I never want to go to the dallas yard, but they insist I show up every 100 days or so. Other than that I stay away, and get as much done on the road as I can.

I think the Alliance group should have a follow up class, 6 months after you start, to help work out the kinks and answer the questions that do come up. It won't happen though.

For me, I scan each trip in as soon as I complete the trip. This way I always have cash flowing into my bank account. This does cause me to get a negative settlement on Tuesday or Wednesday, but the next settlement a couple of days later covers the negative amount, and puts money in the bank. Besides this way I am running my business on Stevens money while under the load, and not waiting for 10 days to get paid for the work I just did.

Stevens automatically sends me an email with a pdf of my settlement, and deposits the money into my bank account. makes keeping up with my financial matters much easier.

I will have to agree with you that people at the yard are on pins and needles, and really don't want to answer questions. I asked about the message about no more owner/ops as my plans are to purchase a tractor when my lease is up in august. The only answer I could get is it might be possible if I buy from Stevens. My answer was, why would I pay you $40,000 when I can go down the street to the Kenworth or Peterbuilt dealership, and buy a Stevens truck for $25000? I did not get an answer to that one.

Stevens really don't want to be paying drivers $.86 per mile, which they are doing for the O/O, while the lease operators are giving back $.46 to $.50 to Stevens for the Truck.

This was brought about because alot of the alliance have gotten to the point they are waking up and realizing what's really going on. I was paying $1100 a week for expenses not counting fuel, all this going in the pocket of Stevens. Now that I own my truck all he gets is a little over $68 a week. My insurance and truck payment go in the pocket of someone other than him. So by stopping outside trucks coming in he is trying to keep the cash in his pockets. Not that the money he now has he could never spend before death, excessively wealthy. But hey, to each his own. By only allowing his trucks he can keep some of that cash pool he was losing crazily fast.

Stevens could care less about driver retention as it cheaper to keep the newer drivers and there low rates. To have trainers in the alliance trucks with salaried students gives them an incredible profit margin. I'm surprised they haven't stopped owner ops from training to keep it within the company ranks more. I'm waiting for that day. Wouldn't put it past em.

I know it doesn't belong here but I thought I'll put it here as a warning for other married drivers who think and hope that nothing can happen to their marriage.

After a little over a year of me being constantly on the road my wife is filing for divorce. Nothing I can do she said even if I quit Stevens and came home.
I assume she found someone else to take care of her "needs".
No matter how much I was working my butt for us, no matter how much money I sent home. It's over. Distance relationships don't work! That I knew before but I thought it can't happen to me.

Drivers, think twice to stay on the road out of home for extended periods of time.
It WILL have negative effect on your marriage. No matter she claims how much she loves you. You're not there. Someone else will be.

Someone answer me this ? WHY would someone buy from Stevens ?

You know the whole history of the truck. You know Stevens is always fixing them, waking you up in the middle of the night to work on it. You can get itworked on at the yard paying cost for parts and 30 bucks/hr labor. Helka cheaper than anywhere. Believe it or not their trucks are just as good or better than other companies. I'm getting 7.2 mpg at 68mph consistantly with my truck from them. I got a warranty past the450k that they have honored. They give you 10 virgin tires, new brakes and drums, 3 axle alignment, new batteries, new seats and will fix anything you can find for the first 30days. After that it is up to whatever warranty you got when buying the truck. I've had a new a/c, alternator, radiator, and some other things done after my 450k ran out, no questions. You think the dealer would do that after you pay 22k. Nope. So, there are some reasons there. As well as my credit is shot to heck and I used my lease completion, which I never finished. So all in all I paid 30k but hey, I'm already down to 25k. Think smart and you will win in the end.

Anywho, now it's either buy theirs or keep leasing. Man up or move on. I'm not paying 1100 a week now. And this freightshaker is working it's arse for me. I'm nothing but happy.

Man, Stank0, I am sorry to hear that your wife couldn't handle you being away and cheated you. However, hang in there my brother.I'm sure you have heard of people going through certain situations in life that at the time seemed horrendous and crushing, only to look back at them from the future and say "Man, that was a blessing in disguise!". I hate to say this because it's not my place, but if she did that to you, she isn't someone you could have trusted when the chips were down even if you were at home, so in the long run you are better off in my opinion.
I am in my second week at the Stevens Driving School, and am currently married as well. Now, even though my wife swears that she is behind me and that we will make it through this 3-year plan of me being OTR, I know that the statistics say otherwise. I hope that we do make it and I will do all I can to hold up my end of the deal (no Lot Lizards, even if they do look like the chick from the Transformers movie), but if she happens to lose the faith and decides to leave me, then so be it. Then it just wasn't meant to be and I'll go on with my life. I know it's a risk of going OTR- but one well worth it to me. I'm not going to live the rest of my life struggling from paycheck to paycheck, and this is the option of what I have to do to prosper in the future, hopefully with her, but if not, life goes on.
Changing the subject, I have to say that I am very impressed with Stevens Transport so far. The training is very thorough, and I can tell that Stevens runs a tight, well-oiled machine. To all those people that have thrashed Stevens Transport in these threads about how terrible their training is and how terrible they are to people, you are wrong. Stevens does make you EARN your way in by showing that you can do what is asked of you in Training so that they know that you will do what is asked of you when you have a $500,000 perishable load that you are hauling. Makes sense to me. They do charge $5995.00 tuition for the training, to be paid back at 18% interest over a 30 month period. The monthly payments are $269.00, however, STEVENS pays $169.00 and the driver pays $100.00 a month as long as the driver is driving for Stevens.What I like as well is that if a driver pays the entire tuition off in the 1st year, the total charge is only $3000.00 with 0% interest. They are simply covering their arses against major losses from their training department. Think about it, if they train 100 drivers a month, and 80% of them get their CDL's and a few months experience and then quit and go to another company, it can get very expensive for Stevens. We had a guy in our class that on the first day, when we were going over log-book regs, stated out loud that "I don't see how anyone can drive for 11 hours, because when I drive from Houston to Dallas for 4 hours I get so tired that I have to sleep". Well, I instantly knew that he wasn't ever going to make it, and sure enough the second day he was gone. He also happened to leave a 3 minute voice-mail to Stevens Transport letting them know how they could improve their Driving School. AFTER HE WAS THERE ONE DAY!!!!! Are you KIDDING ME??? Anyway, from what I have seen and from what I have read on these boards, that guy is exactly the kind of guy that will get on these boards and start a thread about how terrible Stevens Transport is. Unbelieveable.
Anyway Stank0, I hope things look up for you and that all will be well. Question I have, are you still enjoying your KW T660?? Still getting good fuel mileage?? I still want to go Alliance Leasing, though now I hear that after getting done with my finishing trainer that I will have to go into 'Grad Fleet' , just under Alliance Dispatch to see if I can cut the mustard. Problem is that it is supposedly for 8 consecutive weeks with no home time. Dammit-that's a long time. But worth it I believe. I'll tell you as well, I have seen a BUNCH of new KW T660's at the yard and over at the holding pen across the street from the Driving School. Man, the more I hear about the 660 and the more I see them, the more I want one. Are they that good, Stank0??
Thanks.

Hey DM, I agree with you on the Stevens training, top notch, and you can tell within a couple of days who is going to make it and who will get kicked out. I had planned all along that I would do my 12 months and move on to a job with better pay and home time. Staying out 4,5 or 6 weeks for their pay rate is tough.

Yeserday, I saw a Stevens truck and trailer that was all white. Are they they getting different color trucks? This was on I-75 north near tampa.

An all white tractor will be an Owner Operator whom is contracted to Stevens Transport. Most Alliance lease trucks are black, though some are the dark blue Kenworth T2000's. I believe in the future all Alliance trucks will be black- though even now they all have " Contractor Division" written under the Stevens' Transport name.

Yes the tractor would be an owner op. The all white trailer is a sold trailer that we deliver to the client. They have been doing this lately or maybe not. I have taken them to California but nowhere else.