Started CDL School - Thanks

Wait, there are trucks without air conditioning in the summer time?!

I'm used to driving in 95+ heat with no air conditioning but that's only for about 45 minutes tops.

 

Yes desertballs there are trucks without working a/c but most companies have trucks with good working a/c the only problem is that most companies have idle restrictions for company drivers in order to save fuel....so that may mean being hot in summer and sometimes cold in winter...make sure you ask your recruiters this info or other company drivers...good luck

 

Will work for food!

Also, go with a company that has APU's.

 

Thanks, Chinatown!

Also, in case you didn't know like me an auxiliary power unit is a portable, truck mounted system that can provide climate control and power for trucks without idling.

 

That, in a nutshell, is the problem. People looking to get into this industry and trying to do research are looking at websites inundated with that advertising. They also see more of those big companies on the road, depending on where they live of course. Our own beloved TTR is guilty of that advertising and pie-in-the-sky preaching to newbies and wannabes. Right there at the top under "Truck Driver Jobs"


http://www.nationaltruckdrivingjobs.com/truck-driving-jobs-LP3?id=thetruckersreport

It's also just a fact that there is more information, from a driver's perspective, for those mega-carriers. Trying to find info online for some of the quality smaller carriers is dang near impossible. And for some people, approaching a driver at a truckstop is out of the question.

How and where do we find the necessary info to avoid being sucked in to the big and bad?

 

This is the ad from CR England on that site.

"Hiring Experienced & Inexperienced Drivers CR England
CR England is looking for both experienced and inexperienced drivers. C.R. England is an industry leader that hasn't layed off a driver in their 90 year history.

Gee mister, must be a great place to work. Where do I sign up?

(Completely tongue-in-cheek btw)

 

LOL It's pretty easy not to lay a driver off when they're fleased and work for free.

 

That's why I come on this forum and try to explain to the new guys getting in the industry how it all works. Course I get bashed and called a troll for speaking out against the mega-carriers but that's ok. If I can help out a few drivers here and there and lead them in the right direction to a good career, then I'm happy with that. Otherwise most will spend lots of time and money trying to figure it all out and most will go the path of the rest of the herd, sign up with a mega-carrier and their whole trucking career is shortly over within 3 months or so. This is the way the mega-carriers want it. They don't want experienced drivers and they don't want you to stay with them. That's why the invented the lease program. The lease program is a way for them to make money off of the drivers that stay longer than three months. Usually they make gobs of money off of newbies by paying them trainee pay to haul regular freight. The more newbies they can hire the more freight the can haul for illegal wages by calling it trainee pay! Once you are experienced they can longer do that so they offer you a brand new shiny truck for no money down and tell you that you are an owner operator and can do what you want. Truth is far from that. You are a company driver that makes their truck payment and pays their permits and fuel and maintenance and you still have to go where they tell you and haul what they want. They then pay you a whopping $.80 a mile which to a newbie sounds like a sweet deal. Since they are inexperienced they don't know that real owner operators are making $1.50 - $3.50 a mile depending on what and where they are hauling. Even if you are running 4000 miles a week there is still very little profit margin and running 4000 a week is highly unlikely at a mega-carrier. Usually after the first one or two times of going home the driver is buried in debt and is upside down in truck payments and is forced to give it up. Once they lease they can no longer go back to company driving so they are now out of a job, oh yeah and they usually get a bill in the mail for around $10,000 of stuff that had to be done to the truck when they gave it up. On top of that they put a nice "Truck abandonment" on your DAC.

Sorry guys got carrier away....