Trucking Company Roundup - DOT Foods

A Quick look at DOT Foods story of success. Robert Tracy started out in his home, delivering goods via station wagon. He then advanced to a pickup and finally was able to purchase a truck. He and his wife, Dorothy founded their company in 1960 and named it Associated Dairy Products. This has been changed to DOT, which is an abbreviation of his wife's name.

This company grew by leaps and bounds and is still a family run business. Seven of the couple's twelve children are active in the company. John Tracy went to work in the business in 1980 and is now the CEO. Joe Tracy is the President and COO. Headquarters are located in Mount Sterling, Illinois and it has approximately 3,300 employees. It is the largest food re-distributor in the United States and operates from coast to coast. Their reported income in 2010 was $3.6 billion dollars.

This company delivers mixed loads of frozen, dry, and refrigerated products across the country. It has terminals in California, Idaho, Georgia, Illinois, Indian, Maryland, New York, Illinois, and Oklahoma. It is reported that their growth has doubled every five years, which means more employees.

This company recently conducted a job fair in Fort Worth, Texas to recruit both local and long distant drivers. They reported that their customer delivery specialists are dispatched for two to four days per trip and home two days per week. They also hire team and doubles drivers who are, as a rule, dispatched from four to 7 days at a time. They employ truck driver training school graduates as well as drivers with six months of over-the-road driving experience. There are specific requirements in order to apply for a trucker job.

Their employee benefits are huge and include medical, dental, and vision insurance for driver and family, wellness incentives, prescription drug plan, company match 401(k) retirement, profit sharing, bonus program, life and disability insurance. Their vacation plan is 1 year- 80 hours, 7 years-120 hours, 15 years-160 hours. They have never had a layoff in the life of the company.

In addition, they have an employee assistance program, confidential personal counseling, financial and legal information services, tuition reimbursement up to $3,000 for job-related course work, and 40 hours of ongoing training annually. They also have an employee crisis fund that helps full-time employees who have a crisis caused by natural disasters or other problems as well as additional benefits to help their employees.

A search of employee reviews on the web has found no driver complaints against this company. As a family owned business, with active members, it is apparently carrying on the original goal of Robert and Dorothy Tracy. Their trucks bear that message with, "Trusted values. Innovative solutions. Shared growth". Their site states, "It reminds our employees what we expect of them, and what our business partners can expect from us." This is a company that, while providing excellent customer service, is ever aware of their truckers' needs.