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Carter Express reviews

3.5
(8)
$640 - $1,442/week

Summary

Overall

Home Time

Equipment and Maintenance

Dispatchers and Managers

Salary Surveys

$640 $953 $1,442
weekly average

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Ratings and Reviews

Former Employee - Sep 24, 2020

Came to Carter at Nissan Canton Ms to get off the road and be home daily so I accepted to minimal pay. Upon my decision to leave I gave them a 5 weeks notice and requested to take my 40 hours of vacation the final week. Instead of them notifying me that because I was leaving I was going to be denied the vacation time they had me looking for the check and saying I was denied a full week after my last day. Had me to speak with HR and I was told that I was a no call no show and listed me as being terminated. Talk about a company that doesn’t care to see a man do better for himself that’s Carter in my experience. People that you consider a friend to hire you on and be treated like that in the end says a lot about friends in certain positions. Never again!!! Thumbs down to Carter at Nissan Canton Ms

Pros

None

Cons

Pitiful Pay and they drag the good drivers while baby sitting the lazy ones to get paid exactly the same

Home Time
No Rating
Equipment and Maintenance
Dispatchers and Managers

Former Employee - Feb 19, 2019

If you have an accident on the job the owner John Paul will work with doctors, hospitals, etc. to make sure that you can't receive adequate medical care.

Pros

Cons

The owner will deny you your right to receive medical care.

Home Time
Equipment and Maintenance
Dispatchers and Managers

Current Employee - Nov 14, 2018

The best company I have run for. Great staff...great equipment...weekly pay. Health insurance is as good as it gets...considering Obama care screwed everyone. Great terminals...Hope to retire from Carter.

Pros

Mostly all straight dedicated. Have some sweet high mile team routes. Most routes offer great time off.. Just have to find what route works best for you.

Cons

A few team routes are tough and barely give you 34 hours a week at home.

Home Time
Equipment and Maintenance
Dispatchers and Managers

Former Employee - Jun 21, 2018

Do yall have a rider policy and what are the year and models of the trucks and how much does your base rate of pay start out at

Pros

N/a

Cons

N/a

Home Time
No Rating
Equipment and Maintenance
No Rating
Dispatchers and Managers
No Rating

Current Employee - Jan 31, 2018

I've been with Carter express since 1988 this is a great company John Paul is a great person to work for. JEA ????

Pros

Cons

Home Time
Equipment and Maintenance
Dispatchers and Managers

Salary Surveys

Owner Operator - 5+ Years CDL Experience

Surveyed in Laredo, Texas on Mar 10, 2021

$962 per week

Current Employee

No

Owner Operator - 5+ Years CDL Experience

Surveyed in Anderson on Oct 17, 2020

$800 per week

Current Employee

No

Company Driver - 2 Years CDL Experience

Surveyed in Canton, MS on Sep 24, 2020

$640 per week

Current Employee

No

Company Driver - 5+ Years CDL Experience

Surveyed in Vandalia, Ohio on Nov 14, 2018

$1 per week

Current Employee

Yes

Company Driver - 5+ Years CDL Experience

Surveyed in Romulus, MI on May 25, 2016

$923 per week

Current Employee

Yes

Discussions

Carter Express

The Patriot

Feb 29, 2016

Carter Express

In my twelve years of driving I have driven for more than a few companies.
Like most drivers starting out....got my wings with a mega (Werner) and six months later decided megas and OTR was not for me. Was turned on to a temp driver company which agreed to take a chance with me only having six months and got a real good look at the various smaller companies and various freights out there.
Was not long until I decided I loved dedicated routes. Moved around a few companies as routes and contracts ended ...as they do in the automotive freight.
In time a route which I liked was taken over by Carter and immediately there was a pay increase....not that I was not already making a good wage.
Benefits not bad at all and who can beat their safety bonus?....Which is a nice check every quarter not the usual shell game that most companies offer and do their best not to pay it to drivers...Carter tries every way for you to get it...
They offer various routes...team and some OTR but like anywhere you have to find what suits you or you will not be happy. Their pay is often above average which is the best start. They have routes that can fit just about anyone's life style...Example...I prefer not working a full driver's week as I am a 40 hours a week kinda guy....
Any real issues I have had are often resolved quick and the folks I have met and dealt with are a great bunch.
Ok so I broke my rule about not saying where I work but these folks deserve to be recognized.

Carter Express

The Patriot

Feb 29, 2016

Carter Express

I had four good years with them and earnings were above average on a dedicated run from Laredo to Detroit every week with weekends off

PRIME, JIM PALMER, MAVERICK,ROEHL, CARTER EXPRESS

firemedic2816

Jul 25, 2016

PRIME, JIM PALMER, MAVERICK,ROEHL, CARTER EXPRESS

Q: How does Carter Express train? Do they have their own school?

 

A: They are small about 800 power units 1100 trailers, school in Muncie Indiana, Indianapolis and Arkansas. They run regional through Indiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio I believe. They provide schooling if you do it in Arkansas they have dorms, neither of the Indiana schools do, because usually the people from Indiana live close enough to commute. If you go through Arkansas you sign a 1 yr then schooling is free. Indiana it's 19 months, little smaller company so.

 

A: Well Carter Express is out. Web site said they hire out of Cincinnati however just got email from recruiting that said other wise.

Journey with Carter Express

atp323

Aug 14, 2015

Journey with Carter Express

Greetings everyone,

I have followed the forums for a while and have always been able to find good information on many different types of companies. One company, Carter Express, I have not found nearly as much information and mostly outdated. After much consideration I have decided to accept a position with them. I will be posting my experience with them. They are going to bring me on as an experienced driver as long as I pass the road the test. I have just barely over a year experience. So, for me orientation is only going to be three days. After the three days I will come back to Ohio and work out of Vandalia.

Although prior to this, they were still investigating my experience and at first was going to bring me on as a trainee. So, for the benefit of those without one year experience this is what I learned about the trainee process (placed in spoiler below to help keep the post from being too long).

SPOILER: TRAINEE INFORMATION


Other bits of information:

Trucks are 2013 or better, with newer trucks beginning to arrive in Vandalia. In Vandalia they are getting Freightliners and phasing out the Volvos. They have a Freightliner dealership just down the road and for them to fix the Volvo's they have to find time to get them out toAnderson. Which is not always practical for their drivers. Also, all the trucks are automatics. For me that will be a first, I am interested to drive one. Also, a side note, the trucks do not have APU’s. They do offer an idle bonus, you are compared to the idling of other trucks, same type and year (not entire company), for what the bonus would be.

I was told that benefits cost around $150 per week for a family for everything. I will update more on this when I find out in orientation.

They offer a weekly guarantee of $875. I’m personally excited about this. I will find out more about this in orientation for any possible stipulations, but the way it was explained, if you happen to not get enough miles or would have to deal with truck issues that could cause you to lose miles you are guaranteed that amount. Of course, hopefully I can make more than that. They did mention they have extra runs I can do.

Otherwise starting pay for me is .35CPM. Which means I would need to drive more than 2,500 miles to make more than the minimum. 

I know the pay isn’t quite top notch compared to some companies, but for me I get to be home way more often with my family and still make decent pay.

Since I am coming on as an experienced driver I do qualify for the sign on bonus. It is $2,400, which you get paid $200 a month starting 30 days after hire.

For now, this is what I can remember. As I learn more I'll keep everyone updated.

 

Today, I completed my first day of orientation. One day down, two more to go. Everything went well today. The people I encountered from the company seemed to be down to earth. There were even a couple of rehires coming back to Carter. That can be a good sign about a company when you have drivers wanting to come back. They said it wasn't to unusual for that to happen, of course sometimes the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

The morning started with drug tests, physicals and road tests. All of which went smoothly. Although the the lady taking care of us this morning apologized for it taking longer than usual, but we were a big orientation class, all 12 of us. Personally for me that's small, but then again I've experienced dealing with a mega carrier that can easily bring in 50 plus people every week for orientation. The smaller group size was nice to say the least. After that we had the typical safety videos and hazmat, we also met with HR for discussion about fueling and benefits. One neat piece of information I learned is that Carter will cover the cost for you to get IdleAir since they don't have APU's on the trucks. (Although I have heard that some of the newer trucks are coming equipped with APU's). 

Also, if anyone is interested in learning more about the benefits feel free to message me. They are decent, but one thing you will have to consider is if you have a spouse that works and can get coverage from their work, then Carter won't cover them. That is if you wanted to cover them from the start.

For lunch they ordered us Papa Johns pizza, which was pretty good. I like Papa Johns. For those that had to travel here and currently staying in the hotel, you are given a prepaid MasterCard for your dinners. On hotel accommodations, I am in a room by myself and the breakfast they served was decent. They had bacon and eggs when I went out this morning. As well as the usual cereal, yogurts, pancakes that others places I have stayed in has.

Overall the experience has been very pleasant. The company does seem to care about its drivers.

I'm off to relax now. Any questions feel free to ask, I'll do my best to answer.

 

The last two days for orientation went by quickly. Everything went pretty well. Lot more classes and information thrown at us. They fed us Lee's Famous Chicken Recipe for lunch yesterday. Today was a shorter day, just finalizing a last few things. Also, we got assigned out trucks. Well, for me I won't get mine until I go to the Vandalia Terminal. I did talk to dispatch today they are going to have me do a relay tomorrow in a Day Cab, (since the trip will be under 300 miles it will be paid by the hour, this goes for any trip under 300, just how Carter rolls), they are having my truck cleaned over the weekend which is a condo. I will be on a dedicated run and will start that officially on Monday.