 25, for daytime, once you reach it, you will not make anymore money. You get an annual bonus of 1200 on your anniversary, however they take half of that in taxes. Holidays pay is only 160, which isn’t right either in my opinion; it should be what your average day is. Also, in my opinion, dispatchers and management have no respect for the drivers, I think they forget it is the drivers that make the company run. So they should be compensated more and treated better.
Also they do not take care of equipment, tractors go unwashed for years, trailers are junk, and you have to slip seat with in most cases dirty unclean drivers. 

They didn't treat driver equally some had their own assign truck while others had to get there early just to get a good truck to drive. It used to be a good place to work now it's went down hill. They don't care about there equipment if we drive a good truck are piece of junk don't take care of there trucks . When driver brings truck to shop to fix something they wait til you leave shop then put it back on run line and drivers there don't do pre trip are post trip leave the other driver with problems like flats and trucks tore up on the running line. If it was like it was when I started 11 Years ago it would be a good place to work. But now I would look somewhere else. Thanks and have a great day 


What is the best part of working at the company?
A horrible company don't pay overtime only get a 25 cent raise twice a year and starting pay is only $20 an hour that is too low for a commercial truck driver in the world we live in today truck driving is a profession and a career and you should be paid just as well as anyone else with a career or profession 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
No overtime pay no office no human resource on site 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
There is not much of one you just come to work and hope nothing goes wrong to where you have to call anyone to help

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Just do your job with the equipment that you have

I've been driving for over 20 years and Venture has the worst equipment I've ever seen. The dedicated accounts are slip seat and the trucks are all filthy. The fifth wheels are so poorly maintained it literally can take 15 minutes to unhook from a trailer. A large percentage of the trailers have swing doors that require Herculean effort to open and close. The recruiter will hire you for a position with the hours you want and then a couple months later someone in corporate will decide to change things up and suddenly you are given the choice of hours you don't want or no job. They also have driver facing cameras that the recruiter conveniently failed to mention.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 303 salaries reported	$25.44 per hour
Local driver 107 salaries reported	$26.64 per hour
Trailer mechanic 12 salaries reported	$30.54 per hour
Fleet manager 3 salaries reported	$65,000 per year
Service technician 6 salaries reported	$27.92 per hour

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