First week driving SOLO thoughts

Its really rough right now, esp for new drivers.

Lots of companies hire, and then don't have miles (Challenger) or even a truck for the new recruits (TransX)

Schneider is laying ppl off, so thats a no go, also the pay is pathetic.

I started in a downturn like this, with Bison in Calgary. The pay sucked for about 6 months, but I toughed it out for a year and got to a better company. If you search my name, I have lots of rants about Bison and how #### it was. HOWEVER, with what i'm seeing in the industry lately, and now that I've had a few years to get over it, there were some big positives to Bison.

IE
1) You never ran illegal, or delivered off duty.
2) You always got paid on Friday, never shorted or told "oh well, were just not gonna pay you"
3) I never got sent home for no freight, unless it was a long weekend or stat holiday
4) The trailers were decent
5) Their app works pretty good, and has a trailer finder.
6) They have unlimited work, esp out west! Its REALLY hard to compete with them.
7) O/O's and Lease Op's actually do really well there, with the insane fuel discounts and no holdback/cheap insurance ($675/mo).

They claim they are working to improve things, but I still hear about a lot of the same #### going on. However if you work full time for them, they won't slip seat your truck anymore supposedly.

The pay is terrible tho, until you get on a US only fleet, and start getting into the higher paying area's (Lane Premiums). Walmart is a reality of working at Bison, and its #### tough if you get stuck on those runs.

Highlight seems to be the better option, but @TorontoTacos would know best.

 

Scheneider is simply not an option, they are slave drivers for slave wages.....

You are spot on about the food and waste service guys, most guys I know who tired them, came back to OTR.

Again, as much as I hate to say it, I used to be on a 5-2 schedule with Bison (PACNW), which became 11-3 when I moved to their LTL division. When I talked to TransX and Versacold before I went O/O, they told me I needed to be out a MINIMUM of 14 days, to even have 36 hours off at home; other less known places were 3-6 weeks like you said.

 

Kriska didn't want to reopen my application since I told them I wasn't interested in OTR when I found that local job that didn't work out.
ERB wanted me to work out of the Trenton terminal
Transx wouldn't hire since abstract was pretty bad (2) tickets.

 

They're pretty busy, they got 2 guys doing recruitment and HR for 500+ drivers
If you're still interested in joining, another forum member has an interview with them on Friday so I'm pretty sure they're still hurting for drivers. Message me and I'll get one of them to call you or set up your interview

 

What a bunch of jokers!

TransX did you a favor, 2 tickets on a 5 year is bad? They just had a guy get caught doing 134km/hr in Ontario, with a suspended license in Manitoba and a New Ontario license lol.

Trenton? Really ERB? so much for caring eh?

Kirska must have unlimited applications, if they won't re-open a file, might get a papercut lol.

 

At $21.60/hr you were making more money than an entry-level truck driver position in Canada and probably working half the hours every week (apparently the average ELTD salary is just over $30k, or about $10/hr if you average 60 hours a week for 50 weeks in the year).

Until you get experience (at least 2-3 years) and find a company that treats you right, you'll be, on average, making less per hour than that job, and sometimes, way less.

A lot of trucking companies on both sides of the border don't realize yet, but truckers are fed up with volunteering their time (sitting at a shipper/receiver unpaid and waiting). It's valuable to them, and want to be paid accordingly.

When you sit down and really do the math, and include every hour that you are actively engaged in something "work related" even if you are logging it off-duty, chances are you aren't making nearly enough as a truck driver these days (I did the math for my 2018 and found that while I was making $29.76 while the truck was moving, my average hourly pay for the entire year was just over $21/hr, and I was at 3+ years experience at the time!).

Back in the days before logbooks, drivers would "make up their time" and could do 6-7 days of work in 4-5 days and still be home on weekends. But now with e-logs, we're stuck when the computer says stop, and sometimes leaving time on the table because we don't want to give up on facilities like a bathroom for the night to max out drive time. Or worse yet, getting run out of drive time because of traffic or weather delays and stuck 1-5 hours out from home base doing a reset.

While salary and hourly pay comes with it's own set of cons, I'm starting to believe that it might just be the way for the future for company drivers. That way companies won't be using sign-on bonuses to fight over experienced drivers, and retention will come more from things like equipment quality and home time than pay rates.

Yes, people will tend to gravitate towards the companies offering a larger salary, but I wouldn't take a bigger salary to do tanker work, I just don't enjoy it and would have a hard time doing my job even if it's for more money.

 

My solution to the industry BS is to haul medicines. High dollar medicines out of McKesson in Memphis.

Soon you arrive, drop hook a load, arrive in morning backin, stay in truck as you are unloaded and reloaded with cardboard bales back to Memphis asap in 40 minutes or less.

Arrive Memphis repeat routine. The money takes care of itself. No sitting around waiting for dock, no waiting on lumpers, no money worries in tolls NE or anywhere (We had three or four transponders in cab...) no issues with schedules. The morning of 9-11 we did arrive about 5 hours late towards noon having waited in a hiding spot about 4 miles from customer near Detriot. We were monitored the whole time most particularly. It was probably the one time we got to be seriously late and we were needed for a special load to NYC and they used the time to assemble it.

Overall that year as a team we were paid rather badly when the math was done. 67 gross for the year to both of us filing jointly or 33400 each driver which worked out to about 7400 hours total worked or about $4.65 a hour overall for each of us. It would have been far more profitable to work in Arkansas commuting locally at minimum wage with overtime.

Regardless of how poorly we earned money over so many hours worked in that industry we did have a good year regardless. There will need to be structural changes and very large improvements in trucker pay. At the moment where the economy is doing badly thats not possible if ever.

 

Hey guys, another new trucker here. Currently in the process of completing my MELT training. Having a hard time deciding if this thread was a scare or not .

I’m aware work is still slow but I’m going to be giving a few companies a call as my road test date approaches. Shoutout to you guys for giving some good recommendations!