Sound advice, guys. Thanks for chiming in. To reiterate, I am not looking to go back OTR, as I put my time in doing that and will not live on the road again. Some people are cut out for it, not me. I did not realize Conway paid that well. I'm pretty sure they have a terminal here and I will look into it. As far as the unionized companies go, I'm not too excited about joining a union, but if the money and opportunity were right, I would consider it. I've also thought about becoming a trainer with my current company for a couple years to help me get my foot in the door for opportunities in recruiting or support positions. This is a crucial step in my career and finding the right path to remain stable in an industry with so many options can be a bit stressful. Thanks again for the feedback, keep it coming.

There are many ways to improve your income. My advice is do what I do. Sell your blood. I am O- so I gets me the big bucks.

Originally Posted by SmoothBore

As far as OTR goes, I'd do it in moderation. There are a few 4 out, 4 home runs out here for some outfits....Sounds nice!

I would do that, I just won't go back to staying out 2-3 Weeks at a time, then come home for 3 days if I'm lucky.

Originally Posted by RobC

Hey drivers. I started a thread in another forum asking about Harris Teeter but I wanted to do this one as a more general question. A little background...I'm 34, live in Charlotte, and started driving in 2006 with a large national carrier that many drivers consider a "starter" company. I did OTR for about three years and got myself a pretty good dedicated account and have been doing that since. I run 2-3 trips a week, generally eastern U.S., and occasional Canada (2 times/year tops). The account is a plastics company with extremely specialized customers who get TT loads only 2-3 times per year, so they are usually hard to get into/out of but this has allowed me to get really good at maneuvering in tight spaces, and I never deal with shippers. It is easy work, 1200-2000 miles per week generally, and I make $895 weekly salary and get home weekends, and 2 nights/week. The company I work for is good - never have any problems, good equipment, barely have to interact with any management, etc. but the money as you can see, is lacking. I have mentioned a pay raise before but with the way the account is, sometimes I only do 700 miles in a week and still get full salary. I don't see them paying any more for the account. Also, I will not go back to OTR, I would change careers before I lived on the road again.


So this is where my question comes in. The main reason I am entertaining the idea of changing jobs is to get more money. I need to get closer to $1000 gross per week, and would like to be closer to $1200 per week. I have almost 6 years experience with no accidents, and one ticket in a POV (improper turn). Otherwise, this is the only driving job I have ever had, and I am not going to be a job hopper. I used to work in sales, and consider myself clean-cut and professional, with good people skills. I would like to get with a good company to retire with. I am single, with roomates but can relocate if the $$ and opportunity is great. In this area, there are specialized jobs like in NASCAR - related jobs, ie Richard Petty Driving Experience, etc, but those are hard to get into. I have thought about Wal Mart, hearing good things about them, and also a local grocer hiring for their private fleet. Finally, I am starting to research becoming an O/O. So, if you were in my shoes, needed more money, but wanted a long-term thing, what would you do? I am researching different companies, but that is going to take a while. Also, if I do decide to explore the O/O route, I need more $$$ saved to make it happen successfully IMO. Tons of thanks in advance for any advice from you experienced guys. I want to make the right move and now I'm getting sound advice from different angles to help me make the right decisions.

My husband leases from a company, and it has been nip and tuck some weeks as far as money, he has been paid as little as $-32.00 one week. Even with a student he has cleared one week only $519.00; it is according to how many miles they get that week and it seems to be dropping the last few weeks. The student gets about $37.00 a day that he pays him, the company pays some also; so on some weeks the student is making more than he does.

It sounds like you have a great job as far as what you want for days off, travel limits, even the set salary it sounds like.

Perhaps you should get a part-time job, of course I don't know how this would effect your logs. Had a salaried manager once who drove the bus for retired housing community a couple times a week for the bus driver was out sick; he ended up having to clock in and out daily per our company rules but I am not sure if this was because of DOT or not; you know the 34 hr rule, and 10's.

Conway in 2008 got rid of a lot of their drivers, closed down some terminals and consolidated others; this was when the economy was bad, don't know what they will do now if it goes south again.