All Carriers are generally the same?

Yep its just a matter of choosing the company whose paint scheme you like the best, personally i'd choose the one closest to my home.

 

The ads are almost all the same. The turnover, pay, benefits, equipment vary wildly. Some companies have no drivers with 5 years seniority & others have thousands of 20 year veterans.

 

That is a good analogy. The reason I believe I stay with this racket, as it is quite a bit like the military, and I did serve. Also, we are the backbone of this country. In a way, this is a very patriotic job when you look at the conditions and hours we put in, especially when we work in the oil patch. A bit of pride here, not many can or will do this work.

 

If hometime is your priority, you will find that all the megas will be unsatisfactory. They all have 100% turnover and want to take no chance that you will find another job while you are home.

It is possible you could luck out an get on a cherry dedicated account with regular weakly home time, but unless you meet some EEOC requirement, you will have better luck playing the lottery.

Yes, all the megas run on the same business model. Just different flavors of the same turd.

 

You have a CDL to your name, free from contract, and are considering working for a mega?

Pound the pavement and find a smaller company (<100 trucks) that will take you on to be moulded by them to be what they want. Don't settle into pulling a box for a #### rate. You'll come to hate trucking faster than most.

I'm about a month away from my third complete year at my starting company. I was sponsored by them to take training and become a driver. I went from highway, to local to full blown orientation trainer in the span of two years. Now I'm back full time on the highway because I enjoy driving too much and like money too much.

If you don't mind living in Winnipeg, MB, I know we are hiring, we like new, mould-able drivers, and I could send you details to line up an interview, lol.

 

To answer OP question... yes, they are all the same. The major difference between the Mega Carriers and a smaller carrier with 300 trucks or less is that the smaller carrier will call you by name and pull your hair when they #### you in your ###.

 

You can't get experience without getting experience. You'll need to sell yourself to these smaller places but they will give you a chance if they like you. A contract-free CDL is a rare thing these days. Even I went through a program.