Millis OTR journal

My truck is parked at the Petro but my ### is parked at the Smiley's bar right now.

 

To illustrate how a lot of drivers seem to like to bounce back and forth between Landstar and Mercer, I walked past a truck parked here yesterday that had Landstar decals but Mercer mudflaps. I should've taken a picture.

 

on

I'm not really sure where I'll go from here if I ever leave Millis. It most likely won't bye somewhere else where I pull a van. If I'm gonna pull a welfare wagon, I think I'd rather be here than anywhere. I'm a couple month past that 1 year stage now. I think having a year experience is the trucker's version of "I'm 18! You can't tell me what to do!" So I've been casually exploring my options. I'm interested in pulling other kinds of trailers. In particular I'm interested in pulling pneumatics, dumps, and non-hazmat tankers. There's a lot of plastic made in the Ohio Valley and some regional opportunities for me hauling it in pneumatic tankers. Some of those look attractive as an O/O as well once I get some experience with the trailer and freight. Also, and for the life of me I cannot fathom why, I find myself thinking about pulling a reefer again. However, I quickly dismiss those thoughts just as soon as I get a lumper load. I don't get that many of them now, but I know that if I pull a reefer I'll be getting them like every other load...and eff that.

Funny thing is that this whole truck driving thing was originally meant to just be a temporary thing for me to make money while I took a break from IT. But the more I think about doing IT work, the more nauseous I get. I think I'll keep on truckin'. Those young guys can do the IT work and can wreck their livers every evening like I used to do. I just gotta figure out exactly where my groove is. Can't say it will be with Millis.. after all, none of us ever get any miles here.

 

What would be a realistic yearly pay average at Millis as a OTR driver? Staying out 3 weeks with better than a year of experience.

 

I made $63k my 1st yr fresh out of school staying out 2.5wks at a time. That was also before we've gotten about 10+ cents in raises too.

 

I'm currently on track to make about $64,000 with 3.5 years experience. I average 2 weeks out and take probably a bit more hometime than average. I'm on straight pay and get the extra .01 per mile because I do not need / take the health insurance.

 

There isn't much bad to be said about Millis in my opinion or experience. I started here in 2015, did 1.5 years and left for a local flatbed job with a national corporate company. Thought I had found a good thing . M-F, weekends and all major holidays off. Holidays all paid. Didn't turn out to be what I had hoped. Wanted drivers to work many Saturdays in the summer, direct boss was a moody a__hole and most days were 12-14 hours jamming as much work as possible into that time. All the outdoor weather when I was working is what I had to work in. Add the commute time in there wasn't much time other than to go home,eat dinner and go to sleep to do it all over again. I was always tired. It was also a pain to come in late, leave early or get a day off for any reason. Even doctors appointments. When I told them I wanted to leave and why they offered to cut my hours and make other accommodations. We went back and forth for 3 weeks but in the end they admitted they could not guarantee anything.

I looked at other local jobs and with the exception of the outside work it was the same expectation. 12-14 hour days hustling the entire time.

I came back to Millis in February and found everything good was still here, pay had gone up quite a bit and no inward facing camera for experienced drivers if you stay incident free.

Are there some negatives with Millis, sure. It is still OTR which can be a drag. If I leave again it would have to be a real ideal situation.

I'm retired from my first career and have a pension. I'm really only working this hard right now because of 2 kids in college and some day will look for part time driving work. Or maybe Millis will let me turn my truck in, take winters off and come back in the spring.

There are a ton of driving jobs out there. I agree, would probably never do reefer. I absolutely hate food warehouses and the few we do here is more than enough for me. I had two in one week a couple months ago and thought to myself I could never do this on a regular basis.

This is kind of long winded but the bottom line is you can do A LOT worse than Millis. Make sure you do as much research as possible for any landing spot if you leave. I thought I had, even talking extensively to a driver my brother knew that had worked there 10 years. He made it sound pretty good and than he quit a month after I was there.

 

Yup tons of guys here that have left and came back.

I always compare trucking to a relationship......how many guys marry the 1st woman they sleep with? Not many, most go out and play the field and try the other options...

Well if you start with Millis its kinda like your 1st partner....its good for awhile but then you want to get out and see what other options are and how good they are...so leave her and see if the ##### is better other places...sometimes it is sometimes its not.....just like truckings sometimes the other company is better after trying it and sometimes it looks pretty but Millis was better so we come back....

Easiest way for me to explain it and guys to understand it lmao

 

Thanks guys for the information, I'm currently making a little more than $50,000 yearly and home locally. That position is about to be downsized and I need to make more than that anyway. So I'm stuck trying to decide between Millis and Crete/Shaffer. You guys have really been helpful.