Changing Companies

2 years in the industry here. Drivers tend to move around fairly often for a lot of different reasons. You can read the stories on here for yourself to see the different reasons. From my own experience I started with a training company and was taught well and was happy. I moved after a year for more pay and home every day. No regrets.

My advice to new prospects is to talk to as many drivers as you can about different companies. Do your research and choose your company wisely. There are a lot of "lifers" out there. But there are a lot of short timers as well.

 

Some drivers bounce around the first few years until they find the right niche. It's not uncommon at all.

 

There are literally hundreds of "different types" of driving jobs, all different in a myriad of ways. Also, situations change. Marriage, kids, divorce, health, death of loved one ... Their needs, desires, and priorities shift. It's human nature [for most] to always seek to improve their situation ... the hopes and expectations of more money, as always, is a huge factor (and maybe even for less or easier work)

Plus, a lot of people screw up a good thing and have to move elsewhere.

Plus, a lot of people simply aren't cut out for the job and one won't know this until they try it, then some think it will be "better and easier" at another carrier. How often do we see posts where a driver is looking for a driving job that requires little to no backing?

 

I would only moved companies to get into a different segment of trucking. No way I would leave one 48 state OTR general freight company to go work for another that did the same exact thing.

My next move is hopefully into tanker or LTL linehaul. I'm in no mad rush to get there though.

 

Just looking at 48 state OTR refrigerated fleets, I can tell you from experience that the differences between many of them is like night and day considering all the various aspects unique to that segment. To say or think that one reefer OTR carrier is like any other reefer OTR carrier is completely false on many levels.

The same applies to other segments. Aggregate hauling for instance... lots of differences in pay, benefits, hours, equipment, responsibilities, etc from one gig to another.

 

Im on my 5th job in 6 years. I spent two years at roehl and left to another flatbed company with better pay and equipment. I worked there for about a year but the only way to make good money was to be out at least 2 months. So I left there and went to work for a home weekends flatbed carrier that paid on percentage. I was there about a year and a half when a home weekends dedicated job paid on salary opened up about 20 minutes from my house. I spent a year and a half at that job when we lost our contract with our dedicated customer and I had to go over the road for 12 days minimum. So I left there and went back to a sister company of the flatbed percentage job I had worked at just before. There's a lot of reasons to change jobs. Money, home time, equipment, benefits. And even when everything looks good the company just may not be the right fit for you. My last company I had no plans of leaving, but with three little kids at home I can't do 12 days out. And I had taken a pay cut to stay out longer. It's normal

 

I think it's fair to say that all refrigerated trucking companies haul temp controlled cargo to and from refrigerated shippers and consignees.

Differences in pay, color of truck etc are not enough to make me want to try more than one. You either like hauling reefers/vans/flats or you don't. An extra 5cpm or an apu in your truck isn't going to change your view of the job.

 

In my time Ive had over 40 trucking jobs. But keep in mind each job I gained was always if possible some kind of improvement. Literally one job to another was to get power steering, Then air ride, then A/C then then then. Once the better equiptment quit tearing my body up It became able to run farther. Then changed jobs to companies that paid better and better. I once chased benefits but when I saw the globilzation that kicked in during NAFTA 1994 and saw that benefits were being ditched because it costs companys money they needed to compete in a falling price income matrix it changed things a bit.

Sometimes Ive changed work to get out of dry van, into reefer, tanker, flat etc. Ive pretty much done it all except heavy haul permits and radioactive. (That I know of... there were a few loads out of the defense depots that were escorted and unmarked, undescribed in BOL. in other words, uncle sam knows, I knew nothing.)

Remember Reefers can warm product like Paint. Keep it at 60 in a -10 wyoming storm just as easy as keeping ice cream cold in the south.