Anyone mind answering seven interview questions?

Q1.
A1. Everything. OTR/Local/Regional
Drive/unload/load truck operate equipment.

Q2.
A1. Just Lucky I suppose.

Q3.
A3. Still trying to find that out.

Q4.
A4. Jerks that set delivery appointments and expect you to make it without even being there to pickup the load.

Q5.
A5. No.

Q6
A6. You can expect anything, expecting and receiving is twi different things.

Q7.
A7. If you want to stay gone away from everyone you know for at least a year, and be a stepping stone for mega carriers to throw you to the wolves, you’re in the right profession.

A7(a)
Note.
Note not all truck drivers are noneducated idiots that can’t do anything without someone holding their hand, pointing saying “watermelon.”
Now what is it?

 

Apple?

 

Lonesome
Local Manufacturer
Flatbed local
Q1 Deliver finished goods to other local manufacturers.
Q2 Always wanted to be a driver, took training at a local school.
Q3 Great co workers, most receivers are decent, job is pretty easy, home daily.
Q4 Outside in the winter, and rain, management has it's quirks.
Q5 Yes
Q6 In my job, they started some new out of school drivers at $22.00 an hour, decent for this area.
Q7 Figure out what you want to do, what you will not do, and go from there.

 

OldeSkool. Own a truck. Local hauler.

1. Get to work around 6 A.M. load myself with a front end loader. Drive to mill. Wait in line anywhere from in and out to 6 hours. Repeat.

2. Had a guy offer to pay for me getting a CDL if I came to work for him. Good money so I did it. Also always wanted to drive truck.

3. Makes a good living for my family.

4. Long wait times in the mill.

5. Lol of course not

6. Local company drivers make around $55,000 gross annually.

7. Be careful. Don’t get in a hurry. Don’t let pressure from other experienced drivers get you flustered. Just take your time, do your deal.

 

1) deliver cryogenic liquid locally and regionally.
2) loved to drive and bs'ed my way into truck driving around 74, and found this gig after being laid off in 09.
3) never doing the same thing each day.
4) first is the other motorists and second is the micromanagement at a large company.
5) all of the above except the flexible hours, a driver starts every 30 minutes 24/ 7/ 365.
6) at my joint 100K+
7) put your time in, 1 to 3 years, without incident and then find a niche in the trucking sector that appeals to you and aim for that goal.

 

NAME =
EMPLOYER = I drive a blue truck
JOB TITLE = local fuel hauler(Previously regional tanker driver for the big pumpkin)


Q1 = What do you do in a typical day?
A1 =pretrip/posttrip. Make sure the truck is in good working order. Drive to terminals, load orders onto my truck safely, deliver to mostly gas stations, some commercial sites. Making sure I have room to deliver in all tanks before delivering Most of my day is waiting on gravity.

Q2 = How did you get started in this line of work?
A2 = was looking for a career, I knew I didn’t want to work in a factory or indoors at all for that matter. I saw that trucking was a well paying job, that you could move anywhere in the states and get a good job long as you protect your license. At the time everybody doing paid training in my area, I knew I wanted to be local. I took notice of the type of jobs that were local and it came down to foodservice, car hauling, fuel. Car haulers weren’t training, foodservice had high pay/high turnover.. all the guys in fuel/tanker said they wished they done it earlier. Schneider at the time was doing paid cdl/tanker training with a 1 year contract.. it was either dry van with roehl to get exp or straight to tanker

Q3 = What do you like most about your job?
A3 = Trucking as in otr/regional. Gets in your blood. With that said I love the freedom when I was regional. I got to see a lot of the Midwest/ east coast. Sure a lot of it is from the highway but if you do your research and tripplan you can see some gems. Current job being local is that I get to see my friends and family in person and make every family event.

Q4 = What do you like least about your job?
A4 = as regional otr= I had a love hate relationship with the road. Leaving out every week was a brand new adventure even if I had been to the place I was going to already but for me being out there felt like life was passing me by. Missed several birthdays, holidays being out on the road. There are times where you company will not get you home on time. There are some customers/shippers that will act up and you gotta figure how to handle the situation. You’ve been driving days all week and in the middle dispatch wants to give you all night loads. There’s a lot of simple things that the big brains behind the computer won’t factor in.
Fuel hauling= civilians in parking lots do stupid stuff all the time. They don’t respect “hey I’m delivering gas can you please not smoke while pumping into your red gas containers?” They respect “ Hey I got 13,000 gallons of boom juice, if you don’t put that s#!+ out right now I’m canceling christmas before you do.”
These people get mad when you make them backup because they parked right in front of the door which isn’t a parking spot or right on top of you’re lids. You have to be ultra aggressive and alert at all times.

Q5 = Do you get benefits like holiday pay, sick leave, medical, overtime, retirement, flexible hours?
A5 = otr and regional if you want to make money you make yourself flexible. can’t really have a sick day just parked in the truck unless you really can’t drive.
Fuel= yes to all. I’m scheduled a 4 day work week. Rotating shift and the way ours fall we get 4 days off in a row every 3 weeks then 6 days in a row 3 weeks after that. 4 days in a row then 3 weeks later 6 in a row then 3weeks later 4 and yada yada yada so pretty flexible. Overtime is in abundance. With the exception of the first COVID shut down over never been told no. Long as within Our schedule I don’t go over my 70 my company is happy to have us pick up days.Each day is expected to be around a 12 hour shift some days you get back early some days you get back later. We get time and a half for anything over 40 in a week. Paid bi weekly unlike most of the industry. Holidays we get paid out 8 hours + time and a half for anything we work. Jan 1st of each year you start with 3 personal days + 1week of vacation. 3 year in you get 2 weeks 5 years 3 weeks. You can use vacation days as personal too. With our schedule there’s really no need to eat up vacation when you get 6 days off in a row. And finally we have a 401k match. Plus 15% discount at the carhart store, a few other perks

Q6 = What salary should someone expect their first year?
A6 =it depends on the company and how quickly you adjust and learn “the game”... I did terrible my first year only made 35k but it was ok because I learned so much and moved on . Now in my second year even with corona slowing down a majority of the year I’m on track to grossing 80k..

Q7 = What advice would you give to someone getting started?
Q7 =1. Protect your license, no speeding, tell the company no if you don’t feel safe doing it, if you have issues with equipment they must fix it.
2. Get all endorsements at the same time. It doesn’t cost much and it will not hurt you. You won’t need passenger.
3. The money will be there so Use year one to become a professional driver. I don’t know your circumstances I know everyone gets out here to make money but until you got about 12 months stick with one company. Treat it like a internship, get really good at backing, learn how to trip plan and communicate that with a dispatcher. The more accurate you are the more money you can make. Do thorough post/pretrips. I would do a real thorough posttrip then a light walkthrough in the morning to make sure everything was everything. Don’t get lazy and do one once in a blue moon like most of the guys on the road. When you become that professional then you can have any job you want.
4. Grocery shop before you head out , unless local of course.. saves money and keeps you away from fast food.
5. Get a simple toolset and get some zip ties

I could go on for days