I need advice on breaking in

Better off being a company driver or an owner op with the ability to secure your own profitable freight. Stay loaded and running may be the quickest way to bankruptcy. Especially if you can only choose the loads a company posts up on their internal board. That sni loadboard is a delusional view of the spot market. Your a captive audience. They secure you down by equipment rules and limitations that you must abide by. When you lease on you are giving the company you lease on, control of your business. They will not be making decisions in your best interest. That is a very vulnerable position to be in. Just think about it. There are a few places out there that will hold your hand and not take to much advantage of you. I suggest leasing on to one of those.

 

@AgPilot1 -- before you sign on with Schneider, there's something else you really should know about them, up front.

Read the following Forum thread, and pay special attention to posts 5 - 9 in it:

Interview for CDL Training | TruckersReport.com Trucking Forum | #1 CDL Truck Driver Message Board (thetruckersreport.com)

Now, given that you're an ag pilot, my guess is you would probably pick things up faster than many others--so you may be ok with what's discussed there.

But either way--you should know about the above (and think about it)--before you sign up with them.

Also--if you are out of a truck for more than a few days--Schneider will expect you to clean out the truck (for assignment to another driver)--or they will clean it out for you (whether you like it--or not! ).

They did that to me, right after I started driving for them.

As I write this, I have seen in other Forum threads of late, that Schneider is struggling to get new(er) trucks in their fleet.

As a newbie there--you may well be asked to drive an older "beater".

Are you ok starting off with driving a tractor that maybe has 500k+ miles on it? Note too that said tractor may be assigned to you without everything on it working completely as it should (check/test the APU for proper operation--especially in the warmer months). When they assign you a tractor--if you're not sure that the mattress in your sleeper is new--ASK FOR A NEW ONE.

If you are thinking of other trying other types of freight--I recommend that you spend at least 6 months there in dry van--before you switch over to say, intermodal, or something else. Intermodal is NOOOOOT a good place for beginners!!!

I first started driving in my mid 50s, too. The maturity there helps out a lot.

--Lual

 

Where are you from? I just started a smaller carrier that is flexible like this. My first two weeks here have been great.

 

Why would you buy a truck? When you aren't driving it, the bills don't stop.

We had an O/O from Europe who would fly home a couple times per year, parking his truck. It was an older Freightliner, paid off long ago, and he could make the numbers work to be out of the truck for 2 months per year. Now that he's getting a bit older, he decided he wants to fly home for 3-4 months every year, so those numbers wouldn't work anymore. He sold the truck, became a company driver, and now cleans the truck out when he flies back to Europe for 90-180 days at a time.

I would highly recommend being a company driver instead of an owner/lessee for this very reason.

 

Uhh... you need to rework those numbers. Your fuel alone will be about $1/mile.

 

Truck was paid off and he couldn't make it work?????

Exactly how much do you charge for insurance????

My overhead at Landstarve is maybe $5K year all in.

Dude couldn't make $5K as IC at Schneiser???

 

Our O/Os are responsible for their tractor insurance, whether the truck is rolling or not. While it may be discounted, it never stops. Not saying he couldn't make it, but since he is choosing to not drive for up to half a year now, that's $2k out the window with no benefit.

Plus what happens to the truck when its not in use? Where is it sitting? Rodents? Vandals? Thieves?

It was smarter to sell the truck and drive someone else's than to only drive his for half a year.

 

Lol. Ok. If you say so.