Anyone experienced with Shaffer?

Hi all, my husband started with Shaffer driving reefers. I’m a full time passenger and we ride with our 2 dogs.

My problem/question is that it’s been about 1.5 months so far and we CANNOT get out of the east coast!!! We also CANNOT get a load over 400-500 miles. We are just bouncing from TN, PA and IL. He’s OTR lower 48 but I swear we wouldn’t know it. We still manage to get 2400-3000 miles a week at .52 CPM because we deliver a load every single day. But it’s a huge bummer we’ve been on the road for almost 2 months straight and haven’t even crossed into the mid or western states. We got a load for 2000 miles from TN to CA but they cancelled it on us and gave us a 400 load instead.

Since I’m sort of new, is there just no freight West for Shaffer right now? Or is it our driver manager? Is it because we’re new? The pay is good, but I’m just confused as to why we’re only seeing 3-4 states.

I hate complaining, I’m just bummed out. Sorry for the rant.

 

West coast runs are passed to teams if at all possible. This is common with many companies.
Shop around for a new company that runs solo drivers to the west coast.

 

Oh, that probably explains it. I was thinking of getting my CDL to team drive with him, but I wanted to see what it was like on the road first. His last company ran him coast to coast as a solo driver, I guess that’s why he’s a little shocked too. Neither one of us are experienced quite yet with this life and how most companies work, so I appreciate it.

 

If you get your cdl, look at Quest Global. They'll let your husband be your trainer. About all they do is west coast turns. You can take a pet; don't about two. If it were me, I wouldn't mention having two. Ask if they allow two, just in case. They won't know who you are, by the time you get there in a few months anyway.
Trucks are really nice and set up for driver comfort. They usually require 3 mos. experience, but in case of a husband/wife team they waive that as long as one of you has 3 mos. exp.

 

Thanks, I’ll look into it!

 

National Carriers does the same to solo drivers. They let the solo driver get a couple hundred miles with a west coast load, then send a message to pass it on to a team. It makes good business sense, but a hard pill to swallow for a hard working solo driver.
Navajo Express runs solo drivers coast to coast, but don't know if they hire in Florida or not.
They have a drop yard in Chino,California.

 

Story goes Schaffer used to be the bad boys of refrigerated freight.
Like, you have a fuel card right? Put more fuel in the truck, and go.

Fast forward to e log mandate.

You need to work for a company that you can book your own freight, then the truck never stops unless you want it to.

 

You might look into Kottke, they’re a Midwest reefer company and they go to Florida.

 

Unfortunately we have spoken up about it, several times. He doesn’t listen nor does he care. Wondering if we can request a new DM or if that’s stepping on toes.