Coast to coast job?

Coast to coast dedicated with no experience is like asking to START baseball by getting hired to start as 2nd baseman for the NY Yankees, IMO.

 

First which coast, and sure there waiting for the noob's. Welcome Aboard.

 

Doesn't Kennessaw run coast to coast teams?

 

FFE has a terminal in Lithonia.

Theres the plasma division, picking up and delivering blood donations to the companys warehouse. Teams required. You load your trailer at each pick up. You should average 1500 a week your first year. They also pay you 850 the 1 week a month you dont work. If you do work that week, you still get the 850 plus whatever you earn doing your run. For me smallest check for a week was like 1000 gross, largest was like 3400 something. You get to know most of the centers after like 6 months or so. Its not the easiest job, but the pay is there. If you can hang in there, it gets easier and I think it makes you a better driver due to the challenges you face that the other drivers just don't have to deal with.

You can also team linehaul. Theres where I got my 6-week training. I heard team drivers there were pulling in about 1200 a week. Linehaul is very easy. You just drive from terminal to terminal, dropping and picking up another trailer. Usually its a set route. I did Denver to Chicago to New Jersey, then down to Orlando, then up to Atlanta (Lithonia), then back to Denver for a 34 HR reset. Then we did it all over again.

They might be throwing in some LTL now to keep drivers moving a bit more. The solo linehaul drivers end up sitting, sometimes a long time for loads because teams take priority, and they got plasma teams running LTL now also to cut back on deadhead miles.

 

A couple of things about teaming to keep in mind. A lot of People have a sour opinion about it for good reason.

Youre sleeping in a moving truck. Its not like sleeping in a car either. Its a tractor, its more bumpy. It took me about 3 months to adapt enough I was getting decent sleep. And sometimes coming off home time I still have an adjustment period 1-3 days on the road before I am back in the groove.

One of You will have to drive overnight. Not an issue for me, I love it. But most don't. The last guy I trained didnt want to have anything to do with it. It's required with my job so I had him drive one night til 5AM to see how he did. He did fine, but he didn't like it.

Your partner will annoy you. Even if you like him. You need to be patient and mature to share such a small space with another person 24/7.

Your partner will eat Flying J pizza. And if You are unlucky, he'll chase it down with milk.

One of You will take up more space than the other. One of You will be cleaner than the other. You will have differences about how to run and work. One of You might want to shower everyday and the other wants to run harder. Maybe he wants to get everything done, park early, and you wake up and hes at a rest area, not a truck stop because he doesn't like backing, and you got nothing to eat and you wanted a shower.

Just a few things to keep in mind. It can be fun.. Sometimes, but also you will have to give ground on somethings because you are only in charge (behind the wheel) half the time.

Also, your partners mistakes are also yours. He makes a wrong turn, gets stuck, then hes hollering at you to get out of bed and help him back out.

One time recently I was woken up because this guy tried to make this right turn in heavy traffic, couldn't clear the telephone pole. Hes Yelling like a madman to get out and help him. So I'm putting my jeans on and trying to find my glasses and hes like hurry dude wtf!? I had to tell him point blank to chill out. Ill help but you have to let me get dressed, its your mistake now just cool it while I find my glasses. Then I got out and had to deal with angry motorists honking and whatnot.

That stuff happens when you start out and still learning. But eventually you'll get better and they will put you with other better drivers. Rookies team with rookies, guys been there longer get other guys with similar experience and it gets easier. No surprise wake up calls.

Then you start training after that and it starts over again, except you get paid more. Haven't decided if it's worth it yet. Lol!