Running With Watkins & Shepard

PCDoctor, If you follow up on Stevens, be advised that they sometimes have 30 to 40 students waiting on trucks after the training portion is complete. Many students who are impatient fall for the "lease program" because trucks for the leasing program are fairly new and readily available.

Prime, Inc. also offers a longer company training program (60k-80k miles). Because you have your CDL, after your orientation you'll head out with your trainer. Again, avoid the lease program.

Roehl Transport has about 4 weeks of training, no teaming, and is also a good starter company. You can go van, refer, or flatbed. These guys are big on home time.

May Trucking training is 2 weeks +. They never team only teach. I use the plus because if you need the extra time they will spend it, within reason. Another good starter outfit. You can run refer or van. These guys seem to get decent miles. Check to see if you live in their hiring area.

Swift should also be considered. 240 hours behind the wheel company training (4-6 wks.). They are big, but they'll increase your cpm rather quickly and in 6 months you can apply for regional or dedicated runs.

As with any company, check to be sure you live in their hiring area. As you did with SNI go to the associated thread here and read about the company. It's always best to talk with the drivers. Just beware of the cheerleaders. If you have a question about a company, there are plenty of drivers on this forum that can advise you.

Hope this helps.

Good Luck!

 

Wedge--seems like you have done your homework for starter companies. I have to dispute something you said about Roehl. I have a driver that just started for me after starting up and spending 3-6 months with Roehl. They were not getting him home very often. He lived within 200 mi of Marshfield, so I wouldn't have thought it would be that difficult. Oh well, their loss is my gain.

 

Chris--good thing they are getting you the miles, 'cause .25/mi stinks. I didn't realize anyone paid less that .30/mi these days. Is that common?

 

That's starting pay with W/S. Don't hit the .30 range until 1 year.

 

Thanks CPAPE. It might depend on where your driver's home 20 is relative to their freight lanes. Granted I haven't been paying close attention to them lately, but it sure was a big selling point in the summer. They even do slip seating to get the guys home, depending on the fleet you're in.

 

It may also be my idea of home time vs the rest of the industry. Our drivers are home every weekend...and often during the week. This particular driver is a young guy with young kids. He is working within a 100 mi radius, home every night and learning to be a flatbedder. Like I said their loss is my gain. I picked up a young driver, with good common sense, that likes the work and challenge of open deck transportation.

 

So who do your work for cpape? Just wondering since you are in a WS thread and that does not sound like WS. You can PM me if you want just curious.

 

I am not really in a W/S thread. I am in a thread where a friend of mine posts about his new experiences as a truck driver. Sorry if I hijacked it for a minute, but I think Chris will forgive me.

 

LOL this is in the Watkins and Shepard DAC folder in a thread titled Running With Watkins & Shepard

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...8595-running-with-watkins-and-shepard-80.html

guess we can forgive you, I am also from Iowa born in Humboldt lived in Fort Dodge.

 

Didn't ask for your forgiveness. Don't really care about Watkins & Shepard. Offered my 2 cents when I thought Wedge threw out some info that was not 100% accurate. Perhaps I took it a little far when talking about my company.

I read this thread to hear how Chris is doing. I thought that was more the point of the thread. Not sure who made you the moderator, but from now on I will be sure to post only things expressly relevant to W/S. Be sure to tell Sammycat and Wedge of the new rules. They have a tendency to get off track once in a while as well.