My journey with Orange starts

Hi Warhippy,
Great post - reading with interest - considering also teaming with my son. I looked at SNI website for new CDL A teams. I see rates are .34 for for first 6 months and .46 after. If my math is correct (and often it's not) 22,500 miles x.34 = $7,650/gross wages month to truck /4 weeks = $1912/gross wages week to truck /2 drivers = $956/gross wages each. Or are there other deductions that I'm just not aware of.

 

.43 CPM + fuel and safety bonuses for noobs starting out

http://www.primeinc.com/potential-drivers

Even Tyson foods starts a noob at .39 CPM

http://www.tysonfoodscareers.com/Driving/Over-The-Road-Careers/Trainee.aspx

 

.43c means nothing when you can only do 58 and your a moving road hazard where ever you go.

I love how they went from ripping the paint off peoples doors 15 years ago to putting the paint back on the doors current day.

 

That's close. We've been averaging $850 a week gross. The extra miles is because of the extra days each month. Add in bonuses which come every quarter and sign on bonus which varies and that's where you come up with 50K. We are also both ex military and receive $1200 a month for VA military Apprenticeship.

Each driver receives a separate check...there is no to the truck and split it. My son's quarterly bonus was different than mine because he took more days off than I did. His wife popped out a kid so I ran solo for a week while he went home and some of the metrics used for determining bonus was different than mine.

This is a good gig for a father/son but you do tend to get on each others nerves occasionally. Running 48 states is actually good for us. I would have hated regional.

Take a good look at all the companies that have teams. We chose Schneider because it was the best fit for us that had the Military Apprenticeship program. We looked at Pay, Equipment, Driver satisfaction and Safety record to determine what was best for us. I didn't trust recruiters but everything ours told us has been true so far.

If you have any more questions please feel free to email or pm me. My email is warhippy@yahoo. com

 

I'm interested in the military apprenticeship you're talking about

 

There are companies out there that in cooperation with Veterans Administration offer a Military Apprenticeship program. Basically it's your pay earned driving plus your GI bill for either 12 or 24 months. For us it's an extra $1200 a month tax free. When I was looking at companies I only looked at those that offered the program.

There is a lot of info on truckers report concerning the program and a list of companies that offer it. We started July 2nd and our first check was Sept 20th so it does take time after starting to kick in.

 

Ah gotcha that's pretty cool. I still haven't touched my GI Bill

 

We're headed to Portersville, CA from Denver with a 43K load of dog food tomorrow evening. I absolutely love the rockies with a heavy load. Maybe we'll see ya in California this time.

 

Exactly, prime inc, basically northeast regional reefer, sitting all day every day at grocery warehouses, driving even slower than Schneider if that's possible.

And Tyson, sitting at chicken plants all day long, I've seen more complaints about them then I'd care to see.