When my journey back into trucking started. I researched all the large carriers that offered driver training. I elected to hire on with knight transportation (Phoenix, AZ) because I was out of the trucking industry for over 10 years and needed to get my CDL again. Knight seemed to work out best for me and my situation. Plus they had a port services division, which I wanted to try. The recruiters at Knight are salespeople plain and simple. Your going to hear about the great benefits, schedules, home time, pay, blah, blah, blah... Do yourself a favor and right down as many questions as you can and speak to several recruiters at the same company. Next, orientation is hilarious they welcome you into the family. They want to know all about you, your family, goals, dreams!! You meet some of the management and safety staff from the company. They tell you about how amazing the company is, blah, blah, blah. While your there they cater the lunch and you hang out for a physical and doctor evaluation. You follow that up with a drug test. When the results get back they offer you a job. Next up Squire training: This is 2 week course on driving and pre trip to get your prepared for a drive test to acquire your license. At this point keep in my mind I've already driven OTR and local in the past. I sit through the first week of pre trip review which is nice I guess. I just kind of helped out some of the other students since this wasn't new to me. Week 2 starts and you begin driving out on the road with a trainer and 3 additional students. Knight required you to CDL test in a manual transmission truck. No problem that's what I was driving before. This is when you realize how scary some of your fellow students are! I honestly didn't drive much since some of the other students required much more time behind the wheel to get proficient. The end of the week comes and I get my license. I'm happy to see the scary drivers failing the tests or dropping out of training. I'm scheduled to meet my driver trainer. I've been told its 3 weeks riding around with this guy and he's going to show me how to use the computer system and driver logs. We finally meet a few days after I get my license and go over the plan. My driver trainer seems cool, so I get ready to hit the road for a few week with him. My training starts and we hit it off and get along real well. This makes the time together much easier. I tell him that I drove before and don't really have a concern or needs when it comes to driving. My first day behind the wheel he watches me like a hawk. I go through a couple roundabouts and he's immediately comfortable with my skill set. I get lucky during my training because my trainer likes to be out 5 days or so and then head home for a few days. We finish my training training a few days early and he signs off that i'm good to run my own truck. This is where I start having problems and realize this company is a complete CIRCUS. I get assigned a truck and I'm told by whoever handles truck assignments to pick it up the following day it will be ready. I return the following morning with all my stuff bedding, fridge, supplies, and so on to start my journey. I retrieve the keys and head to see my new to me truck. As I walk to the truck I can hear mariachi music blasting.. That's normal I'm in Phoenix. I realize it's coming from my truck. I open the door and immediately try turning off the radio. None of the radio controls work! I spend 10 minutes trying to troubleshoot this problem and nothing. I go back into the office and explain the situation and she starts laughing. I tell her I'm not about to listen to that crap for 6 to 10 days can you give me a truck that was actually inspected and checked. She tells that's the only truck she has. I told her to call me when the truck was fixed so I could actually start working and make money. 2 days later the truck finally rolls out of the repair shop ready. I'll save you from the boring details of my work for the next few months and provide with a few magical highlights. My first run was some crap load every other driver i'm sure refused to do. I'm new though and just want to make money and they assign it to me. Total mileage for my first run 120 miles oh and guess what the receiver refused it. Spent all day making 65 dollars and ended up back at the Phoenix terminal and left the trailer in the yard for a local driver to deal with. I started to get some runs here and there that paid ok but something was always screwed up. Scheduled delivery times were wrong, You couldn't find empty trailers, you would literally drive around town to all these distribution centers looking for a trailer. Equipment breakdowns became normal. The thing that bothered me the most though was talking to my assigned driver manager. I was just a number to him. He didn't give a s@#t about anything. The funny thing is I lasted about 6 months there and had 4 different driver managers. Not because I ever complained about them but they would quit or get assigned some other job and I would have to start over with a new one. In conclusion I got tired of broken down equipment making .32 a mile and get jerked around by my driver manager that don't give a s@#t. I walked into the terminal on my scheduled home time and handed over the keys to my driver manager. I'll never forget the look on his face. The was the only time he seemed to give a s@#t. Of course I sat down with his boss and him, explained the situation and told them I'm tired of working at this CIRCUS! I managed to find some local work and decided to take that job. At least being home every night I can try to find better work and be available to interview if something came up.