One or Two years before moving on?

I just looked at Holland Enterprises Inc. website and they hire in AZ.
Fine trucks set up for driver comfort.

 

There's lots of jobs out there, no worries! I left my starter company after just 4 months and never looked back. Next job I had 8 months which gave me enough experience to land something I liked better, local work and home every night. 4 years at that one then moved on again for more money, job didn't pan out so after a few months I landed another local gig where I am now and so far I'm pretty happy. This one is the closest to home I've been yet just 25 minutes from the house, real decent pay, dayshift local and home every night and weekends off. Hourly pay with time and a half over 40 hours, plenty of OT available in the Summer months. I'll be here a year Feb. 9th.
My point is don't fear jumping ship, you have a year so there are more doors to open than you can shake a stick at.

 

Dude go for the gold. Start applying at Food Service Companies. You have to unload the truck, but you'll be on the way to $80K plus a year as a company driver.
There are a truck load of companies in Phoenix that will take you with a year, and miles will be zero problem.

The guy I work for only pays company driver $0.38 I think, but you'll get 3,000 a week.

Call Marten, those guys are making great money & get detention pay out the wazzoo. Call JBHunt. JB has several OTR & regional openings that pay real well out of Avondale & Tucson.

 

"People have to eat, so reefer keeps you running, " Isn't that what people say?

Don't believe the BS that refer is not seasonal. It is very seasonal. Some companies have the contracts that keep things moving all year long but most megas are only collecting the bigger payouts on seasonal freight. This time of year you are not covering the harvest surge and your company is struggling to keep you on with freight that barely pays them.

Wait until after the first of the year and freight really drops off. If your with a mega that also does a lot of dry van you have no worries this time of the year because now is when dry van surges. It is very seasonal too and drops like a rock after Christmas.

If you got your year in, now is a good time to jump ship. If you are thinking of something else, don't wait until after Christmas. Make a move now to a secure a better job. After Christmas the market is saturated with drivers fired from megas and that labor overflow does not end until spring.

 

I only waited a year and then moved on.

The way I looked at it, the more I sat, the more time they were giving me to look elsewhere. So I looked elsewhere.

Maybe some better options come after two years, but in the meantime there's no point in sitting around for free when you could be making money.

Just research prospective employers thoroughly. Talk to people that work at those places. They do background checks on you, so do the same to them.

 

The reefer is seasonal yes. But it's what you load where that matters any time of year.

Remember a Reefer can be used (And should) as a van when freight is slow.

Talk to your company officers first before deciding anything, make them understand your dispatcher is happy and good then tell them that miles is not productive enough. And then ask carefully about why.

You should always stay with a good company to improve your experience time and become even more hireable. You are a loner so that discards much of the baggage (If not all) that sometimes encounter with drivers stuck in debt, house payments and children, babies etc.

 

Ate you doing ALL your macros? Daily check ins and dvir are important to dospatchers. Same with fuel optimizing.

Also dont be afraid to call DM and express concerns and see if theirs anything you or DM can do to increase miles.

 

I delivered a beer load into Iowa once from St Louis and along a entire wall I saw nothing but empty Kegs, rapidly counted them and realized there is enough volume to take them kegs right back to St Louis. Got on phone to ask my Dispatcher to load me those empty kegs and let's go back to st louis with them.

There was a interesting behavior from Dispatch, Sales, Transport and Legal when everyone got involved with the reciever's suits, foreman and those responsible for those empty kegs. For about 3 hours it looked like I would load em right there and then and run em home to the brewery cashing in.

Nope alas not to happen.

That one particular afternoon when I asked if I could load those kegs caused the company to value me pretty well because there is big money in that stuff relatively speaking. Beats hanging out at Des Moines on the hill watching football over here and the Preacher Man over there in the next room.

 

On the one year anniversary from your first solo dispatch, it's time to go find a real job. Leave the mega.

 

Or move towards being a trainer. Find a Instructor who teaches people how to be instructors. You already know the Mega will have a busload of students each week to train, not all will make it.