The majority of our team loads get dropped on a yard, or a customer location. Teams won't be doing any unloading of furniture. Although I am sure it has happened before, I wouldn't be concerned.

I'm sure they do live loads and unloads as well. I just don't get to see it. Most of the teams I have contact with, I meet in yards doing a drop and hook.

W/S runs all 48 states and Canada.

As far as my unloading. I generally just drag it to the door. Unless it's too heavy. Then I use a dolly. It's not that difficult. And I can always use the workout

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Insuring polititions fear that
which goes bump in the night.
Seek out their personal homes
and family members. -- SU 83
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BINGO! I am definitely requesting OTR work.

I don't mind taking a load there sometimes, but I can't stand running a CA>AZ>CA or CA>AZ>NV>CA loop, back and forth. I think I will call recruiting at W/S here in the next day or 2 and see if I can get signed on for the school. danc694u, do they have any referral bonus or anything? If so, I'd be happy to say you sent me if you want.

Remove your e-mail before you get dinged by the mods

They pay referals, but I don't do them. That way, 3 months from now when you get PO'd and quit. You can't be cussing me LOL

W/S isn't for everybody. They do a LOT of things differant than most.

__________________
Insuring polititions fear that
which goes bump in the night.
Seek out their personal homes
and family members. -- SU 83
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Whoops, didn't know about the email thing. I wouldn't be hating on you even if I did sign on and then hate it and quit in 3 months. You have not painted it up like some Utopia or anything. I've been around the block enough to know that one guys best job is another guys worst. All we can do is gather as much information as possible and take our best guess. You never know if a company is a perfect match until you've been there a good 6 months or more...unless they're just so God awful that they won't even pay you or something *cough*swift*cough*. I even worked for Swift for about a year back in the day (Being robbed, lied to, and misused the whole time). Half of the job is your own attitude about it. A company has to be straight up robbing me for me to do anything drastic, and even then I would never even consider anything like abandoning a truck or trying to get payback on anyone.

What things do they do different, and why might I not like it? Hell, from what I remember of my previous 10 years of driving...I HOPE like hell they do things different!

One of my best trucking jobs was definitely a "not for everybody" job. I worked for Handy Hardware out of Houston, Tx. It was everything you could possibly imagine in a hardware store from lawn mowers, to pipes, to bags of mulch and concrete to fence poles, shovels, boxes of nails, etc, etc, all tossed randomly into a box van...on the floor, then shaken, not stirred for about 600 miles. Then it was about 12-17 stops (2-3 days) of punishing, back breaking hand unloading in Arkansas and Lowsy-ana. I loved that job! The pay was whatever was decent back then / mile + $10/hr as soon as I got to each stop + motel each night and $~15 or so for food each day. The $10/hr was just taken at my word as I wrote it on my paperwork, and I never abused it and was never questioned about it.

I don't think I'd want a job like that now because I'm not 27 anymore and I'd probably have a stroke tossing lawn mowers around in that incredibly hot trailer down in New Orleans. Back then though, I loved it. I liked running a route where I got to know the customers at the stores (some were really unpleasant characters too). They got to know me in all the motels along my route and would give me extra nice rooms for the usual low rate. Can't beat a hot Jacuzzi bath after offloading 4000 pounds of bagged manu...er....fertilizer.

They love bankers hours They do assign a cell phone for night dispatch though LOL I really expected a 24/7 operation for a company this size. Don't bother calling for a load at 10pm though, it ain't gonna happen.

Need a load at 7am? Not gonna happen either. In other words, if you have a 9am unload. unload at 9am, not 6am.

It's not all bad though. They DO answer that phone when you call. If you have to leave a messege. It's because they already have a caller on the line.

It's run like a much smaller company. The equipment is well maintained. Actually better than some of the bigger outfits.

It's just differant. Many people won't like it, many will. I like it, although it took me a few weeks to figure everything out.

Weekend dispatch?? What's that? LMAO They try to give you a load to match your hours on thursday or friday. So that's not much of an issue. But it can be.

__________________
Insuring polititions fear that
which goes bump in the night.
Seek out their personal homes
and family members. -- SU 83
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That is a little odd. I guess it could be worked around if they pre-plan a bit, but as you know it's impossible to predict if a driver will get empty before "quit'n time" or at 8PM...unless most of their deliveries are neatly scheduled at 9am or something.

I used to show up at deliveries that said "Monday, 7am SHARP! ONLY!!!" and they would happily pull it off Sunday night. Others, you'd show up at Monday, 7am SHARP! only to be told they were not expecting you for 3 more days and delay you 12 hours to try and fit you in...or flat out refuse and tell you to come back Thursday at 7am SHARP!!! I really love the ones that give you an appointment with like a 10 minute window! 7-7:10am. Man you stand in line at the desk from 7am - 7:11 before he "gets around to you" and the dude will refuse the load because you were "late".

Can any OTR guys let me know what kind of miles your getting? My Dad just got his truck today in is concerned about getting enough miles.

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Are you not entertained!!

I'm not "permanent" OTR. But I do run OTR from time to time, when our LTL slows down. And, I don't just do it for a couple of weeks. I've stayed out for 6 or 7 at a time.

I've always gotten 3000 miles plus every time I've ran OTR. Sometimes it's difficult to project what kind of miles you will get, due to the area you wind up in.

And freight is slow for the majority of companies now. So it could get slow for him as well. I sat for 38 hours last week. I took my reset and my layover pay, and made the best of it.

W/S uses first in first out dispatch. So he needs to make sure those empty calls are made immediately. That said, I'm not bound by that (FIFO). I may get unloaded first...and be dispatched dead last. Because they are trying to get me back to my terminal.

I can claim my place in line, by simply telling dispatch to get me moving..I don't care where, and I'm not concerned about going home this week.

They will work very hard to keep your dad moving, as long as he has hours. Word of caution, SFS terminal is a pain in the ### to get out of sometimes. 2-3 days

If your dad hustles, and makes those check calls on time. He should be okay. Of course, all this really depends on what kind of miles your dad needs. If he needs 3500 plus per week..every week. He may be in for some trouble.

__________________
Insuring polititions fear that
which goes bump in the night.
Seek out their personal homes
and family members. -- SU 83
__________________

Does anyone know anything about P.A.M. Transport? I would like to work for them when I finish CDL training. Thanks

danc694u,
Thanks for the info you have provided. I'm in the same boat as Quexos, I've haven't been in a truck since Sept 03 when I left Florida. I'm looking to get back on the road. Looking to work out of the Phoenix terminal, I've lived here for 30 years.
When I was in Florida I worked for Coca-Cola and probley would have stayed if my ex-wife wasn't b**ching about me work 14 hours a day and thinking I was out cheating on her. Still make my blood boil to this day.

Quexos have you contacted W&S yet and if so what did they say about the Phoenix terminal?

Fallenblueknight