Star--Illinois

Expect to get home 3 out of every 4 weekends and average between 2200 and 2500 miles a week.

Good trucks, decent smallish company(about 900 trucks).

 

hey if you live in IL you should check out cox in eureka il just finished my first week with them and i love it

 

Did you just say that you love cox?just razing you I am glad to see that some young people are happy and I wish you luck!

 

Be cautious i was there and they say a lot to get you in and then don't do any of it. Hope things are better for you than were for me.

 

you really want to know???
well to start out they are ok to start with. they will tell you to run legal. but dispatch expect you to create miracles adn get a load delivered the next morning when you already drove 5 hours and the load will take 10 hours to get there. you also had already sat for 4 hours waiting for them to give you the load.
they went back to paying per deim. that is bad in itself.
the shop is limited on what they do. anything major, it goes to pete, or cat.
all three departments, shop, dispatch, and safety do not talk to each other, unless safety needs to see you then dispatch will send you over there and not give you a load til safety takes you off the screen.
they have lost a few customers, and so the sitting time has increased. getting laidover has been happening more often. you could get kept out up to 3 weeks.

now the good. a place to start and get your feet wet.
equipment is not that bad. even though they are going back to the narrow ##### cabs again.
the health insurance is good.
if you kiss the right butt, then you could go even farther.

i spent 15.5 years there. i won't say what happened, but i can tell you to watch out.
they will tell you one thing then deny it.

for me they were good to me up until they started to size down.

as for COX, well they do not take students. also they will tell you ok, then near the end of the first day after saying that they will take you, they tell you no go.
and they will not give an explination as to why.

 

how much do they pay with 15 years and do i have to get those jacked up 386 do they have a riders program what are my chances of getting a 387.

 

well for the pay, i was stuck at .36/mi since the year 2000. that was and is max pay.

as for the trucks, you may get a 387 to start out, but will be getting a 386 soon after when all the 387 trucks are gone. there is not another choice with star, the 386 will be the truck of choice until the owner changes his mind, but i would not hold my breath on that.
he does not like the drivers and does not talk to them.
also he thinks that all a driver needs is the bare minimum. feel lucky when you get a 386 with heat and ac in the bunk. also it does have a good stereo and a built in gps for now. only one access door to the bunk.
the 387 was much more roomier than the 386, the 386 is a revised 377, which is the model they had when i started with them in 93.

 

If you live in central IL, youll have plenty of miles and hometime since that is Catepillar Country. 40% of Stars freight is from CAT.