Are there ANY..... ANY Carriers out there at all that are good to their employees?

I couldn't have said it any better!

 

The flease claims another victim.

 

Lol the kid isn't yours, man.

 

It might be. They probably got together for a "quickie" somewhere away from home. And Larry being a lush, probably forgot about it. (At least that is what she will claim. . .)

 

If you have your tanker/hazmat endorsements you should be making $60K + per year. A well kept secret in this industry is that newbies are landing those jobs & you can also.

 

Ok, I didn't know you were a "fleece purchase." That changes the game quite a bit. It was said in a later post and unfortunately its right, they give you just enough rope to hang yourself on a lease purchase. Pay just enough to cover fuel and the truck payment (sometimes) with a smidgeon left over for some ramen noodles and bottled water. It should be criminal to sucker the inexperienced into these things but apparently, its been going on for awhile. I don't have any sage advice for you then. If its hurting too much to continue then tell the carrier you want to turn in your truck. Ask them if you can switch to company side. Yeah you may get penalized on your credit but is starving every week, having no social life, and alienating the family worth paying a truck note? I know TransAm has company drivers too. See if you can switch back. You just have a negative taste in your mouth over getting hosed on this deal. Its not all OTR trucking jobs that are like that.

 

The problem is that there isn't a lot of room for upward mobility in being a company driver. They have to draw a ceiling somewhere on the pay for company drivers or at some point, they'd have to pay the driver so much for running on their fuel and equipment that it would no longer be profitable. If I were a trucking company owner, I'd incentivize moving out of the company driver seat at some point into another career path. Either becoming an O/O, a trainer, or moving into the office. It seems most companies have this scheme anyways. Think about it from management perspective. If a driver is dedicated enough to work for one carrier for 25-30 years and anticipates retiring, how do you keep giving him raises? At some point it would have to top out. My only other option as an owner would be to offer additional perks that the younger drivers wouldn't get. Offer dedicated routes with salary, or local assignments. Some type of home time package like Roehl offers but compensate him enough during his work week that he isn't afraid to go home over the loss of pay. Its tough to look at. I often get called a company hack or worse but I just try to look at things neutrally. Logic would say that since I am a company driver then I should argue based on things that benefit myself, yet I often can't if I can't justify it from the manager's shoes.

 

If he is actually starving, of course he has to do something. But it seems to me like there may be a few options other than turning in the truck and screwing his credit up. If there is any way he and his family can cut back on expenses, perhaps have is wife work, if she isn't already, forgo buying that next big purchase, even to the point of selling some possessions. Almost all of us can do SOMETHING to help our financial situation. We just have to realistic about what is an absolute necessity, what is important, and what is just nice to have.

It is a rare individual that can see both sides of the coin. It makes for a person being much more aware of what is realistic to expect out of life.

 

You can't be serious . Cut expenses , make sacrifices , and have the wife get a job so he can keep rnning a truck at a loss .
He needs to turn in the keys and walk away .

 

Yes Rick, I am as serious as a heart attack here. If there is any way he can keep from breaking that lease, he will be better off in the long run. Sure it hurts now, and for the foreseeable future. But if he can suffer through this, he will come out much better off than he will if he turns in the truck, ends up owing a big payoff, anyway, and has his credit screwed up.

He says that he likes driving. When the company gets done screwing him over, he just might have a tough time getting hired somewhere else.