Western Express

If anyone is interested, I'd like to share a fresh perspective. Lots of different views on this place. Some of that probably stems from luck in the way of who the dm is of your truck. There is east and west coast dry van and flatbed. There is regional flatbed NE and Texas maybe more. There is coast to coast dry van and flatbed. Some flatbedders make 40 cpm right off the trainer's truck. Some are making .43 after raises and some like .34 or .36. I don't know why. Didn't perform well on trainer's truck, hiring area? Don't know why they make less. After 2 months of on time deliveries, one could demand and get 40 if they were making less it seems to me. Van is sliding scale. Any trainer gets paid the same rate when his trainee is driving. So if his trainee drives 545 miles he gets paid the same as if he drove those. That's what everyone says including the trainers and witnesses of their checks. 90 days to be a trainer btw. 90 days from glory because that is a lot of money. Try and pick trainee or trainer if you can. And a flatbed trainer would have help with the tarps and all that bs. Layover pay-sitting with no load. Have to ask for it. Equipment almost always very good. Miles....if a person runs hard even in stupid weeks of 1900 miles or short runs and does not get lippy or vent rage on the Qualcomm, they will begin to get much better runs-especially as whatever favorites there are with seniority over them begin to inevitably quit. If a person can edit their logs well and find ways to maximize clocks, learn tricks, transflo half the miles with dm on Friday for a load that delivers Monday-they will do really well. Flatbed is work. It could be hot, cold, windy, muddy, wet, icy, rusty, safety goggles, safety harness heck nah just thinking about it. There is more money on the flatbed side if one needs it, and it might be a nice day with 9 straps and one tarp not 2 tarps or no tarp and it only took one hour to get loaded and oh yeah. Or it might not be a day like that at all. It could be horrible, where dudes retreat mentally inside themselves and quietly suffer through it for 2 or 3 hours and are sooooo happy to be in the truck rolling with the heater on. Dry van has quite a few drop and hooks on the West coast. Dudes aren't rich, but they seem happy. Happily gaining experience for something much better in their future or teaming with a trainee coast to coast making fat biscuit. Office personnel handle business, breakdown handles their business. It's pretty good. One may know a better way to run their truck than the office, it can get irritating if one's planning and truck don't get good attention at times because of so many trucks or whatever, not going for a walk in the sun and only being in truck stops can wear on a guys nerves with idiot drivers on roads. A bad week can be like what the heck am I doing our here for 600 bucks? But usually it's not like that. If you are spraying foam in an attic in FL crawling on trusses and getting poked in the head by nails for 10 an
hour and just got your hours cut-these guys will give you 200 a month tuition reimbursement and get you the heck out of that mess, especially if you did something wrong say a few years ago and can't work in a hospital or corporate Pepsi
like your siblings. With a kid get 6 or 9 months experience and a local job.

 

Thank you, brother. Good on ya.

 

No doubt. Are you a trainer for WE?

 

That would be a rough few weeks. Did you get paid the same on his miles?