Trans Am or KLLM

Hmm..nope had a pretty good relationship with my fleet manager. Guess you shouldn't make assumptions by reading other posts. I'm not "throwing out" anything. Sure fleet managers will make all kinds of notes on your screen about time off. Now whether you get it or not is hit and miss. Usually when it came time to be off for that special occasion, there was always some sort of problem letting the driver off for that, although it was noted on the screen previously. Did they pay me well 6 years ago as a student? Yup sure did. Hometime, not so good. Getting off for special occasions, not hardley. Talk is cheap.

 

If You knew going in that you only get 4 days off a month, why would you have a problem with it? seems to me compared to other companies that offer 1 day off for 7 out, you actually get more time off with Trans AM. You request to be off Sat. and Sun. they get you home on Fri. and you don't go back til Mon. sounds like a very generous hometime. I could be wrong, only being a student checking out all these companies, not really first hand experience. If you could tell me a company that would hire a student and have better hometime, I am all ears, but sounds like a good deal to me.

 

Well thats just it. When I joined TransAm the recruiter didn't exactly give specifics on hometime. I seriously hope you don't belive that if you request Sat. and Sun. off that you'll be home on Friday and won't leave until Monday. Thats fantasy land in OTR trucking. Most likely you'll get home Saturday...sometime. And then leave on Monday morning like around midnight which is still Sunday night so..Don't belive that you're gonna get a full weekend off cause that rarely happens. Instead you'll get your trucker 48 hours off which is basically a 34hr reset and gone by Sunday evening.

 

Being on the road is like getting a divorce without signing the papers.

 

Day 1 at TransAm: So far so good. Road test was 1st day, not 3rd day like all the recruiters have said.

One of the guys there somehow got hired out of a 4 day school in Philadelphia.

 

Lost two in the pee test during 3 day orientation.

Everything I was worried about hasn't been happening with TransAm. My coach was teaching me stuff before we even got in the truck. I do all the driving, backing, scales, sliding tandems, fueling, drop 'n hooks, handle all the BOLs; everything.

And cranking the landing gear on a fully loaded trailer really sucks, especially when your kingpin is almost a foot higher than your fifth wheel and it's 6 in the morning. It took almost 100 crank turns to get it level.

He's in a lease and I'v seen a few of his settlements(checks), ranging from $1,300 to $2,400 through the Qualcomm(Geologic). Not that I'm gonna lease, but those were some nice trip settlements.

Been layed over(So we can get a trip to Texas), so just been doing my trip planning homework.

 

don't feel bad Dave I'm layed over in Waco and can't get loaded until tomorrow and I;m glad you got a good coach

 

I am currently a lease operator for trans am trucking. I can tell you that all 3 companies you have talked about(TransAm,Werner and KLLM) all have issues big and small. Werner will try and push you to become a trainer after 6 months but when you do they will push you to run as a team even though your student has not run 1 day as a solo driver. Also werner has one of the lowest student starting pay. I dont know a whole lot about KLLM other than what i hear on the road and most of that is lack of miles. Again this info is from drivers that like to spend more time sitting in truck stops running their mouths and not driving the trucks. Trans Am has an averager starting pay # .30pm and the shortest training time of almost all companies # 3 weeks. As far as home time Atlanta is part of our regular travel area. Its not so much where these companies are located its how often they can get you home. However, for your fist few months dont expect to run 3500 + miles every week with TA because its just not going to happen and thats really not a bad thing. You will have the extra time on loads to be safe in this job. STAY AWAY FROM LEASING for atleast a year. You dont know this business yet. You will loose your butt if your not carefull. I make great money in a lease truck but i have been in this business a long time.

 

I worked for KLLM for a year. On the upside, they ran me well with mostly longer runs. Their dispatchers were generally courteous and responsive. I made decent money with them altogether. On the down side, they occasionally compelled me to run illegally, but most companies do that on occasion. They didn't hassle me about idling, which is good on those cold or hot days and nights. I got out of there because I didn't like running reefers. The late night pickups and deliveries weren't for me. Not a good night driver. As far as reefer companies go, they're not bad!

 

3 weeks of training went by fairly quick.

1st week: 2 days layed over, 4 days in hotel, 1 day waiting for a dispatch.

2nd wk: went from Texas, did a swap from Nashville to Greeley Colorado. Then, was sick the rest of the week.

3rd wk: worked our way to Massachusetts, Indiana, back to Kansas City Terminal (Olathe).

It was team-driving, despite everyones assurance that our coach wasn't to be driving. Yes, all students team-drove; all of them. (Team driving = $$$ for the coach) All but one person that I spoke to had problems with their coach, and several had to return to the terminal to get another coach. My coach was constantly adding up our miles to see how big his check was going to be. In Indiana, my coach made a right turn & forgot about his trailer and did some serious landscaping. Signs do move out of the way

Anyways, TransAm as a company has been excellent. I did the written test today. It basically tests you on everything that your coach was supposed to show you, but didn't. Plus, a crazy log book test that felt like I was being tested to make sure I knew how to log by the mile.

Out of about 20 students, it was just me and one other guy on the driving range and we practiced for 7 hours straight; all the way up to midnight.