3 questions regarding the truck itself

That is just the companies tool along with you, they can switch drivers anytime so always be prepared to exit truck. Some companies will let you keep the same truck but beware that many of that companies trucks use same key so any other company driver can get in and take your stuff.

 

1. Depends but most likely you’ll be driving that truck months to a year on average.

2. Yes you can leave stuff in the truck the exception being vacation. Anything shorter than a week you will be ok leaving stuff.

3. Some people park trucks at truck stops and leave the car. Some don’t. I personally uber to my house from where I park the truck. Some terminals have cars you can borrow for going to Walmart and stuff but that’s it.

 

you will most likely clean your stuff out and go home after a few months when you realize how bad theyre screwing you.

 

I have always gone with a company with in an hours drive to the terminal.
if things go bad,you can get home easy.

living close to a major trucking hub makes it easier.

 

1. Depends on the type of trucking job you get. Some trucking jobs are hot seat trucks, meaning that you drive what you find on the lot. Most of the time you will get an assigned truck though. If you drive OTR for a large company, you will almost certainly be in that same truck for at least several months. After training at Stevens Transport, I drove two trucks, for about 6 months each. When I came to Shaffer, they put me in a junker, which I was out of the next week. Then I stayed in the same truck 1.75 years, until I bought the truck from them.

2. It's normal to leave most common items in the truck when on hometime. Valuables should not be left. Mechanics will likely be in and out of your truck doing service, software updates, or whatever, while you are home.

3. Depends on the company and where you live. If you live near a company terminal, most larger companies have parking for employees to leave personal vehicles. If you do not live near a company terminal, then you might have to take what you can get for truck parking, and there might be no legal long term personal parking there.

 

1) no, you will be driving one truck for a while, then will have to switch out for say, the miles are too high and they wanna use it for city or sell it off, or you're sick and someone else takes it. or it goes into the shop for some service, and they give you another one.

2) i would not recommend leaving the dirt on the floor in that truck. take it all out, when you park at ANY terminal, or drop yard. if you take the truck home, then yes, leave your stuff in it....but now too, if something happens like say you become injured or really sick, they may send another driver to come and get it....

3) not all, and like anything else, you leave your personal vehicle with the understanding that if it gets burnt down to the ground, or broken into, or stolen, you're SOL......they accept NO responsibilities...

 

I live 3 hours from my terminal, so i drive my 4wheeler there and park it in long term parking.

We are supposed to clean out the entire truck of belongings each home time in case another team uses it the week we are gone.

Its only actually happened about twice in the year i have been there. But yeah dont leave anything you dont want to part with behind, take it with you. Everyone and their dog at the terminal will have a key.

 

Depends. Probably not years on end... these companies tend to refresh their fleets pretty regularly, and don't like keeping trucks for very long. Typically, you'll be assigned a truck until they tell you you've been assigned to a different truck. Luck of the draw, it seems like.

I'm pretty sure every single one of those carriers has a policy that they are not responsible for personal items left in the trucks, and there's a reason for that. I didn't drive for them, but I worked in the Denver shop for Navajo Express. If you were gone for a few days, sure, you'd get the same truck. But if you had an accident and it was keeping you from work for an extended period of time, guess what? Those trucks cost a lot of money, and the only way they make money is by hauling freight. The world isn't going to stop for you, and there is a good chance of that truck being reassigned. I don't know what different companies do... at Navajo, the detailing personnel (who were assigned to the wash bay) would pack up a driver's personal items and place them into storage in a connex (later replaced with the body of an old Eastman Kodak storage trailer) outside of the shop. However, they tended to concern themselves only with what was in the driver compartment and sleeper, and often items under the bunk or in the side boxes would be overlooked. For example, when one truck had been towed in after the driver had been arrested for possessing and selling crack, the detailers went through and packed up his items and cleaned out the cab and sleeper, but one of the repairs it needed required to go into the sideboxes, and I ended up finding a bunch of loose crack rocks strewn about in there (about $75 worth, according to a coworker who had better knowledge of it than I did). I would not recommend leaving anything in there which would devastate you to lose it. To that end, you probably want to hold off on the microwave... unless you're going to a company which has APUs, you may not have a means of powering it. Most companies don't install inverters, and will not allow you to install one (especially not as a DIY measure, because you're likely to end up burning the ####ing truck down, like the bozo who thought 10 gauge wire was adequate for a 1500w inverter).

Most have an employee parking lot. The only major carrier I'm aware of which might not would be Stevens Transport. As was explained to me when I considered driving for them in 2011, they had their drivers leave their trucks at the nearest Kenworth dealership when they were on home time, and they didn't use a widespread network of terminals. Whether or not that info is still accurate, I couldn't tell you. It didn't take me long to decide I didn't want to drive for them, but I wasn't a rookie fresh out of driving school, either.