Advice from someone with experience...

My boyfriend graduated from trucking school here in Florida back in September, He went to work for Covenant Transport(HUGH MISTAKE), they have not gotten ONE paycheck right from the beginning! We are so far in debt that it isn't even funny, he just finished his first stage of "training" and is now in "phase two". His 90 days is up the first week in January and he is thinking about going to US Express(they said they would take him with only 90 days experience). We really need some solid advice...I have spent countless hours on different sights trying to do as much research as possible, but I just don't know. We truly can not afford to stay at Covenant, but I'm worried about going from one TERRIBLE company to another one. Can anyone out there PLEASE give us some advise on what to do from your experience??? Several members of my family were truckers (back in the day) so I know there's money to be made and we don't expect BIG MONEY to start, but we did expect to at least survive. I really appreciate ANY advise you guys could give us, I'm at my rope's end worrying about my man out on the road and stressing over not being able to get our kids Christmas. Thanks for listening and thanks in advance for any advise.

Stressed out momma.

 

When you start into trucking, you have to put in your time until better money opportunities arise. I just completed two years experience yesterday and I'm just now making $1,000/week.

 

My opinion is : better go work for a small carrier. you will learn more, earn more and have a better quality life. The big companies have a big problem. They are too big! But this is just my opinion, accordingly to the experiences and information I've got. I'm not sustaining that is 100% true, is just what I'm feeling.

 

Hello Stressed out Momma, sorry for the bad luck. I also heard Covenant was not a very good company.

I have been on this site searching for a few months and US Xpress seems to be a notch above a lot of companies . Have you checked US Xpress on here under companies to work for ? There is a ton of information on this site.

Also check with TruckDuo I think they drive as a team for US Xpress.

I have been checking out Melton flat bed trucking. Also seem to be a notch above others. Nice trucks, fridge, tv, microwave and APU.
Hope things get better soon

 

How many checks has he gotten that are wrong and has Covenant corrected the mistakes? Is there anything else going on?

 

Small carriers are hard to find a newbie. i dont work for US Express but I would for it's step child arnold. At arnold they keep the wheels turning and pay decent. We send our paper work into US express and drive the same trucks, ours just say arnold instead of us express. Arnold isnt great about getting drivers home but depending on what part of florida, they have a terminal in Jacksonville. TMC transport sometimes has opertoonities in fl. They pay great but flatbed is a little extra work. They would be my first choice as a company driver

 

77smartin, All but two of his checks have had some kind of mistake on them. Apparently, he was the "ghost" on the trainers truck. He and his partner from school trained together, but he was listed as the "ghost", so he didn't get credited with any of the miles they drove, he never got his orientation pay, his tuition reimbursement pay, or the last miles he was supposed to have gotten paid for, Heck, he didn't even get a check this week. And no they haven't fixed them yet, he is calling again today(they won't speak to me) but it is interesting that his partner got paid for everything I listed. They've screwed his up too, but no where near as bad. The latest beyond that is his first run on "phase two" he sat for 2 1/2 days and had 2 loads "canceled" during that time. Basically costing him around 4,000 miles. He finally got a load for around 800 miles multiply that by .18 cpm, that's not buying Christmas, that's not paying the light bill. Again, we don't expect him to make big money, we are not looking to get $1,000 checks out of the gate, but it would be nice to see one at least break $200.

 

Richter,
Thank you for the info. R u out of PA? We are talking about moving there(that's where my boyfriend is from). If so, in your opinion would it be better to be located there?

 

Does he have the endorsements for tanker/hazmat? A new driver right out of CDL school can make over a grand a week with tanker/hazmat. US Express is OK, but he can do as well or better with:

Melton Truck Lines
TMC
SVTN
Superior Carriers
CTL - OTR division

All these companies hire new CDL graduates.

 

dennisroc,

Thank you for the information, I will definitely be checking those out. Thanks again.