i see your from detroit-- when do you plan on going back to ats? im leaving this weekend going up there.

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I Stand Alone

working the way up the ladder? how long will it take for me to get there? im just starting green-- so how long before i can do O.D and keep moving up?

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I Stand Alone

It's going to be at least another month, the wife wants me to take care of more stuff at home before i hit the road.

To move from Class 4 to Class 3 requies that you haul five OD loads. You submit an application, with your dispatcher's recomendation. Saftey reviews your record and approves it or not.

How fast happens depends on the availability of od freight, competing drivers and whether you accept the od freight offered. It took me five months in the current economy. I have heard of drivers moving to Class 1 in one year in better times.

Heck, Just buy a 4 axle trk and there you go. You are a heavy hauler.

Thanks for clearing that up. For some reason - once again - the website isn't working correctly, so I can't pull my latest earnings, but I started in late May, and a rough guesstimate has me around 50k for the year.

All this "when you figure this, and when you figure that..."

Yeah, that's all well and good. But all I know is far too often I fall quite short of the 800 - 1200 TAKE HOME mark ATS promised at the outset of this thing. I have 800 left to pay on my securement, and actually just bumped it to .06cpm though...

And the hometime is horrid. I live in central wisconsin, 152 miles from Manitowoc, 150 miles from LaCrosse, and 110 miles froom Fond du Lac area (those loads are a total rip off, did one this week) and I thought that by coming here, I could get through the house a lot more than I do, and it just doesn't work out that way.

ATS wants you in the truck all the time no matter where you live. Going home for ONE DAY usually screws up two weeks worth of checks, unless you can pull some crafty trick like holding loads. When it's a week to week struggle, that's near impossible. I've done it twice.

Terry, you have been a great help to me in understanding a lot here at ATS, but it seems to me a lot of what you say is straight out of Tom Berg's playbook, and seems to base itself on ideal happening all the time. This being the trucking industry, we know that doesn't happen.

According to your posts, you haven't even had ONE SINGLE low paying week since I started watching this forum, and for me, that is reason for suspicion.

IT WOULD HELP IF PEOPLE WOULD READ THE THREAD. AT LEAST TWO OR THREE POSTS ABOVE THEIRS. About 3 times in the last two pages have people asked a question that is answered within 5 or six posts of thier posting!

No, I don't want to mislead anyone. I have had bad paychecks. I don't know what the lowest has been. I had $1K the week before. I have had weeks where I didn't turn in my paycheck, of course the next week was twice as large. The bad weeks are offset by very good weeks. My Average for all weeks has been $1,700.00 or a little over.

I admit that I seem to be doing better than almost everyone else. Even my dispatcher tells me I am the only one on her board making money consistantly. I can't explain it. I do my best to make it happen.

Even my home time is good. I was home, for at least a day, mostly the full weekend for the last four weekends. I, still, haven't asked for hometime, I, just, manage my loads and take advantage when I can.

I had a week and a partial week where I sat for several days, I still managed to pull it off and make decent paychecks.

True, I am working my way up. I have completed the requirements to move up to Class 3. For some reason, Safety is taking their time in getting me approved. I have heard that they are preoccupied with ATS' upcomming DOT instpection and I have heard, in the past they moved drivers up too fast and have intentionally slowed things down.

You can haul OD loads from day one. Each class has its own deminsions. They get wider, higher, longer, or worth more for each class you move up.

I think I posted each Classes requirements in the ATS thread that was locked.

I've hauled blades in the past at my last job. I did it a lot in fact. Big as they come. And from what I've heard about what ATS pays compared to what my last company paid for rates, I'm not sure I want to touch Wind stuff here. I'd never been behind a high pole, so I ended up leaving Cloud a 3. I shrugged it off.

I've been seeing a lot of OD stuff that is grotesquely cheap lately. As long as it takes to secure the load, set up your printer, get your permits, and get moving, you'll probably lose most of the day.

So that 65% of the figure they send over the driver tech for me hasn't been worth the hassle lately. I've been staying on regular freight, pulling my hair out over this qualcomm vs. logbook vs. fuel stop garbage, and doing just fine.

I tested into Class 2 a while back, and I'm so sick of sitting on OD loads for weekends, that I'm being ultra selective in what I take for OD. I'm not out here to waste time. While even a crappy OD load might pay the truck bills by Monday, sitting and staring at a truck stop far from home puts me in such a low mood, I can barely stand it.

I'd like to see some OD offered DURING the week once in a while. I really don't see much at all. I'm sure they do that on purpose.

Well, had a crappy week this week in the strangest of places, the east coast. I couldn't believe how dead it was. Even loads on the sureway board I was suggesting were said to have no money on them.

Eeesh....

Anyway, if I'm careful with this load I have now, I can cover 99% of my truck bills by Monday, and I have about 550 left to pay on my securement. Hopefully that improves things greatly.