As a former driver for HOOSIER TRADEWINDS all I can say is RUN from them as fast as you can. If you are a new hire who just completed oreintation you are probably sitting in their classroom waiting for them to supply you with a truck. The truck bone yard is located in Westfield, IN. They will bring a truck to you at the office because they do not want you to see their fine quality trucks that they want their new drivers to drive. You will be very lucky if the truck truck starts, moves, or even passes an inspection. As, they are awaiting for you to sign of the dotted line of their lease contract, they will start making promises to you. They will tell you anything just so you can put your hands on the steering wheel and everything will be your responsibility from that point on.
The day you leave the company, they will keep your last TWO paychecks, your performance bond, and your escrow maintenance... totalling about $8,000.00 for me. They will inform you that you have to wait for the end of the 45 days after the contract has been terminated. In that time, they will write Thousands of dollars off of your maintence escrow to fix their truck up.... which they already knew was bad to begin with. I had two maintence personel (Pat and FAT CAT) told me that the truck that I was driving should never be on the road. They both claimed that it was a HAZZARD just sitting there in the yard. After your 45 days are up from the terminatin contract, they WILL NOT make any effort in contacting you. When you try to call their office requesting YOUR money, they will keep transfereing you call to a DEAD TRUNK of their sophisticated phone system. They will even flag your number so you can not reach them at all. You will learn to you the *67 feature on your phone or simply just call from another phone.... sometimes they will even flag the area code so you cant get through.
So, Lets meet some of the staff of Hoosier Tradewind
Josh... The safety director... big time liar. He will start making promises to you that they will upgrade your truck as soon as they can. He will advise you to drive the trucks without proper cab card, insurance, IFTA, and again make promises that if the driver gets caught he will pay the fines.
the dispatchers... they are constatly skimming miles of your pay. They claim it is Practical miles, But I caught them red handed when another driver and myself left the same shipper and arrived at the same delivery.... of coarse I was paid alot less miles for the SAME TRIP.
Jackie in payroll.... we should call her NERVOUS NED..... because she gets so nervous when she gets caught up in her scheme. She is told exactly what to do by the management of who to cut.... who to cheat.... basical they give her permission to steal your money.
Natasha.... Basically she is Josh's right hand.... She will cover up for the company,,, lie to you about the valadity of the compliance of the truck. She will charge you plates every week, however the plates will not match your truck. there are a lot of trucks without proper compliance. And they may have charged for insurance... and come to find out... they did not have the proper paper work for my insurance until the week that I quit.
Matt... he is the company negotiator. He will advise you that you Cant quit.. you need to drive longer so we can take more money out of your check. Matt advised me that he has the power to hold any pay from any driver. Especially if they do not have enough escrow built up so they steal it from the driver. The word escrow has a different meaning to them.. DRIVERS DO NOT GET ESCROWS BACK...
So here is some useful and truthfull information for you about this company that claims they run a business on Christian Principles. RUN RUN RUN!!!!!!