Help with paper work!

I've gotten offers from USA, PAM, CRE, and a couple more i cant think of at this moment. Why can't truckers find a job? lots of people will take less then they had before so they can feed thier familys. Pride will make you starve!!!

 

Rick ,if i may call you Rick? I understand it is hard for EVERYONE in this GREAT country, but a job is job is a job, when you have NOTHING! ANd a trucking job is better then 7 bones and hours... And if a "CDL mill" is willing to give me one, where can i complaine?? And how can anyone say living at a friends house not making a dime is better then living in a truck not spending a dime? From what I hear Fright is ALWAYS off this time of year. If The HOLY Obama ( I voted for MC) puts a trillion bucks into this ecnomy then how can that not HELP truckers? I guess I've been though so much in my life that I rather look at things with rose colored glasses (and again I'm NOT close to being nieve) just tired of being broke.. Unless you have been unemployed, you can never understand and would NEVER say anything is better then feeling like a burden on your friends, family and country... So i'll take the 500.00 a week to start and a place to hang all my 2008 World Champions PHILLIES hats to sleep. ANd be veryyyyyy happy to do so..I'm lucky, no criminal record, no tickets, so I feel lucky to get a trucking job... ANd very thankfull, and haveing a big USA on the side of my truck, gives me a woody,lol.. Love this country!!!

 

When it cost you more to be gone then what you're bringing in then yeah you're better off staying at home with you're family. Either way you're broke but atleast you can be broke at home with you're kid sitting on you're knee. I think the point that is trying to be made is that it will be a long time before you see a check that averages out to anything close to $7hr. I don't think Rick's intentions is to contradict or combat you as much as he is just trying to make the case that the money is simply not there right now and that you enter with eyes wide open. I don't have near the vast experience you speak of concering military or otherwise (Thanks for your service) but I do know USA as I am coming up on my 1yr anniversiary this month and I can tell you 1yr ago the starting cpm was .28 and ending at .36 for the first year and that is the scale I'm on. They are starting out now at .26 ending at .34 that's a big difference from just a year ago, $200 a month for a 10,000 mile month which alot of drivers are not seeing right now. I have nothing much bad to say about USA any complaint I have could be made for any company. I am still running good miles thank goodness and I got my 09 prostar in sept. with 0mls on it all is working out well for me here and I made it through the first and second rounds of their big cuts I guess thanks to my on time del. and no inccidents/accidents and fuel mileage but there is no easy feeling of job security by no means. As far as USA paying for you're school they are not. You will be paying for that at $45 per week for a year and it is not to them they sell the loan upfront so the school and USA has already gotten their money back. Another thing you should realize is a prehire don't mean jack. I don't care who said what and at what stage of the game you're in until your butt hits the seat of a truck you have been assigned to you ARE NOT hired. My badge shows that I started 2-28-08 but all my ppwrk and raises go off of my real hire date 4-13-08 the day my hind end got in my first truck after school,orientation, and going out with the trainer. I started school in january through USA I got my first check close to the end of march. I also had to sign a contract with the school saying that if I was not hired by USA then I would be liable to the school for the money, my reply was I thought I was already hired before they sent me here, yeah right. So I mean like I say it can work out but it is almost never like you think. Do you have any idea of the people that come on here all fired up ready to go can't understand why we're being "jerks to them" so they think. They've done this or that and so they are prepared for this yada yada and then either they never come back on no more or they're back in all of the I shoudl've listened threads.LOl That's why I am to the belief that some of the ones you have went back and forth with are not trying to be jerks they are actuallly trying to help you. My advice would be let them. And take it as that, constructive criticism because most of the ones that don't make it really aint because they can't it is because they had this illusion built up in their mind of what this job is and when those expectations were not met they feel they have been done an injustice by whoever they signed on with and now they're out of here and most of them in debt for school. Anyways best of luck to you sir. and I truly hope all works out well for you.

 

Hello and thank you so much for the words. I never took anything anyone said in this thread to be mean, i know most were trying to help. What I could not and still do not understand is saying that, anything is NOT better then being unemployed.. I'm here now and 400 or five a wek sounds better then 000.00 a week. And like I said I'm not close to nieve, i know how companies work, but I'm like you. I know I will not get a ticket, been driving since I was 15 and never had one. I know that i feel like doo doo, whenever I'm even close to being late for anything, (army habits are hard to break) so I know I will be an asset to any company that will hire me. ANd I still beliieve that thier are enough dirtbags in all of trucking that they will let the ones with the tickets, and the ones who are late go first, but thier will still be enough jobs for the good workers, and I know I will be one of them. I've only had 2 jobs in my life time, and I am looking for this to be my last job. So thier is no way once I start that I will not have a job somewhere, might not be hte one I want, but I am at a stage in my life where I don't need much to be happy. Cabin with a piece of land, boat, truck, motorcycle, thats not much for a lifetime of work.. Eyes wide open, yes and no. I am smart enought to know how companies work, but I know myself too and have never been fired or let go until now, but others were let go as well. Senoirty rules... But that is in the past, no time to look back there!! I also know about the payments for school, but I look at it as if they give me the job then they are paying for it one way or the other, even if it is coming out of my pocket, sounds stupid but it works for me. I will be happy to workkkkk. Like I said as long as no one is shotting at my truck it's all good,lol... MAy I ask you a few, which with me means plenty of questions,lol. Please if you answer them don't spend your whole 34 hours doing so.lol

TEll me a little about DS, like how many instrutor per student, it says pretty much 2to 3 week school, anyone get out in two? How much time spent in a truck driving? How were the people in DS, treat you well or like just a number? How was your trainer? ALso they say 4 to six weeks traing any chance of just 4 weeks? Tell me how you felt the first time you got a mess to pick up your first load all by yourself? Excited, nervouse scared? ANything else you would like to say about USA? Just trying to get a handel on everything ahead of time. I have nothing but time waiting for my class date, which i hope is next monday. 10 people to a class, so the wait is on.. Thank you so much for your time and I hope to see you on the road some time to buy you lunch. Fiore

 

I don't know anything about DS I did not go there. Sorry, I got lucky and was sent to a school that just so happened to be literally 5min from my house. My "trainer" was a joke and a piece of garbage. My first load was exciting because I knew I had finally been hired, my own truck# and under a load was a good feeling. It was a long road before I started seeing any decent money and alot of adjustments were made, some would argue I am still not seeing decent money but hey you have to start somewhere so I am very happy with my take home for now and look forward to my next 4cent raise, after that it only increases 1/2 a cent per year but I am going into the training program in march so that should help.

 

See this is the part that causes most to not make it. First of all let me say this, I am not saying you don't already understand this but others will read this that does not so let's see if we can help them. You start out at .26 cpm and run maybe........well lets give you a decent week for a company driver right now and say 2,000mls Okay that's .26 x 2,000 right? WRONG!!! If you take the perdiem at USA that will be .2375 X 2,000 which will = $475........ 2,000 mls in 7days is only 285mls a day that is alot of waiting and then add in the wait time at the shppr/rec, but say you just divide the 475 by your 70 that only comes out to $6.78hr. The 7hr you mentioned from the CMART is starting to sound better to me but wait we have to keep on subtracting. 475-45for school=430-25for escrow=405-lets say $48 for taxes=$357 That is with no 401k or ins taken out nothing tore up you eat cheap didn't take out your $160 advance and managed to run 2,000 mls. Now I'll give you this it does get better for some that make it through those times and if your around when things pickup and start getting raises and escrow took care of and school paid off it does get better. But the point is so many think that "I know I'm not gonna start off making the big bucks but I atleast should clear 4-600 dollars starting out" Aint gonna happen right now. I am not saying this job can't work out because if I can do it anyone can but atleast when you walk in walk in prepared to grab ankles and relax it won't hurt as much I've been told. What I'm saying is take the element of surprise out of it by building an informed opinion and atleast you know what your getting into before hand.

 

Really?........Because I posted on here a day ago and you have not responded. Did I say something you didn't want to hear on the thread you started. Sorry I was just trying to answer the question you asked me.

 

Hello Bbl time, not at all just been busy as heck. Found out i start school monday, and had to get everything together, new boots and things like that. I know i'm more then ready for the tests, have been studying for weeks,lol. I took everything you said in stride, and I know you arfe just looking out for me. The thing is as long as i make enough to eat and survive the first year then that is ok with me. I no longer havea car and house payment so my bills are small. I just need to take care of myself as far as food and for my girlfriend in the phillipines. So wahtever i make is more then i'm making now , and like you said we have to start somewhere. I talk to my army buddy everyday , he works for Crete and he said his miles are down right now as well, and not too exspect to much for a while. I'm happy to be starting school this coming week, it's been hell waiting, but I have did weeks or reserch and studing and talking to my buddy everyday, so I should do allright. I will look you up after i get internet on the road and hopefully i can buy you lunch in the future. I'm looking forward to being on the road and driving with a big USA on my truck.. take care and have a great weekend, Fiore

 

I've been researching all of this stuff, too. And can see that its not the right time to try to start out in trucking! I may go hungary, but I'm not gonna be tired, and hungary!!

 

Htbotrs good luck to you hope all goes well