AARRGGHH!! Getting Frustrated! How do I choose?

All the trucking companies are "common carriers;" meaning they provide the service of hauling goods from point-A to point-B, and charge a fee for their service. In contrast, the gold mine are private fleets. These companies are very selective, and will disqualify you if U have a job-hopping history of going from one company to another. Private fleets are like your grocery supermarket stores, Walmart Transportation, Target, Arco, Foster Farms Chicken, etc... These companies haul their own freight instead of calling a common carrier.

When you haul for a common carrier, you have to put up with BS that the trucking companies' sales rep had told the customer to convince them to haul their freight with your trucking company. They've made claims like "our drivers don't mind waiting long hours to load and unload." Another one is "our drivers are customer oriented, and don't mind counting the freight, or restacking and unloading the freight." They'll say anything, just to convince customers to haul their freight with them. In contrast, private fleets are not out to sell trucking service, so you don't deal with driver load, unload, count freight, etc... The next time you drive by a motel, take notice of which big trucks are parked in the motel's parking lot. You may notice Walmart, Tyson Foods, etc...; these drivers have motel stay as part of their benefit package. Common carriers can't afford this, which is why you're living in your truck, even when your taking your 36-hour reset.

All the ads for drivers are often common carriers; private fleets rarely put out ads for drivers, because they have a very high driver retention rate. To get with a private fleet, you need to prepare a resume, and submit this to the Human Resource department, then call every 3 weeks or monthly to ask if there's a driver opening. When they say "not at the moment," remind them you've submitted a resume on such and such date, and your name.

If you've been driving over a year, its time to leave OTR, and take the next step up for higher $$. I recommend you look into local hourly paying driver positions. As a local driver, you're paid hourly, and you get overtime pay when you exceed 8 hours in a day, or 40 hours in a week. Some states allow double-time pay. I notice you're in New Jersey; you should look into becoming a teamster driver with a grocery supermarket chain. Until you leave OTR and common carriers behind you, your life will not only never improve, but your marriage may possibly suffer because of your job. Common carriers pay by the mile, which is an incentive for you to put in long hours for more $$, at the expense of spending less quality time with your wife and children. If your marriage doesn't end in divorce, you might notice your wife is slowly putting on weight. Women begin to eat more when they're emotionally depressed. Her depression is due to your long absence away from home, and she feels you don't spend enough quality time with her and the children.

If you have teen age kids, there's an increased likelihood they'll get caught up in drugs and/or alcohol. Your absence as a father figure will lead to "identity crisis," where the kids will turn to friends or their peers to seek out someone they can emulate. You also have a higher cost of living expense. Because you're gone away from home, things that you can take care of (like a clogged toilet or sink) will now need to call outside professional help. A local hourly-paid driver would be coming home daily, and can fix the problem instead of calling a plumber.

You may have noticed more Hispanic, non-English speaking drivers at the truckstops. These cheap, low-paid drivers are here because of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Act). The US government feels American truckers are too expensive, which is why these Mexican truckers are here. When you quit OTR and settle down to an hourly-paying local job, you're sending a message to the US Government, "I refuse to work along side cheap labor." The government is using these Mexican truckers to send a subtle message; "these drivers can't work for so little pay, so why can't you do the same?" The government believes these Mexican drivers will put a guilty conscience on the American truckers, and compel us to work for less pay.

 

Thank you Passingtrucker - very good advice.
Charlie

 

Seems like good advice passing trucker,I used to live in Diamond Bar and now live in North Carolina, I am currently going to truck driving school and am relocating back to So Cal. hope to find a local run but I am prepared to drive OTR for a year or so to get the expieriance and then hopefully find a local dedicated run.I have a pre-hire with KLLM,do you know anything about them?do they have any dedicated So Cal routes?

 

I have heard a lot of good about KLLM. I can't be real specific but just from what I've heard in the T/S. Back to the thread. I have met many a happy J.B, Swift, Covenant and Werner drivers. Maybe they are all lying or maybe some of these stories you read on here are self-inflicted...hmmmm. The guy I was training the other day used to drive for Werner, he told me that they were a fine company to work for. Said he didn't have a problem in the world with them he just wanted to be home more. It's a common excuse for leaving OTR. Then, you'll read a post on here and say, MY GOD!!!!, if I go with Werner they will give me a lobotomy and then screw with my DAC. So just trust your gut.

 

Passing trucker that was a very well written post. Thank-you.

 

You've got to go where YOU want to go. Take a few minutes and write down the good and bad for YOU. Look at what you want out of the company, do you want a long career or do you want to use the company for experience? Whatever you're looking for always remember it's for you and no one else. You'll want to keep your record clean and you'll want to look into how much you'll be making while trianing. I've heard that Swift has used drivers as trainers with only 6 months experience. If that happens then you get lousy training. You'll have to do some research on you own too. If you want a fairly decent pictuce of how a company is safety wise then you can look on the FMCSA's site for SafeStat. Good luck and go find one of those jobs some of these guys dream about.

 

If you think JB and Swift are your options, maybe you should write the names of all the carriers on a board and throw a dart. Could you do worse?

 

Talk to KLLM drivers, and get their feedback on dedicated accounts in the Southern California area. In the Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino, & Riverside Counties, I've noticed Swift, Knight, and JB Hunt has a significant presence. I see plenty of day-cab tractors belonging to these three. JB Hunt is part owner of Burlington-Northern-Santa Fe Railroad, so they pull a lot of piggyback trailers out of the BNSF rail terminals. In Los Angeles, BNSF has a terminal in San Bernardino and city of Commerce. Before you move back into California, you should factor the cost of buying a house. I believe the cost of real estate is more affordable in North Carolina, than California.

When you settle down to seeking an hourly-paying local position, also consider a position as a yard hostler, or yard goat driver. Some of you newbies may not know what that is, so I included a pict of what yard hostlers look like.

 

A driver has to decide for himself what he wants (local, regional, otr, whatever) and then work to find a company that satisfies his needs.

JB Hunt, Werner, Swift, Schneider, (dozens of others) are all the same company hauling the same freight for the same people for the same rates. Switching from one to the other is pretty much a waste of time unless you just like changing jobs.

But, only you can decide what you want and what you are willing to do to get there.