truck driver

over the road truck driver

operations associate

driver manager

West Side Transport

West Side transport is a great stepping stone to start a career in logistics. During the day there is a whole office of people in house who can help resolve a problem and if you don’t know the answer somebody does. The company values learning and support through training and coaching to make sure anyone who wants to know how to do something can learn; however, I work nights and I often do not have access to any sort of support after hours and I frequently have to make judgement calls that are not always what the day team wants. These are situations where instead of coaching after hours team I usually just get a strongly worded email from some manager I’ve never actually met. I should have done some research on salary ranges for this position because as I become more senior I realize that I am doing the job of the entire office at night from breakdown, planning, dispatching, and resolving issues for drivers when during the day there are normally whole departments dedicated to doing just one of those things. That aside I have received 2 raises since joining the team a year ago but both raises were prorated and honestly offensive. If the after hours team is doing the job of the entire office you would think they would receive some sort of pay incentive or at least an incentive for sacrificing my whole weekend with 10-12 hour days.  If you are looking for a career in logistics I recommend you steer clear of night operations as we do not get enough recognition for carrying the fleet after hours. To wrap this up I’d like to also mention (this is probably the case for any after hours team) we don’t have anything cool to participate in for example the day crew regularly gets catered lunches or cool office parties. It would be nice to be invited to one of those or at least some left overs from whatever the day crew had going on ya know? 

There is no typical day at work for me. I am a home daily driver and I can work anywhere from 8 to 11 hours a day. Depends on road conditions and getting unloaded at some of the sites. I have learned how to drive a semi in big city traffic and learn patience along with that. Sometimes the hardest part of the job is travelling in the bigger cities weaving in and out of traffic and try not to miss your exit or have to make a big loop to get back to it. For a new person this is a little scary, but after a while it gets easier. Management is like it is anywhere. You have your good managers and your bad managers which also include fellow trucking employees. Some are very helpful and others are not. The most frustrating part of the job for me is around lunch time when you call dispatch and no one answers the phone. Does everyone go to break at the same time? Some people in these reviews gripe about the pay. Pay can be better including holiday pay and giving it to new employees quicker than 90 days. For me the pay is a little more than my previous job and I work Monday thru Friday. Saturdays are optional, but I do have every Saturday and Sunday off unlike my previous job. I have been here for a couple of months and so far I like this job. A sign on bonus would have been nice.

I'm on the fence about if it's good or bad here I just started before Christmas. And then everything stopped for the holiday so we just started working again 2 weeks ago. I was told we run Tuesday thur Friday on my lane and most Saturdays but they also said they had work on Mondays if I wanted it. That's what they said when I was hiring in but I haven't worked a Saturday yet. I did pick up a Monday shift last week but it was only gonna be beneficial if I could work Saturday too because I need to maximize my check as the run was supposed to pay 300 a day and a 1200 dollar check minus taxes will not help my life out it's not enough money. But they either don't have the amount of work they bragged about or they are giving it to other drivers. I also have not worked the shift I was signed up for yet everyday they call me to work a earlier one and when I got my check it didn't pay how they told me it did their number was 20 bucks off. Which isn't much but if they tried that on my first full check now I have to watch them everytime so that's not a comforting feeling.  But I'm gonna give them another week or 2 to get it together because like I said I only worked 2 weeks and just got my first whole check last week  so I'm on the fence if they were just having a slow go starting back up from holiday or they were just leading me on

When I worked at West Side Transport , I would take a 36 or 48 hour reset  . Hometime on weekend . I'd either head out Sunday or Monday to get to or within my first delivery appointment , so I'd have my 10 hour break in that way I could run my total hours for devileries and picking up next load and if possible deliver that next load on my total hours for that day . I'd do my pre-trip/post trip . If I'd found any problems with truck or trailer this company is one of a few that I've worked for that actually don't waste time getting the problem(s) fix on their equipment . The Shop personal are Great . The Pay was adequate for what I was running . If my pay was low it was because of me not my dispatcher and/or the company . Over all the Drivers I'd met were all great people . You have a more relaxed feeling with this company and also you know what you have to do too accomplish your work day . Dispatch is great you know what your doing and they get the work to your truck quick , no waiting around , unless freight is slow . Which if you've been driving truck for an amount of time you'll know freight can be slow . I want to thank them for allowing me to experience what their company offers over other companies and I'd gladly return .

Typical work day would consist of receiving information of your next load, not organized though as far as terms of understanding what to do, majority of your loads are FTL (Full Truck Load) not LTL (Less than Truck Load) which I prefer the LTL, the hardest part of the job is realizing how to understand cents per mile, base pay, stop pay & overnight pay. The position I'm current is a regional flex position, and the pay promise amount isn't met even from workers that worked 6 months or more, you will drive 1500 miles to 1800 miles only being paid a net $800 to 875 from a gross of $1100. The tractors are not in the best condition, my first week I blown a tire, snapped airline from a worn out airline tube and there was a severe air leak in my tractor, you're told to inspect the vehicle the first day and every day and the vehicle will not be fixed until you return to the terminal because the company prefers things cost efficient excluding that your life is the most valuable. The only enjoyable part of this company is no supervision, everything else should be researched before coming to this company.

My experience: shadowed multiple roles for 4 days, one on one training for 4 days, then put on the job with 100% accuracy expected. After 3 weeks and keeping over 20 pages of notes of things never taught in training and were only due to trial and error situations and communicating with other employees - I was called into the HR office.  HR told me it was my last day.  When I asked why, they said 'I don't know, leadership didn't tell me.'  Previously, I had asked both my bosses to be transparent with me because I wanted to be an asset to the company - they nodded their head in agreement but obviously did the exact opposite and straight out lied in the end.  I was told by HR that I was to leave because I was still within my 90 day probationary period. ( 45 days in).   After just 2 months, at least 2 other reps had the same situation.  I met several drivers who work for West Side, who are very happy with the company, but as far as customer service, I would highly recommend applying elsewhere. They also may hire you for one role, but then expect you to advance quicker than you can keep up, and if you can't stay on task, you'll get walked out as well.

My father died alone because of west side. I told them I needed to get home instead they made me do a day cabs job and move trailers from yard to yard. So I was out of drive time 200 miles from my dad. I would have made it if they would have sent me home when I was already empty. The pay commitment is a joke. If you are in the sleeper to long, on home time, or whatever other new reason they come up with you will not get it. You'll pretty much never make a 600 dollar check. The cash advance that they say can only be used for the truck comes out of your check. They don't reimburse toll useless its in the route they choose for you. They don't always give you the numbers needed to pick up so, you spend an hour arguing with them and the shipper. You do not get holiday pay until a year. At a year its Christmas only then at two years its Christmas and new years,etc. The staff is flat out rude. They want it their way and thats that even if it includes you going over drive time, being over weight, or using broken equipment. Horrible horrible place. Steer clear for the well being of your career.

It's a good company to be with and I wanted to review West Side Transport to let others know you can rest easy if you are wondering if you should work there. 

I decided to go owner op after spending over a year with West Side Transport and the jury is still out if I made the right decision. Anyway the office people are all very kind and everyone seems happy. My dispatcher kept me running and looking back she was good at handling my attitude, we all have our disagreements. 

Another thing is the pay commitment they advertise, there were some weeks that I got an extra $300-$400 that I wouldn't have earned without it (how do they stay in business??) mabye they figure an empty truck is worth it..idk

So if you are thinking about West Side go ahead, they are good at their niche for their size and most of the customers were easy to deal with, oh and they are a very safe company, constant weather updates and safety meetings got annoying but I think thats the point.

I’m out of the Canton office. For the most part, staff are ok to work with. There are times you may have to set boundaries with dispatch because they will attempt to overstep and use condescending tones in some cases. If you get a dedicated lane your pay is ok for a 4 day work week, but the Automotive shutdown has really put a damper on things. This location has all of their eggs in one basket. I’m not certain but I believe they have resorted to the spot market for loads and the pay for such loads is not a livable wage. Overtime or extra loads before the shut down were hard to come by, so one could only imagine the difficulty to get enough work now.

I only enjoyed the fact that I had a dedicated run (due to the Ford/Automotive accounts they have )and was home daily. No matter how long you are there they treat you like you are disposable. The dispatchers is messy unprofessional your typical start up company. No pay upgrade ever and the benefits suck no matter how long you are there their Hub department sucks even more (going to different customers and out 13 to 14 hours a day making less than 200 a day) they don't care if you illegally run out of hours on your DOT clock as long as their loads are delivered. They are unprofessional don't plan drivers well at all send you to customers without correct date and time of appointments where as drivers suffer due to not being able to get loaded or hours of waiting to get loaded due to company lack of communication 

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Driver manager 8 salaries reported	$55,188 per year

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