5 months, 50k miles, things I have learned

So I started out with a bottom feeder company. I just finished my 5th month with just over 50k actual miles (not paid miles). The following are some things I have learned. Some will help you maximize your probably anemic paycheck, some just make life easier.

First, get a good rapport with your DM. Take the extra second to say a good morning/day to them when you talk. Let them know your goals. Be nice but don't be a sheep. If something is going on let them know firmly but politely. I recently had to do this with my dm. I had requested new years off, home dec 30 thru jan 2, but couldn't put the request in until my end of nov hometime was done. I called him to let him know ahead of time and he said he put it in his calendar for me. When I finished my nov hometime I put in for my next hometime on the qualcom and he replies he was booked until jan 3. I pointed out to him that I work through all the major holidays and only ask off for haqlloween and new years, we had an agreement and he should honor that agreement and make it happen. He replied that my hometime for dec 30 was in the computer now.

Driving 10-11 hours a day is counterproductive to making money. Hear me out. Resets are the devil. Drive 10-11 hours a day and on day 6 you find you are out of hours and have to park it for a day and a half. I have gone 2 weeks without a reset driving every day between 325 and 650 miles. Last week I turned 3k miles using all rollover hours. Even driving only 300 miles in a day still more than doubles what I get paid for a layover day to reset.

Providing an accurate pta (projected time available) is a must. My dm and I worked out a system I suggested where when I'm about 3 hours from the receiver I call him to let him know and I tell him what my hours will be when I finish the unload. He gets this info to the load planners and I rarely have to wait more than 15 mins for a new load assignment. This system works so well he is trying to get all his drivers to use it. I communicate with my dm as much as possible without being a pest. If I have a 24 hour drop ahead I'll call him and ask what would be a good time to drop it. He will contact the load planners and see if a preload is available I can pick up at 0400 or tell me to wait and drop it at 0900 and my next load is a live load at 1100 50 miles away. This preserves my 14 and saves downtime.

Get a good GPS. Now I know some old timers may balk at this suggestion and I don't blame them. But keep in mind you guys may have been running the same routes for years and know them like the back of your hand. I have hauled 80 loads in 5 months and can count on 1 hand the shippers/receivers I have visited more than once. GPS can be abused and get you in trouble. It is a tool to be used with your atlas. My co provides our routes for us. I enter them in my gps and can look at the entire route zooming in to street level or out to state level. And I get to see the local routing in close which makes me more comfortable when driving in a strange city or town that I can find the receiver. I use a combination of GPS, atlas, and google maps when planning my route. Incidentally I use the rand mcnally gps which has all the same information as the atlas we all know and love. One other benefit is my GPS gives me actual miles to my destination and pretty accurate arrival times, usually within 15 mins. It also provides truck stop and parking area info including some rural places that may be hard to find in the pocket truck stop guide.

Try to avoid evening and weekend dispatch when you can. I ask my dm to try and provide me loads on friday that will carry me through the weekend. Evening and weekend dispatchers are the devil and have no problem letting you sit rather than pressing the load planners to try and get you moving.

Be polite to DOT. Sometimes you will screw up, it's not always the end of the world. Last month I blew past an open scale. I was only hauling 9k, my truck and trailer were just inspected and both were clean. I wasn't speeding. I just missed the #### scalehouse. DOT chased me down and informed me of the error of my ways and had me turn around and head back. I told him what happened and was very polite and apologetic about it. He was nice enough and let me go understanding that sometimes these things happen and letting me know what could have happened to me had I not gotten and understanding guy like him.

And number 1, be safe. Don't shoot yourself in the foot. Remember what your were taught and be alert. Just one screwup, one inattentive moment, can ruin your new career. I currently have 50k safe miles. Not much but it's a good start. I plan on making it 100k by may.

 

Take home is tricky because we all have different stuff taken out of our checks. Family insurance costs way more than the single coverage have. I am also paying $45/week to the co for the cdl mill I went to. I also had to pay $25/wk for the first 20 weeks into the escrow account. It also depends on what you make per mile. I've had good weeks where I took home $800+ and bad weeks (usually right before or after hometime) where I took home $0. Be wary of taking pay advances as I'm sure they played a part in a few of my goose egg paychecks. The first 3 months were the worst averaging around $300/week but that was also almost exclusively northeast runs. Now I'm starting to average $500/week take home. Just keep in mind you do not get paid for hometime. Go home for 4 days and any checks associated with those days will suffer.

What works for me may not work for everyone. If you like cranking out six 10+ hour driving days then take 2 days off and still make decent money go for it. I used to do that. But these last 2 weeks taught me that I am better off spreading it out. If I have 6 hours to run tomorrow and I start at 2am (I prefer night driving) I'm done well before noon and have all day to get done whatever I need to get done. And resets drive me nuts, if I'm going to sit that long I would rather be at home. In 2 weeks I have yet to turn down a load even on the day I only had 5 hours of drive time and used the first 2 to finish delivering a load.

But as the song says, it takes different strokes to rule the world, what might be right for you might not be right for some. Isn't life grand.