Too soon to change companies?

Thanks for your input! Someone else mentioned Heyl and he sent in an application, got a call from Nicole, who said they would overlook his being short one month per their usual "time driving" qualifications, which I thought was really great! He is going to contact her again tomorrow. He had to drive back and forth to Clearwater every week to meet his trainer for about 8-10 weeks and it wasn't all that bad, so I told him we could make it work. Nicole told him he would work either 7 on and 1 off or 14 on and 2 off. That's way better than what he's trying to do now.

Thanks again, it helps to hear from yet another Heyl driver.

 

The truck is still at the shop and the work day is over. The parts that are required for the fix are no longer under warranty so they need permission from the company to move forward with repairs and have a call in to breakdown. They said it could be Monday or Tuesday before they'd know anything, and today is Friday. Another week without pay.

Since he's back home, he's had the opportunity to look around more at other companies. He's currently filling out an application for JCT, L/P. Not sure if they'll accept him with so little experience, but the worst that can happen is they say no, come back later. He's also had calls from the recruiter with Heyl, and he's considering that company as well.


Thanks to all the drivers who have given us such great advice! We'll keep you all posted.

 

Thanks, well we're going to do something similar ... I think. We don't really feel like we know enough about the business yet to be going O/O but we are looking at L/P, that might work for us and give us the company backing that we need while we're still learning. It will be like having training wheels.

 

Sorry it has taken me so long to post again in here.

We sent applications to a few companies and have been busy talking to several recruiters on the phone who had called him after they received his application. There are quite a few companies who will gladly take him on, regardless of his short time driving, which is only five months so far.

We read a really good thread somewhere else on the forum about JCT, as you know.... Sent in an application last week. He was contacted by them in email last Friday night, asking for verification of his time off without working, which happened after he lost his job and before he began with this new company, driving OTR. They sent him a form that he had to have notarized with his signature, stating that he was in CDL school during that time that he was unemployed.

Yesterday he took the form to get it signed and notarized and faxed back to JCT. This morning he received a phone call from Sarah at JCT. She is trying to contact whoever is in charge of the airline that can provide her with information about his 25 years with that company. The company was closed over a year ago but there is supposed to be somebody at Delta who is taking care of all of this so that the 1600 people who lost their jobs can get verification that they actually did work there. Once she receives that verification she's going to try to get back in contact with him (He has gone back to work and is currently out on another trip after his truck got fixed), and hopefully he will be able to start working for them, we have our fingers crossed.

In the meantime, while he was waiting for his truck to be fixed, which took an entire week, and in anticipation of getting a chance to drive for JCT, he went online and took some reefer training. He spent the entire week reading everything he could find on reefers because he wants to be as knowledgeable as possible if he is called to go to orientation. We sure hope that they train him on those before they send him out because he has no experience with them, he has only pulled dry van .... and flown 17 million dollar airplanes.


While he was studying, I wrote a blog here and then added everything that I had documented of our experiences OTR to that blog. I wanted to share our experience with any other newbies who are interested in reading what it's really like out there, from the perspective of another newbie. If anyone is interested in reading it, here's the link...

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/entry.php?b=5854&bt=14845#comment14845

So now we're just waiting to hear from the recruiter at JCT and we will keep you all posted as soon as we hear something.

 

I know, we would have to make the drive to Zephyrhills from Port Charlotte. Heyl is going to be his number two choice if it doesn't work out with JCT. The only bad thing for us is that they do not allow pets on their trucks. We would have to leave our dog a kennel and she has never been in one in her life and she is six years old. We would have a very bad trip, we would be worrying about her the entire time. So he would have to go alone and he's not real thrilled about that idea. He is out alone right now and he says it's really lonely in the truck and he misses us.

I'm so glad that you decided to go with them ... good luck to you and let us know how it goes!