Starter Company

i chose schneider out of school and havent regret anything since. been here for 6 months now.

 

In Oregon, I hear May is a pretty good company. No first hand experience but I've never heard anything bad.

 

How about this. Any company who'll put you in a $100K truck, give you work, and support you through your learning curve is "a good company." I drive for Conway Truckload, and I recommend them strongly.

 

Yeah, and any company willing to do all that, as well as pay you $22,000/year for working 60/70 hour weeks, in a truck that has inadequate HVAC support- so that you're roasting your nads off in the summer, freezing them off in the winter, as well as giving you the crappiest loads so their lease purchase boys can make those payments, defiantly deserves a reward of some kind. I'm thinking a Nobel Prize.

Ah, I can see it now.

"And the winner of the Nobel prize, for being a good guy, goes to C.R England, for putting a wheel holder in a truck."

C'mon man.
New driver or not, he at-least deserves to have basic human necessities.

OP, go with a company that has-

• Trucks that idle, have sensible idle policies, or APU's

• A good following and reputation. There's plenty out there, but you've got to dig around to find them. Bear in mind- the guys getting screwed the most, are most likely to make the most noise. IE:The drivers being treated the worst are going to complain the loudest. This doesn't always bear truth, though. Some companies like Prime are decent starters. Yet, all you hear is guys complain, and argue. Take all information you get, with a pound or two of salt.

• Good freight-lines. You need to realize that all freight is subject to seasonal limitation. Reefer slows down around February, because the holidays are over, growing seasons are in static. There are other reasons, but these are just two. The same goes for any haul. Flatbed slows down in the winter; no one is building anything, building materials make up a large portion of flatbed freight. Dry van stays fairly consistent, and I can't speak for tanker. Know this, however- Winter months are hard on trucking. The snow effects our national GDP in a very real, quantifiable and measurable manner.

• Support staff that isn't composed of #######. This is getting harder and harder to find. Preferably, every DM will have been a driver at some point or another. This, is wishful thinking. Most of the DM's circulating today, are desk jockys. That's all they've ever been, that's all they're ever going to be. Even if they wanted to become drivers, it's unlikely they'd make it. These guys and gals are too used to being 100 ft from a toilet every hour of every day, in a nice climate controlled environment, playing big-boss man. Not gonna lie to you, this is one of the biggest challenges. If you find a DM, that was a driver, there is a very noticeable difference in their ability to help you in your daily tasks, versus some idget with a B.A in Logistics management. (Protip: never, ever, ever, ever, regardless of which company you ever work with, count on nights and weekend dispatch to be worth half of a quarter of a ####. They're useless. They're always useless. If these guys had a use, they wouldn't be nights and weekened dispatch. They're plain and simply: rejected #######.)

• Optional- A company with a range of hauls. When I started out, it was with reefer freight. Reefer freight is it's own brand of hell, as are all lines of freight. But reefer freight rubs me the wrong way, all day long. Sitting in doors, for 5-10+ hours, waiting in line just to hit a door, to sit for my 11...delivering in the interior of interiors of major metros, managing temp controls and dealing with overages/reject freight. It's a lot of work. It's not my kind of work. Sure, I can do it. That doesn't mean I like it. I would've loved to have been with Prime, and switched out to something like flatbed, or more preferably tanker.

But there you have it. I screwed up my MVR too much, prior to trying to become a driver, and Prime wouldn't take me. No one really would. FFE did. Man, do I have a love hate relationship with them. FFE isn't the worst company, ever. They're, or at-least were, more or less; mediocre. They had potential to be good, but it was very rare that they were.

It taught me a lot. It taught me what I want, what I need, what I'd prefer and what I don't want.

Your first company is never your best company, that always holds true. Just grin, bear it, and move on when it's feasible to do so.

 

Wrecker, I hope you find this Paradise some day. If a driver doesn't like the company he's with, there's a really easy, and obvious, solution.

 

Never said heaven was such a thing. You have to strike a happy medium between the bad and the good, then call it a day. There's only so much a man can do, to make sure he's happy, after-all.

There is no perfect company, but saying something like "Well, my company put me in a$100,000 truck, I should be happy with that, and that alone." Is the wrong way to think of this industry.

I don't care if my truck cost my company $10 or $100,000. At the end of the day, I'm here for me. My ability to make money dictates my being here. If they can't pay, why should I stay?

 

Trans-system is excellent and has 3 companies under their umbrella. Trucks have APU's.

Central Oregon Truck Company sometimes hires new CDL grads.

 

Top options would be.. werner, usexpress, CR england and swift.

the big bucks are there!