Life at American Central Transport (ACT)

Not to run on and on, I was wondering how much home time a leasor at ACT could manage. I know a truck has to run to make money but I have always been a regional home every weekend guy for about 9 years now even with my own truck. The wind energy had me setting new records for away time. (26 days) Sure the pay was great for a company driver like an average of 3200 a week but a lot of sit and wait time when loading or unloading was crowded or bad rainy weather and such. Plus waiting for permits, escorts, and sometimes the boss to sober up from another night of out carousing so our convoy could roll.

 

speaking of bosses,i had a boss back in houston that would bring a case of schlitz beer to work every morning and put in the fridge in the stockroom.

 

well BigKId2 I am gonna have to wait til April due to safety points. Two tickets from 7 and 10 months of 2009 which I take total responsibility and an accident in April 2009 that although was no fault they say was a preventable. I have taken a job at Hogan for the meanwhile that is on average paying $900 a week net. Should get me home almost nightly depending on delivery point. Dollar General delivery account. I am gonna keep checking your posts to track your success and keep ACT lease in my front view as a goal to reach for. Thanks for the PM. I cannot PM in bobtail mode.

 

This is my first post on the forums and I wanted to say Thank You to everyone for some great info about ACT and trucking information in general...... I finally put my application in to become a lease operator with ACT and hope that I get approved. I have a great driving record (over 6 years driving OTR) with no accidents or tickets, and a low PSP score (19, points will fall off next April to 0), so I hope that it happens. BK, I wanted to say thank you for giving such detailed information about ACT, it has really helped make this decision easier for me and my family. Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

Bigkid were you at the pilot in crawfordsville IN monday afternoon?

 

BK, I live in the Fort Worth, TX area and by reading your posts, it seems as if y'all are in this area often. My driving record is as good as I have previously stated, a little over 700,000 accident free miles. I have pulled both my MVR and DAC report as proof. As I said before, I have 19 points on my PSP that will fall off in April of next year. The only thing that I am worried about is my job background. I am afraid I may be conceived as a "job hopper"

I started my driving career with a local refrigerated carrier (they put me thru school) and spent a year with them. I left them due to very low pay and wound up going with another carrier where I spent only two months. My family and I discovered that this carrier was not a good fit at all. After coming home I took a position with a placement agency that placed me at a local flatbed carrier. I was with the agency for 10 months until I was hired on with the flatbed company. I worked for that carrier for a little over three years until I got the itch to pursue a dream that I had as a teen.

I took time off to attend Westwood College for architectural drafting. I spent three months there,and the reason that I left is because the college fell under strong scrutiny for deceptive practices from the state. The college has since been ordered to shut down all three TX college campuses. I dropped out with a 4.0 gpa and was on the President's List, but realized that a degree from this school would be near worthless. You can google it, and see that this was the case. After two months of being in college, finances were starting to get tight so I took a part time job thru the same placement agency that I worked at before. Upon leaving college, I took a driving position on a dedicated GM route from TX to MI. The problem with this position was that when GM shut down for one day, it ended up shutting me down for the entire week. Dispatch was quick to tell me that this was the price to pay for being on this route. I had other problems with this carrier, but that is something for another area of the forums. I spent six months with them and my family and I did our best to save as much money as we possibly could.

We took a chance and purchased a used truck from an individual and I leased on to Landstar. I can truthfully say, I loved running off of the Landstar board and enjoyed my three months that I was there, and to be honest I would still be there if the transmission would not have went out on my truck. I did not have enough in my maintenance fund due to running only for three months, so I had to part ways.

For the last three months I have been self employed as a warehouse manager at a local warehouse facility. I enjoy this position, however the pay is nowhere near the type of money that you make driving a truck, and to be honest I miss being behind the wheel. I am about to loose my contract with this company, due to another individual claiming he can do the same work for less money. I have been made aware of this, but am not able to preform the same services for less money.

I am sorry that this has gone on and on, and I am also sorry for hi-jacking the forum. Thanks for giving me a chance to explain myself. Be safe and keep the shiny side up!