Starting soon.

Taxes too. But ya they took 215$ out of my check one week for school.

 

then you should of fought it, they are supposed to only take about $75 and pay back half of it weekly. My last check was $580 and I took home just under $500, also make sure your w2 is correct, I claim 3 so they dont take as much from me.

 

To also comment on the subject miles and pay will vary weekly. The average I hear from several people are 1900-2200 miles a week, I hear some who get 3000 and some who get less. Be smart about things and you will get more miles, before you deliver your load start doing the macros to look for the next load based on your pta, always make sure to keep your eta and pta updated since the system looks for loads based on this. Always do your mac 10 daily and your 32 at the end of the day and approve those logs!
Most of the time I found and accepted a load before being finished with the current load, some areas the freight is slow and some areas its great. I found you will always find loads if you stay on the east coast for awhile. Get a couple weeks in on the east coast before finding a load back home to the west, if you need to be home on a certain day then make sure you do that home time way ahead to get there in time, if your on your way and lets say your in Texas and trying to get to CA and they try sending you to OK then just suck it up and take it, there are a ton of loads going out of there to CA. One guy I talked to yesterday just goes back and forth from CA to OK nonstop and gets great miles, just watch for that tornado behind you lol.

 

Yeah I like to keep rolling, you don't make money sitting around waiting. There will be times when you just cant find a load for a day but thats just the business, if you get your hazmat then you can get more opportunity, I know a couple with hazmat who dont have a problem finding a load. Swift does not require this and I dont have my endorsement yet but im thinking about it just so im more valuable later to companies. Swift also only pays like an extra $35 on a load I was told for hazmat, same for flat bed I believe someone told me for tarp pay but some companies pay a lot more.
So far I was told from the DM that Oregon is slow freight and a couple other states but cant remember them right this minute. Also during the weekend sometimes it can be slower in some places, when I was in Denver over the past weekend there were a lot of drivers sitting around waiting for a load, I sat for a day and got lucky to get a beer can load that was being t-called to mira loma terminal in CA. There were loads going out of Denver to Trenton OH and OK city which is the major destinations I have seen for can and bottle loads. Out of Ohio I didnt have a problem getting a load and pretty much found loads nonstop while on the east coast going from New York to Alabama, back to SC then NJ etc. I always say take the small miles too, I had 3 loads stacked for a costco dedicated that were low miles but kept me busy while waiting to get out. Another time I tried getting back to CA for mothers day I got a load to Sacramento and was lucky to find a Cambel load from there down to Rancho Cucamonga while I was halfway there and that took me close enough to the Fontana terminal to take some home time. You just need to be smart about things and you will be fine out there.

Also on the team subject, dont team with someone who lives in a totally different area, home times can conflict.

Also a side tip I learnt if you want to take the truck home then try to find a load close to your home, if it has enough time on it then take a 34 at home, drop the load and then take a day of home time. Sometimes you cannot take your truck home otherwise unless your an owner op then you can do whatever you want. Also a warning if you take home time and leave the truck at the terminal then dont take more than 34 hours as a new company driver, they WILL give your truck away, after 6 months your allowed to leave the truck for 2 days.

Another tip if you drop a load and pick up an empty and waiting to get a new load then DO NOT go hang out at a terminal, some of them will take your trailer away and then you have to find another empty at dispatch. Go hang out at a truck stop or somewhere else instead, the truck stops at least have food and nicer showers, every terminal I took a shower at was dirty looking and they dont have people going in cleaning after each person. For quick shower times go to a TA/Petro, they have more showers available, if you stop at a loves then sometimes you have to wait a little bit for a shower, most I waited was about 20 minutes so far. The nice thing about Loves though is that if you get 1000 gallons of fuel in a month then the next month your platinum and get free drink refills and showers without having to fuel up. I am platinum for at least June right now.

If I think of other tips I will post them if others havent. Unlike some I like to help and give a heads up on stuff I have learnt so far.

 

they also wouldn't fix my steers and I had chunks comin out of em

 

Be careful around the guys that act like they know it all. They usually don't, if they did why are they there?

Also avoid the temptation to take payroll advances, you can dig a big hole in your future earnings before you know it.

 

Wolfy, only one problem with your reply here. Unless you are a company Diamond driver or owner/op, company driver can not use Mac 30 to start to search for a load.