Hey Everyone. I have been wanting to start doing “Company Spotlight” posts for some time. I feel that this will give new and old drivers alike an opportunity to get a good idea of what to expect from a company they are considering signing on for . Obviously like most drivers I only work for a few different companies so I am going to have to rely on other drivers to help make this happen.
I am going to start with one of the companies I drive for and that is Horizon Transport. I am starting here because I do drive for them more than the other carrier I use.
Let me start by saying I enjoy Horizon Transport and I have personally never had any issues with them.
What Horizon Transport Does right
- Their Commercial trucks do pay well out of Chillicothe, Mt. Holly, and Cleveland to name a few. Rates are $1.50 a mile at those locations and there are often bonuses attached to them.
- They have a great driver lounge at their Wakarusa Indiana yard. The lounge includes free showers, laundry, coffee, and a place just to relax before or after driving.
- They generally have enough work to keep a driver busy.
- They have GREAT fuel discounts using the Comdata card they issue. I routinely save .60-.80 per gallon on diesel .
- Dispatch Team: This is not fluff the entire driveaway dispatch team is great. Once you establish yourself as a reliable driver who gets units delivered safely they generally will have no problem getting you booked a few units out so you can worry about driving and not trying to figure out what your next unit will be.
What Horizon Transport Could Improve on
- Orientation cost and time. They are the only company I know that charges for orientation . The cost is $145 and is broken down into 2 days. First day is just your driving test which lasts just a couple of minutes per driver. Second is a day in the classroom going over safety, logs, etc. This really could be condensed into one day and frankly could be done online. As far as the $145 goes on one hand I get it. It does cost money to drug test, run background checks, and MVR , but on the other hand that is one of the costs of doing business and really should not be passed on to the driver.
- Pick up fees: Just like the Orientation cost this is one that has also always bothered me. If you are picking up an RV from one of the yards the driver gets charged a $20 pick up fee. In a nut shell Horizon has contractors that drive the RVs from the Manufactures to various yards in Indiana. I did shuttle once and the price they get paid varies depending on the location of the Manufacture in relation to the yard that is being dropped at. I do not remember any one RV paying $20 all were below that . From there the price Horizon paid the shuttle driver gets passed on to the transporter .
- Deer Season: Horizon has a policy that from Nov 1 and lasting a few months a DRIVEAWAY driver cannot drive from Sundown to Sun up. During that time you cannot get an advance. There are no exceptions to this rule. If you are in an accident of any kind (deer, car, etc) and its dark you will lose your bond, and i believe you will be de-leased.
- DMA App : This is a sore spot with drivers and I am not going to even sugar coat it . THE APP SUCKS! to Horizons defense it is a 3rd party app but it does go down often, its generally slow, and its just all around not great.
- Bankers hours: Now this is not really Horizon specific but they are an 8am-5pm business Monday thru Friday. You can reach breakdown and the control room for an advance but dispatch and others services are not available. If you have 25k safety miles you can self dispatch reloads. Sometimes I think all these companies forget that drivers are not 8-5 employees with weekends off.
With all of this being said I would 100% recommend anyone who wants to work, especially those with a CDL to reach out to Horizon Transport. You can find their application here https://applicants.horizontransport.com/ . If you do decide to give them a shot you can use me, Donald Vivier as a referral. To be completely honest I am not sure if I get any sort of bonus but it will show on the app that I referred you and we can keep in touch if you have any questions .