Some Advice for drivers looking at NCI-National carriers

He should have got one of these, he'd probably have more cash at the end of the week....

 

This is the same story that drivers have been using to blame the company for their shortcomings....

I heard this a lot when I ran for another Reefer outfit....always the companies fault for the lack of miles and small paychecks...

But! There is always a flip side to every coin...and that is good drivers know how to manage a truck, maintain cost and deliver on time.

I never refused a load. It make no sense to sit when you can be running and generating income....even if there was a delivery conflict, I would still pick up a load and run then swap it should I run out of my hours, or reset the appointment. The fact is you need to communicate with the company daily and work through any issues.

There is no reason other than a poor work effort to make only 200 a week take home, BTW, You should be averaging 9k - 10k in miles minimum per month....

At .38 cents per mile that is roughly $3420.00 to $3800.00 gross ( before taxes and deductions) Still thats about 40 k aver per year....and all you have to do is drive, eat and sleep.

Home time ? What home time, We live in a truck....going to the house is 1 day off for every six days out...so 4 days off duty a month is no home time when you think about it. It is enough to say hello, sleep for three days then go back out. What a wonderful home-life, huh! Not! It is all about the freedom from being away from home, not stuck in a dead-end job having some sniffling brat for a boss complaining that you're not working fast enough or hard enough...I'll take trucking over that any day of the week. As long as we don't screw up...they pretty much leaves us alone to manage the daily operations of the CMV....just follow the FMCSA...HOS/Company policies. and you find in time, it gets easier. The downside is the USA gets smaller, much smaller. One day, you'll find you have been everywhere!

We will find the job is rather routine running over the same old ground, no matter who you work for. It is what it Is, Drive, Eat ,Sleep....Just not always in that order and hopefully you'll meet some nice people along the way.

 

My only issue with them is the miles really. I wouldn't mind staying with them for a while if I could get better miles. I've been with them for the better part of a year and I've requested home time once so far(for 4 days). Really when I think about it, I didn't even request it. It's just that I was on a trip that was to bring me close to home, my dm noticed it (and probably also noticed that I had never requested home time before and I had been there for about 4 months at that point) and just asked me if I wanted some home time. I said sure I'll take it. They're nice enough people and as I said, I don't really have anything bad to say about them. Only issue is miles. I averaged about 650 bucks a week last year and I don't think that's enough for otr, especially the way that I do it staying out for months at a time.

And I'm a homebody too. I don't drive like this because I like being otr.

I've thought about the leasing thing and I've actually heard nothing but good experiences from leasers that I've met. I'm hearing about $1,300 to $1,500/ wk is what they do clean profit. But I don't like the idea of having to be out there because of the extra "I have to"(due to having to pay for the truck) layered on top of the default "I have to" be out there(in order to pay bills in general). That may not even make any sense to some folks, but that's what it is for me.

With all that said, I think this is actually one of the better companies out there. I wouldn't have minded starting out with them.

 

I agree with most this post but the sad thing is a lot of truckers have your idea about hometime which folks like me think it's importNt part as we'll. I'm out 5 days a week and off sat and sun. And look forward to seeing my family. You say truckers look forward to get away from home, maybe so but also some truckers look forward to being home as well while being gone 5 days around the south or northeast. Different strokes for different folks. I assume single with no family attitude is a little different from married with a kid

 

If I was still running OTR, I would be pushing for the next load soon as I was close to getting the current load off.... Good drivers need to be up their dispatchers butts to the point where they are conditioned into keeping the driver busy & out of their hair, hopefully this will end up getting the driver longer miles... Just theory 😎

 

No matter what path you take, if your willing to put the work in you will make MONEY. Ppl fail at leasing because they don't look at it as a business. Just because you check is $1500.00 doesn't mean you have the money. You have to separate your business from your personal money. Pay yourself .40 pm and put the rest in a business account and before you know it, you will have enough money saved to buy out your truck when the lease is up. Nothing in life is easy your going to have to sacrifice for awhile to make it to where u need to be...