anyone have info on CT Transport out of savannah GA?

My cousin quit driving for them last week. He complained about sitting too much and averaging about 1800 to 2100 miles a week. He was driving out of the Selma, NC Terminal.

 

I have been driving with CT for about 4 months now, and I am not overly thrilled, and losing faith fast. All the people that work there seem nice, and the other drivers are friendly and helpfull.
My main problem is not getting enough milage, and thus not enough money. Admittedly I am new to trucking all together but from what I have gathered from others, and looking online, their pay is low due to lack of milage, even for a newbie.

I did three weeks at roadmaster in jacksonville, graduated and got with CT a week later, did my orientation, started to work the following week.
6 long weeks of training start. You get 300.00 a week, before taxes, for 6 weeks. So for six weeks I made pretty much crap, normally 240.00 take home, less I did something outta the norm, like shuttle a truck or trailer around. and I got a few extra for that.
Now keep in mind CT does regional or shorthaul in state.
I was going regional, cause I wanted and needed more money. I was told at orientation 650-700 a week was easily acheivable goal for new regional drivers. I am still scratching my head on this since my best check to date has been 590 bucks take home.
For my training, I was with two short haul trainers, and went out with a regional trainer for my last week. It bugged me. This may seem like a small thing to some, but keep in mind I have never been out in a truck for any period of time, never slept in one, never been out and see what it is like to live on the road.
Now I will say my trainers were good people, and good guys. I had no issue there.
The first week of training was good and informative, concerning how to tarp, and strap properly, qual comm etc.
Where the training came up short here was since I was with a shorthaul driver, I would say 99% of our loads were pretarped, and secured for the most part. So I think I got to tarp a load once, with a trainer, who also admitted it had been a long time since even he had to tarp something. In my last week of training where I went out with the regional trainer I finally got to do some tarping.
Also since I was home every day, cept my last week, I learned nothing of trip planning, fuel planning, or time management, reading commercial carrier maps..cause they did not matter since we never went far enough.
Also since my training was in florida only almost all of my days started between 2am and 4am...which is hard for someone unaccostomed to that schedule, and new to driving. Though all my trainers told me I could stop driving anytime I was tierd, it only really happened for the first week. After that I was good on staying awake. Plus having a trainer to talk to helped keep the sleepy feelings at bay.
Later on a few times, two of my trainers nodded off while I drove. No biggie to me, I was fine driving at that point. But it mad me mad to think they could sleep while I drove, and I was getting paid crap to drive, and further reinforced my thoughts of how 6 weeks of low pay training was too much for me.
The next five weeks were all about just getting used to driving the truck n trailer...and seat time. Which was fine except, I had great comfort in about 3 weeks, and my trainers even admited they felt I would be fine to go alone, but due to new rules instuted by the head of training it was now near impossible to let a trainee go early.
I even brought trucks and empties back from south florida twice in my training, driving alone, though unloaded...but still I had to keep on and make peanuts for a few more weeks. I figured this was the sacrafice you make a a newbie. I figured things would be different when I got my own truck.
My final test was a joke, and was the driving test. The final test you have with you from orientation, so you can do it when ever you want, and my driving test was given to me by a shuttle driver, and consisted of us going to a nearby plant, dropping a empty, and hooking a preloaded pretarped trailer, and bringing it back to the yard.
Nothing to worry over there. I was told since training is six weeks they figure you would wash out before you get to the testing, if you were not ment to do this.

I have had my own truck for a while, and like I said I am losing faith. I have had more than a few weeks where I did not start till tuesday morning or monday night cause there were no loads availiable for me. I also have been laid over at trucks stops for two days, for the same reason. I have had only two weeks where I ran all week. I also have had mechanical problems with my truck. I put into the savannah terminal here, and they had my truck for a day and half, said they fixed it, and they did not fix jack. I babied the truck to Jax, and they got it fixed over the weekend for me. Recently my truck was down for 7 days straight, at the mack dealer, and they did not have a truck to lend me, so that entire pay check consisted of breakdown pay. I just have not seen the money. I dont know if this is normal for green peas, or if I am getting screwed. I have been told business is down, and thats why we are not running hard. I am getting disheartened, and am think of going with a OTR company just cause I need to be able to make more money.
One thing CT has delivered on for me, is the home time. I have been off every friday night, and if you chose to leave out sunday afternoon or night, that is up to you. Although I have seen in all my time sitting in Savannah while my truck was not getting fixed, that a "goal" for 2008 is to have drivers working 6 day weeks. So that sunday thing may be changing.

To me, the company in general seems losely run, like no talks to one another, terminal to terminal. The company does not seem managed on a set scheme, or plan, no direction.
When my has truck broke down, I have had to work as the go between for eveyone, the repair guys, the shop managers, my dispatcher, my term manager. I think that is BS. But I learned long ago no one will care about your business like you, so I did it anyways. I have been not called back by everyone from payroll, to my dispatcher, to shop managers. Just seems unproffesional to me.
Also the training seem disorganized. The trainers dont have a guide to go by for training. So I just asked about everything, and anything I could. Also they are short of trainers, so you had to switch off, which is kinda hard for the trainers, I would think, cause they cant focus on one student, or working on where they are weak.

This has been my CT experience, and also the experience of another guy who went to roadmaster with me, that went with CT. We just are not seeing the money, and share similar views on the training, and operations. Both he and I are already saying we will probably stay just to get some more experience, and then move on. It is a shame cause it feels like wasted time to me. If I cant start making better money I may be forced to leave sooner than later.

 

Jester,

Sorry to hear about your pitfalls with CT so far. Your post solidified to me the reasonings for my cousin leaving CT.

Good luck if you decide to leave CT!

 

You can pretty much 4get about McElroy EVER hiring out of Florida. No freight coming out of there, not much going in. Not that McE hauls, anyways. In the 6 months I have been with them, been to FL 2X, had to wait for backhauls both times, neither time did I re-load in FL. Try TMC.