I can never go home

Uh-oh

 

When you sign on with these carriers you define your time in the truck and your time off right there before you start. When your time off is soon upon you you let company know and if they not routing you homeward bound then just deadhead home. Taking it dry just goes to show what type of person you are and is very common these days with the caliber of swh that are let out of training school. Being new at a job with a fresh cdl has nothing to do with it. With turnover rates in trucking jobs work can be found anywhere. Take the initiative and don't let people walk all over you because once they have they always will treat you like a common door mat. And the sad part is that you let them treat you that way.

 

Some new guys don't know this.

Good way to piss your DM off and never get a favor.

 

I hope this driver has been spending some time looking into a new employer. Even when they do finally get him home, what's that, a few days home than back on the road to play these games again? Screw that.

I'll give him plenty of credit though. My frustration would have gotten the better of me a long, long time ago. I probably would have delivered truck and load to the nearest Walmart and told them where it was and what to suck on the way to get it. Having an experience like this right out of school would be enough of a bad taste that it would be hard to convince him the grass is greener elsewhere.

 

I will be getting my cdl soon, and this is what I'm worried about. There is a big grey area on standing up for yourself and yet trying to make a good impression, or not being looked at as one who won't budge and help out and do a favor when needed. I agree OP seems to have gotten the shaft. As a new driver though, I can see that it's a fine line one has to walk when they are starting out

 

Unfortunately I think your dispatch knows your criminal history, and feels like he has control over you. This is one reason why Western Express hires ex-cons with no other options. They think they have you over a barrel and if you quit, you might not be able to find another trucking job.

 

You can't get any lower than Western Express. From the day I got my CDL back in 2001 I never wanted to stay out longer than 10 days. For the most part I was off every other weekend and that worked at first. Fast forward to now and even the three nights a week I spend in the truck are getting old. It works for now.

A lot of these newer drivers think you have to stay out a month to make any money. You don't, of you can't drive 2500 miles in 5 days then you're with the wrong company. This thread is extreme and most drivers would ditch the truck after a few weeks of being blown off for getting home.

 

I saw a western express truck with his trailer in the ditch and tractor on the road, blocking both lanes of traffic on a curvy hilly road, blind hill on one side, somewhat blind curve from the other direction. I was driving a propane bobtail and was going slow because of snowy roads and came up on him. No triangles or anything out, he was just sitting in his truck, luckily I was going slow enough and stopped at the top of the hill so traffic could see me stopped from behind and not run up on both of us over a blind hill. I walked up to the guy, about early 20's, and asked if he was ok, he said yes the tow trucks coming. I couldn't believe he just sat there like that, somebody easily could have run up on him and slid right into him with the snowy roads. I had to back up 1/4 mile on that road into a drive to turn around. No western express for me lol

 

Wait, what? Why would a bobtail take so long to turn around? And what's a "propane bobtail"? I'm thinking you mean deadhead, but it's entirely possible I could be totally misunderstanding. I confuse easily. Lol. Which is why I'm asking. Some of this trucking dialect confuses me at times.

 

A propane straight tanker truck is also called a bobtail, not to be confused with deadhead. And there was no where to turn around, no shoulder and couldn't pass the truck since he was blocking both lanes