What would YOU want in a job in trucking?

25%+ the more exp the higher it should be. As for the pre-2000 it mostly about quality of life on the road for me

 

Pre-emission trucks aren't allowed in California. Won't be long before they'll be banned everywhere.
That's a hard pill to swallow for some drivers, but it's coming.

 

Keep newer trucks and trailers. If you keep them well maintained. You'll be able to sell them once the warranty is done. If you are known for well cared for equipment. You'll never have a problem selling them.

 

It would depend on a lot of factors honestly. Do you provide the trailer? Am i leaseing your trailer? Am i using my own? What part of the country am i going to? What am i loading and where is it going? How much detention will i get? How much do the loads pay on average? How much do you help with standard maintaince and tires/fuel? Do i need special permits or endorsments? How long will i be out? Whats your chain-up policy? Do you require a camera in my truck? Do you send out a new truck for a load if i break down or do i need to rent one? What discounts/fuel cards will you give me? Am i using my own auth and ifta or yours? Do you cover lumpers or do i?

These are the types of questions we lease/indie operators are going to ask you and we will decide how much we want based on how you answer.

 

I like this question you put out, your attention to the answers, and your goals; but if I heard a guy w/ apparently little experience (I may be wrong) saying his company was going to be running everything, everywhere, I’d offer him good luck and walk away.

Exception would be a new guy with signed direct freight contracts.

Focus, and developing expertise on that focus, has both soft and hard value that can’t be bought.

 

I’ve seen some companies provide satellite radio and my-fi or some other internet service in the company trucks.

When I had my own rig I built a shower in it
Wasn’t hard to do .
That would be a cool factor in attracting drivers but Probabaly a maintenance nightmare.
With mine I used some coils of copper tubing hooked to the engine coolant in one tank and another rank for cold water , each with a 12volt pump and a normal valve like in a residential shower.

I’ve seen some companies do super weird things .
I know a guy that drives for a company and they are back to the yard every weekend usually.
The company mechanic inspects the tractors and trailers and basically does a annual DOT inspection , every week.

But if they arrive back after 4pm the driver has to spend the night at the yard and drive the tractor into the shop.
The mechanic isn’t allowed to drive the truck into the shop. WTF?
The company would never do this if the drivers got paid by the hour.
You think they company would pay the drivers 3 or 4 hours wages to drive the truck into the shop , burn up some of their available driving hours for next week, and wait while it gets inspected and serviced and then park it in the yard ?

and about one week every two or three months they have no loads. No work. but the company requires the drivers to call dispatch every morning and every afternoon. WTF?
Phone lines work both ways .
If dispatch has a load , they could call the driver .

they also do some neat things.
It’s a oversize flatbed company , they will hire a student right out of the community college CDL class , if the student has a clean credit, criminal and driving record , and put them they a 9 month ride along as a trainee at half pay and then put them in an assigned tractor at full pay.
The drivers are paid a percentage and average about 85-89 cents a mile.

all of their trucks are Kenworth W-900 L
, they all get replaced before the warranty expires, and when they order a new tractor, the driver it’s going to be assigned to goes to the KW dealer and chooses the color.

 

I like your tone. It's always good to see a fellow veteran starting something right. Freight is a commodity. Too many startups get in a race to the bottom - always chasing low rates just to keep the wheels turning. The way around commoditization is differentiation - contract freight, dedicated accounts and specialty freight. These loads require experienced drivers and the customers usually understand that to get the service level they require they have to pay for it.

 

This .

find a niche and earn a reputation as one of the best trucking companies in that niche.
You can’t compete with a giant monster mega company.

I know one company that only hauls one type of cargo in a niche market, and they are good at making money doing it .

Good enough that they don’t bother with backhauls. They come back empty for free because the outbound trip pays so well.
and they don’t have a contract either.
The shipper does have some minimum qualifications, for both the tractors and the drivers, to get on the list of companies allowed to bid on loads.
But They bid on every load, and usually win. And make good money doing it .

the shipper they work with recently had them haul a load that was worth $950 million.

You think a shipper with a load worth nearly a billion dollars just puts that load on a load board and let’s just anyone haul it ?
That’s the kind of reputation you want to earn.

 

Agreed on one lane to start. With reefer you can still pull dry van loads. I took rolls of paper from ma to tx.