Looking for a good trucking company for OTR

I am currently on track to make $40-45k my 1st year, and fairly large company (900 tractors), and I'm not saying that because it's my 1st week, and I just made $850! lol
3weeks of paid training, and 1 day off per week out, my OCM doesn't like you to stay out more than 4 weeks at a time, so you don't get burnt out. I live far enough from my terminal(s) that I take my truck home with me.

Good paying, driver friendly, bigger companies are out there. The best thing you do is research, ask questions of anyone you can, anywhere you can, and ignore 99% of the negative posts on here (or of what you read on here in general lol). Fisherman have nothing on truckers when it comes to tall tales. And teenage girls have nothing on truckers when it comes complaining and gossiping!

 

sounds like you found a good company but thats not a big company....Swift has 16,000+ trucks, werner has 7,500+ trucks, etc. Your company as well as mine are only medium sized companys.





American Trucker

 

They may have 16000 trucks, but rarely at any time do they have drivers for half of them! lol
A good, yet decent sized OTR company that is driver friendly, and pays well,with consistent mileage isn't the 'unicorn' most of these crusty grumpy ######## on here would have you believe. Just do your homework, and ask around. Ultimately it is up to you and your judgement to decipher the rhetoric and BS,and choose the best fit for you.
Swift and Werner get bashed as 2 of the worst, if not the 2 worst companies out there...but both have drivers that have been there 20+ years and couldn't be happier. This job, much like any other is all about your attitude, and your willingness to make it work. Are there new guys at my company making $20-25k year 1? SURE! Do they have a good attitude, and the willingness to make it work? Do they take the good with the bad? I'm guessing not.
I did a good amount of homework on this board, as well as hours and hours of recruiter calls...I passed on sure-hired-jobs from 3 different companies, while waiting on the go-ahead from my company, and I couldn't be happier! Don't rush into it!
Best of luck to you!

 

what company do yiou work for

 

Just remember if it doesn't work out at first,try to stick it out for at lease 6 months.Once you got 6 months experience you can head to a better company,but if you do well and get good miles,stay with one company as long you can.Like every one said.pay may be crappy but when you need to get the experience you gotta start from the bottom and work your way up.I'm heading to Swift as well and unless things work out real good,i'm only planing to stay with them for at lease 12 months,but if things work well ill stay as long I can.

 

While I constantly advise against reading too much into posts on here, I will say there must be something to it, when Swift is CONSTANTLY bashed on every corner of the internet, and they are widely regarded as terrible company for driver treatment. I do not have 1st hand knowledge of their practice, and never will...but I hate to see anyone have a bad initial experience in trucking. sticking it out 6-12 months might seem easy enough, but wait until the fecal matter starts to rain down upon you and you have the additional stress of being caged up, away from your family etc...
I think part of the high turnover rate in trucking (Swift having among the worst in the industry) is new people not picking the right company that fits their personality and needs (and obviously unreal expectations, be it self-imposed, or believing recruiter nonsense)

 

I think you're right there. I believe that new drivers do not know what to look for in a company to make the job successful. Some may have lower pay but outrages benefits that make the job more profitable. Some of these guys care more about what type of truck they get or if it's an auto to make their dicision about the job. While passing up paid medical benefits and a couple of good retirement packages.

My company company had three ways to save for retirement. The standard 401K that we never touched, a CAP program to where we could put in all we wanted but to get the most from the company you had to invest 4% of your wages. You couldn't touch that either. Then we had a saving plan that you could put in 2% of you wage to get 4% from the company. You could put up to 10% into your savings and you can draw out of it any time. The best deal was to take a load from that program so you pay yourself back the interest. Those are just a few to look at and OTR has many. The sad thing is I rarely see these new drivers asking about benefits.

You want to know if a company is good or not just ask how many of their drivers retire from that company. Once you have a clean record and a couple of years experience go after those jobs where the driver stays at that company until it's time to retire. Keep the company posted on you wanting the job, just don't sit back and wait for them. That's the worse thing you could ever do in this business. If you get tickets and such then you'll be stuck at the low end of the business but there will be plenty of work while others pass you by.

 

There are advantages and disadvantages to being "big" and to being "not so big." A recruiter for Swift told me their biggest problem is lack of communication with their drivers because they're so big. My guess is this can result in more waiting than you might want or less sometime.

On the other hand, they're big for a reason--the smaller companies won't have the opportunities but they offer more personalized contact. I guess what you want as an employee is what will point you in the direction you go.

 

You told the board to only believe 1% on what is posted here and then you say there's something to it. What is it and where did you get all your research from? It's not hard to interpret the experience from BS. A lot of what I've seen is also backed up from recorded data like from the FMCSA ( take a look at Swift). However, I'll take someone's first hand experience over CB and truckstop BS anytime. This site is invaluable if you know what to look for.