Millis OTR journal

Yes.

 

I’m not putting down anyone or Millis. Four years ago I gave my first company (Melton) a glowing review and thought they were great too.

Now that I have more experience I would never work for Melton again. Calling others comical because they don’t drive for your company is pretty strong. lol I wonder in three four years if you’ll have the same opinion.

My last OTR company was great but didn’t make anyone comical for not joining me there. My local job making $25 an hour not having a care in world about traffic makes me wonder how I ever pulled per mile or even percentage which never paid empty miles. I’m just saying time might ease your strong opinion.

 

@Gremlin304 so how is your early starting time working out? Easy to park? Shorter days? Less stress?

 

Army91W - this isn't an attack on you, just my opinion of the topic at hand.

I think he was referring to the reasons WHY they wouldn't drive for Millis (or any other company that hires and trains new drivers) because they do train new people. Not because they would not drive here or there in general.

I am one of those people they hired and trained several years ago. Everyone is new sometime and everyone starts somewhere.

I left for awhile and did local for almost 2 years. Consistent 14 hr days plus commute time and some Saturday 6th day work did not leave much free time other than "sleeping in my own bed every night" the often used pro for local. It is a pro under the right circumstances but every local job I have ever explored is basically the same way other than part time. I was totally exhausted all of the time and basically had very little quality time when I was home. I'm sure there are some golden nuggets here and there but I have not found one yet other than some part time gigs which will not work for me right now.

I don't really care where anyone chooses to work or not work as long as they think it works for them. I do have a problem when some yahoo bashes where I work solely because they hire and train new people or because they have switched to an all auto fleet. That is the wave of the future and is increasingly becoming the norm with fleets anyway. If someone feels better about themselves because they shift good for them. I've driven manual and would much rather be in an auto and don't feel less of myself because of that. Don't care that I work for a "training company ", don't care that I'm currently OTR and not driving local. I do care what I am paid, how I am treated , my time off and benefits and that I have good equipment that is well maintained.

 

I’m pretty new at this. So I can’t really say for sure if freight is slow. But it sure feels like it.

 

@JOHNQPUBLIC, I understand and agree with your point. One thing I didn’t say was and as you know how much your personal needs or preferences determine who you/I work for.

If I went back OTR I have to have dedicated or the bare minimum home every weekend. I hate restarts at truck stops. That’s just my preference.

I reread my post on my first company not to long ago and I just thought lol you have changed.

I grew Wisconsin and if I lived there I probably would of started with Millis.

 

It seems to have slowed a bit in the last couple of weeks.

 

Oh bother. I've managed to offend someone with the word "comical.". That's a new one.

Allow me to make some clarifications, though.

For one, I never said anyone was comical for not wanting to work for Millis. There is no "one size fits all" trucking company out here. If there was, we would all be working for them or at least trying to. However, some of the reasons people give for not wanting to work for Millis is pretty freaking laughable in my not-so-humble opinion.

Keep in mind that while I am a relatively new driver, I am not "fresh out of the CDL mill" new now is this my first experience with this industry. I drove briefly back in the 90s for a company out of Canonsburg, PA named CDS Lines.

######## reason #1: "They're a starter company.". So? Big flipping deal. Millis has 850 trucks. Your job would be to drive ONE of them. Doesn't matter if the other 849 of us drives like Stevie Wonder on meth or not. We are beyond your control and if you can't take a little ribbing about the name on your door then you're mighty thin-skinned there aren't you, buddy?

######## reason #2: "They only have automatics". Well I guess this isn't an entirely dumb reason, but a lot of the reasoning I hear for disliking automatic trucks is pretty hilarious. Hey guys did you know that we can't use our gears and jakes to hold us back on downgrades? Because I hear that a lot. Seems like a lot of these drivers have their manhood attached to that #### gearshift and clutch pedal. Oh how fragile masculinity can be sometime. ####in' hilarious.

######## reason #3: "They have driver-facing cameras.". Not anymore if you behave yourself and you tell Kat to turn yours off. I'm sure that if you're paranoid that they'll sneak and turn it on anyhow that you can put tape over it. After all of they have it turned off, they shouldn't know or care, right?

You know, I like my privacy too but I am also driving around in a piece of equipment that is owned by someone else that costs six figures and can easily inflict seven figures in damage. I can't blame companies for wanting to protect their investment. Think one driver being stupid can't take down a company? Remember Dick Simon? And yes I know cameras wouldn't have prevented that particular situation from happening but they can save your bacon.

Also comparing your hourly job to Millis or Melton is pretty much apples/oranges. I'm going to assume that you're a local driver and home every night. At this particular stage of my truck driving career I wouldn't want it. I live right in Marcellus shale fracking country and there's any number of companies I could probably get a job with right now hauling frack water in a straight truck making what you're making an hour or more. Don't want it. That might be what I end up doing someday, but today is not that day...and if that day ever comes, I will probably still point people toward Millis if they want a good OTR or regional job pulling dry wagons.

Like I've said elsewhere in this thread, I came back into trucking pretty much a spoiled brat as far as jobs go. I sat at home most of the time in my pajamas, and was making upwards of $70k a year, and when I still found reasons to piss and moan....and I did.....they tolerated me because I was the only person in the company that could do the work that I was doing. The fact that Millis is able to keep me happy even half the time surprises everyone that knows me and knows how I am, especially my old boss.

So yeah all these guys pissing and moaning about how they will NEVER drive an auto shifters and will NEVER drive for a "starter company" and blah blah blah are pretty much ####in' comedy gold to me.

Now I WILL say that I am glad that I trained with Millis and got my CDL back when I did and not just a couple of months later. Why? Because I was one of the last students to train and test with a stick. While I have no qualms with driving an auto, I didn't want to be restricted to only driving them. If they had told me that I would be trained with an auto and have the restriction, I probably would have gone somewhere else.

 

Oh yes. I'm still adjusting to getting up so early but it's making my life so much easier.

 

You having to wait for reloads? Because I haven't. The last time I had to wait any length of time at all for a reload was a couple of weeks ago when I was in Albany. Dropped in the yard early that afternoon, was told "No loads available" but got a reload around midnight.

Even when I delivered in Toledo last week. Got the "No loads available" so I told myself "Head toward a truck stop. They'll have you a load before you're parked." Sure enough, broker load came in just as I pulled into the Love's.

They've been shorter loads, but they've kept me moving enough where I scrapped my plans for home time.