Insurance companies and 2yrs Experience

Ok??? Why does he require two year experience then???? Why are you worried about DAC??? Why isn't your truck driving school enough experience??? Something isn't fitting together here.

I used to work for a local company here in my town. It was a trucking company that had an account with a box factory. I hauled boxes to factories and then drove empty back to the yard. I worked 8 to 5 monday thru friday. I never worked weekends and never drove more than 100 miles one way. I only had to have a CDL Class A. They didn't require anything else. In fact there was another guy there that drove the other truck. He was 21 and still going to college. He took classes at night after he got off work. He had zero experience driving a truck before he started that job. He just went to the DMV, got his CDL, got the job and went to work.

I've never heard of ANY local companies that request that you have 2 or more years experience. Or of one that required you to go to truck driving school. No wonder he's never heard of DAC. DAC is for OTR positions. I've never heard of a local company that subscribes to DAC. I think maybe it's just he knows you and....not to offend you...but maybe he doesn't trust that you can handle the job and he's giving you the run around.

I can get a local job here no problem. Experienced or not. It's just the pay that I can't handle. The local job I had only paid $9.50 an hour. Once I paid for gas driving back and forth to work, I had maybe $150 to $200 a week left over and I can't pay my bills on that.

I see that you went through truck driving school. That is way more than enough to get a local driving position. Really the only reason you should go to trucking school is to get a job OTR....not local. I have never heard of anyone going to trucking school and paying thousands of dollars just to get a local job. Most local jobs don't pay enough to offset the cost of going through 4 weeks of school.

How much does this local job pay?? Is it hauling haz-mat or high value loads? I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm being mean...but if you really went through truck driving school then there is NO reason why you can't get a local job. Heck most of the local grain haulers around here don't even have CDL's. They are just farm hands and jump in the truck and run the load over to the mill then run the truck back to the farm. Then again I'm from the backwoods of Arkansas. If you have a pulse your good to go for a truck driving job here. LOL.

 

Crap if all u want is a local job it shouldn't involve all that. I know it's not like that here. The only problem here is the pay like i said.

I applied to one..a construction company. The guy interviewed me. Told me I would have to work in the shop changing oil and greasing the trucks if they didn't have work. I said thats fine. I went on with the interview and finally I asked what the pay would be sense the guy was talking about everything EXCEPT that. He finally said..."Ummm I can start you out at 750."

I was thinking hell for $750 a week i would never need to go to school and never need to go over the road. I was thinking..."This is too good to be true" Well we went on with the interview and I asked him was it ok for me to start with no experience. He said oh yeah we can start you out on a straight truck and then train you on the big ones when we go out in the country and get a load of dirt. They get stuck out there in the fields all the time. It's a good place to get you some experience. We finished the interview and I said so when do I start? He said tomorrow. I was about to leave and he said so your ok with the pay? I said of course how can I turn down $750 a week. He looked at me with a blank stare and said ..."No No No. You will start out at $7.50 an hour....dude."

Needless to say I didn't take the job. I actually told him right there and then what he could do with his $7.50 an hour.

Local jobs are not easy to come by I guess. Still around here they don't pay crap unless its with Roadway, Yellow, AAA Cooper or Averitt. Some place like that. Still I don't think they pay a lot. It's just you get a pension with some.

OTR isn't all that bad. For 11 years I've drove OTR and some regional. I've never worked more than 8 to 10 weekends through out the year. Mostly what I have done is work from Sunday night to Friday afternoon. I've averaged about $600 to $700 a week as a company driver as well. I'm just hoping I can do better than that as an O/O.

 

Buzz - when you decide to part ways with your farmer, get him to give you a letter that briefly describes what you're doing for him, and the dates. Many of the large companies will accept that as proof of your employment and driving experience.

dave_0755 - many "local" companies are required by their insurance to demand a minimum level of experience from prospective employees. Its based on who the insurance company is willing to cover. So - from Buzz's point of view, he needs to get the 2 years, and also find out what kind of experience is acceptable to the local "gentleman's" insurance. Not all experience counts as "experience" in trucking. That doesn't mean that you can't get hired by another local company - you may have to beat a bunch of bushes to find one though.

Bad news: Buzz, if you decide that you need to hire onto one of the bigger OTR companies to get that 2 years of experience, your CDL and school generally counts for squat after 6 months. Most of them will require that you either take a "refresher course" or go through the entire training program again - at your expense.

 

Buzz I would suggest .....If i was you...to get with an OTR company. Some are really not too bad. I know you hear a lot of crap on here from other drivers. I for one think Swift out of Memphis is not too bad. Swift overall IS. It's just Swift in Memphis is ran mostly by the crew there in Memphis. The people there are good people it's just Swift is a very large corporate company with their crazy ways.

I know I've talked to some others that like some of the other large companies. My dad thought JB was the best company on planet earth. He was experienced when he started there too. It's what you make of it really. The large companies try to push your buttons sometimes. They make you sit when you have hours to run and they want you to run when you want to sleep. I've sat for 10 hours with Swift and was told to go get a load at 2am thats a drop and hook and the load has been there ready for a week. I don't understand why Swift does things like this. Other large companies do the same. The best advice I can give when working for the large fleets is to come on board with a load of patience. You will need it dealing with them.

A year passes by faster than you think it will. While you are working and waiting for your year to pass. You can be calling other companies and checking into something long term.

My suggestion is this. Some here will disagree with me. I suggest to FIRST look for companies with 1000 trucks or less. That way you will be a name not a number. Home time is easier to get with companies like that. Second look for companies WITHOUT Qualcomms. I don't like them. The companies will bug the crap out of you. Most make you pull over to see your messages....DONT TEXT AND DRIVE. There's no benefit to you to have a Qualcomm except maybe a lower cell phone bill. I would rather pay for the cell phone and do without the Qualcomm. Third I would look at the hometime, truck year and model, speed of truck, get a terminal close to your home town (it's easier in most cases to get hometime with a terminal close by) Also just ask a driver in a parking lot how he likes working for the company. DON'T TAKE ONE PERSONS ADVICE. Ask several drivers. One might hate it but he might be the worst driver in the entire fleet. Another might love it and he might be the hardest worker and best employee the fleet has.

 

You haven't been around if you think all local jobs are easy and don't pay anything. Go try to work for Chevron. They require 2 if not more years of experience and they want tanker experience. They are just like us in their waiting list for job applicates, 5 to 6 years wait time unless a bunch get fired and that's highly unlikely. Oh BTW you can make over $300 A DAY at any major oil company. There's more local jobs that pay a good wage than you know. Just depends where and how you look.

 

GasHauler I don't disagree with you. All i know is I'm from Arkansas and it's different here. I've never applied for a local job in Nevada. Think about it....... Why would I apply for a local job that is 1500 miles away from me. Arkansas and other states is a whole different ball game than what you are dealing with. I know MANAGERS in Arkansas that gross less than $35,000 a year. I used to be one of them. Then again the cost of living here is totally different too. I paid $55,000 for a 4 bedroom 2 bath home here with a fully finished basement. My total bills for the house are less than $600 per month.

Here I have never heard of any local company that requires experience. I have had a couple. One was with a daycab pulling a 53' trailer. Like i said I was home everynight but all i got paid was $9.50 an hour and couldn't make it. Even in Memphis I could get a local driving job without experience. Still that's 55 miles from me and it wouldn't be worth my time to drive back and forth. Different places have different standards and pay.

I don't see myself moving right now. My options are limited I know. Sounds like Buzz has the same limitations as me.