Anything good to say

I've worked for two companies and didn't hate either one. As for working in general, most people have some sort of complaint about who they work for.

OTR...My choice. I love it.

Intermodal...I've picked up in some rail yards. Didn't like it much. Don't know much about running it full time.

Local Delivery...can pay good but it's a lot of work, usually. Depends on who does the loading or unloading.

 

Read the good trucking companies forum on here.I can tell you the most the big companies like cr England,swift,scheinder,jb hunt,werner,etc are no good they take advantage of your lack of experience and expect you to work for nothing

 

I actually like the company I work for. Been here for over a year now and have never felt taken advantage of. Make good money for my experience level. I chose OTR. Only road for me. Would hate doing local work as I dont want to be at the house everyday/week/month. I enjoy exploring the country. Also couldnt do anything involving a trailer with walls, doors, roof...

 

I've got nothing but good things to say about the company i'm with.

good pay, good miles, good equipment that is anally maintained, home every weekend, very family oriented

have a dm that works with me and i work with him and he keeps me rolling.....

they key? the best advice you'll get? it's a smaller company. I did my homework. i did my research. I didn't jump of the peaches and ice cream fantasyland bs the recruiters from the bottom feeders fed me. the recruiters at my company didn't bs me and laid it out just like it was. the company has produced on everything they said they would and they even laid out the downfalls of the industry, the job and the lifestyle before i came on board just to be sure i knew what i was getting into.

when i interviewed with the safety director the first thing he asked me was 'how does your wife feel about this? is she on board and is she supportive? we want to make sure the home is happy before anything else'..... i knew i was in the right place.

they even have a spouses group for all the wives to hang out with each other

do your homework. do the research. REAL research, not just a few glances at a few posts online. talk to drivers from companies you're looking at. they are the REAL recruiters. if most of them are happy there's a reason. if they aren't, there's a reason. and go with a smaller more local company if possible. working for a company with only 800 trucks is like being on a different planet than working for one with 20,000.

 

Good advice. Don't feed you have to work for one of the 10, 50, or even 1000 biggest companies out there. There are 400,000 trucking companies out there. You would be surprised at how many are right near you. The rarely advertise and many done have websites. Get the phone book out and go see them in person.

My first company only had 150 trucks. I got .38cpm to start, good benefits and 2800+ miles per week and was home every weekend.

I don't know if you have your CDL yet, but if not, avoid the training companies and get your CDL from an independent school.

 

BORING! For the most part, anyhow. I'm not going to say that OTR wasn't interesting in any way, but it has a lot of dull moments. Now one upside is that it gave me the chance to stop from time to time in a respectable state for barbecue and enjoy some, since the state of Colorado is extremely lacking in that aspect.

Never did Intermodal, but I see nothing about it which gives me the impression it would be any more interesting than OTR... if anything, it would probably be less so. Pulling flatbeds and stepdecks OTR, at least I had some variety in my loads which made things interesting at times.

Like local delivery, or route delivery? My take on it would depend on specifics. If it was a set route, the same routine always... I'd probably think less of it than OTR. Delivering landscaping materials, decorative boulders, etc. with a flatbed and Donkey forklift, I actually do find interesting.

Give me a construction sitework driving job any day of the week. I like a job where I can be dynamic. On top of driving a truck, I can operate equipment, I can do... not as much maintenance as a well experienced tech, but I can still do a fair bit, I can finish concrete, I can do asphalt work.... I never wanted to be just a truck driver.

 

I love my company. They'll have to fire me to get me to leave. I think what you see in action here is that people are much much more likely to take the time to say something if they are unhappy than if they are happy.

 

I use to work for Schneider, first company, and liked it - they were good to me as a new newbie Smiley face since I'm still a newbie...

Now I'm at ACT and like it also, great (smaller) company and great people. You have to do a lot of research and talk to drivers and then pick the company...


As far as OTR - I like it, see a lot of places that I probably would never see. Great restaurants, tourist attractions, fishing spots...
I did local delivery for a bit - hated it. Also dedicated and team - not too bad but you can only do so much of that - but everyone is different, I know a guy on a dedicated account, same route, same 4 customers, same thing every single day... his been doing it for 9 yrs now.


Good luck!

 

The best advice I can give you is to research the company you may be interested in thoroughly. Sometimes being a large company with a ton of trucks isn't always the best company to work for. Most times it's the smaller companies with 100 trucks or less are better because you get more of the personal attention you may need? Trucking is not for everyone so you need to be sure this is what you really want to do with your life. It's like anything in life. You get back what you put in to it and you make it as easy or as difficult as you wanna make it. You gotta be either 100% committed or not at all. There is no half measures or half stepping in this business. So having the right attitude and right frame of mind makes the difference. If you have the opportunity to learn from the senior drivers in this industry don't take it for granted and learn all you can because even during these tough economic times. This can be a rewarding career to be a part of if you play your cards right, remain flexible, and versatile. So learn everything you can every opportunity you have and make yourself valuable. I will never discourage anyone from trying something out for the first time but just be sure it's what you wanna do and it's where you wanna be at when you do it. Good luck to you and anyone out there who makes the decision to undertake trucking as a career.