USA TRUCK

whiteviper,
not trying to "bash" you driver. just giving you a different point of view on what happened, and some precautions you could have taken to lessen the aggravation level of this. and let me stress to you again that i have been less than thrilled (to put it mildly) at the level of service at the W Memphis garage in the past.
as far as the pay thing goes, you need to stay on the phone to solve it. first call payroll. then if they direct you to "take it up with your FM" then get on his butt about it. don't give him the chance to forget about it (because he/she might!) the squeaky wheel usually gets greased ya know.

that was my main point.

the deal is you get 1 day off per week out. you can choose to be gone 2-5 weeks at a time, hope that helped

 

Truckerwife, I'm not a driver yet, but I do have 2 friends that drive for USA and I also have an experience for you. Both guys at USA say they get home regularly, sometimes days late, sometimes on time. They both say be prepared for the first year to be a rough one, but keep the attitude in check and try to get through it. The benefit will be that if he can put in a year or more, he will pay off the school. In addition, most regional, local or dedicated run companies will want him to have at least one year OTR. However, this will mean more hometime, shorter runs and many times better pay. One of them has just been hired to do dedicated runs for 2 days out, 2 days home and making better money with good insurance. Those, hopefully are my plans too.

My experience was when my wife and I married 24 years ago, I got a promotion at work. They made me an offer and asked me to go to New York City and train some people for about 2 months. They would fly me home or fly her up to NYC from Louisiana every 2 or 3 weeks, for the weekend. It ended up being 2 years instead of 2 months. We had only been married about a year. She had 2 young kids from a previous marriage. We made it through and were stronger because of it. Also, some financial hardships got paid off and we put money in the bank because of the dedication we both had and improved pay after the first year or so. I know it's hard to do and understand, but both of you may benefit in the end, if you can stick it out. Also understand, he will be just as stressed and anxious about it as you are. If he really wants this job, and you can support him in it, things will probably get better after a while. Good luck.

 

runion, you should try getting home to FL. without deadheading alot of miles brother!!! LOL

my experience so far on getting home has been: 1/2 day early to 1/2 day late. go figure LOL

 

i am glad things are starting to look up for you. just remember to be polite to everyone you have to deal with (FM shop payroll etc) and it will go a long way to get them to help you out. GOOD LUCK OUT THERE!

 

when i worked for 3 years ago i always droped my load in vandallia,oh (sorry i aint the best speller in the world) and would pickup an empty their and dead head like i wanna say around 200 to 300 miles home with no-pay.........but when i worked at usa 3 years ago i always cheated on my log's,i aint saying do it but i was young and dumb and just wanted to run.....i would never do it again and wouldnt have done it then but seems like the only thing i could think of was making the "BIG" money.. like i said, young and DUMB!!!! i know better now i have learned a lesson..i didnt make any more money running illegal than what i did running legal.. the only thing i got was a WHOLE lot of driving time with NO-SLEEP.... i dont advise anyone to do that.... you have to be comfortable with your driving..if your tired, sleep, if your hungry, eat......ect.ect.ect. i now work for a construction company out of richmond,va i work around 7 months out of the year and laid off around 5 months which is fine with me. when i work i make around $1300.00 a week and when i am laid off i bring home around $400.00 unemployment for doing nothing but sleeping in and watching cartoon's........lol but i am happy with what i do.. they pay for my hotel everynight, i take a hot shower and have a bathroom right beside me.. so no-complaints on my end.....

 

i heard that LOL
yea if you plan well you get all the miles you need running legal. i run 5AM to 5PM and only work about 8.5-9 of those 12 so i get a 12 hour break everyday and 3000-3500 miles per week.

 

I hope things pay off after the first year. I'm a stay-at-home mom with a 3 year old and and a 20 month old and taking care of them alone is really HARD. I know he's fulfilling some childhood dream of being a truck driver so I will support him the best I can and hope that he can get off the long hauls after the first year is up. We've never been apart like this in six years so I hope he can handle it.

 

yeah it took me a few months to learn that lesson with lots of nights with no sleep... but i learned it... i worked for usa around 9 months or so, then moved on to jb hunt and worked for them for likea year and a half and a little more.....i was lucky (very very lucky) because i had a good dispatcher with them...he went to a side of the hiring process and the guy that replaced him didnt know his butt from a hole in the ground. lol but now i am pretty happy with what i do