Just got my Cdll/looking for some advice when choosing some companies?

I can agree totally with this man right here. I did van and made 31,000 for 9 months. It wasn't for lack of trying either.

 

Ive worked for cargo for 3 1/2 years and personally don't think there is a better company to train with. Their trucks are slower than what you want, but very few companies hire people with no experience and have their trucks running faster than 60 or so. (tyson is the only one that comes to mind at 70mph, but also be prepared to spend 2 weeks straight on the road, lots of sitting, mostly night driving, and when you do get home dispatch calling and asking you to leave a day earlier than you were suppose to) Cargo is 63mph. They have a terminal in Charlotte, sometime should be weekly, possibly even a night during the week as well. I would expect 2500 miles if you are wanting to have a decent weekend every week, if you don't mind leaving out on a Saturday, or getting home later in the weekend you could do probably do better miles wise. We do have cameras in the truck, its basically used as a teaching tool and the camera is only activated during a "critical event" such as hard braking (or trailers that like to be jerky when you hardly tap the brakes), very sharp corners, or collisions. The cameras do more to protect the driver and the only way you are really going to be in trouble with the cameras is if you are caught texting while driving and obviously being distracted while braking hard etc..

The training pay is better than most companies, I was home weekly during my 8 weeks of training except for one weekend because of a breakdown. They pay trainees by the mile as opposed to a set salary like most companies, my trainer and I went to California and Oregon one week and my take home for that check was over $1,000.

 

I don't know where you got this info from, plenty of van drivers make well over that. I make around 50,000 and I'm home every weekend for 48-60 hours and usually a night or two during the week. Im happy with that. The van company (furniture mostly) that my dad and brother drive for are home every weekend and make around 65,000 a year.

 

Many van companies pay $.37-$.39 cpm and at 2,500 miles a week it would take 52 weeks never going home to make $50,000. Van doesn't and will never pay as much as more demanding parts of the industry.

 

All the ones I'm familiar with pay .42-.45 or so. Some of the lesser companies might pay less. Add in a couple bonuses a year, holiday pay, etc, and you can make a decent income doing van.

Thats the great thing about trucking, plenty of variety of stuff, if you don't want to have to tarp loads, or sit and wait a couple hours for a tank to empty, you don't have to.

 

maan ive done van...and the pay sucks...most of van drivers dont hit 40k

 

$.42-45 for dry van? Boy am I getting suckered. Where do I sign up?

 

in tank your are getting paid the the tank to empty.....van sits all day waiting on loads then back in the door and waits again...tanks are where u make 60k plus...flatbed too..its hard work sometimes...but a good flatbed company starts off at .45cpm

 

lol teams...good luck getting sleep