TransAm wasn't too bad!

I will post my exp's with them soon I will be in there class monday morning.
I am a exp'ed driver though not going to learn going to get thru 90 days and try out being a trainer and see what kinda money that will put in my pocket.

 

Hi everyone my name is Isa and since my husband is on the road now I thought I would join everyone here and fill you in on his experiences at TranAm, So here we go, Well my husband is now on his 5th day of training with TransAm and all is going really good. So far there getting plenty of miles, as of tonight they are running as a team, and getting along great. After his 3 day orientation he did have to wait 4 days to get his trainer but one day was Thanksgiving so that don't really count. During that time TransAm put him up in a nice Holiday Inn in Olathe Kansas & the owner was nice enough to hand out free Thanksgiving meal tickets to all of the students( about 30 ) so everyone had a holiday meal.
So far so good sounds like he's learning alot and enjoying the road.
I'll keep everyone updated because I too noticed there's not much out there on TransAm

 

looking forward to it just hate the bus ride bah

 

Hello to everyone. I am currently a lease/op with Trans Am. I can aggree that as a company driver after about 90 day's or so solo they will start to push for you to become a lease/op. If you don't know the first thing about trucking other than what you learned in school or you are just starting out with this company or anyother company for that matter. Do not start your career out with a lease purchase. Yeah you can get behind a brand new shinny automatic KW-660 that can 75mph with a apu and sirius satalite radio, but if you don't have a business sense or anyidea what goes on in the refer industry you might find out that this not for you. Yes, you can walk away from a lease truck no questions asked so long as you give 2weeks notice. If you think after you walk away from a lease you can go right back to being a company driver, your wrong. You have to have no ties with Trans Am as a driver for 30 days before you can go back as a company driver if they have a truck for you. There is alot more i can explain if any of you have any questions feel free to ask i can answer them to the best of my knowledge.

Here is my current exp as being a lease/op:
I have been driving with Trans Am for 8 months, of that 8 months 6 of it were as a company driver. When i first started out i had in my opion the best dispatcher Trans Am has (Wayne). I was getting close to 3000miles a week company & lease. After about 2 weeks into the lease program i find out that he is no longer my dispatcher. He went to the casual dispatchers. So, i find out that i have this new kid (Parker) and from what i can tell he has little if any exp as a dispatcher. My miles have gone down to the 1700-2400/week. Enough miles for all of your payments and give you a little bit of money to yourself. You need to run about 1200 miles/week just to cover all of your truck payments. Then anything after that is yours. I think Trans Am is having quite a bit of turn around on the dispatcher side and they have no choice but to have newbies doing the job. For the past few weeks i have been pleading with my new guy that i can't keep getting just enough miles to make there payment for there truck and leave myself with dust in my wallet. I am trying to give the this new kid the bennefit of the doubt, but after this week nothing changes i am going to have to speak with his boss. Business is business and that is what you are trying to run.

This is what you have to pay weekly on your truck:
12/01 LEASE PAYMENT FLAT 565.00 12/01 LEASE PAYMENT MILES 51.72 12/01 PHYSICAL DAMAGE INSURANC 100.00 12/01 OCCUP. ACCIDENT 22.85 12/01 BOBTAIL/DH INS. 6.00 12/01 GENERATOR 50.00 12/01 ACCT/TAX SVC PC&M 10/08 15.00 12/01 BUY DOWN INS. 12.00 12/01 FUEL OPTIMIZER 3.00 12/01 FEDERAL HIGHWAY USE TAX 10.58 12/01 PREPASS 3.40 12/01 SATELLITE CHARGES 15.00
12/01 OWNER OPERATOR FUEL TAXE 17.24 12/01 TA OPTIONAL MAINT 68.96
12/01 TA PERFORMANCE ESCROW 25.00
Plus the biggest cost of them all is your fuel on top of all of the above.

 

Yea I've read all about the lease programs from alot of differant trucking companies, I've already told my other half everything I've read. I made him promise NO LEASE!!!
I told him someone with no experience is not possibly ready for your own buisness no matter how good they make it sound, No offence to any lease Ops out there.
My brother has been trucking for about 25 years and a few years ago he bought his own Pete and became a owner operator that lasted about two years I think. He loved his truck but when the fuel prices started going up and the matainance (Sorry about that spelling we need a spell ckeck on here) was getting to much he just wasn't making enough money for all the miles he drove. He sold and went back to being a company driver, alot less headaches and he's bringing home a decent wage.

Isa

 

Well so far its starting off good. Got to conyers to jump on the bus togo to atlanta to catch the bus to texas . standing there talking to the guy at busstop when i notice it stops in nashville so i look more and they got my ticket going to kanas to the wrong office.which i dont care but my motel and everything is setup in texas.weekend dispatch couldnt do anything with it so Ill be driving 900 miles or flying tommrow to get there.out of pocket
Off to a good start

 

Hi all

Well today is hubby's 7th day of on the job training with TransAm.
He's really having a good time and learning alot. His Trainer has been really good, they are getting along great. There first run was to Ohio then back to Kansas out again the next day back to Ohio then on to Pennsylvania back to Ohio then on to Oklahoma and back to Missouri. They ran into snow in Ohio 2 days ago. 1st time my husband drove a truck in the snow. He said driving wasn't bad but cars where ditching out alot., and visability was limited.
Today he finally got a chance to do some backing at there last drop. According to him he sucks needs alot of practice there. He's also getting flustered cause theres alot of paperwork he hasn't learned yet I think he's just having a bad day today. He's already been gone 2 weeks and has at least 2 to 3 more training weeks then he has to test out get his own truck before he can come home. I think he's just getting homesick.
I'll keep his training posted