A Newbie Needing Direction

I agree with that. You must stay responsible at all times when trucking, but even more so if hauling hazmat or loads that you need to have properly strapped. Like you said, they are more engaging, and also pay more which dont hurt either.

 

Trimac has teams running coast to coast. In Louisana a couple of new grads posted recently they were hired as a team with Trimac.
I know all about that "little help" in the old days; Nashville to Stockton,CA with two hours of sleep apnea type sleep.

 

It probably depends on what your threshold is. I'll guess that if youre a newbie that doesnt want to go OTR right from the jump, then your threshold for turning gray might not be that high.

The way I see it, is white knuckling on a steep mountain grade vs delivering pallets for 8 hrs are two different beasts.

 

Heheh 8 hrs? Those are few and far between, (im one of the lucky ones) most local work is high speed, high stress, high labor work. Start between 5 and 9 am, (sometimes not knowing till the morning of) and you run till your done. Tight ally docks, blind side off a 4 lane full of idiots that think they can fit behind you, dock workers that feel your not their problem. Refused freight, or poorly loaded. Residential delivery in a 48 twin screw.... local aint all cake brother

 

Awesome, thanks for the tip Chinatown. I also sent a message to Ethos regarding schnieder and trimac. I wouldnt mind teaming just to get the miles in right off the bat.

Ive driven jersey to san fran in 2.5 days in my jeep before. Took off at 4 am, didnt stop til i hit peoria. Then took off at 7am and didnt stop til i hit cheyenne, and that was only cause the interstate was closed for an accident. So i stopped in cheyenne at a lil roadhouse, had a couple, then hit the road a couple hours later and didnt stop til i hit a rest area in the salt flats. From there i stopped in reno, got a lil gambling in and was in san fran by afternoon the next day.

I know thats not as impressive if i was hauling 45k pounds of produce behind me with a hard deadline, but it was still a stretch. Good time too.

 

I'm not looking for local just yet, but I won't take anything where I'm guaranteed to be on the road for weeks at a time. If that were my only option, I wouldn't be trying.

To be honest, I was of the same mind for a long time. Always wanted to look into trucking but thought you HAD to do the long haul out for a month run thing to get into it. I decided to do research instead of living off assumptions and found there are some companies that will get you decent home time right out of school, be it theirs or another school. I'll still be out a week at a time but getting home weekends is enough for me. For some others, it's not. I don't plan to do that forever so I can handle getting my first year in with what I consider a compromise. Then I'll look at more local driving. But like you said, if you can get local right off why wouldn't you?

If I were in my 20's again, without a child, I'd be more than comfortable ditching the apartment and use a family members mailing address and spend months on the road.


Ed

 

True that. Each area of trucking is its own animal i guess. I certainly dont mean to disparage the amount of labor required for local work. The ltl guys a interact with at my current job definitely have to hustle and bust their butts.

 

No disparaging felt. Just wanted to give a little taste for those reading..

 

The only way I'd be interested in team driving is exactly how you put it. I'd need someone I already know personally and who has the same work ethic and desire to be home on weekends.


Ed

 

I figured that's what you were thinking. Truth be told, local city driving will put gray hairs on your head MUCH faster than any mountain pass will.

Heck, "delivering pallets for 8 hrs" in downtown philly will cause all your hair to fall out. But like I said, it's ok , you don't know what you don't know yet. You'll learn. There's a reason you can make quite a bit more in many areas for just "delivering pallets"