Well, I've completed truck schooling (MTC in Hazelwood,MO), and just today I completed Hogan's orientation.... This seems like an EXCELLENT company. The pay is not that great, they cap out at about 39 cpm, but they are VERY safety oriented. If you run over your hours, you are terminated. Any more than 3 preventables or one preventable that causes more than 10,000 worth of damage, terminated. If you plan on driving from 11pm-5am, you must call the "fatigue hotline" and have a professional determine whether or not you're good to drive overnight. If not, it's a mandatory shutdown. Now while this might sound like overkill for some of you experienced drivers, I LOVE it, simply because I don't want to push myself and/or kill myself or others, especially in my first year. There are NO "hot loads" or pressure from your dispatch or fleet manager. If you feel pressured, report it to the safety director and he will investigate, whereby the FM or dispatch could ultimately be terminated. I like that. I can't wait to get behind the wheel. I took my road test for them and I gotta say, WOW, I like these Internationals!! I know they're not as powerful as the pete's or freights or the kenworths, but man, that automatic 10-speed is gonna spoil me QUICK!! The cummins motor seems to be very reliable as well.

The only bad thing though is that now I have to wait up to a week to get with my trainer. They're short on trainers right now due to an excessive amount of trainees coming through. Quite discouraging considering I've been out of a job for a little over 2 months as it is, and now I have to wait another week on top of that. It's okay though.

Bottom line: Hogan seems to be a VERY, VERY good company. I've talked to about 20 drivers, and they all love it. The turnover at this company is only 94 percent, which is GREAT!!! Most other companies are WELL over 115 percent.

Good luck out there people!!!

You're right Magic.
Hogan DOES sound to be excessive in their requirements and rules. Butcha know what? I think you might be right about it being a good training process. And I like your attitude.

When I drove for Schneider, they had "Trip-Master" installed. A rather primitive device by today's standards, that recorded three things:

1. Road Speed. (Not to exceed 55 mph, although the trucks were governed at 65. We were allowed a certain percentage over. But not a lot.

2. RPM. Not to exceed 1,800 RPM. Again we were allowed a small percentage over.

3. Idle time. Not to exceed a prescribed percentage. Under certain conditions those standards were relaxed --- by permission.

Combine good results from a read-out of the Trip-Master, combined with on time deliveries and pick-ups, and no customer service failures, it was worth an additional seven cents a mile.

I, along with many drivers, considered it all a big pain in our buttoxes. And I'll admit I did it mostly for the money to be made. However, in the long run, running the Trip-Master taught me patience and self-control. It also taught me to maintain a constant and consistent speed/RPM for long stretches. Most of the Big trucks I drove back in the day, didn't have cruise control. To this day, I still prefer "pedaling" my Big trucks. As an added bonus, I usually beat the fuel mileage obtained while using the cruise control. It's a game I play that pays.

It's whatcha make of it, IMO.
If life deals y'all lemons,.........
make lemonade.
I've drunk a LOT of lemonade.

There fatigue hot line consist of someone saying have you slept lately? You saying not in 3 days and them saying ok go ahead.

I could never work for someone like that, call every night, are you kiddin me!?
That's my prefered time to drive.

__________________
"no load is so hot it won't cool off in a ditch"

I drove for Hogan's dedicated service out of Dublin, Ga. The COMPANY itself is great and is more close knit. If i called most times they recognized me by voice and unlike a previous blue trailer-pulling-company-out-of-omaha,ne-that-i-will-not-name, (begins with W) they do keep their trailers and trucks up. If I had a truck problem, it was no problem. So good luck, man.

__________________
Fair Exchange Is No Robbery

"Leonard was the kind of ######### that gave Nazis a bad name."
"My greatest fear is that this world will eventually be overrun. Overrun by midgets. Evil, soul-less, albino midgets. God help us."

I've read that before about Hogan, the fatigue thing. For experienced drivers it may be a bother, but for greenhorns it's a good thing.

__________________
Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

Hi magicfingers! I like your attitude also, I start school on monday 10/01/07 M.T.C in Hazelwood,Mo. I was just wondering how it was? could you offer any advise? I have been a nervous wreck all week,but very excited at the same time. I have heard alot of good things about Hogan,unfortunately I have heard nothing but bad things about Swift & that's who I"ve been pre-hired by,but Im going in with the attitude that Im going to do whatever it takes to make this work,and be happy! So congratulations to you! & keep that positive energy going!

Hey Rabbithut!

W E L C O M E to the forums here.

Hi Aftershock! Thank you! This forum has been a HUGE help to me, I wouln't have known anything at all what to expect.Thanks again!

Hey folks,

Just looking for a little education here. Is 94% turnover great? Does that mean that 94% of the people who go to work there leave?

What about the companies with 115%+ turnover? Does that mean that all people quit and 15% of those same people return and quit again?

I am not trying to be smart just looking for an answer. Thanks.

Drive safe