Almost through with school....

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Apparently I came in in the middle of the conversation, whoops. My bad for not knowing how to scroll.

 

I tend to take a lot of the negative posts here with a grain of salt. People are much more likely to come post "Company xxx screwed me over and fired me for no reason!" failing to mention they backed into everything that was within a 10 mile radius of their truck and never made an on time delivery than they are to make a post saying company xxx is putting their check in the bank every Friday and leaving them alone when they do their job properly.

That's not to say there aren't some legitimate horror stories out there, but I think the real honest ones are probably 1 in 10 at best.

 

Depends on what you wanna do. I say go tankers. If not them, then flatbed. If you want a decent company that pays all right, has decent sometime, equipment, and respect for their drivers, go with Roehl. They have a variety of freight too.

Listen to the guys on here. They will steer you in the right direction.

Best of luck to you!

 

Same here. A lot of the positive ones too.

 

Just put my first year in and I'm happy with this career choice. This year will fly by. Once you get on your own it's not so bad. Find a hobby to keep you sane. The best part of this job is you get to be by yourself most of the time. You don't have to deal with anybody's drama. Workplace politics are between you and your dispatcher, who you will never see. I recommend you think about where you wanna be in a year from now and try to get there sooner. Do you want to pull hazmat tankers? Start with a starter company that trains new guys on tankers. Know what I mean?

 

Canaday, I hope you find what you're looking for. I have a hard time believing your post when you say you started in 2004 yet you registered in 2011 and put down 0-1 year as your experience level. Also your initial post is one non-stop piss & moan session. (biytch much?) There are some cheerleaders here and some disgruntled drivers as well. You about take the cake though.

I'm still in the deciding maybe/maybe not phase but from my time reading and checking out information, but trucking if you turn out to like it may be a rewarding career especially with you being in a metro area. You'll have options many others don't have.
Good Luck.
LH,Someone else here can confirm it but I think you're in both Schneider bulk and Superior carriers hiring area too.

 

The fact that you can turn a wrench will come in handy when you break down. If I can recommend something, try to skip dry van freight all together and start out with tanker/liquid or aim for an LTL job. If you can haul tanker, you can haul dry van freight... get as much variety as you can this first year.

In my first year, I started on a yard goat and became an expert at backing trailers into docks within a couple of months. Which is the most frustrating thing ever, if you've never done it before. For a new guy like me, 8 hours a day of backing into docks made me want to quite literally stab my eyes out with a dull pencil... then I noticed I could fill 12 doors with empties faster than it took these OTR guys to back one trailer in

Then I was hauling grapes out of the fields of Bakersfield ; with people who speak no english at all, 12 miles down a dirt road before you ascend the grapevine. Pulling doubles. Out there, you don't even have cell phone reception because everything is so desolate. That was a fun experience...

By the end of my year experience, I was managing employees in a trucking yard and driving every day. So aim for a wide variety of experience and start building a stellar resume. It got me every single interview and eventually a union job.

 

Hey man congrats on almost being finished. If someone has said this I'm sorry didn't read all post. R&L out of SC & NC area will hire new drivers. I spoke with them by email a couple of days ago and they will train, it is bulk transport. Also Epes seemed like a great company but didn't honor my school. Good luck!