CDL test on Wednesday...

Well young lady, i get the impression you have been driving for a while. I think the other young lady is getting pretty good advise from you. Its good she hears from someone like you. Your doing a great job, thanks

 

I got my start with Werner in 2022 as a solo OTR driver. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't great either. There was a female driver in my orientation who was doing teams on a Hobby Lobby dedicated account. I ran into her at a terminal a few months later and she had been there for a while. Apparently, the codriver assigned to her kept having "issues" that kept them off the road, so Werner had been making her run OTR solo in the meantime. She didn't seem too happy about the whole situation and I can't say that I blame her.

Both of my trainers were on a dedicated 3M account, which was pretty awesome if you could get on it, but solo OTR was a dump. Longhaul for them seemed to be 6-700 miles. I don't know if I ever got over 1,700 miles per week. If it weren't for the weekly minimum that they guaranteed back then, I doubt I would have stayed as long as I did. But it gave me a start, as well as perspective.

 

You're with Jb Hunt and you say Schneider micromanages people?

Had a buddy that worked at JB up until his untimely death 2 years ago. He did seem to like it there, but the micromanagement he described being subject to was ridiculous to me. He was a local driver, and had been there quite a while with zero accidents or incidents, so I'm not sure about why they felt the need to watch him so closely.

I've never worked for a big company, the largest trucking company I worked at was 175 trucks, and while I enjoyed it there, the money was subpar. They mostly left me alone though.

For the OP, focus on the CDL tests, then pick your poison with these starter companies. Get a year or two of experience, accident and ticket free, and the doors open up to better things. The job market is tougher now than a year ago, so you may have to take something less desirable to get started

 

I'm sorry for your loss, fam. I can't speak for every employee but they don't micromanage me. They started to value me more after I began to accumulate the safety awards. Though the freight is a little slow, they still pay like we're booming.

 

Someone else on here posted about Swift, and while I can't imagine any scenario where I'd work for them at this point in my life, I often wonder to myself if all these big companies are truly as bad as they're made out to be. Sure, Swift has accidents, and is typically the butt of jokes, but when you look at their business, they're pretty good at it. Same with some other big outfits. They must be doing something right to keep that many trucks on the road. I've heard with Swift, JB Hunt, and other mega carriers that once your get some experience with them, they actually pay pretty well. My buddy was making some good money with JB. He'd just bought 10 acres of land and built his dream home on it. He and his wife moved in and six months later he went to the grocery store on his Harley and never made it home.

 

I shut up years ago trashing Swift drivers. Had a girl Swift driver back in next to me one time and it really wasn’t an easy spot. She setup and backed in one shot and perfectly. Me on the other hand needed 3-4 pull-ups and I had two spots to work with

Unless I’m not running their lanes and missing the carnage I can’t remember if I ever seen a Swift truck in an accident.

 

I can't say I've seen any Swift trucks in accidents where they are at fault in a long, long time. Usually they're caught up in something FedEx caused, and Swift just happened to be there. And there's a Swift terminal that I drive by daily. So I do see them often.

 

I'm not a woman. My username comes from the movie of the same name.

 

And if your teammate doesn't either, then you're both at risk of dozing off behind the wheel and flipping the truck into a ditch. None for me, thanks.

 

If you typically sleep through every loud noise or your neighbor cutting their grass, etc then YOU MAY SLEEP OK in a moving truck. If you wake up for moderate or loud noises or other things you probably aren't going to sleep well in a moving truck. Whether you are a light or deep sleeper you will bounce around in the truck which probably wake you up often. Unless you are a deep sleeper now, don't just assume you will sleep well in a moving truck. You may, or you may not. The 2 months I rode with a trainer when I started where difficultbfor me. I thought after a few days of very bad sleep I would get so tired I'd sleep for sure the next night. I rarely slept for even 2 hours straight or I would be unable to start sleeping for hours after I lay down. You won't know until you try to sleep in the moving truck.