Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

Thanks DFO, and I follow firespock as well. I was mainly speaking of after the first 6-month to a year would I want to be on the bulk side or the van side.
I know that Choice is for the O/O's not Company Drivers. I am just gathering information to try to determine the path I should take for the future. From what I am told bulk pays better the 1st year as a Company Driver then the Van side does which is nice but after that year I may know the bulk side but not have the freedom of the van side o/o program. The recruiter I talked to stated that CHOICE would not be coming to bulk b/c of the profit margin that SNI has in the bulk field. The only option would be leasing and being paid mileage like Nightgunner is doing (I think).
In my research I started with thinking after the "initial company time" I am switching to CHOICE b/c I never even had bulk cross my mind........

 

Your 100% right man and that first day out with no real help sure can be a #####. I was supposed to be traveling with a trainer friend my first to second trip but he bailed just after I bit. Then it was trial by fire and man did I have a lot to learn. I didn't know what I needed to present at the border or what paper work I needed. Didn't learn how to properly fill out a bill of lading until my 5th trip and had never tried to use a GPS before. You can imagine the learning curve but it's alright now.

 

<<<on our qualcomm unit in every truck is a truck specific GPS system called navigo , many cool features contained there in, but none as reliable as your Atlas. Navigo can be wrong from time to time, or will route you the shortest way, when experience then tells you is longer time wise.

The rand mcnally or other truck specific gps models are expensive, bt not a necessity off the bat. You can save points on fuel card to help offset the cost, but really navigo will serve you well enough.

Sat radio on the other hand is definitely a sanity saver.>>>>>>>

Thanks for this.

I'm still in CDL school. I still have a long way to go getting the CDL (Illinois is a hard testing state). Then, if all goes well with tanker training at SNI, I will be able to save decent bucks monthly when I am working full time. My expenses are low, and I am old enough to be getting Social Security.......but, still healthy, and rugged enough to be doing this job or any other (I just spent a year working alongside twenty to thirty something year olds, delivering and installing big appliances for 14-15 hours a day for SEARS, at a breakneck pace). So, I will be spending money to outfit myself with the necessary items to make life better on the road.

I don't know much about Sat radio....I'll have to look into that later....maybe the road hours would be a good time to listen to a foreign language learning program, lol.

But, what language to learn?

Actually, not interested in learning a foreign language....too old to be any use to me.

 

DieselFuelOnly, great post. Well written and superb. If the trucking job does not work out you might try writing. I look forward to my first solo trip. Thanks for the insight.

 

I do audio books on my tablet, through my bluetooth headset. I don't have the patience for most radio stations, I want music, not talking. So, I just put music from my iTunes on a usb or SD card, since my truck radio has slots for both, and listen to what I like.

And you are NEVER too old to learn new things. NEVER. Maybe you won't travel to a country where you need a different language, but it'll help keep you mentally young.

 

hey thinking of driving eastern regional with sni it say i would get weekly time at home. can you tell me how likely this would happen. also atlanta,ga would be my home TM will most of the driving be southern states or all 48

 

Awesome thread, wish i discovered it in my first week with Schneider..going on to 6 months soon, solo OTR. Love it out here nowadays...alot of the posts had me laughing&#128512;

 

This is an answer to an old post in an old forum. SiriusXM has an all-music subscription option. I, too, want music, not talk, and have subscribed to this for years. It has all the music types and I've found a dozen or so for which I program buttons. Makes long days and longer nights tolerable.

 

Shew what a read this thread has been. I am exhausted ,but it was awesome. I will now venture over to his other thread and waste away reading that one.