New CDL holders - Avalanche of hiring

If you are not a ROBOT, STAY AWAY FROM REEFER !

 

The best "mega" in my opinion will be Prime Inc. Good pay, nice equipment, and no driver facing cameras, yet. The only bad thing is a slow truck, and a smaller truck unless you take a pay decrease for a full size.

Schneider is improving their fleet (finally). They had one of the worst looking fleets on the road.

Both have their pros and cons. You can definitely do worse.

 

What does reefer work have to do with being a robot? Did it for years and as far as I can tell I'm not a robot

 

There are hundreds if not thousands of new drivers every year. The turn over rate in this industry is extremely high.

The reason is its a huge lifestyle change for many new otr drivers. Add to that the stress of the job itself. And if you have a family, its not only very difficult for you, but for them as well.

But if you can make it through that first year with a clean record opportunities will open up and you can have a rewarding career.

You can definitely do a lot worse than Schneider. A lot of what makes a company better or worse though is wether or not you and them are a good match. One advantage of Schneider is there are so many places you can go in the company, you don't even have to stay a driver your entire career.

Stay away from Swift, Smith Transport, PTI. These are companies whose drivers are routinely unsafe, which means there is a culture in the company you want to stay away from.

Don't think about owning a truck or doing any sort of lease purchase until you've got five years of experience. The failure rate is very high and companies love new suckers to jump into their flease scams.

 

I would advise against going to a company that has their own CDL school. IT IS MY OPINION, those companies are generally "turn and burn". They always have another new driver ready to take over your truck. So, they really don't care about you, your home time, your pay, or anything else you may need or want.

 

There's no hidden issues. There's about 350,000 trucking companies in the USA and most trying to steal each others drivers.
You will hardly ever hear from the mature drivers with a strong work ethic and don't sweat the small stuff. You hear lots from the whiners and cry babies and unfortunately their wives and girl friends also have to listen to them. They job hop and blame trucking because they can't keep their marriage or relationship intact and try to drag everyone else into their misery.
Pick a company and use the self discipline to stick with it for 6 months, then reevaluate the situation and if necessary make a move.
Just pick something and don't over think it. Your first job won't be the one you retire from and that's no big deal. You'll probably work for 4 or 5 outfits before you settle in for the long haul.
Just pick one and get started!
Don Hummer Trucking
Magnum Ltd.
Seward Motor Freight

Flip a coin & odd man out!

 

EEESH !!

Def go LTL dood...search out a company that'll hire you...They all drop thier standards at different times, hit or miss...just check em all...the smaller your area, the better the chances they'll hire a newbie..

You dont wanna be gone driving endlessly forever for 6, 7 or 800 a week do you?

LTL better, go home everyday, 1000 a week +, great opportunities if you buy a truck someday, lease it onto a carrier youve been working for, double your money, buy more trucks, lease them on, make 2 k a week, pay a guy 1k, keep a k, buy more trucks, rinse and repeat!!

Be a F/O !!! (fleet operator?) did i make that up? or is that term already in use? lol

So, Old Dominion, YRC, Central, ABF, Saia, etc etc

 

I feel the same; I did reefers for years and it was OK. Made a good living.
New drivers have to find their niche in trucking. For me, no company pays enough for local or LTL or regional. I'm glad some drivers like that junk stuff, but not for me. There's something for everyone; may take a year or so to figure it out.

 

Average turnover rate is 100 to 120%. Requires a lot on new meat to keep seats filled. For a newbe the difference between JB. Schneider, Werner, swift and others is about 5 gallons of paint. They all have office people managing drivers that don't have a clue and don't really care.
Just pick a color, don't expect to make what they say, just stick it out and learn as much as you can about the business and plan your move up to a better company.
Don't buy into the lease purchase lies, if there is so much money in it why do they push it so hard.

Truth is you hve to pay your dues, just be careful and don't load up your CSA score.

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