I am in Aurora all the time, and we have a drop yard in Chicago.
You would have no problem getting home at all, and if in Salt lake after upgrade go and meet John in Kraft Dedicated, a hand shake will get you on the fleet, and soon after thru home once a week or so. Plus the miles are a little less than OTR, but the pay rate is higher.
Also we haul out of Nestle and other companys in the area. Allot of freight here for us.
I have actually been there 2 times this week.

Chrome, this is EXACTLY the kind of advice that makes me appreciate this thread. Please keep up the good work.

Thanks alot for the answers to my questions Chrome....will be investigating the company a bit further off of what you said!!!!

Yea the Red Pete is our Lease Truck The Lease Payments for a new Pete are steep enough a little over $500 a week. If you can run your 3200-3400 miles a week you will make decent money.

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The Two J's living in the house Peter bilt.

Welcome Hanger to the Central part of the Forum! As you can see I spend far to much time on here lol. Buttttttttt there are a lot of nice people on here and its good to keep up with other drivers and some spouses.

As Chrome said Central send a lot of trucks into Chicago we have been there twice in the last few weeks so you shouldn't have a problem getting home time.

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The Two J's living in the house Peter bilt.

Jess-juju and/or ChromeDome

Would love to be able to talk with you through email regarding a few things that I am trying to build opinions about without the bashing/politics of an internet forum LOL, would this be possible? I can't PM my email, so......

Thanks alot

I had a funny little incident over the phone with Central today.

My truck's auto-idle and TAS aren't working. As a result, we have the truck in the shop at home (worked out that way with our load). We went to deliver our load on Tuesday, and when we got there we were told "Tuesday's a bad day for delivering freight, how about your drop your trailer right there and go pick up an empty one from out back? I'm sure there's one out there."

So we did just that, no sense in spending a day waiting to unload when We could just trade trailers. We grab the trailer, take the truck to volvo, drop the trailer and check the truck in. Then we go home.

Today we get a call from one of the guys at Central, asking where we got our trailer. I explain that we picked it up at the receiver and dropped it at Volvo, and he told me the trailer's been on the missing list for 30+ days.

Colour me surprised.

I told him where it was and he was happy to hear it was back, but it sure tickled me to hear we'd found a missing trailer.

And now I find out my truck's not fixed, and they're not sure what's wrong. At least I have a normal bed to sleep in while they work on it.

You get a couple hundred bucks for the trailer recovery, fill out the mac for it.

I am eyeballing Central right now myself. I see a list of recruiters to contact on their web site. Do any of you have any personal experience with one of them that you would recommend by chance? I have a 16 year old felony that is making things very difficult for me. I won't go into details here about it, but I have a felony conviction for a crime that I DID NOT commit, but none the less, so far all I am hearing is, "Sorry, I can not hire you". My driving record, and DAC (other than the felony) are squeaky clean for 10+ years, and I have 10 years experience from 1989-1999, but as soon as I mention my felony, it's "Have a nice day...*click*"

You will probibly find the same responce at Central, I am sorry to say.
Just be honest about it and see what happens. I have seen quite a few people go into the school or orentation as an experianced driver, and they always leave early. They do a very good background check. Though, if you did not do it, but pleaded guilty for a bargin agreement, just to get it over with or protect your rear, then in the eyes of the law you are just as guilty as the person that did it.
If you did not commit this crime, or were busted as a accessory, but not participant, I would try and get it cleaned off your record.

A lawer that sucks should even be able to get that cleaned off, due to financial hardship, and the time that has passed since it took place.

You should be able to find a small company that will take you though, with your experiance. Many of them dont look as close at convictions, unless they need you to go to Canada.