South Carolina

I personally am a Millis fan. But it seems that Roehl wouldn't be a terrible choice, however the other two may leave a bad taste in your mouth, my opinion of course is based only on what I have read in various forums over the last few years.


Good Luck.

 

Hey I live just up I-26 from you in Hendersonville, NC. Swift may be a good choice for you since they have a terminal right there in Greer and most of their freight is drop and hook and they probably have a better freight base than most right now in this economy.

I did my 7 months at Roehl and started applying for every local job I could til I found one in October. My miles at Roehl in the national van division had dropped to under 1800 a week in October. Been reading that it was getting worse than that since then. The dispatchers (DSRs) were okay, it was the planning that was terrible! I spent waaay too much time up north (Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, New England) since they are based in WI, that's seems to be where most of their freight is. I would see Chicago EVERY WEEK!! UGGG!

You are in a great location for a local job after you get a year experience in so that's what you gotta think about. There's a lot of bad talk on here about Swift, but about as much good as well. Most of the Swift drivers I talked to out on the road liked their job and had been there for awhile. Heck, you'd have a place to park the rig for hometime too! I wished that Roehl had a terminal up here in Asheville, it would have been a lot easier to get hometime!! Something to think about.

We use USA a lot to ship freight from where I work at now and I've been talking to those drivers when I come back in the afternoons. Most of them have stated they were sitting for long periods between loads and freight is bad for them now. That's just hearsay from a handful of drivers though, take it for what it's worth.

 

I live just down 85, north of Greenville. Roehl has a hiring freeze for SC, as does Swift, Celedon and Schneider. I'd do some checking with a lot of companies first, before getting your CDL on your own. Few companies will accept an inexperienced driver that hasn't gone through truck driving school. Have you looked at US Xpress, or Barr-Nunn. I got job offers from both of them. I also got offers from Super Service, PGT and Blue Ridge. Blue Ridge is out of Easley.

 

I've been with Roehl since July 08 (went through RDTC up in WI) and have no complaints with them, I think they are a pretty good company to drive for. I live about an hour east of you Bizzle over near Rock Hill and get home as scheduled. If you are prior military, check out the honor program, you can't beat the training deal they have. I cost me $350 (that was for the hotel room while I was there) and didn't have to sign any contracts. I do have to agree with JWinNC, you will see a LOT of the north but if you get sent down to FL, you seem to get stuck down there for a while too which is a nice break in the winter. Everything said & done, I'm pretty happy with them as a company. I just checked their website & it didn't have anything about a hiring freeze, I think they stopped hiring around thanksgiving but started back after the new year from what I've heard. Good luck whith whatever you choose.