Where to begin with the fun and adventures I had with Steven's???? It's hard to put into words, but here goes... I answered a classified ad in our local newspaper for CDL drivers. The ad offered free, paid training and guaranteed placement with Steven's Transport provided you were able to complete the training program. I called the 1-800 number, and spoke VERY briefly with a Steven's Transport recruiter, who referred me to a local 'training center'. I called the training center, and was told that yes, Steven's would sponsor students for training and would hire them after the completion of training. The training center representative told me that the training would be free, provided the employee did not quit Steven's before one year of service. They touted the fact that the company had not had a layoff in 28 years. I was told that the training center would provide housing, at a cost of $75.00 for the duration of the training, and that we would also have to pay for our DOT physicals and drug screen, and our CDL permits and licenses. Finally, we were told that we would not recieve any pay for the three and a half weeks we were in training, but that we would begin to be paid immediately after our arrival in Dallas, Texas for orientation. We were also told that Steven's would provide THREE (3) meals per day on our arrival. We were told that we would be paid $350.00 a week while in training, shitty, but at least we'd be getting something. At the end of the paid orientation and the over-the-road training, we'd be getting 27 cents per mile-below industry average, but hey, you have to start somewhere, right? Well, read this all the way through, and you'll see that your 27 cents per mile gets eaten up pretty f**king quickly with all the hidden fees, fines, and other Stevens bulls**t. Since I had always wanted to try my hand at truck driving, and was in desperate need of a job, I signed up, and began the classroom portion of the training with several other students. The first two days were 'free', that is, we were not asked to make any commitment to the company. We had several pep talks from the owner of the school, who told us how fan-f**king-tastic our new 'career' was going to be, complete with promises of around $40, 000 yearly income for 'hard workers'. Other than the company sponsored pep talk, the classroom portion of the training involved taking practice tests for our CDL exams and filling out background questionaires for Steven's. Additionally, we took a DOT physical-at our own expense. After completing the questionaires and DOT physical, we were told that we were hired, and ready to begin training. On day 3, the scam began. We were asked to sign Steven's Transport tuition agreements. We were instructed to cross out all of the repayment details, and told that this would not be necessary because, if we did not quit before our one year mark, we would owe nothing. Note, nothing was said AT ALL about being fired or laid off. The total cost of the three and one half week training course was to be $5, 999.00, at a 'reasonable' interest rate of 19%. Yes, that's right, campers-19%. We were also told that if we wanted to pay up front, the cost was $3000. Why the 50% increase? In short, to make certain that, no matter how illegal or unethical the employer's demands, that we would be scared to death to quit. We asked for copies of the signed loan agreements, only to be told that we would get them after arriving in Dallas. The owner of the training center himself refused to provide these contracts, and implied that we would be seen as 'rocking the boat' as brand-new employees if we continued to complain. In retrospect, I should have bailed at this point, but Steven's KNOWS they're recruiting desperate people who need a job, and believe me, they prey on that. It should be noted that refusing to provide copies of a signed loan contract is ILLEGAL under Federal law, but it would soon become obvious that breaking the law means little, if anything, to this outfit. Now on to the fantastic 'training center'. In the interest of fairness, about half of the staff REALLY seemed to take their jobs seriously. They showed up for work on time, provided instruction that was geared toward the individual student, and took extra time with the folks who struggled. They were a little rough around the edges and didn't really have time for folks who didn't want to listen, but who can blame them? Note, I said that this describes half of the staff. The other half of the staff were, well, worthless. They spent about one hour of their day instructing, and the other ten hours fixing their cars, packing for hunting trips, and generally sitting on ass. Also, they were regularly late or absent, which made the other staff members divide their time between twice as many students, which was unfair to the students and to the instructors. For $5, 999, I expected more. A LOT more. Thanks to the two fellas that actually came to work and (gasp) worked, we all passed our CDL practical and written exams. We went on to complete our training course, but as we did so, several of the students were eliminated for issues they had disclosed initially on their background questionaires. This was a bit puzzling, since we were told that we were hired already, but we just kept plugging along. We recieved bus tickets to the Steven's Transport headquarters, in Dallas, Texas, for orientation. Our last bit of instruction from the director of the training center was, 'you've all already been hired, don't go down there and 'unhire' yourselves'. On arrival in Dallas, phase two of the scam began. We all got rooms at the Howard Johnson's in Mesquite, a crack-riddled ghetto suburb of Dallas. Remember the meals that Steven's promised? Well, we found out that the weekend before orientation didn't count, so many of the new employees went hungry since they didn't have any money left after paying for DOT physicals, housing at the school, CDL permits and licenses, and all the other costs of employment with Steven's. We all met up for the trip to scam central, AKA Steven's Training Center, the next morning-at 5 AM. Remember the breakfast that we were promised? Yeah, that begins at 6:00 AM. No meals, again, and some of the fellas were looking a little hungry and frustrated. After arriving at Steven's, we started orientation. We were told that there would be no pay for the orientation. That's right, on top of the three and a half weeks of no pay and the hundreds of dollars shelled out to the training center, we would not be paid for the NEXT 4 days. Ouch. For the next 4 fifteen hour days. That's right, campers, 15 hour days. For free. In their defense, Steven's DID start feeding us-slop. Absolutely indigestable trash. Normally, I wouldn't complain about a free meal, but these weren't free-they were our compensation for 15 hours of work, and not worth it. While at the orientation program, we took ANOTHER physical-and this one washed about half of the class for various PREDISCLOSED problems. These folks were told that they were still on the hook for the six thousand dollar tuition, even though Steven's had disqualified them for issues they were aware of prior to their arrival. The orientation consisted of 50-60% classroom training, and 40-50% track time. We used the Steven's Transport facility 'on the hill', directly behind the training center. We did mostly the same things with the trucks that we had been doing at the CDL school on the hill, and recieved grades for each of the skills. We also took a road test. A complete waste of fucking time. I was in the same truck with a fella from Guatemala who did not speak or understand English (hmmmm...isn't that against the law?), and who could not find any of the gears with a road map, a complete schematic directly from Kenworth, and the aid of the sweet baby Jesus. I shit you not, we coasted for most of the road test with this guy driving, and at the end, he passed. But then, we all passed. During the classroom portion of the orientation, we were asked to sign mandatory, binding arbitration agreements-almost like Steven's is afraid they'll be sued or something. We were also introduced to the Steven's Transport workman's compensation program. It was a short class-they have opted out of workman's comp, so if you're injured, no matter where in the country you're from, you get to do your rehab at the Howard Johnson's, or you don't get any workman's comp. I'm not kidding, and I couldn't make this up-that's the deal. You will see their doctors, in Dallas, or you will be cordially invited to go fuck yourself. Are you from Vermont? Tough s**t. You're rehabbing in Dallas. From Boston? Hope your rehab doesn't take too long, and I hope you like Dallas. By the way, they're not going to make ANY arrangements to board or transport your family, either-so don't get hurt. If you're curious about this part of the scam, Google 'Steven's Transport Workman's Compensation', and you'll find that they've been sued over this-repeatedly. Once, during arbitration, they lost, and tried to blame their loss on the administrative judge's MIGRAINE FUCKING HEADACHE. All in order to f**k a hard-working employee who bought into their scam. Another protion of the orientation involves filling our paperwork to allow Steven's to deduct just about anything they feel like from your check. You'll be paying for an $80.00 meat lock, and two $30.00 load locks before you're allowed off the yard in your own truck, by the way. Yep, another $140.00 out of pocket, and all you've gotten so far is some shitty Mexican food and a room at the Ho Jo's. Also, if your truck is damaged-even by SOMEONE ELSE, you'll be paying the insurance deductible out of pocket, too. Don't forget to check your load temperature-yep, you guessed it, they can 'fine' you for that, too. Over-rev the truck? Yep, that's right-you're paying for it, even though Steven's is a TRAINING COMPANY. Go out of route? Cha-ching. Over on your fuel? Cha-ching. Miss a fuel stop? Cha-ching. Are you starting to see a pattern here? One of the portions of the class I thought was especially enlightening was the axle and vehicle weight portion. If you drive for Stevens, you WILL drive over weight-or the dispatchers will black ball you and you'll be waiting-unpaid-for days at a time between loads. Remember, this is a training company, and your replacement is probably already being trained. And, if you quit, it's no skin off their nose-you'll still be on the hook for the six grand, at 19% interest. One of the employees there at the training center, a big African American fella named Eugene, will come in and reassure you that if you get a ticket for being overweight, and you've been told by your dispatcher that you should pull the load despite being overweight, that Stevens will pay the fine. What Eugene won't tell you-even if he's asked directly-is that each commercial driver has a DAC report, on which EVERY VIOLATION he or she commits is logged. That overweight ticket goes on YOUR DAC report-and it WILL prevent you from advancing in the industry. Also, what Eugene won't tell you is that in some states, you might be ARRESTED for being over gross-which the dispatchers will STILL try to get you to pull-and you're not getting out unless you or Steven's comes up with the fine amount. Nice, eh? And you better make sure that they send you the message in writing on your Qualcomm, or else they're gonna claim that you volunteered to pull an overweight load, and then you're gonna be ass out! Another detail Stevens leaves out is the fact that profitable trucking jobs require a SPOTLESS DAC. All those overweight tickets that Stevens pays for mean that you're not going to get hired by Wal-Mart, Fed-Ex, or any of the other big-money trucking companies. You're stuck as a bottom feeder forever-for 27 cents per mile. Oh, and about the 27 cents per mile-did I mention that you're going to pay for every truck-related expense with advances from your pay? Need toll money? Take an advance. Need to pay lumpers to unload the freight? Take an advance. Money for a fine? Take an advance. Windshield wiper fluid, oil, coolant, or any other minor repair? Take an advance. Stevens claims that they'll reimburse you, but remember, they get to decide whether to do that or not after the fact. Your money has already been spent, and now you have to beg them to give it back. I know some of you are thinking, 'well, I'll just offload my own freight, and take the lumpers out of the equation'. My ass you will. Most of the shippers and recievers I dealt with while in the trainer/trainee OTR phase would not let you on their docks AT ALL, NO MATTER WHAT. Period. No exceptions. And they can be REAL expensive-on trainee pay, the lumpers might cost more that your weekly check for some freight-like Tyson chicken, which is one of the biggest Stevens contracts. So, provided you're stupid or desperate enough to sign off on all of this (I was...), you'll be assigned to a trainer for the first of two over-the-road training phases, trainer/trainee. I've personally decided to report Stevens to OSHA for the numerous violations I observed, so I can't go into specific detail, but suffice it to say that it is possible for the trainer to use your log book to drive illegaly-and in my experience, he WILL. You'll also need to drive illegally, too, or you'll find yourself out of a job. And don't bother calling Stevens to report it-that's the fast-track to unemployment. Suffice it to say, if you go ahead and decide to work for Stevens after reading this, you have only yourself to blame. They somehow manage to get these reports edited off of this site and others, but hopefully, you've read this one and can save yourself the scamming I got.

I was a sstudent at Stevens Transport during the month of Jan-2010, a member of their Grad Fleet from Feb-May 2010. I was impressed by most of my experiance as a student. I didnt like the fact they were paying us $100 less per week as students than most other companies but Stevens was the only company that would accept me as a student. I didnt like the .26 a mile either as opposed to .29-.30 compared to other companies but again I let it go. I can say that the one big rule the company has (like almost all the big companies) has is the NO U TURN policy and they are honest about it. THEY WILL DUMP YOU wherever you are if you are caught. I was headed to Garden City, KS (a place I had only been 1 time in my life and during the day) I knew there was road construction going on but it was a couple months later and 12:15 at night when I arrived there. I didnt see any road construction going on until I had already turned right to go in the truck enterance. Then when my trailer got behing me I saw it...A jersey barrier running for miles and blocking the enterance...I had no choice but to use as much of the 30 minutes I had left to legally drive and the little fuel I had left (fuel light on) to try and find a place to turn around...I drove for 5-10 miles in pitch black (even with high beams on I couldnt see anything) I saw TWO driveways big enough to accomidate my rig and attempted my uturn. No traffic for miles around, no one got hurt, truck got stuck in some tall grass and I was told I had till 10am the following morning to clear out. I MESSED UP, I did everything right to avoid injuries and still got terminated. I had to hitchike 100 miles to the nearest Greyhound and didnt eat for 2 days because I had no money. A woman named Chris Cordell from Lamar, CO (a Godsent angel if you ask me) was the only reason I made it home (she bought my $200 bus ticket!)! Im not mad they fired me, not even mad they left me stranded like they did. I am mad because of things they dont tell you. They tell you that if you stay for the 3 weeks of school and the following few weeks of OTR training they will get you home in your own truck and that is crap! I went through the training and had my miles and my mountains by the end of Feb. and was forced to stay OTR until mid MAY! Everytime I got close to home they would turn me around and say they were WORKING on getting me home. The Driver Managers DONT communicate ith each other. I had a DM say he had a load waiting for me in Biloxi, MS and the VERY next day when I was ready for it I was told it was already on its way to the destination! I was forced to work at the very limit of my driving hours constantly and had to fight to get a restart! I had to drive 12 hours once to meet another driver so I could do a restart and I get there and his reefer is running, ok thats odd, Im supposed to do a restart but I cant because Im under a load again. To top it off this DUMBASS has stopped at a truckstop he KNOWS is in the middle of nowhere, TX and didnt have the common sense of a doorknob to fill it up in El Paso or somewhere and 2 hours later it shuts down because the fuel runs out! I stay up for another 8 hours trying to keep it running after driving 12 hours and being up a little longer than that..The next day a DM calls and asks me if Im ready to roll, I laugh, NO! I havent slept and Im suppose to be doing a restart and he gets mad at ME!! I lost it! I have been telling all the DM's that Ive talked to for the past 3 days that Im going to run out of hours and youre pissed at me?!? WTF?!?! Just random BS from that company...I had my first OTR trainer tell me he was going to let me take over driving at 2:30am just miles from Yonkers, New York. He told me to jump in the drivers seat at 60mph on the interstate after he had jumped into the jumpseat! MY FIRST TIME DRIVING OTR!!! And he had a new student the week after I returned to the yard in Dallas! ***! Yall can do what you want just be ready for anything.

Beware of Stevens Transport!!! Do not go to there meeting. They are LIARS. They say it is 3 weeks classroom training and then 5 weeks on the road. That is not true. ONce u have finished your 3 weeks classroom trainif you go to Dallas and there u are supposed to start your over the road training. When I got there, the class that had gotten there before us was still there. You then have to fill out a questionairre and then wait for a trainer to go through them to pick out who HE wants to train. Then at Dallas they tell you you have to do 8 to 12 weeks of over the road training. I was there waiting for my turn for 2 weeks for a trainer and never got one so I left. My friends who went on the road quit because they were only making $100 a week and not $350 like we were told and they could not live off of $400 a month. And there I spent 5 weeks with Stevens with no pay. I now recieve a bill in the mail for the total amount of the training when all I did was classroom trainig. So that is how Stevens stays in business is by lying to all these people and then making them pay at the end. So if you see Stevens Transport Run for your life or u will be sorry. I wish I would have read reviews like this before I joined with Stevens Transport.

Upon my training with Stevens Transport mistakes were made by the training department and I had to accept the responsibility for someone elses lack of doing their job. To make up for their mistake I was compensated by an increase in training pay. Now this has happened again and it was stated to me "I know this is not your fault" (2nd trainer never sent in report card as requested by training safety coordinator). But yet again it falls upon my shoulders to take responsibility of someones negligence. This is not the proper way to do business.